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  13  <h1>
  14      <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/">Petter Reinholdtsen</a>
  15
  16  </h1>
  17
  18 </div>
  19
  20
  21     <h3>Entries tagged "debian".</h3>
  22
  23     <div class="entry">
  24       <div class="title">
  25         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Jami_as_a_Zoom_client__a_trick_for_password_protected_rooms___.html">Jami as a Zoom client, a trick for password protected rooms...</a>
  26       </div>
  27       <div class="date">
  28          8th May 2020
  29       </div>
  30       <div class="body">
  31         <p>Half a year ago,
  32 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Jami_Ring__finally_functioning_peer_to_peer_communication_client.html">I
  33 wrote</a> about <a href="https://jami.net/">the Jami communication
  34 client</a>, capable of peer-to-peer encrypted communication.  It
  35 handle both messages, audio and video.  It uses distributed hash
  36 tables instead of central infrastructure to connect its users to each
  37 other, which in my book is a plus.  I mentioned briefly that it could
  38 also work as a SIP client, which came in handy when the higher
  39 educational sector in Norway started to promote Zoom as its video
  40 conferencing solution.  I am reluctant to use the official Zoom client
  41 software, due to their <a href="https://zoom.us/terms">copyright
  42 license clauses</a> prohibiting users to reverse engineer (for example
  43 to check the security) and benchmark it, and thus prefer to connect to
  44 Zoom meetings with free software clients.</p>
  45
  46 <p>Jami worked OK as a SIP client to Zoom as long as there was no
  47 password set on the room.  The Jami daemon leak memory like crazy
  48 (approximately 1 GiB a minute) when I am connected to the video
  49 conference, so I had to restart the client every 7-10 minutes, which
  50 is not a great.  I tried to get other SIP Linux clients to work
  51 without success, so I decided I would have to live with this wart
  52 until someone managed to fix the leak in the dring code base.  But
  53 another problem showed up once the rooms were password protected.  I
  54 could not get my dial tone signaling through from Jami to Zoom, and
  55 dial tone signaling is used to enter the password when connecting to
  56 Zoom.  I tried a lot of different permutations with my Jami and
  57 Asterisk setup to try to figure out why the signaling did not get
  58 through, only to finally discover that the fundamental problem seem to
  59 be that Zoom is simply not able to receive dial tone signaling when
  60 connecting via SIP.  There seem to be nothing wrong with the Jami and
  61 Asterisk end, it is simply broken in the Zoom end.  I got help from a
  62 very skilled VoIP engineer figuring out this last part.  And being a
  63 very skilled engineer, he was also able to locate a solution for me.
  64 Or to be exact, a workaround that solve my initial problem of
  65 connecting to password protected Zoom rooms using Jami.</p>
  66
  67 <p>So, how do you do this, I am sure you are wondering by now.  The
  68 trick is already
  69 <a href="https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us/articles/202405539-H-323-SIP-Room-Connector-Dial-Strings#sip">documented
  70 from Zoom</a>, and it is to modify the SIP address to include the room
  71 password.  What is most surprising about this is that the
  72 automatically generated email from Zoom with instructions on how to
  73 connect via SIP do not mention this.  The SIP address to use normally
  74 consist of the room ID (a number), an @ character and the IP address
  75 of the Zoom SIP gateway.  But Zoom understand a lot more than just the
  76 room ID in front of the at sign.  The format is "<tt>[Meeting
  77 ID].[Password].[Layout].[Host Key]</tt>", and you can hear see how you
  78 can both enter password, control the layout (full screen, active
  79 presence and gallery) and specify the host key to start the meeting.
  80 The full SIP address entered into Jami to provide the password will
  81 then look like this (all using made up numbers):</p>
  82
  83 <p><blockquote>
  84 <tt>sip:657837644.522827@192.168.169.170</tt>
  85 </blockquote></p>
  86
  87 <p>Now if only jami would reduce its memory usage, I could even
  88 recommend this setup to others. :)</p>
  89
  90 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
  91 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
  92 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
  93
  94       </div>
  95       <div class="tags">
  96
  97
  98         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance</a>.
  99
 100
 101       </div>
 102     </div>
 103     <div class="padding"></div>
 104
 105     <div class="entry">
 106       <div class="title">
 107         <a href="http://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>
 108       </div>
 109       <div class="date">
 110         29th April 2020
 111       </div>
 112       <div class="body">
 113         <p>The curiosity got the better of me when
 114 <a href="https://developers.slashdot.org/story/20/04/06/1424246/new-jersey-desperately-needs-cobol-programmers">Slashdot
 115 reported</a> that New Jersey was desperately looking for
 116 <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COBOL">COBOL</a> programmers,
 117 and a few days later it was reported that
 118 <a href="https://onezero.medium.com/ibm-rallies-cobol-engineers-to-save-overloaded-unemployment-systems-eeadf13eddce">IBM
 119 tried to locate COBOL programmers</a>.</p>
 120
 121 <p>I thus decided to have a look at free software alternatives to
 122 learn COBOL, and had the pleasure to find
 123 <a href="https://sourceforge.net/projects/open-cobol/">GnuCOBOL</a> was
 124 already <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/gnucobol">in
 125 Debian</a>.  It used to be called Open Cobol, and is a "compiler"
 126 transforming COBOL code to C or C++ before giving it to GCC or Visual
 127 Studio to build binaries.</p>
 128
 129 <p>I managed to get in touch with upstream, and was impressed with the
 130 quick response, and also was happy to see a new Debian maintainer
 131 taking over when the original one recently asked to be replaced.  A
 132 new Debian upload was done as recently as yesterday.</p>
 133
 134 <p>Using the Debian package, I was able to follow a simple COBOL
 135 introduction and make and run simple COBOL programs.  It was fun to
 136 learn a new programming language.  If you want to test for yourself,
 137 <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GnuCOBOL">the GnuCOBOL Wikipedia
 138 page</a> have a few simple examples to get you startet.</p>
 139
 140 <p>As I do not have much experience with COBOL, I do not know how
 141 standard compliant it is, but it claim to pass most tests from COBOL
 142 test suite, which sound good to me.  It is nice to know it is possible
 143 to learn COBOL using software without any usage restrictions, and I am
 144 very happy such nice free software project as this is available.  If
 145 you as me is curious about COBOL, check it out.</p>
 146
 147 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
 148 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
 149 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
 150
 151       </div>
 152       <div class="tags">
 153
 154
 155         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nice free software">nice free software</a>.
 156
 157
 158       </div>
 159     </div>
 160     <div class="padding"></div>
 161
 162     <div class="entry">
 163       <div class="title">
 164         <a href="http://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>
 165       </div>
 166       <div class="date">
 167         19th June 2019
 168       </div>
 169       <div class="body">
 170         <p>Some years ago, in 2016, I
 171 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Experience_and_updated_recipe_for_using_the_Signal_app_without_a_mobile_phone.html">wrote
 172 for the first time about</a> the Ring peer to peer messaging system.
 173 It would provide messaging without any central server coordinating the
 174 system and without requiring all users to register a phone number or
 175 own a mobile phone.  Back then, I could not get it to work, and put it
 176 aside until it had seen more development.  A few days ago I decided to
 177 give it another try, and am happy to report that this time I am able
 178 to not only send and receive messages, but also place audio and video
 179 calls.  But only if UDP is not blocked into your network.</p>
 180
 181 <p>The Ring system changed name earlier this year to
 182 <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jami_(software)">Jami</a>.  I
 183 tried doing web search for 'ring' when I discovered it for the first
 184 time, and can only applaud this change as it is impossible to find
 185 something called Ring among the noise of other uses of that word.  Now
 186 you can search for 'jami' and this client and
 187 <a href="https://jami.net/">the Jami system</a> is the first hit at
 188 least on duckduckgo.</p>
 189
 190 <p>Jami will by default encrypt messages as well as audio and video
 191 calls, and try to send them directly between the communicating parties
 192 if possible.  If this proves impossible (for example if both ends are
 193 behind NAT), it will use a central SIP TURN server maintained by the
 194 Jami project.  Jami can also be a normal SIP client.  If the SIP
 195 server is unencrypted, the audio and video calls will also be
 196 unencrypted.  This is as far as I know the only case where Jami will
 197 do anything without encryption.</p>
 198
 199 <p>Jami is available for several platforms: Linux, Windows, MacOSX,
 200 Android, iOS, and Android TV.  It is included in Debian already.  Jami
 201 also work for those using F-Droid without any Google connections,
 202 while Signal do not.
 203 <a href="https://git.jami.net/savoirfairelinux/ring-project/wikis/technical/Protocol">The
 204 protocol</a> is described in the Ring project wiki.  The system uses a
 205 distributed hash table (DHT) system (similar to BitTorrent) running
 206 over UDP.  On one of the networks I use, I discovered Jami failed to
 207 work.  I tracked this down to the fact that incoming UDP packages
 208 going to ports 1-49999 were blocked, and the DHT would pick a random
 209 port and end up in the low range most of the time.  After talking to
 210 the developers, I solved this by enabling the dhtproxy in the
 211 settings, thus using TCP to talk to a central DHT proxy instead of
 212
 213 peering directly with others.  I've been told the developers are
 214 working on allowing DHT to use TCP to avoid this problem.  I also ran
 215 into a problem when trying to talk to the version of Ring included in
 216 Debian Stable (Stretch).  Apparently the protocol changed between
 217 beta2 and the current version, making these clients incompatible.
 218 Hopefully the protocol will not be made incompatible in the
 219 future.</p>
 220
 221 <p>It is worth noting that while looking at Jami and its features, I
 222 came across another communication platform I have not tested yet.  The
 223 <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tox_(protocol)">Tox protocol</a>
 224 and <a href="https://tox.chat/">family of Tox clients</a>.  It might
 225 become the topic of a future blog post.</p>
 226
 227 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
 228 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
 229 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
 230
 231       </div>
 232       <div class="tags">
 233
 234
 235         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance</a>.
 236
 237
 238       </div>
 239     </div>
 240     <div class="padding"></div>
 241
 242     <div class="entry">
 243       <div class="title">
 244         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Strategispillet_Unknown_Horizons_n__tilgjengelig_p__bokm_l.html">Strategispillet Unknown Horizons nå tilgjengelig på bokmål</a>
 245       </div>
 246       <div class="date">
 247         23rd January 2019
 248       </div>
 249       <div class="body">
 250         <p>I høst ble jeg inspirert til å bidra til oversettelsen av
 251 <a href="http://unknown-horizons.org/">strategispillet Unknown
 252 Horizons</a>, og oversatte de nesten 200 strengene i prosjektet til
 253 bokmål.  Deretter har jeg gått å ventet på at det kom en ny utgave som
 254 inneholdt disse oversettelsene.  Nå er endelig ventetiden over.  Den
 255 nye versjonen kom på nyåret, og ble
 256 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/unknown-horizons">lastet opp i
 257 Debian</a> for noen få dager siden.  I går kveld fikk jeg testet det ut, og
 258 må innrømme at oversettelsene fungerer fint.  Fant noen få tekster som
 259 måtte justeres, men ikke noe alvorlig.  Har oppdatert
 260 <a href="https://hosted.weblate.org/projects/uh/">oversettelsen på
 261 Weblate</a>, slik at neste utgave vil være enda bedre. :)</p>
 262
 263 <p>Spillet er et ressursstyringsspill ala Civilization, og er morsomt
 264 å spille for oss som liker slikt. :)</p>
 265
 266 <p>Som vanlig, hvis du bruker Bitcoin og ønsker å vise din støtte til
 267 det jeg driver med, setter jeg pris på om du sender Bitcoin-donasjoner
 268 til min adresse
 269 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.
 270 Merk, betaling med bitcoin er ikke anonymt. :)</p>
 271
 272       </div>
 273       <div class="tags">
 274
 275
 276         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/norsk">norsk</a>.
 277
 278
 279       </div>
 280     </div>
 281     <div class="padding"></div>
 282
 283     <div class="entry">
 284       <div class="title">
 285         <a href="http://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>
 286       </div>
 287       <div class="date">
 288         22nd January 2019
 289       </div>
 290       <div class="body">
 291         <p>I am amazed and very pleased to discover that since a few days ago,
 292 everything you need to program the <a href="https://microbit.org/">BBC
 293 micro:bit</a> is available from the Debian archive.  All this is
 294 thanks to the hard work of Nick Morrott and the Debian python
 295 packaging team.  The micro:bit project recommend the mu-editor to
 296 program the microcomputer, as this editor will take care of all the
 297 machinery required to injekt/flash micropython alongside the program
 298 into the micro:bit, as long as the pieces are available.</p>
 299
 300 <p>There are three main pieces involved.  The first to enter Debian
 301 was
 302 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/python-uflash">python-uflash</a>,
 303 which was accepted into the archive 2019-01-12.  The next one was
 304 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/mu-editor">mu-editor</a>, which
 305 showed up 2019-01-13.  The final and hardest part to to into the
 306 archive was
 307 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/firmware-microbit-micropython">firmware-microbit-micropython</a>,
 308 which needed to get its build system and dependencies into Debian
 309 before it was accepted 2019-01-20.  The last one is already in Debian
 310 Unstable and should enter Debian Testing / Buster in three days.  This
 311 all allow any user of the micro:bit to get going by simply running
 312 'apt install mu-editor' when using Testing or Unstable, and once
 313 Buster is released as stable, all the users of Debian stable will be
 314 catered for.</p>
 315
 316 <p>As a minor final touch, I added rules to
 317 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/isenkram">the isenkram
 318 package</a> for recognizing micro:bit and recommend the mu-editor
 319 package.  This make sure any user of the isenkram desktop daemon will
 320 get a popup suggesting to install mu-editor then the USB cable from
 321 the micro:bit is inserted for the first time.</p>
 322
 323 <p>This should make it easier to have fun.</p>
 324
 325 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
 326 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
 327 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
 328
 329       </div>
 330       <div class="tags">
 331
 332
 333         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/robot">robot</a>.
 334
 335
 336       </div>
 337     </div>
 338     <div class="padding"></div>
 339
 340     <div class="entry">
 341       <div class="title">
 342         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Learn_to_program_with_Minetest_on_Debian.html">Learn to program with Minetest on Debian</a>
 343       </div>
 344       <div class="date">
 345         15th December 2018
 346       </div>
 347       <div class="body">
 348         <p>A fun way to learn how to program
 349 <a href="https://www.python.org/">Python</a> is to follow the
 350 instructions in the book
 351 "<a href="https://nostarch.com/programwithminecraft">Learn to program
 352 with Minecraft</a>", which introduces programming in Python to people
 353 who like to play with Minecraft.  The book uses a Python library to
 354 talk to a TCP/IP socket with an API accepting build instructions and
 355 providing information about the current players in a Minecraft world.
 356 The TCP/IP API was first created for the Minecraft implementation for
 357 Raspberry Pi, and has since been ported to some server versions of
 358 Minecraft.  The book contain recipes for those using Windows, MacOSX
 359 and Raspian.  But a little known fact is that you can follow the same
 360 recipes using the free software construction game
 361 <a href="https://minetest.net/">Minetest</a>.</p>
 362
 363 <p>There is <a href="https://github.com/sprintingkiwi/pycraft_mod">a
 364 Minetest module implementing the same API</a>, making it possible to
 365 use the Python programs coded to talk to Minecraft with Minetest too.
 366 I
 367 <a href="https://ftp-master.debian.org/new/minetest-mod-pycraft_0.20%2Bgit20180331.0376a0a%2Bdfsg-1.html">uploaded
 368 this module</a> to Debian two weeks ago, and as soon as it clears the
 369 FTP masters NEW queue, learning to program Python with Minetest on
 370 Debian will be a simple 'apt install' away.  The Debian package is
 371 maintained as part of the Debian Games team, and
 372 <a href="https://salsa.debian.org/games-team/unfinished/minetest-mod-pycraft">the
 373 packaging rules</a> are currently located under 'unfinished' on
 374 Salsa.</p>
 375
 376 <p>You will most likely need to install several of the Minetest
 377 modules in Debian for the examples included with the library to work
 378 well, as there are several blocks used by the example scripts that are
 379 provided via modules in Minetest.  Without the required blocks, a
 380 simple stone block is used instead.  My initial testing with a analog
 381 clock did not get gold arms as instructed in the python library, but
 382 instead used stone arms.</p>
 383
 384 <p>I tried to find a way to add the API to the desktop version of
 385 Minecraft, but were unable to find any working recipes.  The
 386 <a href="https://www.epiphanydigest.com/tag/minecraft-python-api/">recipes</a>
 387 I <a href="https://github.com/kbsriram/mcpiapi">found</a> are only
 388 working with a standalone Minecraft server setup.  Are there any
 389 options to use with the normal desktop version?</p>
 390
 391 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
 392 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
 393 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
 394
 395       </div>
 396       <div class="tags">
 397
 398
 399         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
 400
 401
 402       </div>
 403     </div>
 404     <div class="padding"></div>
 405
 406     <div class="entry">
 407       <div class="title">
 408         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Time_for_an_official_MIME_type_for_patches_.html">Time for an official MIME type for patches?</a>
 409       </div>
 410       <div class="date">
 411          1st November 2018
 412       </div>
 413       <div class="body">
 414         <p>As part of my involvement in
 415 <a href="https://gitlab.com/OsloMet-ABI/nikita-noark5-core">the Nikita
 416 archive API project</a>, I've been importing a fairly large lump of
 417 emails into a test instance of the archive to see how well this would
 418 go.  I picked a subset of <a href="https://notmuchmail.org/">my
 419 notmuch email database</a>, all public emails sent to me via
 420 @lists.debian.org, giving me a set of around 216 000 emails to import.
 421 In the process, I had a look at the various attachments included in
 422 these emails, to figure out what to do with attachments, and noticed
 423 that one of the most common attachment formats do not have
 424 <a href="https://www.iana.org/assignments/media-types/media-types.xhtml">an
 425 official MIME type</a> registered with IANA/IETF.  The output from
 426 diff, ie the input for patch, is on the top 10 list of formats
 427 included in these emails.  At the moment people seem to use either
 428 text/x-patch or text/x-diff, but neither is officially registered.  It
 429 would be better if one official MIME type were registered and used
 430 everywhere.</p>
 431
 432 <p>To try to get one official MIME type for these files, I've brought
 433 up the topic on
 434 <a href="https://www.ietf.org/mailman/listinfo/media-types">the
 435 media-types mailing list</a>.  If you are interested in discussion
 436 which MIME type to use as the official for patch files, or involved in
 437 making software using a MIME type for patches, perhaps you would like
 438 to join the discussion?</p>
 439
 440 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
 441 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
 442 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
 443
 444       </div>
 445       <div class="tags">
 446
 447
 448         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/noark5">noark5</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/standard">standard</a>.
 449
 450
 451       </div>
 452     </div>
 453     <div class="padding"></div>
 454
 455     <div class="entry">
 456       <div class="title">
 457         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Automatic_Google_Drive_sync_using_grive_in_Debian.html">Automatic Google Drive sync using grive in Debian</a>
 458       </div>
 459       <div class="date">
 460          4th October 2018
 461       </div>
 462       <div class="body">
 463         <p>A few days, I rescued a Windows victim over to Debian.  To try to
 464 rescue the remains, I helped set up automatic sync with Google Drive.
 465 I did not find any sensible Debian package handling this
 466 automatically, so I rebuild the grive2 source from
 467 <a href="http://www.webupd8.org/">the Ubuntu UPD8 PPA</a> to do the
 468 task and added a autostart desktop entry and a small shell script to
 469 run in the background while the user is logged in to do the sync.
 470 Here is a sketch of the setup for future reference.</p>
 471
 472 <p>I first created <tt>~/googledrive</tt>, entered the directory and
 473 ran '<tt>grive -a</tt>' to authenticate the machine/user.  Next, I
 474 created a autostart hook in <tt>~/.config/autostart/grive.desktop</tt>
 475 to start the sync when the user log in:</p>
 476
 477 <p><blockquote><pre>
 478 [Desktop Entry]
 479 Name=Google drive autosync
 480 Type=Application
 481 Exec=/home/user/bin/grive-sync
 482 </pre></blockquote></p>
 483
 484 <p>Finally, I wrote the <tt>~/bin/grive-sync</tt> script to sync
 485 ~/googledrive/ with the files in Google Drive.</p>
 486
 487 <p><blockquote><pre>
 488 #!/bin/sh
 489 set -e
 490 cd ~/
 491 cleanup() {
 492     if [ "$syncpid" ] ; then
 493         kill $syncpid
 494     fi
 495 }
 496 trap cleanup EXIT INT QUIT
 497 /usr/lib/grive/grive-sync.sh listen googledrive 2>&1 | sed "s%^%$0:%" &
 498 syncpdi=$!
 499 while true; do
 500     if ! xhost >/dev/null 2>&1 ; then
 501         echo "no DISPLAY, exiting as the user probably logged out"
 502         exit 1
 503     fi
 504     if [ ! -e /run/user/1000/grive-sync.sh_googledrive ] ; then
 505         /usr/lib/grive/grive-sync.sh sync googledrive
 506     fi
 507     sleep 300
 508 done 2>&1 | sed "s%^%$0:%"
 509 </pre></blockquote></p>
 510
 511 <p>Feel free to use the setup if you want.  It can be assumed to be
 512 GNU GPL v2 licensed (or any later version, at your leisure), but I
 513 doubt this code is possible to claim copyright on.</p>
 514
 515 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
 516 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
 517 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
 518
 519       </div>
 520       <div class="tags">
 521
 522
 523         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
 524
 525
 526       </div>
 527     </div>
 528     <div class="padding"></div>
 529
 530     <div class="entry">
 531       <div class="title">
 532         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Using_the_Kodi_API_to_play_Youtube_videos.html">Using the Kodi API to play Youtube videos</a>
 533       </div>
 534       <div class="date">
 535          2nd September 2018
 536       </div>
 537       <div class="body">
 538         <p>I continue to explore my Kodi installation, and today I wanted to
 539 tell it to play a youtube URL I received in a chat, without having to
 540 insert search terms using the on-screen keyboard.  After searching the
 541 web for API access to the Youtube plugin and testing a bit, I managed
 542 to find a recipe that worked.  If you got a kodi instance with its API
 543 available from http://kodihost/jsonrpc, you can try the following to
 544 have check out a nice cover band.</p>
 545
 546 <p><blockquote><pre>curl --silent --header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
 547   --data-binary '{ "id": 1, "jsonrpc": "2.0", "method": "Player.Open",
 548   "params": {"item": { "file":
 549   "plugin://plugin.video.youtube/play/?video_id=LuRGVM9O0qg" } } }' \
 550   http://projector.local/jsonrpc</pre></blockquote></p>
 551
 552 <p>I've extended kodi-stream program to take a video source as its
 553 first argument.  It can now handle direct video links, youtube links
 554 and 'desktop' to stream my desktop to Kodi.  It is almost like a
 555 Chromecast. :)</p>
 556
 557 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
 558 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
 559 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
 560
 561       </div>
 562       <div class="tags">
 563
 564
 565         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/kodi">kodi</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/video">video</a>.
 566
 567
 568       </div>
 569     </div>
 570     <div class="padding"></div>
 571
 572     <div class="entry">
 573       <div class="title">
 574         <a href="http://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>
 575       </div>
 576       <div class="date">
 577         31st July 2018
 578       </div>
 579       <div class="body">
 580         <p>For a while now, I have looked for a sensible way to share images
 581 with my family using a self hosted solution, as it is unacceptable to
 582 place images from my personal life under the control of strangers
 583 working for data hoarders like Google or Dropbox.  The last few days I
 584 have drafted an approach that might work out, and I would like to
 585 share it with you.  I would like to publish images on a server under
 586 my control, and point some Internet connected display units using some
 587 free and open standard to the images I published.  As my primary
 588 language is not limited to ASCII, I need to store metadata using
 589 UTF-8.  Many years ago, I hoped to find a digital photo frame capable
 590 of reading a RSS feed with image references (aka using the
 591 &lt;enclosure&gt; RSS tag), but was unable to find a current supplier
 592 of such frames.  In the end I gave up that approach.</p>
 593
 594 <p>Some months ago, I discovered that
 595 <a href="https://www.jwz.org/xscreensaver/">XScreensaver</a> is able to
 596 read images from a RSS feed, and used it to set up a screen saver on
 597 my home info screen, showing images from the Daily images feed from
 598 NASA.  This proved to work well.  More recently I discovered that
 599 <a href="https://kodi.tv">Kodi</a> (both using
 600 <a href="https://www.openelec.tv/">OpenELEC</a> and
 601 <a href="https://libreelec.tv">LibreELEC</a>) provide the
 602 <a href="https://github.com/grinsted/script.screensaver.feedreader">Feedreader</a>
 603 screen saver capable of reading a RSS feed with images and news.  For
 604 fun, I used it this summer to test Kodi on my parents TV by hooking up
 605 a Raspberry PI unit with LibreELEC, and wanted to provide them with a
 606 screen saver showing selected pictures from my selection.</p>
 607
 608 <p>Armed with motivation and a test photo frame, I set out to generate
 609 a RSS feed for the Kodi instance.  I adjusted my <a
 610 href="https://freedombox.org/">Freedombox</a> instance, created
 611 /var/www/html/privatepictures/, wrote a small Perl script to extract
 612 title and description metadata from the photo files and generate the
 613 RSS file.  I ended up using Perl instead of python, as the
 614 libimage-exiftool-perl Debian package seemed to handle the EXIF/XMP
 615 tags I ended up using, while python3-exif did not.  The relevant EXIF
 616 tags only support ASCII, so I had to find better alternatives.  XMP
 617 seem to have the support I need.</p>
 618
 619 <p>I am a bit unsure which EXIF/XMP tags to use, as I would like to
 620 use tags that can be easily added/updated using normal free software
 621 photo managing software.  I ended up using the tags set using this
 622 exiftool command, as these tags can also be set using digiKam:</p>
 623
 624 <blockquote><pre>
 625 exiftool -headline='The RSS image title' \
 626   -description='The RSS image description.' \
 627   -subject+=for-family photo.jpeg
 628 </pre></blockquote>
 629
 630 <p>I initially tried the "-title" and "keyword" tags, but they were
 631 invisible in digiKam, so I changed to "-headline" and "-subject".  I
 632 use the keyword/subject 'for-family' to flag that the photo should be
 633 shared with my family.  Images with this keyword set are located and
 634 copied into my Freedombox for the RSS generating script to find.</p>
 635
 636 <p>Are there better ways to do this?  Get in touch if you have better
 637 suggestions.</p>
 638
 639 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
 640 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
 641 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
 642
 643       </div>
 644       <div class="tags">
 645
 646
 647         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
 648
 649
 650       </div>
 651     </div>
 652     <div class="padding"></div>
 653
 654     <div class="entry">
 655       <div class="title">
 656         <a href="http://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>
 657       </div>
 658       <div class="date">
 659         12th July 2018
 660       </div>
 661       <div class="body">
 662         <p>Last night, I wrote
 663 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Streaming_the_Linux_desktop_to_Kodi_using_VLC_and_RTSP.html">a
 664 recipe to stream a Linux desktop using VLC to a instance of Kodi</a>.
 665 During the day I received valuable feedback, and thanks to the
 666 suggestions I have been able to rewrite the recipe into a much simpler
 667 approach requiring no setup at all.  It is a single script that take
 668 care of it all.</p>
 669
 670 <p>This new script uses GStreamer instead of VLC to capture the
 671 desktop and stream it to Kodi.  This fixed the video quality issue I
 672 saw initially.  It further removes the need to add a m3u file on the
 673 Kodi machine, as it instead connects to
 674 <a href="https://kodi.wiki/view/JSON-RPC_API/v8">the JSON-RPC API in
 675 Kodi</a> and simply ask Kodi to play from the stream created using
 676 GStreamer.  Streaming the desktop to Kodi now become trivial.  Copy
 677 the script below, run it with the DNS name or IP address of the kodi
 678 server to stream to as the only argument, and watch your screen show
 679 up on the Kodi screen.  Note, it depend on multicast on the local
 680 network, so if you need to stream outside the local network, the
 681 script must be modified.  Also note, I have no idea if audio work, as
 682 I only care about the picture part.</p>
 683
 684 <blockquote><pre>
 685 #!/bin/sh
 686 #
 687 # Stream the Linux desktop view to Kodi.  See
 688 # http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Streaming_the_Linux_desktop_to_Kodi_using_VLC_and_RTSP.html
 689 # for backgorund information.
 690
 691 # Make sure the stream is stopped in Kodi and the gstreamer process is
 692 # killed if something go wrong (for example if curl is unable to find the
 693 # kodi server).  Do the same when interrupting this script.
 694 kodicmd() {
 695     host="$1"
 696     cmd="$2"
 697     params="$3"
 698     curl --silent --header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
 699          --data-binary "{ \"id\": 1, \"jsonrpc\": \"2.0\", \"method\": \"$cmd\", \"params\": $params }" \
 700          "http://$host/jsonrpc"
 701 }
 702 cleanup() {
 703     if [ -n "$kodihost" ] ; then
 704         # Stop the playing when we end
 705         playerid=$(kodicmd "$kodihost" Player.GetActivePlayers "{}" |
 706                             jq .result[].playerid)
 707         kodicmd "$kodihost" Player.Stop "{ \"playerid\" : $playerid }" > /dev/null
 708     fi
 709     if [ "$gstpid" ] && kill -0 "$gstpid" >/dev/null 2>&1; then
 710         kill "$gstpid"
 711     fi
 712 }
 713 trap cleanup EXIT INT
 714
 715 if [ -n "$1" ]; then
 716     kodihost=$1
 717     shift
 718 else
 719     kodihost=kodi.local
 720 fi
 721
 722 mcast=239.255.0.1
 723 mcastport=1234
 724 mcastttl=1
 725
 726 pasrc=$(pactl list | grep -A2 'Source #' | grep 'Name: .*\.monitor$' | \
 727   cut -d" " -f2|head -1)
 728 gst-launch-1.0 ximagesrc use-damage=0 ! video/x-raw,framerate=30/1 ! \
 729   videoconvert ! queue2 ! \
 730   x264enc bitrate=8000 speed-preset=superfast tune=zerolatency qp-min=30 \
 731   key-int-max=15 bframes=2 ! video/x-h264,profile=high ! queue2 ! \
 732   mpegtsmux alignment=7 name=mux ! rndbuffersize max=1316 min=1316 ! \
 733   udpsink host=$mcast port=$mcastport ttl-mc=$mcastttl auto-multicast=1 sync=0 \
 734   pulsesrc device=$pasrc ! audioconvert ! queue2 ! avenc_aac ! queue2 ! mux. \
 735   > /dev/null 2>&1 &
 736 gstpid=$!
 737
 738 # Give stream a second to get going
 739 sleep 1
 740
 741 # Ask kodi to start streaming using its JSON-RPC API
 742 kodicmd "$kodihost" Player.Open \
 743         "{\"item\": { \"file\": \"udp://@$mcast:$mcastport\" } }" > /dev/null
 744
 745 # wait for gst to end
 746 wait "$gstpid"
 747 </pre></blockquote>
 748
 749 <p>I hope you find the approach useful.  I know I do.</p>
 750
 751 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
 752 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
 753 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
 754
 755       </div>
 756       <div class="tags">
 757
 758
 759         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/kodi">kodi</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/video">video</a>.
 760
 761
 762       </div>
 763     </div>
 764     <div class="padding"></div>
 765
 766     <div class="entry">
 767       <div class="title">
 768         <a href="http://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>
 769       </div>
 770       <div class="date">
 771         12th July 2018
 772       </div>
 773       <div class="body">
 774         <p>PS: See
 775 <ahref="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Simple_streaming_the_Linux_desktop_to_Kodi_using_GStreamer_and_RTP.html">the
 776 followup post</a> for a even better approach.</p>
 777
 778 <p>A while back, I was asked by a friend how to stream the desktop to
 779 my projector connected to Kodi.  I sadly had to admit that I had no
 780 idea, as it was a task I never had tried.  Since then, I have been
 781 looking for a way to do so, preferable without much extra software to
 782 install on either side.  Today I found a way that seem to kind of
 783 work.  Not great, but it is a start.</p>
 784
 785 <p>I had a look at several approaches, for example
 786 <a href="https://github.com/mfoetsch/dlna_live_streaming">using uPnP
 787 DLNA as described in 2011</a>, but it required a uPnP server, fuse and
 788 local storage enough to store the stream locally.  This is not going
 789 to work well for me, lacking enough free space, and it would
 790 impossible for my friend to get working.</p>
 791
 792 <p>Next, it occurred to me that perhaps I could use VLC to create a
 793 video stream that Kodi could play.  Preferably using
 794 broadcast/multicast, to avoid having to change any setup on the Kodi
 795 side when starting such stream.  Unfortunately, the only recipe I
 796 could find using multicast used the rtp protocol, and this protocol
 797 seem to not be supported by Kodi.</p>
 798
 799 <p>On the other hand, the rtsp protocol is working!  Unfortunately I
 800 have to specify the IP address of the streaming machine in both the
 801 sending command and the file on the Kodi server.  But it is showing my
 802 desktop, and thus allow us to have a shared look on the big screen at
 803 the programs I work on.</p>
 804
 805 <p>I did not spend much time investigating codeces.  I combined the
 806 rtp and rtsp recipes from
 807 <a href="https://wiki.videolan.org/Documentation:Streaming_HowTo/Command_Line_Examples/">the
 808 VLC Streaming HowTo/Command Line Examples</a>, and was able to get
 809 this working on the desktop/streaming end.</p>
 810
 811 <blockquote><pre>
 812 vlc screen:// --sout \
 813   '#transcode{vcodec=mp4v,acodec=mpga,vb=800,ab=128}:rtp{dst=projector.local,port=1234,sdp=rtsp://192.168.11.4:8080/test.sdp}'
 814 </pre></blockquote>
 815
 816 <p>I ssh-ed into my Kodi box and created a file like this with the
 817 same IP address:</p>
 818
 819 <blockquote><pre>
 820 echo rtsp://192.168.11.4:8080/test.sdp \
 821   > /storage/videos/screenstream.m3u
 822 </pre></blockquote>
 823
 824 <p>Note the 192.168.11.4 IP address is my desktops IP address.  As far
 825 as I can tell the IP must be hardcoded for this to work.  In other
 826 words, if someone elses machine is going to do the steaming, you have
 827 to update screenstream.m3u on the Kodi machine and adjust the vlc
 828 recipe.  To get started, locate the file in Kodi and select the m3u
 829 file while the VLC stream is running.  The desktop then show up in my
 830 big screen. :)</p>
 831
 832 <p>When using the same technique to stream a video file with audio,
 833 the audio quality is really bad.  No idea if the problem is package
 834 loss or bad parameters for the transcode.  I do not know VLC nor Kodi
 835 enough to tell.</p>
 836
 837 <p><strong>Update 2018-07-12</strong>: Johannes Schauer send me a few
 838 succestions and reminded me about an important step.  The "screen:"
 839 input source is only available once the vlc-plugin-access-extra
 840 package is installed on Debian.  Without it, you will see this error
 841 message: "VLC is unable to open the MRL 'screen://'.  Check the log
 842 for details."  He further found that it is possible to drop some parts
 843 of the VLC command line to reduce the amount of hardcoded information.
 844 It is also useful to consider using cvlc to avoid having the VLC
 845 window in the desktop view.  In sum, this give us this command line on
 846 the source end
 847
 848 <blockquote><pre>
 849 cvlc screen:// --sout \
 850   '#transcode{vcodec=mp4v,acodec=mpga,vb=800,ab=128}:rtp{sdp=rtsp://:8080/}'
 851 </pre></blockquote>
 852
 853 <p>and this on the Kodi end<p>
 854
 855 <blockquote><pre>
 856 echo rtsp://192.168.11.4:8080/ \
 857   > /storage/videos/screenstream.m3u
 858 </pre></blockquote>
 859
 860 <p>Still bad image quality, though.  But I did discover that streaming
 861 a DVD using dvdsimple:///dev/dvd as the source had excellent video and
 862 audio quality, so I guess the issue is in the input or transcoding
 863 parts, not the rtsp part.  I've tried to change the vb and ab
 864 parameters to use more bandwidth, but it did not make a
 865 difference.</p>
 866
 867 <p>I further received a suggestion from Einar Haraldseid to try using
 868 gstreamer instead of VLC, and this proved to work great!  He also
 869 provided me with the trick to get Kodi to use a multicast stream as
 870 its source.  By using this monstrous oneliner, I can stream my desktop
 871 with good video quality in reasonable framerate to the 239.255.0.1
 872 multicast address on port 1234:
 873
 874 <blockquote><pre>
 875 gst-launch-1.0 ximagesrc use-damage=0 ! video/x-raw,framerate=30/1 ! \
 876   videoconvert ! queue2 ! \
 877   x264enc bitrate=8000 speed-preset=superfast tune=zerolatency qp-min=30 \
 878   key-int-max=15 bframes=2 ! video/x-h264,profile=high ! queue2 ! \
 879   mpegtsmux alignment=7 name=mux ! rndbuffersize max=1316 min=1316 ! \
 880   udpsink host=239.255.0.1 port=1234 ttl-mc=1 auto-multicast=1 sync=0 \
 881   pulsesrc device=$(pactl list | grep -A2 'Source #' | \
 882     grep 'Name: .*\.monitor$' |  cut -d" " -f2|head -1) ! \
 883   audioconvert ! queue2 ! avenc_aac ! queue2 ! mux.
 884 </pre></blockquote>
 885
 886 <p>and this on the Kodi end<p>
 887
 888 <blockquote><pre>
 889 echo udp://@239.255.0.1:1234 \
 890   > /storage/videos/screenstream.m3u
 891 </pre></blockquote>
 892
 893 <p>Note the trick to pick a valid pulseaudio source.  It might not
 894 pick the one you need.  This approach will of course lead to trouble
 895 if more than one source uses the same multicast port and address.
 896 Note the ttl-mc=1 setting, which limit the multicast packages to the
 897 local network.  If the value is increased, your screen will be
 898 broadcasted further, one network "hop" for each increase (read up on
 899 multicast to learn more. :)!</p>
 900
 901 <p>Having cracked how to get Kodi to receive multicast streams, I
 902 could use this VLC command to stream to the same multicast address.
 903 The image quality is way better than the rtsp approach, but gstreamer
 904 seem to be doing a better job.</p>
 905
 906 <blockquote><pre>
 907 cvlc screen:// --sout '#transcode{vcodec=mp4v,acodec=mpga,vb=800,ab=128}:rtp{mux=ts,dst=239.255.0.1,port=1234,sdp=sap}'
 908 </pre></blockquote>
 909
 910 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
 911 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
 912 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
 913
 914       </div>
 915       <div class="tags">
 916
 917
 918         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/kodi">kodi</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/video">video</a>.
 919
 920
 921       </div>
 922     </div>
 923     <div class="padding"></div>
 924
 925     <div class="entry">
 926       <div class="title">
 927         <a href="http://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>
 928       </div>
 929       <div class="date">
 930          9th July 2018
 931       </div>
 932       <div class="body">
 933         <p>Five years ago,
 934 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/What_is_the_most_supported_MIME_type_in_Debian_.html">I
 935 measured what the most supported MIME type in Debian was</a>, by
 936 analysing the desktop files in all packages in the archive.  Since
 937 then, the DEP-11 AppStream system has been put into production, making
 938 the task a lot easier.  This made me want to repeat the measurement,
 939 to see how much things changed.  Here are the new numbers, for
 940 unstable only this time:
 941
 942 <p><strong>Debian Unstable:</strong></p>
 943
 944 <pre>
 945   count MIME type
 946   ----- -----------------------
 947      56 image/jpeg
 948      55 image/png
 949      49 image/tiff
 950      48 image/gif
 951      39 image/bmp
 952      38 text/plain
 953      37 audio/mpeg
 954      34 application/ogg
 955      33 audio/x-flac
 956      32 audio/x-mp3
 957      30 audio/x-wav
 958      30 audio/x-vorbis+ogg
 959      29 image/x-portable-pixmap
 960      27 inode/directory
 961      27 image/x-portable-bitmap
 962      27 audio/x-mpeg
 963      26 application/x-ogg
 964      25 audio/x-mpegurl
 965      25 audio/ogg
 966      24 text/html
 967 </pre>
 968
 969 <p>The list was created like this using a sid chroot: "cat
 970 /var/lib/apt/lists/*sid*_dep11_Components-amd64.yml.gz| zcat | awk '/^
 971 - \S+\/\S+$/ {print $2 }' | sort | uniq -c | sort -nr | head -20"</p>
 972
 973 <p>It is interesting to see how image formats have passed text/plain
 974 as the most announced supported MIME type.  These days, thanks to the
 975 AppStream system, if you run into a file format you do not know, and
 976 want to figure out which packages support the format, you can find the
 977 MIME type of the file using "file --mime &lt;filename&gt;", and then
 978 look up all packages announcing support for this format in their
 979 AppStream metadata (XML or .desktop file) using "appstreamcli
 980 what-provides mimetype &lt;mime-type&gt;.  For example if you, like
 981 me, want to know which packages support inode/directory, you can get a
 982 list like this:</p>
 983
 984 <p><blockquote><pre>
 985 % appstreamcli what-provides mimetype inode/directory | grep Package: | sort
 986 Package: anjuta
 987 Package: audacious
 988 Package: baobab
 989 Package: cervisia
 990 Package: chirp
 991 Package: dolphin
 992 Package: doublecmd-common
 993 Package: easytag
 994 Package: enlightenment
 995 Package: ephoto
 996 Package: filelight
 997 Package: gwenview
 998 Package: k4dirstat
 999 Package: kaffeine
1000 Package: kdesvn
1001 Package: kid3
1002 Package: kid3-qt
1003 Package: nautilus
1004 Package: nemo
1005 Package: pcmanfm
1006 Package: pcmanfm-qt
1007 Package: qweborf
1008 Package: ranger
1009 Package: sirikali
1010 Package: spacefm
1011 Package: spacefm
1012 Package: vifm
1013 %
1014 </pre></blockquote></p>
1015
1016 <p>Using the same method, I can quickly discover that the Sketchup file
1017 format is not yet supported by any package in Debian:</p>
1018
1019 <p><blockquote><pre>
1020 % appstreamcli what-provides mimetype  application/vnd.sketchup.skp
1021 Could not find component providing 'mimetype::application/vnd.sketchup.skp'.
1022 %
1023 </pre></blockquote></p>
1024
1025 <p>Yesterday I used it to figure out which packages support the STL 3D
1026 format:</p>
1027
1028 <p><blockquote><pre>
1029 % appstreamcli what-provides mimetype  application/sla|grep Package
1030 Package: cura
1031 Package: meshlab
1032 Package: printrun
1033 %
1034 </pre></blockquote></p>
1035
1036 <p>PS: A new version of Cura was uploaded to Debian yesterday.</p>
1037
1038 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
1039 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
1040 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
1041
1042       </div>
1043       <div class="tags">
1044
1045
1046         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram">isenkram</a>.
1047
1048
1049       </div>
1050     </div>
1051     <div class="padding"></div>
1052
1053     <div class="entry">
1054       <div class="title">
1055         <a href="http://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>
1056       </div>
1057       <div class="date">
1058          8th July 2018
1059       </div>
1060       <div class="body">
1061         <p>Quite regularly, I let my Debian Sid/Unstable chroot stay untouch
1062 for a while, and when I need to update it there is not enough free
1063 space on the disk for apt to do a normal 'apt upgrade'.  I normally
1064 would resolve the issue by doing 'apt install &lt;somepackages&gt;' to
1065 upgrade only some of the packages in one batch, until the amount of
1066 packages to download fall below the amount of free space available.
1067 Today, I had about 500 packages to upgrade, and after a while I got
1068 tired of trying to install chunks of packages manually.  I concluded
1069 that I did not have the spare hours required to complete the task, and
1070 decided to see if I could automate it.  I came up with this small
1071 script which I call 'apt-in-chunks':</p>
1072
1073 <p><blockquote><pre>
1074 #!/bin/sh
1075 #
1076 # Upgrade packages when the disk is too full to upgrade every
1077 # upgradable package in one lump.  Fetching packages to upgrade using
1078 # apt, and then installing using dpkg, to avoid changing the package
1079 # flag for manual/automatic.
1080
1081 set -e
1082
1083 ignore() {
1084     if [ "$1" ]; then
1085         grep -v "$1"
1086     else
1087         cat
1088     fi
1089 }
1090
1091 for p in $(apt list --upgradable | ignore "$@" |cut -d/ -f1 | grep -v '^Listing...'); do
1092     echo "Upgrading $p"
1093     apt clean
1094     apt install --download-only -y $p
1095     for f in /var/cache/apt/archives/*.deb; do
1096         if [ -e "$f" ]; then
1097             dpkg -i /var/cache/apt/archives/*.deb
1098             break
1099         fi
1100     done
1101 done
1102 </pre></blockquote></p>
1103
1104 <p>The script will extract the list of packages to upgrade, try to
1105 download the packages needed to upgrade one package, install the
1106 downloaded packages using dpkg.  The idea is to upgrade packages
1107 without changing the APT mark for the package (ie the one recording of
1108 the package was manually requested or pulled in as a dependency).  To
1109 use it, simply run it as root from the command line.  If it fail, try
1110 'apt install -f' to clean up the mess and run the script again.  This
1111 might happen if the new packages conflict with one of the old
1112 packages.  dpkg is unable to remove, while apt can do this.</p>
1113
1114 <p>It take one option, a package to ignore in the list of packages to
1115 upgrade.  The option to ignore a package is there to be able to skip
1116 the packages that are simply too large to unpack.  Today this was
1117 'ghc', but I have run into other large packages causing similar
1118 problems earlier (like TeX).</p>
1119
1120 <p>Update 2018-07-08: Thanks to Paul Wise, I am aware of two
1121 alternative ways to handle this.  The "unattended-upgrades
1122 --minimal-upgrade-steps" option will try to calculate upgrade sets for
1123 each package to upgrade, and then upgrade them in order, smallest set
1124 first.  It might be a better option than my above mentioned script.
1125 Also, "aptutude upgrade" can upgrade single packages, thus avoiding
1126 the need for using "dpkg -i" in the script above.</p>
1127
1128 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
1129 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
1130 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
1131
1132       </div>
1133       <div class="tags">
1134
1135
1136         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
1137
1138
1139       </div>
1140     </div>
1141     <div class="padding"></div>
1142
1143     <div class="entry">
1144       <div class="title">
1145         <a href="http://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>
1146       </div>
1147       <div class="date">
1148         13th February 2018
1149       </div>
1150       <div class="body">
1151         <p>A new version of the
1152 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/cura">3D printer slicer
1153 software Cura</a>, version 3.1.0, is now available in Debian Testing
1154 (aka Buster) and Debian Unstable (aka Sid).  I hope you find it
1155 useful.  It was uploaded the last few days, and the last update will
1156 enter testing tomorrow.  See the
1157 <a href="https://ultimaker.com/en/products/cura-software/release-notes">release
1158 notes</a> for the list of bug fixes and new features.  Version 3.2
1159 was announced 6 days ago.  We will try to get it into Debian as
1160 well.</p>
1161
1162 <p>More information related to 3D printing is available on the
1163 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/3DPrinting">3D printing</a> and
1164 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/3D-printer">3D printer</a> wiki pages
1165 in Debian.</p>
1166
1167 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
1168 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
1169 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
1170
1171       </div>
1172       <div class="tags">
1173
1174
1175         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/3d-printer">3d-printer</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
1176
1177
1178       </div>
1179     </div>
1180     <div class="padding"></div>
1181
1182     <div class="entry">
1183       <div class="title">
1184         <a href="http://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>
1185       </div>
1186       <div class="date">
1187         17th December 2017
1188       </div>
1189       <div class="body">
1190         <p>After several months of working and waiting, I am happy to report
1191 that the nice and user friendly 3D printer slicer software Cura just
1192 entered Debian Unstable.  It consist of five packages,
1193 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/cura">cura</a>,
1194 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/cura-engine">cura-engine</a>,
1195 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/libarcus">libarcus</a>,
1196 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/fdm-materials">fdm-materials</a>,
1197 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/libsavitar">libsavitar</a> and
1198 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/uranium">uranium</a>.  The last
1199 two, uranium and cura, entered Unstable yesterday.  This should make
1200 it easier for Debian users to print on at least the Ultimaker class of
1201 3D printers.  My nearest 3D printer is an Ultimaker 2+, so it will
1202 make life easier for at least me. :)</p>
1203
1204 <p>The work to make this happen was done by Gregor Riepl, and I was
1205 happy to assist him in sponsoring the packages.  With the introduction
1206 of Cura, Debian is up to three 3D printer slicers at your service,
1207 Cura, Slic3r and Slic3r Prusa.  If you own or have access to a 3D
1208 printer, give it a go. :)</p>
1209
1210 <p>The 3D printer software is maintained by the 3D printer Debian
1211 team, flocking together on the
1212 <a href="http://lists.alioth.debian.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/3dprinter-general">3dprinter-general</a>
1213 mailing list and the
1214 <a href="irc://irc.debian.org/#debian-3dprinting">#debian-3dprinting</a>
1215 IRC channel.</p>
1216
1217 <p>The next step for Cura in Debian is to update the cura package to
1218 version 3.0.3 and then update the entire set of packages to version
1219 3.1.0 which showed up the last few days.</p>
1220
1221       </div>
1222       <div class="tags">
1223
1224
1225         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/3d-printer">3d-printer</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
1226
1227
1228       </div>
1229     </div>
1230     <div class="padding"></div>
1231
1232     <div class="entry">
1233       <div class="title">
1234         <a href="http://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>
1235       </div>
1236       <div class="date">
1237          9th October 2017
1238       </div>
1239       <div class="body">
1240         <p>At my nearby maker space,
1241 <a href="http://sonen.ifi.uio.no/">Sonen</a>, I heard the story that it
1242 was easier to generate gcode files for theyr 3D printers (Ultimake 2+)
1243 on Windows and MacOS X than Linux, because the software involved had
1244 to be manually compiled and set up on Linux while premade packages
1245 worked out of the box on Windows and MacOS X.  I found this annoying,
1246 as the software involved,
1247 <a href="https://github.com/Ultimaker/Cura">Cura</a>, is free software
1248 and should be trivial to get up and running on Linux if someone took
1249 the time to package it for the relevant distributions.  I even found
1250 <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/706656">a request for adding into
1251 Debian</a> from 2013, which had seem some activity over the years but
1252 never resulted in the software showing up in Debian.  So a few days
1253 ago I offered my help to try to improve the situation.</p>
1254
1255 <p>Now I am very happy to see that all the packages required by a
1256 working Cura in Debian are uploaded into Debian and waiting in the NEW
1257 queue for the ftpmasters to have a look.  You can track the progress
1258 on
1259 <a href="https://qa.debian.org/developer.php?email=3dprinter-general%40lists.alioth.debian.org">the
1260 status page for the 3D printer team</a>.</p>
1261
1262 <p>The uploaded packages are a bit behind upstream, and was uploaded
1263 now to get slots in <a href="https://ftp-master.debian.org/new.html">the NEW
1264 queue</a> while we work up updating the packages to the latest
1265 upstream version.</p>
1266
1267 <p>On a related note, two competitors for Cura, which I found harder
1268 to use and was unable to configure correctly for Ultimaker 2+ in the
1269 short time I spent on it, are already in Debian.  If you are looking
1270 for 3D printer "slicers" and want something already available in
1271 Debian, check out
1272 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/slic3r">slic3r</a> and
1273 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/slic3r-prusa">slic3r-prusa</a>.
1274 The latter is a fork of the former.</p>
1275
1276 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
1277 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
1278 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
1279
1280       </div>
1281       <div class="tags">
1282
1283
1284         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/3d-printer">3d-printer</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
1285
1286
1287       </div>
1288     </div>
1289     <div class="padding"></div>
1290
1291     <div class="entry">
1292       <div class="title">
1293         <a href="http://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>
1294       </div>
1295       <div class="date">
1296         29th September 2017
1297       </div>
1298       <div class="body">
1299         <p>Every mobile phone announce its existence over radio to the nearby
1300 mobile cell towers.  And this radio chatter is available for anyone
1301 with a radio receiver capable of receiving them.  Details about the
1302 mobile phones with very good accuracy is of course collected by the
1303 phone companies, but this is not the topic of this blog post.  The
1304 mobile phone radio chatter make it possible to figure out when a cell
1305 phone is nearby, as it include the SIM card ID (IMSI).  By paying
1306 attention over time, one can see when a phone arrive and when it leave
1307 an area.  I believe it would be nice to make this information more
1308 available to the general public, to make more people aware of how
1309 their phones are announcing their whereabouts to anyone that care to
1310 listen.</p>
1311
1312 <p>I am very happy to report that we managed to get something
1313 visualizing this information up and running for
1314 <a href="http://norwaymakers.org/osf17">Oslo Skaperfestival 2017</a>
1315 (Oslo Makers Festival) taking place today and tomorrow at Deichmanske
1316 library.  The solution is based on the
1317 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Easier_recipe_to_observe_the_cell_phones_around_you.html">simple
1318 recipe for listening to GSM chatter</a> I posted a few days ago, and
1319 will show up at the stand of <a href="http://sonen.ifi.uio.no/">Åpen
1320 Sone from the Computer Science department of the University of
1321 Oslo</a>.  The presentation will show the nearby mobile phones (aka
1322 IMSIs) as dots in a web browser graph, with lines to the dot
1323 representing mobile base station it is talking to. It was working in
1324 the lab yesterday, and was moved into place this morning.</p>
1325
1326 <p>We set up a fairly powerful desktop machine using Debian
1327 Buster/Testing with several (five, I believe) RTL2838 DVB-T receivers
1328 connected and visualize the visible cell phone towers using an
1329 <a href="https://github.com/marlow925/hopglass">English version of
1330 Hopglass</a>.  A fairly powerfull machine is needed as the
1331 grgsm_livemon_headless processes from
1332 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/gr-gsm">gr-gsm</a> converting
1333 the radio signal to data packages is quite CPU intensive.</p>
1334
1335 <p>The frequencies to listen to, are identified using a slightly
1336 patched scan-and-livemon (to set the --args values for each receiver),
1337 and the Hopglass data is generated using the
1338 <a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/IMSI-catcher/tree/meshviewer-output">patches
1339 in my meshviewer-output branch</a>.  For some reason we could not get
1340 more than four SDRs working.  There is also a geographical map trying
1341 to show the location of the base stations, but I believe their
1342 coordinates are hardcoded to some random location in Germany, I
1343 believe.  The code should be replaced with code to look up location in
1344 a text file, a sqlite database or one of the online databases
1345 mentioned in
1346 <a href="https://github.com/Oros42/IMSI-catcher/issues/14">the github
1347 issue for the topic</a>.
1348
1349 <p>If this sound interesting, visit the stand at the festival!</p>
1350
1351       </div>
1352       <div class="tags">
1353
1354
1355         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/personvern">personvern</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance</a>.
1356
1357
1358       </div>
1359     </div>
1360     <div class="padding"></div>
1361
1362     <div class="entry">
1363       <div class="title">
1364         <a href="http://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>
1365       </div>
1366       <div class="date">
1367         24th September 2017
1368       </div>
1369       <div class="body">
1370         <p>A little more than a month ago I wrote
1371 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Simpler_recipe_on_how_to_make_a_simple__7_IMSI_Catcher_using_Debian.html">how
1372 to observe the SIM card ID (aka IMSI number) of mobile phones talking
1373 to nearby mobile phone base stations using Debian GNU/Linux and a
1374 cheap USB software defined radio</a>, and thus being able to pinpoint
1375 the location of people and equipment (like cars and trains) with an
1376 accuracy of a few kilometer.  Since then we have worked to make the
1377 procedure even simpler, and it is now possible to do this without any
1378 manual frequency tuning and without building your own packages.</p>
1379
1380 <p>The <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/gr-gsm">gr-gsm</a>
1381 package is now included in Debian testing and unstable, and the
1382 IMSI-catcher code no longer require root access to fetch and decode
1383 the GSM data collected using gr-gsm.</p>
1384
1385 <p>Here is an updated recipe, using packages built by Debian and a git
1386 clone of two python scripts:</p>
1387
1388 <ol>
1389
1390 <li>Start with a Debian machine running the Buster version (aka
1391   testing).</li>
1392
1393 <li>Run '<tt>apt install gr-gsm python-numpy python-scipy
1394   python-scapy</tt>' as root to install required packages.</li>
1395
1396 <li>Fetch the code decoding GSM packages using '<tt>git clone
1397   github.com/Oros42/IMSI-catcher.git</tt>'.</li>
1398
1399 <li>Insert USB software defined radio supported by GNU Radio.</li>
1400
1401 <li>Enter the IMSI-catcher directory and run '<tt>python
1402   scan-and-livemon</tt>' to locate the frequency of nearby base
1403   stations and start listening for GSM packages on one of them.</li>
1404
1405 <li>Enter the IMSI-catcher directory and run '<tt>python
1406   simple_IMSI-catcher.py</tt>' to display the collected information.</li>
1407
1408 </ol>
1409
1410 <p>Note, due to a bug somewhere the scan-and-livemon program (actually
1411 <a href="https://github.com/ptrkrysik/gr-gsm/issues/336">its underlying
1412 program grgsm_scanner</a>) do not work with the HackRF radio.  It does
1413 work with RTL 8232 and other similar USB radio receivers you can get
1414 very cheaply
1415 (<a href="https://www.ebay.com/sch/items/?_nkw=rtl+2832">for example
1416 from ebay</a>), so for now the solution is to scan using the RTL radio
1417 and only use HackRF for fetching GSM data.</p>
1418
1419 <p>As far as I can tell, a cell phone only show up on one of the
1420 frequencies at the time, so if you are going to track and count every
1421 cell phone around you, you need to listen to all the frequencies used.
1422 To listen to several frequencies, use the --numrecv argument to
1423 scan-and-livemon to use several receivers.  Further, I am not sure if
1424 phones using 3G or 4G will show as talking GSM to base stations, so
1425 this approach might not see all phones around you.  I typically see
1426 0-400 IMSI numbers an hour when looking around where I live.</p>
1427
1428 <p>I've tried to run the scanner on a
1429 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/RaspberryPi">Raspberry Pi 2 and 3
1430 running Debian Buster</a>, but the grgsm_livemon_headless process seem
1431 to be too CPU intensive to keep up.  When GNU Radio print 'O' to
1432 stdout, I am told there it is caused by a buffer overflow between the
1433 radio and GNU Radio, caused by the program being unable to read the
1434 GSM data fast enough.  If you see a stream of 'O's from the terminal
1435 where you started scan-and-livemon, you need a give the process more
1436 CPU power.  Perhaps someone are able to optimize the code to a point
1437 where it become possible to set up RPi3 based GSM sniffers?  I tried
1438 using Raspbian instead of Debian, but there seem to be something wrong
1439 with GNU Radio on raspbian, causing glibc to abort().</p>
1440
1441       </div>
1442       <div class="tags">
1443
1444
1445         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/personvern">personvern</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance</a>.
1446
1447
1448       </div>
1449     </div>
1450     <div class="padding"></div>
1451
1452     <div class="entry">
1453       <div class="title">
1454         <a href="http://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>
1455       </div>
1456       <div class="date">
1457          9th August 2017
1458       </div>
1459       <div class="body">
1460         <p>On friday, I came across an interesting article in the Norwegian
1461 web based ICT news magazine digi.no on
1462 <a href="https://www.digi.no/artikler/sikkerhetsforsker-lagde-enkel-imsi-catcher-for-60-kroner-na-kan-mobiler-kartlegges-av-alle/398588">how
1463 to collect the IMSI numbers of nearby cell phones</a> using the cheap
1464 DVB-T software defined radios.  The article refered to instructions
1465 and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UjwgNd_as30">a recipe by
1466 Keld Norman on Youtube on how to make a simple $7 IMSI Catcher</a>, and I decided to test them out.</p>
1467
1468 <p>The instructions said to use Ubuntu, install pip using apt (to
1469 bypass apt), use pip to install pybombs (to bypass both apt and pip),
1470 and the ask pybombs to fetch and build everything you need from
1471 scratch.  I wanted to see if I could do the same on the most recent
1472 Debian packages, but this did not work because pybombs tried to build
1473 stuff that no longer build with the most recent openssl library or
1474 some other version skew problem.  While trying to get this recipe
1475 working, I learned that the apt->pip->pybombs route was a long detour,
1476 and the only piece of software dependency missing in Debian was the
1477 gr-gsm package.  I also found out that the lead upstream developer of
1478 gr-gsm (the name stand for GNU Radio GSM) project already had a set of
1479 Debian packages provided in an Ubuntu PPA repository.  All I needed to
1480 do was to dget the Debian source package and built it.</p>
1481
1482 <p>The IMSI collector is a python script listening for packages on the
1483 loopback network device and printing to the terminal some specific GSM
1484 packages with IMSI numbers in them.  The code is fairly short and easy
1485 to understand.  The reason this work is because gr-gsm include a tool
1486 to read GSM data from a software defined radio like a DVB-T USB stick
1487 and other software defined radios, decode them and inject them into a
1488 network device on your Linux machine (using the loopback device by
1489 default).  This proved to work just fine, and I've been testing the
1490 collector for a few days now.</p>
1491
1492 <p>The updated and simpler recipe is thus to</p>
1493
1494 <ol>
1495
1496 <li>start with a Debian machine running Stretch or newer,</li>
1497
1498 <li>build and install the gr-gsm package available from
1499 <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>
1500
1501 <li>clone the git repostory from <a href="https://github.com/Oros42/IMSI-catcher">https://github.com/Oros42/IMSI-catcher</a>,</li>
1502
1503 <li>run grgsm_livemon and adjust the frequency until the terminal
1504 where it was started is filled with a stream of text (meaning you
1505 found a GSM station).</li>
1506
1507 <li>go into the IMSI-catcher directory and run 'sudo python simple_IMSI-catcher.py' to extract the IMSI numbers.</li>
1508
1509 </ol>
1510
1511 <p>To make it even easier in the future to get this sniffer up and
1512 running, I decided to package
1513 <a href="https://github.com/ptrkrysik/gr-gsm/">the gr-gsm project</a>
1514 for Debian (<a href="https://bugs.debian.org/871055">WNPP
1515 #871055</a>), and the package was uploaded into the NEW queue today.
1516 Luckily the gnuradio maintainer has promised to help me, as I do not
1517 know much about gnuradio stuff yet.</p>
1518
1519 <p>I doubt this "IMSI cacher" is anywhere near as powerfull as
1520 commercial tools like
1521 <a href="https://www.thespyphone.com/portable-imsi-imei-catcher/">The
1522 Spy Phone Portable IMSI / IMEI Catcher</a> or the
1523 <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stingray_phone_tracker">Harris
1524 Stingray</a>, but I hope the existance of cheap alternatives can make
1525 more people realise how their whereabouts when carrying a cell phone
1526 is easily tracked.  Seeing the data flow on the screen, realizing that
1527 I live close to a police station and knowing that the police is also
1528 wearing cell phones, I wonder how hard it would be for criminals to
1529 track the position of the police officers to discover when there are
1530 police near by, or for foreign military forces to track the location
1531 of the Norwegian military forces, or for anyone to track the location
1532 of government officials...</p>
1533
1534 <p>It is worth noting that the data reported by the IMSI-catcher
1535 script mentioned above is only a fraction of the data broadcasted on
1536 the GSM network.  It will only collect one frequency at the time,
1537 while a typical phone will be using several frequencies, and not all
1538 phones will be using the frequencies tracked by the grgsm_livemod
1539 program.  Also, there is a lot of radio chatter being ignored by the
1540 simple_IMSI-catcher script, which would be collected by extending the
1541 parser code.  I wonder if gr-gsm can be set up to listen to more than
1542 one frequency?</p>
1543
1544       </div>
1545       <div class="tags">
1546
1547
1548         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/personvern">personvern</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance</a>.
1549
1550
1551       </div>
1552     </div>
1553     <div class="padding"></div>
1554
1555     <div class="entry">
1556       <div class="title">
1557         <a href="http://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>
1558       </div>
1559       <div class="date">
1560         25th July 2017
1561       </div>
1562       <div class="body">
1563         <p align="center"><img align="center" src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2017-07-25-debian-handbook-nb-testprint.png"/></p>
1564
1565 <p>I finally received a copy of the Norwegian Bokmål edition of
1566 "<a href="https://debian-handbook.info/">The Debian Administrator's
1567 Handbook</a>".  This test copy arrived in the mail a few days ago, and
1568 I am very happy to hold the result in my hand.   We spent around one and a half year translating it. This paperbook edition
1569 <a href="https://debian-handbook.info/get/#norwegian">is available
1570 from lulu.com</a>.  If you buy it quickly, you save 25% on the list
1571 price.  The book is also available for download in electronic form as
1572 PDF, EPUB and Mobipocket, as can be
1573 <a href="https://debian-handbook.info/browse/nb-NO/stable/">read online
1574 as a web page</a>.</p>
1575
1576 <p>This is the second book I publish (the first was the book
1577 "<a href="http://free-culture.cc/">Free Culture</a>" by Lawrence Lessig
1578 in
1579 <a href="http://www.lulu.com/shop/lawrence-lessig/free-culture/paperback/product-22440520.html">English</a>,
1580 <a href="http://www.lulu.com/shop/lawrence-lessig/culture-libre/paperback/product-22645082.html">French</a>
1581 and
1582 <a href="http://www.lulu.com/shop/lawrence-lessig/fri-kultur/paperback/product-22441576.html">Norwegian
1583 Bokmål</a>), and I am very excited to finally wrap up this
1584 project.  I hope
1585 "<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
1586 for Debian-administratoren</a>" will be well received.</p>
1587
1588       </div>
1589       <div class="tags">
1590
1591
1592         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian-handbook">debian-handbook</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
1593
1594
1595       </div>
1596     </div>
1597     <div class="padding"></div>
1598
1599     <div class="entry">
1600       <div class="title">
1601         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/N_r_nynorskoversettelsen_svikter_til_eksamen___.html">Når nynorskoversettelsen svikter til eksamen...</a>
1602       </div>
1603       <div class="date">
1604          3rd June 2017
1605       </div>
1606       <div class="body">
1607         <p><a href="http://www.aftenposten.no/norge/Krever-at-elever-ma-fa-annullert-eksamen-etter-rot-med-oppgavetekster-622459b.html">Aftenposten
1608 melder i dag</a> om feil i eksamensoppgavene for eksamen i politikk og
1609 menneskerettigheter, der teksten i bokmåls og nynorskutgaven ikke var
1610 like.  Oppgaveteksten er gjengitt i artikkelen, og jeg ble nysgjerring
1611 på om den fri oversetterløsningen
1612 <a href="https://www.apertium.org/">Apertium</a> ville gjort en bedre
1613 jobb enn Utdanningsdirektoratet.  Det kan se slik ut.</p>
1614
1615 <p>Her er bokmålsoppgaven fra eksamenen:</p>
1616
1617 <blockquote>
1618 <p>Drøft utfordringene knyttet til nasjonalstatenes og andre aktørers
1619 rolle og muligheter til å håndtere internasjonale utfordringer, som
1620 for eksempel flykningekrisen.</p>
1621
1622 <p>Vedlegge er eksempler på tekster som kan gi relevante perspektiver
1623 på temaet:</p>
1624 <ol>
1625 <li>Flykningeregnskapet 2016, UNHCR og IDMC
1626 <li>«Grenseløst Europa for fall» A-Magasinet, 26. november 2015
1627 </ol>
1628
1629 </blockquote>
1630
1631 <p>Dette oversetter Apertium slik:</p>
1632
1633 <blockquote>
1634 <p>Drøft utfordringane knytte til nasjonalstatane sine og rolla til
1635 andre aktørar og høve til å handtera internasjonale utfordringar, som
1636 til dømes *flykningekrisen.</p>
1637
1638 <p>Vedleggja er døme på tekster som kan gje relevante perspektiv på
1639 temaet:</p>
1640
1641 <ol>
1642 <li>*Flykningeregnskapet 2016, *UNHCR og *IDMC</li>
1643 <li>«*Grenseløst Europa for fall» A-Magasinet, 26. november 2015</li>
1644 </ol>
1645
1646 </blockquote>
1647
1648 <p>Ord som ikke ble forstått er markert med stjerne (*), og trenger
1649 ekstra språksjekk.  Men ingen ord er forsvunnet, slik det var i
1650 oppgaven elevene fikk presentert på eksamen.  Jeg mistenker dog at
1651 "andre aktørers rolle og muligheter til ..." burde vært oversatt til
1652 "rolla til andre aktørar og deira høve til ..." eller noe slikt, men
1653 det er kanskje flisespikking.  Det understreker vel bare at det alltid
1654 trengs korrekturlesning etter automatisk oversettelse.</p>
1655
1656       </div>
1657       <div class="tags">
1658
1659
1660         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/norsk">norsk</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/stavekontroll">stavekontroll</a>.
1661
1662
1663       </div>
1664     </div>
1665     <div class="padding"></div>
1666
1667     <div class="entry">
1668       <div class="title">
1669         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Detecting_NFS_hangs_on_Linux_without_hanging_yourself___.html">Detecting NFS hangs on Linux without hanging yourself...</a>
1670       </div>
1671       <div class="date">
1672          9th March 2017
1673       </div>
1674       <div class="body">
1675         <p>Over the years, administrating thousand of NFS mounting linux
1676 computers at the time, I often needed a way to detect if the machine
1677 was experiencing NFS hang.  If you try to use <tt>df</tt> or look at a
1678 file or directory affected by the hang, the process (and possibly the
1679 shell) will hang too.  So you want to be able to detect this without
1680 risking the detection process getting stuck too.  It has not been
1681 obvious how to do this.  When the hang has lasted a while, it is
1682 possible to find messages like these in dmesg:</p>
1683
1684 <p><blockquote>
1685 nfs: server nfsserver not responding, still trying
1686 <br>nfs: server nfsserver OK
1687 </blockquote></p>
1688
1689 <p>It is hard to know if the hang is still going on, and it is hard to
1690 be sure looking in dmesg is going to work.  If there are lots of other
1691 messages in dmesg the lines might have rotated out of site before they
1692 are noticed.</p>
1693
1694 <p>While reading through the nfs client implementation in linux kernel
1695 code, I came across some statistics that seem to give a way to detect
1696 it.  The om_timeouts sunrpc value in the kernel will increase every
1697 time the above log entry is inserted into dmesg.  And after digging a
1698 bit further, I discovered that this value show up in
1699 /proc/self/mountstats on Linux.</p>
1700
1701 <p>The mountstats content seem to be shared between files using the
1702 same file system context, so it is enough to check one of the
1703 mountstats files to get the state of the mount point for the machine.
1704 I assume this will not show lazy umounted NFS points, nor NFS mount
1705 points in a different process context (ie with a different filesystem
1706 view), but that does not worry me.</p>
1707
1708 <p>The content for a NFS mount point look similar to this:</p>
1709
1710 <p><blockquote><pre>
1711 [...]
1712 device /dev/mapper/Debian-var mounted on /var with fstype ext3
1713 device nfsserver:/mnt/nfsserver/home0 mounted on /mnt/nfsserver/home0 with fstype nfs statvers=1.1
1714         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
1715         age:    7863311
1716         caps:   caps=0x3fe7,wtmult=4096,dtsize=8192,bsize=0,namlen=255
1717         sec:    flavor=1,pseudoflavor=1
1718         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
1719         bytes:  166253035039 219519120027 0 0 40783504807 185466229638 11677877 45561809
1720         RPC iostats version: 1.0  p/v: 100003/3 (nfs)
1721         xprt:   tcp 925 1 6810 0 0 111505412 111480497 109 2672418560317 0 248 53869103 22481820
1722         per-op statistics
1723                 NULL: 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
1724              GETATTR: 61063106 61063108 0 9621383060 6839064400 453650 77291321 78926132
1725              SETATTR: 463469 463470 0 92005440 66739536 63787 603235 687943
1726               LOOKUP: 17021657 17021657 0 3354097764 4013442928 57216 35125459 35566511
1727               ACCESS: 14281703 14290009 5 2318400592 1713803640 1709282 4865144 7130140
1728             READLINK: 125 125 0 20472 18620 0 1112 1118
1729                 READ: 4214236 4214237 0 715608524 41328653212 89884 22622768 22806693
1730                WRITE: 8479010 8494376 22 187695798568 1356087148 178264904 51506907 231671771
1731               CREATE: 171708 171708 0 38084748 46702272 873 1041833 1050398
1732                MKDIR: 3680 3680 0 773980 993920 26 23990 24245
1733              SYMLINK: 903 903 0 233428 245488 6 5865 5917
1734                MKNOD: 80 80 0 20148 21760 0 299 304
1735               REMOVE: 429921 429921 0 79796004 61908192 3313 2710416 2741636
1736                RMDIR: 3367 3367 0 645112 484848 22 5782 6002
1737               RENAME: 466201 466201 0 130026184 121212260 7075 5935207 5961288
1738                 LINK: 289155 289155 0 72775556 67083960 2199 2565060 2585579
1739              READDIR: 2933237 2933237 0 516506204 13973833412 10385 3190199 3297917
1740          READDIRPLUS: 1652839 1652839 0 298640972 6895997744 84735 14307895 14448937
1741               FSSTAT: 6144 6144 0 1010516 1032192 51 9654 10022
1742               FSINFO: 2 2 0 232 328 0 1 1
1743             PATHCONF: 1 1 0 116 140 0 0 0
1744               COMMIT: 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
1745
1746 device binfmt_misc mounted on /proc/sys/fs/binfmt_misc with fstype binfmt_misc
1747 [...]
1748 </pre></blockquote></p>
1749
1750 <p>The key number to look at is the third number in the per-op list.
1751 It is the number of NFS timeouts experiences per file system
1752 operation.  Here 22 write timeouts and 5 access timeouts.  If these
1753 numbers are increasing, I believe the machine is experiencing NFS
1754 hang.  Unfortunately the timeout value do not start to increase right
1755 away.  The NFS operations need to time out first, and this can take a
1756 while.  The exact timeout value depend on the setup.  For example the
1757 defaults for TCP and UDP mount points are quite different, and the
1758 timeout value is affected by the soft, hard, timeo and retrans NFS
1759 mount options.</p>
1760
1761 <p>The only way I have been able to get working on Debian and RedHat
1762 Enterprise Linux for getting the timeout count is to peek in /proc/.
1763 But according to
1764 <ahref="http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E19253-01/816-4555/netmonitor-12/index.html">Solaris
1765 10 System Administration Guide: Network Services</a>, the 'nfsstat -c'
1766 command can be used to get these timeout values.  But this do not work
1767 on Linux, as far as I can tell.  I
1768 <ahref="http://bugs.debian.org/857043">asked Debian about this</a>,
1769 but have not seen any replies yet.</p>
1770
1771 <p>Is there a better way to figure out if a Linux NFS client is
1772 experiencing NFS hangs?  Is there a way to detect which processes are
1773 affected?  Is there a way to get the NFS mount going quickly once the
1774 network problem causing the NFS hang has been cleared?  I would very
1775 much welcome some clues, as we regularly run into NFS hangs.</p>
1776
1777       </div>
1778       <div class="tags">
1779
1780
1781         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sysadmin">sysadmin</a>.
1782
1783
1784       </div>
1785     </div>
1786     <div class="padding"></div>
1787
1788     <div class="entry">
1789       <div class="title">
1790         <a href="http://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>
1791       </div>
1792       <div class="date">
1793          3rd March 2017
1794       </div>
1795       <div class="body">
1796         <p>For almost a year now, we have been working on making a Norwegian
1797 Bokmål edition of <a href="https://debian-handbook.info/">The Debian
1798 Administrator's Handbook</a>.  Now, thanks to the tireless effort of
1799 Ole-Erik, Ingrid and Andreas, the initial translation is complete, and
1800 we are working on the proof reading to ensure consistent language and
1801 use of correct computer science terms.  The plan is to make the book
1802 available on paper, as well as in electronic form.  For that to
1803 happen, the proof reading must be completed and all the figures need
1804 to be translated.  If you want to help out, get in touch.</p>
1805
1806 <p><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/debian-handbook/debian-handbook-nb-NO.pdf">A
1807
1808 fresh PDF edition</a> in A4 format (the final book will have smaller
1809 pages) of the book created every morning is available for
1810 proofreading.  If you find any errors, please
1811 <a href="https://hosted.weblate.org/projects/debian-handbook/">visit
1812 Weblate and correct the error</a>.  The
1813 <a href="http://l.github.io/debian-handbook/stat/nb-NO/index.html">state
1814 of the translation including figures</a> is a useful source for those
1815 provide Norwegian bokmål screen shots and figures.</p>
1816
1817       </div>
1818       <div class="tags">
1819
1820
1821         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian-handbook">debian-handbook</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
1822
1823
1824       </div>
1825     </div>
1826     <div class="padding"></div>
1827
1828     <div class="entry">
1829       <div class="title">
1830         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Unlimited_randomness_with_the_ChaosKey_.html">Unlimited randomness with the ChaosKey?</a>
1831       </div>
1832       <div class="date">
1833          1st March 2017
1834       </div>
1835       <div class="body">
1836         <p>A few days ago I ordered a small batch of
1837 <a href="http://altusmetrum.org/ChaosKey/">the ChaosKey</a>, a small
1838 USB dongle for generating entropy created by Bdale Garbee and Keith
1839 Packard.  Yesterday it arrived, and I am very happy to report that it
1840 work great!  According to its designers, to get it to work out of the
1841 box, you need the Linux kernel version 4.1 or later.  I tested on a
1842 Debian Stretch machine (kernel version 4.9), and there it worked just
1843 fine, increasing the available entropy very quickly.  I wrote a small
1844 test oneliner to test.  It first print the current entropy level,
1845 drain /dev/random, and then print the entropy level for five seconds.
1846 Here is the situation without the ChaosKey inserted:</p>
1847
1848 <blockquote><pre>
1849 % cat /proc/sys/kernel/random/entropy_avail; \
1850   dd bs=1M if=/dev/random of=/dev/null count=1; \
1851   for n in $(seq 1 5); do \
1852      cat /proc/sys/kernel/random/entropy_avail; \
1853      sleep 1; \
1854   done
1855 300
1856 0+1 oppføringer inn
1857 0+1 oppføringer ut
1858 28 byte kopiert, 0,000264565 s, 106 kB/s
1859 4
1860 8
1861 12
1862 17
1863 21
1864 %
1865 </pre></blockquote>
1866
1867 <p>The entropy level increases by 3-4 every second.  In such case any
1868 application requiring random bits (like a HTTPS enabled web server)
1869 will halt and wait for more entrpy.  And here is the situation with
1870 the ChaosKey inserted:</p>
1871
1872 <blockquote><pre>
1873 % cat /proc/sys/kernel/random/entropy_avail; \
1874   dd bs=1M if=/dev/random of=/dev/null count=1; \
1875   for n in $(seq 1 5); do \
1876      cat /proc/sys/kernel/random/entropy_avail; \
1877      sleep 1; \
1878   done
1879 1079
1880 0+1 oppføringer inn
1881 0+1 oppføringer ut
1882 104 byte kopiert, 0,000487647 s, 213 kB/s
1883 433
1884 1028
1885 1031
1886 1035
1887 1038
1888 %
1889 </pre></blockquote>
1890
1891 <p>Quite the difference. :) I bought a few more than I need, in case
1892 someone want to buy one here in Norway. :)</p>
1893
1894 <p>Update: The dongle was presented at Debconf last year.  You might
1895 find <a href="https://debconf16.debconf.org/talks/94/">the talk
1896 recording illuminating</a>.  It explains exactly what the source of
1897 randomness is, if you are unable to spot it from the schema drawing
1898 available from the ChaosKey web site linked at the start of this blog
1899 post.</p>
1900
1901       </div>
1902       <div class="tags">
1903
1904
1905         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
1906
1907
1908       </div>
1909     </div>
1910     <div class="padding"></div>
1911
1912     <div class="entry">
1913       <div class="title">
1914         <a href="http://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>
1915       </div>
1916       <div class="date">
1917          9th January 2017
1918       </div>
1919       <div class="body">
1920         <p>Did you ever wonder where the web trafic really flow to reach the
1921 web servers, and who own the network equipment it is flowing through?
1922 It is possible to get a glimpse of this from using traceroute, but it
1923 is hard to find all the details.  Many years ago, I wrote a system to
1924 map the Norwegian Internet (trying to figure out if our plans for a
1925 network game service would get low enough latency, and who we needed
1926 to talk to about setting up game servers close to the users.  Back
1927 then I used traceroute output from many locations (I asked my friends
1928 to run a script and send me their traceroute output) to create the
1929 graph and the map.  The output from traceroute typically look like
1930 this:
1931
1932 <p><pre>
1933 traceroute to www.stortinget.no (85.88.67.10), 30 hops max, 60 byte packets
1934  1  uio-gw10.uio.no (129.240.202.1)  0.447 ms  0.486 ms  0.621 ms
1935  2  uio-gw8.uio.no (129.240.24.229)  0.467 ms  0.578 ms  0.675 ms
1936  3  oslo-gw1.uninett.no (128.39.65.17)  0.385 ms  0.373 ms  0.358 ms
1937  4  te3-1-2.br1.fn3.as2116.net (193.156.90.3)  1.174 ms  1.172 ms  1.153 ms
1938  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
1939  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
1940  7  89.191.10.146 (89.191.10.146)  0.931 ms  0.917 ms  0.955 ms
1941  8  * * *
1942  9  * * *
1943 [...]
1944 </pre></p>
1945
1946 <p>This show the DNS names and IP addresses of (at least some of the)
1947 network equipment involved in getting the data traffic from me to the
1948 www.stortinget.no server, and how long it took in milliseconds for a
1949 package to reach the equipment and return to me.  Three packages are
1950 sent, and some times the packages do not follow the same path.  This
1951 is shown for hop 5, where three different IP addresses replied to the
1952 traceroute request.</p>
1953
1954 <p>There are many ways to measure trace routes.  Other good traceroute
1955 implementations I use are traceroute (using ICMP packages) mtr (can do
1956 both ICMP, UDP and TCP) and scapy (python library with ICMP, UDP, TCP
1957 traceroute and a lot of other capabilities).  All of them are easily
1958 available in <a href="https://www.debian.org/">Debian</a>.</p>
1959
1960 <p>This time around, I wanted to know the geographic location of
1961 different route points, to visualize how visiting a web page spread
1962 information about the visit to a lot of servers around the globe.  The
1963 background is that a web site today often will ask the browser to get
1964 from many servers the parts (for example HTML, JSON, fonts,
1965 JavaScript, CSS, video) required to display the content.  This will
1966 leak information about the visit to those controlling these servers
1967 and anyone able to peek at the data traffic passing by (like your ISP,
1968 the ISPs backbone provider, FRA, GCHQ, NSA and others).</p>
1969
1970 <p>Lets pick an example, the Norwegian parliament web site
1971 www.stortinget.no.  It is read daily by all members of parliament and
1972 their staff, as well as political journalists, activits and many other
1973 citizens of Norway.  A visit to the www.stortinget.no web site will
1974 ask your browser to contact 8 other servers: ajax.googleapis.com,
1975 insights.hotjar.com, script.hotjar.com, static.hotjar.com,
1976 stats.g.doubleclick.net, www.google-analytics.com,
1977 www.googletagmanager.com and www.netigate.se.  I extracted this by
1978 asking <a href="http://phantomjs.org/">PhantomJS</a> to visit the
1979 Stortinget web page and tell me all the URLs PhantomJS downloaded to
1980 render the page (in HAR format using
1981 <a href="https://github.com/ariya/phantomjs/blob/master/examples/netsniff.js">their
1982 netsniff example</a>.  I am very grateful to Gorm for showing me how
1983 to do this).  My goal is to visualize network traces to all IP
1984 addresses behind these DNS names, do show where visitors personal
1985 information is spread when visiting the page.</p>
1986
1987 <p align="center"><a href="www.stortinget.no-geoip.kml"><img
1988 src="http://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>
1989
1990 <p>When I had a look around for options, I could not find any good
1991 free software tools to do this, and decided I needed my own traceroute
1992 wrapper outputting KML based on locations looked up using GeoIP.  KML
1993 is easy to work with and easy to generate, and understood by several
1994 of the GIS tools I have available.  I got good help from by NUUG
1995 colleague Anders Einar with this, and the result can be seen in
1996 <a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/kmltraceroute">my
1997 kmltraceroute git repository</a>.  Unfortunately, the quality of the
1998 free GeoIP databases I could find (and the for-pay databases my
1999 friends had access to) is not up to the task.  The IP addresses of
2000 central Internet infrastructure would typically be placed near the
2001 controlling companies main office, and not where the router is really
2002 located, as you can see from <a href="www.stortinget.no-geoip.kml">the
2003 KML file I created</a> using the GeoLite City dataset from MaxMind.
2004
2005 <p align="center"><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2017-01-09-www.stortinget.no-scapy.svg"><img
2006 src="http://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>
2007
2008 <p>I also had a look at the visual traceroute graph created by
2009 <a href="http://www.secdev.org/projects/scapy/">the scrapy project</a>,
2010 showing IP network ownership (aka AS owner) for the IP address in
2011 question.
2012 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2017-01-09-www.stortinget.no-scapy.svg">The
2013 graph display a lot of useful information about the traceroute in SVG
2014 format</a>, and give a good indication on who control the network
2015 equipment involved, but it do not include geolocation.  This graph
2016 make it possible to see the information is made available at least for
2017 UNINETT, Catchcom, Stortinget, Nordunet, Google, Amazon, Telia, Level
2018 3 Communications and NetDNA.</p>
2019
2020 <p align="center"><a href="https://geotraceroute.com/index.php?node=4&host=www.stortinget.no"><img
2021 src="http://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>
2022
2023 <p>In the process, I came across the
2024 <a href="https://geotraceroute.com/">web service GeoTraceroute</a> by
2025 Salim Gasmi.  Its methology of combining guesses based on DNS names,
2026 various location databases and finally use latecy times to rule out
2027 candidate locations seemed to do a very good job of guessing correct
2028 geolocation.  But it could only do one trace at the time, did not have
2029 a sensor in Norway and did not make the geolocations easily available
2030 for postprocessing.  So I contacted the developer and asked if he
2031 would be willing to share the code (he refused until he had time to
2032 clean it up), but he was interested in providing the geolocations in a
2033 machine readable format, and willing to set up a sensor in Norway.  So
2034 since yesterday, it is possible to run traces from Norway in this
2035 service thanks to a sensor node set up by
2036 <a href="https://www.nuug.no/">the NUUG assosiation</a>, and get the
2037 trace in KML format for further processing.</p>
2038
2039 <p align="center"><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2017-01-09-www.stortinget.no-geotraceroute-kml-join.kml"><img
2040 src="http://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>
2041
2042 <p>Here we can see a lot of trafic passes Sweden on its way to
2043 Denmark, Germany, Holland and Ireland.  Plenty of places where the
2044 Snowden confirmations verified the traffic is read by various actors
2045 without your best interest as their top priority.</p>
2046
2047 <p>Combining KML files is trivial using a text editor, so I could loop
2048 over all the hosts behind the urls imported by www.stortinget.no and
2049 ask for the KML file from GeoTraceroute, and create a combined KML
2050 file with all the traces (unfortunately only one of the IP addresses
2051 behind the DNS name is traced this time.  To get them all, one would
2052 have to request traces using IP number instead of DNS names from
2053 GeoTraceroute).  That might be the next step in this project.</p>
2054
2055 <p>Armed with these tools, I find it a lot easier to figure out where
2056 the IP traffic moves and who control the boxes involved in moving it.
2057 And every time the link crosses for example the Swedish border, we can
2058 be sure Swedish Signal Intelligence (FRA) is listening, as GCHQ do in
2059 Britain and NSA in USA and cables around the globe.  (Hm, what should
2060 we tell them? :) Keep that in mind if you ever send anything
2061 unencrypted over the Internet.</p>
2062
2063 <p>PS: KML files are drawn using
2064 <a href="http://ivanrublev.me/kml/">the KML viewer from Ivan
2065 Rublev<a/>, as it was less cluttered than the local Linux application
2066 Marble.  There are heaps of other options too.</p>
2067
2068 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
2069 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
2070 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
2071
2072       </div>
2073       <div class="tags">
2074
2075
2076         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/kart">kart</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/personvern">personvern</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/stortinget">stortinget</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/web">web</a>.
2077
2078
2079       </div>
2080     </div>
2081     <div class="padding"></div>
2082
2083     <div class="entry">
2084       <div class="title">
2085         <a href="http://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>
2086       </div>
2087       <div class="date">
2088         23rd December 2016
2089       </div>
2090       <div class="body">
2091         <p>I received a very nice Christmas present today.  As my regular
2092 readers probably know, I have been working on the
2093 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/isenkram">the Isenkram
2094 system</a> for many years.  The goal of the Isenkram system is to make
2095 it easier for users to figure out what to install to get a given piece
2096 of hardware to work in Debian, and a key part of this system is a way
2097 to map hardware to packages.  Isenkram have its own mapping database,
2098 and also uses data provided by each package using the AppStream
2099 metadata format.  And today,
2100 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/appstream">AppStream</a> in
2101 Debian learned to look up hardware the same way Isenkram is doing it,
2102 ie using fnmatch():</p>
2103
2104 <p><pre>
2105 % appstreamcli what-provides modalias \
2106   usb:v1130p0202d0100dc00dsc00dp00ic03isc00ip00in00
2107 Identifier: pymissile [generic]
2108 Name: pymissile
2109 Summary: Control original Striker USB Missile Launcher
2110 Package: pymissile
2111 % appstreamcli what-provides modalias usb:v0694p0002d0000
2112 Identifier: libnxt [generic]
2113 Name: libnxt
2114 Summary: utility library for talking to the LEGO Mindstorms NXT brick
2115 Package: libnxt
2116 ---
2117 Identifier: t2n [generic]
2118 Name: t2n
2119 Summary: Simple command-line tool for Lego NXT
2120 Package: t2n
2121 ---
2122 Identifier: python-nxt [generic]
2123 Name: python-nxt
2124 Summary: Python driver/interface/wrapper for the Lego Mindstorms NXT robot
2125 Package: python-nxt
2126 ---
2127 Identifier: nbc [generic]
2128 Name: nbc
2129 Summary: C compiler for LEGO Mindstorms NXT bricks
2130 Package: nbc
2131 %
2132 </pre></p>
2133
2134 <p>A similar query can be done using the combined AppStream and
2135 Isenkram databases using the isenkram-lookup tool:</p>
2136
2137 <p><pre>
2138 % isenkram-lookup usb:v1130p0202d0100dc00dsc00dp00ic03isc00ip00in00
2139 pymissile
2140 % isenkram-lookup usb:v0694p0002d0000
2141 libnxt
2142 nbc
2143 python-nxt
2144 t2n
2145 %
2146 </pre></p>
2147
2148 <p>You can find modalias values relevant for your machine using
2149 <tt>cat $(find /sys/devices/ -name modalias)</tt>.
2150
2151 <p>If you want to make this system a success and help Debian users
2152 make the most of the hardware they have, please
2153 help<a href="https://wiki.debian.org/AppStream/Guidelines">add
2154 AppStream metadata for your package following the guidelines</a>
2155 documented in the wiki.  So far only 11 packages provide such
2156 information, among the several hundred hardware specific packages in
2157 Debian. The Isenkram database on the other hand contain 101 packages,
2158 mostly related to USB dongles.  Most of the packages with hardware
2159 mapping in AppStream are LEGO Mindstorms related, because I have, as
2160 part of my involvement in
2161 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/LegoDesigners">the Debian LEGO
2162 team</a> given priority to making sure LEGO users get proposed the
2163 complete set of packages in Debian for that particular hardware.  The
2164 team also got a nice Christmas present today.  The
2165 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/nxt-firmware">nxt-firmware
2166 package</a> made it into Debian.  With this package in place, it is
2167 now possible to use the LEGO Mindstorms NXT unit with only free
2168 software, as the nxt-firmware package contain the source and firmware
2169 binaries for the NXT brick.</p>
2170
2171 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
2172 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
2173 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
2174
2175       </div>
2176       <div class="tags">
2177
2178
2179         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram">isenkram</a>.
2180
2181
2182       </div>
2183     </div>
2184     <div class="padding"></div>
2185
2186     <div class="entry">
2187       <div class="title">
2188         <a href="http://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>
2189       </div>
2190       <div class="date">
2191         20th December 2016
2192       </div>
2193       <div class="body">
2194         <p><a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/isenkram">The Isenkram
2195 system</a> I wrote two years ago to make it easier in Debian to find
2196 and install packages to get your hardware dongles to work, is still
2197 going strong.  It is a system to look up the hardware present on or
2198 connected to the current system, and map the hardware to Debian
2199 packages.  It can either be done using the tools in isenkram-cli or
2200 using the user space daemon in the isenkram package.  The latter will
2201 notify you, when inserting new hardware, about what packages to
2202 install to get the dongle working.  It will even provide a button to
2203 click on to ask packagekit to install the packages.</p>
2204
2205 <p>Here is an command line example from my Thinkpad laptop:</p>
2206
2207 <p><pre>
2208 % isenkram-lookup
2209 bluez
2210 cheese
2211 ethtool
2212 fprintd
2213 fprintd-demo
2214 gkrellm-thinkbat
2215 hdapsd
2216 libpam-fprintd
2217 pidgin-blinklight
2218 thinkfan
2219 tlp
2220 tp-smapi-dkms
2221 tp-smapi-source
2222 tpb
2223 %
2224 </pre></p>
2225
2226 <p>It can also list the firware package providing firmware requested
2227 by the load kernel modules, which in my case is an empty list because
2228 I have all the firmware my machine need:
2229
2230 <p><pre>
2231 % /usr/sbin/isenkram-autoinstall-firmware -l
2232 info: did not find any firmware files requested by loaded kernel modules.  exiting
2233 %
2234 </pre></p>
2235
2236 <p>The last few days I had a look at several of the around 250
2237 packages in Debian with udev rules.  These seem like good candidates
2238 to install when a given hardware dongle is inserted, and I found
2239 several that should be proposed by isenkram.  I have not had time to
2240 check all of them, but am happy to report that now there are 97
2241 packages packages mapped to hardware by Isenkram.  11 of these
2242 packages provide hardware mapping using AppStream, while the rest are
2243 listed in the modaliases file provided in isenkram.</p>
2244
2245 <p>These are the packages with hardware mappings at the moment.  The
2246 <strong>marked packages</strong> are also announcing their hardware
2247 support using AppStream, for everyone to use:</p>
2248
2249 <p>air-quality-sensor, alsa-firmware-loaders, argyll,
2250 <strong>array-info</strong>, avarice, avrdude, b43-fwcutter,
2251 bit-babbler, bluez, bluez-firmware, <strong>brltty</strong>,
2252 <strong>broadcom-sta-dkms</strong>, calibre, cgminer, cheese, colord,
2253 <strong>colorhug-client</strong>, dahdi-firmware-nonfree, dahdi-linux,
2254 dfu-util, dolphin-emu, ekeyd, ethtool, firmware-ipw2x00, fprintd,
2255 fprintd-demo, <strong>galileo</strong>, gkrellm-thinkbat, gphoto2,
2256 gpsbabel, gpsbabel-gui, gpsman, gpstrans, gqrx-sdr, gr-fcdproplus,
2257 gr-osmosdr, gtkpod, hackrf, hdapsd, hdmi2usb-udev, hpijs-ppds, hplip,
2258 ipw3945-source, ipw3945d, kde-config-tablet, kinect-audio-setup,
2259 <strong>libnxt</strong>, libpam-fprintd, <strong>lomoco</strong>,
2260 madwimax, minidisc-utils, mkgmap, msi-keyboard, mtkbabel,
2261 <strong>nbc</strong>, <strong>nqc</strong>, nut-hal-drivers, ola,
2262 open-vm-toolbox, open-vm-tools, openambit, pcgminer, pcmciautils,
2263 pcscd, pidgin-blinklight, printer-driver-splix,
2264 <strong>pymissile</strong>, python-nxt, qlandkartegt,
2265 qlandkartegt-garmin, rosegarden, rt2x00-source, sispmctl,
2266 soapysdr-module-hackrf, solaar, squeak-plugins-scratch, sunxi-tools,
2267 <strong>t2n</strong>, thinkfan, thinkfinger-tools, tlp, tp-smapi-dkms,
2268 tp-smapi-source, tpb, tucnak, uhd-host, usbmuxd, viking,
2269 virtualbox-ose-guest-x11, w1retap, xawtv, xserver-xorg-input-vmmouse,
2270 xserver-xorg-input-wacom, xserver-xorg-video-qxl,
2271 xserver-xorg-video-vmware, yubikey-personalization and
2272 zd1211-firmware</p>
2273
2274 <p>If you know of other packages, please let me know with a wishlist
2275 bug report against the isenkram-cli package, and ask the package
2276 maintainer to
2277 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/AppStream/Guidelines">add AppStream
2278 metadata according to the guidelines</a> to provide the information
2279 for everyone.  In time, I hope to get rid of the isenkram specific
2280 hardware mapping and depend exclusively on AppStream.</p>
2281
2282 <p>Note, the AppStream metadata for broadcom-sta-dkms is matching too
2283 much hardware, and suggest that the package with with any ethernet
2284 card.  See <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/838735">bug #838735</a> for
2285 the details.  I hope the maintainer find time to address it soon.  In
2286 the mean time I provide an override in isenkram.</p>
2287
2288       </div>
2289       <div class="tags">
2290
2291
2292         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram">isenkram</a>.
2293
2294
2295       </div>
2296     </div>
2297     <div class="padding"></div>
2298
2299     <div class="entry">
2300       <div class="title">
2301         <a href="http://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>
2302       </div>
2303       <div class="date">
2304         11th December 2016
2305       </div>
2306       <div class="body">
2307         <p align="center"><img width="70%" src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2016-12-11-nice-oolite.png"/></p>
2308
2309 <p>In my early years, I played
2310 <a href="http://wiki.alioth.net/index.php/Classic_Elite">the epic game
2311 Elite</a> on my PC.  I spent many months trading and fighting in
2312 space, and reached the 'elite' fighting status before I moved on.  The
2313 original Elite game was available on Commodore 64 and the IBM PC
2314 edition I played had a 64 KB executable.  I am still impressed today
2315 that the authors managed to squeeze both a 3D engine and details about
2316 more than 2000 planet systems across 7 galaxies into a binary so
2317 small.</p>
2318
2319 <p>I have known about <a href="http://www.oolite.org/">the free
2320 software game Oolite inspired by Elite</a> for a while, but did not
2321 really have time to test it properly until a few days ago.  It was
2322 great to discover that my old knowledge about trading routes were
2323 still valid.  But my fighting and flying abilities were gone, so I had
2324 to retrain to be able to dock on a space station.  And I am still not
2325 able to make much resistance when I am attacked by pirates, so I
2326 bougth and mounted the most powerful laser in the rear to be able to
2327 put up at least some resistance while fleeing for my life. :)</p>
2328
2329 <p>When playing Elite in the late eighties, I had to discover
2330 everything on my own, and I had long lists of prices seen on different
2331 planets to be able to decide where to trade what.  This time I had the
2332 advantages of the
2333 <a href="http://wiki.alioth.net/index.php/Main_Page">Elite wiki</a>,
2334 where information about each planet is easily available with common
2335 price ranges and suggested trading routes.  This improved my ability
2336 to earn money and I have been able to earn enough to buy a lot of
2337 useful equipent in a few days.  I believe I originally played for
2338 months before I could get a docking computer, while now I could get it
2339 after less then a week.</p>
2340
2341 <p>If you like science fiction and dreamed of a life as a vagabond in
2342 space, you should try out Oolite.  It is available for Linux, MacOSX
2343 and Windows, and is included in Debian and derivatives since 2011.</p>
2344
2345 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
2346 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
2347 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
2348
2349       </div>
2350       <div class="tags">
2351
2352
2353         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nice free software">nice free software</a>.
2354
2355
2356       </div>
2357     </div>
2358     <div class="padding"></div>
2359
2360     <div class="entry">
2361       <div class="title">
2362         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Quicker_Debian_installations_using_eatmydata.html">Quicker Debian installations using eatmydata</a>
2363       </div>
2364       <div class="date">
2365         25th November 2016
2366       </div>
2367       <div class="body">
2368         <p>Two years ago, I did some experiments with eatmydata and the Debian
2369 installation system, observing how using
2370 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Speeding_up_the_Debian_installer_using_eatmydata_and_dpkg_divert.html">eatmydata
2371 could speed up the installation</a> quite a bit.  My testing measured
2372 speedup around 20-40 percent for Debian Edu, where we install around
2373 1000 packages from within the installer.  The eatmydata package
2374 provide a way to disable/delay file system flushing.  This is a bit
2375 risky in the general case, as files that should be stored on disk will
2376 stay only in memory a bit longer than expected, causing problems if a
2377 machine crashes at an inconvenient time.  But for an installation, if
2378 the machine crashes during installation the process is normally
2379 restarted, and avoiding disk operations as much as possible to speed
2380 up the process make perfect sense.
2381
2382 <p>I added code in the Debian Edu specific installation code to enable
2383 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/libeatmydata">eatmydata</a>,
2384 but did not have time to push it any further.  But a few months ago I
2385 picked it up again and worked with the libeatmydata package maintainer
2386 Mattia Rizzolo to make it easier for everyone to get this installation
2387 speedup in Debian.  Thanks to our cooperation There is now an
2388 eatmydata-udeb package in Debian testing and unstable, and simply
2389 enabling/installing it in debian-installer (d-i) is enough to get the
2390 quicker installations.  It can be enabled using preseeding.  The
2391 following untested kernel argument should do the trick:</p>
2392
2393 <blockquote><pre>
2394 preseed/early_command="anna-install eatmydata-udeb"
2395 </pre></blockquote>
2396
2397 <p>This should ask d-i to install the package inside the d-i
2398 environment early in the installation sequence.  Having it installed
2399 in d-i in turn will make sure the relevant scripts are called just
2400 after debootstrap filled /target/ with the freshly installed Debian
2401 system to configure apt to run dpkg with eatmydata.  This is enough to
2402 speed up the installation process.  There is a proposal to
2403 <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/841153">extend the idea a bit further
2404 by using /etc/ld.so.preload instead of apt.conf</a>, but I have not
2405 tested its impact.</p>
2406
2407
2408       </div>
2409       <div class="tags">
2410
2411
2412         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
2413
2414
2415       </div>
2416     </div>
2417     <div class="padding"></div>
2418
2419     <div class="entry">
2420       <div class="title">
2421         <a href="http://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>
2422       </div>
2423       <div class="date">
2424         24th November 2016
2425       </div>
2426       <div class="body">
2427         <p>I Norge er det mange som trenger å skrive både bokmål og nynorsk.
2428 Eksamensoppgaver, offentlige brev og nyheter er eksempler på tekster
2429 der det er krav om skriftspråk.  I tillegg til alle skoleoppgavene som
2430 elever over det ganske land skal levere inn hvert år.  Det mange ikke
2431 vet er at selv om de kommersielle alternativene
2432 <a href="https://translate.google.com/">Google Translate</a> og
2433 <a href="https://www.bing.com/translator/">Bing Translator</a> ikke kan
2434 bidra med å oversette mellom bokmål og nynorsk, så finnes det et
2435 utmerket fri programvarealternativ som kan.  Oversetterverktøyet
2436 Apertium har støtte for en rekke språkkombinasjoner, og takket være
2437 den utrettelige innsatsen til blant annet Kevin Brubeck Unhammer, kan
2438 en bruke webtjenesten til å fylle inn en tekst på bokmål eller
2439 nynorsk, og få den automatoversatt til det andre skriftspråket.
2440 Resultatet er ikke perfekt, men et svært godt utgangspunkt.  Av og til
2441 er resultatet så bra at det kan benyttes uten endringer.  Jeg vet
2442 f.eks. at store deler av Joomla ble oversatt til nynorsk ved hjelp
2443 Apertium.  Høres det ut som noe du kan ha bruk for?  Besøk i så fall
2444 <a href="https://www.apertium.org/">Apertium.org</a> og fyll inn
2445 teksten din i webskjemaet der.
2446
2447 <p>Hvis du trenger maskinell tilgang til den bakenforliggende
2448 teknologien kan du enten installere pakken
2449 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/apertium-nno-nob">apertium-nno-nob</a>
2450 på en Debian-maskin eller bruke web-API-et tilgjengelig fra
2451 api.apertium.org.  Se
2452 <a href="http://wiki.apertium.org/wiki/Apertium-apy">API-dokumentasjonen</a>
2453 for detaljer om web-API-et.  Her kan du se hvordan resultatet blir for
2454 denne teksten som ble skrevet på bokmål over maskinoversatt til
2455 nynorsk.</p>
2456
2457 <hr/>
2458
2459 <p>I Noreg er det mange som treng å skriva både bokmål og nynorsk.
2460 Eksamensoppgåver, offentlege brev og nyhende er døme på tekster der
2461 det er krav om skriftspråk.  I tillegg til alle skuleoppgåvene som
2462 elevar over det ganske land skal levera inn kvart år.  Det mange ikkje
2463 veit er at sjølv om dei kommersielle alternativa
2464 <a href="https://translate.google.com/">Google *Translate</a> og
2465 <a href="https://www.bing.com/translator/">Bing *Translator</a> ikkje
2466 kan bidra med å omsetja mellom bokmål og nynorsk, så finst det eit
2467 utmerka fri programvarealternativ som kan.  Omsetjarverktøyet
2468 *Apertium har støtte for ei rekkje språkkombinasjonar, og takka vera
2469 den utrøyttelege innsatsen til blant anna Kevin Brubeck Unhammer, kan
2470 ein bruka *webtjenesten til å fylla inn ei tekst på bokmål eller
2471 nynorsk, og få den *automatoversatt til det andre skriftspråket.
2472 Resultatet er ikkje perfekt, men eit svært godt utgangspunkt.  Av og
2473 til er resultatet så bra at det kan nyttast utan endringar.  Eg veit
2474 t.d. at store delar av *Joomla vart omsett til nynorsk ved hjelp
2475 *Apertium.  Høyrast det ut som noko du kan ha bruk for?  Besøk i så
2476 fall <a href="https://www.apertium.org/">*Apertium.org</a> og fyll inn
2477 teksta di i *webskjemaet der.
2478
2479 <p>Viss du treng *maskinell tilgjenge til den *bakenforliggende
2480 teknologien kan du anten installera pakken
2481 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/apertium-nno-nob">*apertium-*nno-*nob</a>
2482 på ein *Debian-maskin eller bruka *web-*API-eit tilgjengeleg frå
2483 *api.*apertium.org.  Sjå
2484 <a href="http://wiki.apertium.org/wiki/Apertium-apy">*API-dokumentasjonen</a>
2485 for detaljar om *web-*API-eit.  Her kan du sjå korleis resultatet vert
2486 for denne teksta som vart skreva på bokmål over *maskinoversatt til
2487 nynorsk.</p>
2488
2489       </div>
2490       <div class="tags">
2491
2492
2493         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/norsk">norsk</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/stavekontroll">stavekontroll</a>.
2494
2495
2496       </div>
2497     </div>
2498     <div class="padding"></div>
2499
2500     <div class="entry">
2501       <div class="title">
2502         <a href="http://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>
2503       </div>
2504       <div class="date">
2505         13th November 2016
2506       </div>
2507       <div class="body">
2508         <p><a href="http://coz-profiler.org/">The Coz profiler</a>, a nice
2509 profiler able to run benchmarking experiments on the instrumented
2510 multi-threaded program, finally
2511 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/coz-profiler">made it into
2512 Debian unstable yesterday</A>.  Lluís Vilanova and I have spent many
2513 months since
2514 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Coz_can_help_you_find_bottlenecks_in_multi_threaded_software___nice_free_software.html">I
2515 blogged about the coz tool</a> in August working with upstream to make
2516 it suitable for Debian.  There are still issues with clang
2517 compatibility, inline assembly only working x86 and minimized
2518 JavaScript libraries.</p>
2519
2520 <p>To test it, install 'coz-profiler' using apt and run it like this:</p>
2521
2522 <p><blockquote>
2523 <tt>coz run --- /path/to/binary-with-debug-info</tt>
2524 </blockquote></p>
2525
2526 <p>This will produce a profile.coz file in the current working
2527 directory with the profiling information.  This is then given to a
2528 JavaScript application provided in the package and available from
2529 <a href="http://plasma-umass.github.io/coz/">a project web page</a>.
2530 To start the local copy, invoke it in a browser like this:</p>
2531
2532 <p><blockquote>
2533 <tt>sensible-browser /usr/share/coz-profiler/viewer/index.htm</tt>
2534 </blockquote></p>
2535
2536 <p>See the project home page and the
2537 <a href="https://www.usenix.org/publications/login/summer2016/curtsinger">USENIX
2538 ;login: article on Coz</a> for more information on how it is
2539 working.</p>
2540
2541       </div>
2542       <div class="tags">
2543
2544
2545         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
2546
2547
2548       </div>
2549     </div>
2550     <div class="padding"></div>
2551
2552     <div class="entry">
2553       <div class="title">
2554         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/My_own_self_balancing_Lego_Segway.html">My own self balancing Lego Segway</a>
2555       </div>
2556       <div class="date">
2557          4th November 2016
2558       </div>
2559       <div class="body">
2560         <p>A while back I received a Gyro sensor for the NXT
2561 <a href="mindstorms.lego.com">Mindstorms</a> controller as a birthday
2562 present.  It had been on my wishlist for a while, because I wanted to
2563 build a Segway like balancing lego robot.  I had already built
2564 <a href="http://www.nxtprograms.com/NXT2/segway/">a simple balancing
2565 robot</a> with the kids, using the light/color sensor included in the
2566 NXT kit as the balance sensor, but it was not working very well.  It
2567 could balance for a while, but was very sensitive to the light
2568 condition in the room and the reflective properties of the surface and
2569 would fall over after a short while.  I wanted something more robust,
2570 and had
2571 <a href="https://www.hitechnic.com/cgi-bin/commerce.cgi?preadd=action&key=NGY1044">the
2572 gyro sensor from HiTechnic</a> I believed would solve it on my
2573 wishlist for some years before it suddenly showed up as a gift from my
2574 loved ones. :)</p>
2575
2576 <p>Unfortunately I have not had time to sit down and play with it
2577 since then.  But that changed some days ago, when I was searching for
2578 lego segway information and came across a recipe from HiTechnic for
2579 building
2580 <a href="http://www.hitechnic.com/blog/gyro-sensor/htway/">the
2581 HTWay</a>, a segway like balancing robot.  Build instructions and
2582 <a href="https://www.hitechnic.com/upload/786-HTWayC.nxc">source
2583 code</a> was included, so it was just a question of putting it all
2584 together.  And thanks to the great work of many Debian developers, the
2585 compiler needed to build the source for the NXT is already included in
2586 Debian, so I was read to go in less than an hour.  The resulting robot
2587 do not look very impressive in its simplicity:</p>
2588
2589 <p align="center"><img width="70%" src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2016-11-04-lego-htway-robot.jpeg"></p>
2590
2591 <p>Because I lack the infrared sensor used to control the robot in the
2592 design from HiTechnic, I had to comment out the last task
2593 (taskControl).  I simply placed /* and */ around it get the program
2594 working without that sensor present.  Now it balances just fine until
2595 the battery status run low:</p>
2596
2597 <p align="center"><video width="70%" controls="true">
2598    <source src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2016-11-04-lego-htway-balancing.ogv" type="video/ogg">
2599 </video></p>
2600
2601 <p>Now we would like to teach it how to follow a line and take remote
2602 control instructions using the included Bluetooth receiver in the NXT.</p>
2603
2604 <p>If you, like me, love LEGO and want to make sure we find the tools
2605 they need to work with LEGO in Debian and all our derivative
2606 distributions like Ubuntu, check out
2607 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/LegoDesigners">the LEGO designers
2608 project page</a> and join the Debian LEGO team.  Personally I own a
2609 RCX and NXT controller (no EV3), and would like to make sure the
2610 Debian tools needed to program the systems I own work as they
2611 should.</p>
2612
2613       </div>
2614       <div class="tags">
2615
2616
2617         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/lego">lego</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/robot">robot</a>.
2618
2619
2620       </div>
2621     </div>
2622     <div class="padding"></div>
2623
2624     <div class="entry">
2625       <div class="title">
2626         <a href="http://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>
2627       </div>
2628       <div class="date">
2629         10th October 2016
2630       </div>
2631       <div class="body">
2632         <p>In July
2633 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_use_the_Signal_app_if_you_only_have_a_land_line__ie_no_mobile_phone_.html">I
2634 wrote how to get the Signal Chrome/Chromium app working</a> without
2635 the ability to receive SMS messages (aka without a cell phone).  It is
2636 time to share some experiences and provide an updated setup.</p>
2637
2638 <p>The Signal app have worked fine for several months now, and I use
2639 it regularly to chat with my loved ones.  I had a major snag at the
2640 end of my summer vacation, when the the app completely forgot my
2641 setup, identity and keys.  The reason behind this major mess was
2642 running out of disk space.  To avoid that ever happening again I have
2643 started storing everything in <tt>userdata/</tt> in git, to be able to
2644 roll back to an earlier version if the files are wiped by mistake.  I
2645 had to use it once after introducing the git backup.  When rolling
2646 back to an earlier version, one need to use the 'reset session' option
2647 in Signal to get going, and notify the people you talk with about the
2648 problem.  I assume there is some sequence number tracking in the
2649 protocol to detect rollback attacks.  The git repository is rather big
2650 (674 MiB so far), but I have not tried to figure out if some of the
2651 content can be added to a .gitignore file due to lack of spare
2652 time.</p>
2653
2654 <p>I've also hit the 90 days timeout blocking, and noticed that this
2655 make it impossible to send messages using Signal.  I could still
2656 receive them, but had to patch the code with a new timestamp to send.
2657 I believe the timeout is added by the developers to force people to
2658 upgrade to the latest version of the app, even when there is no
2659 protocol changes, to reduce the version skew among the user base and
2660 thus try to keep the number of support requests down.</p>
2661
2662 <p>Since my original recipe, the Signal source code changed slightly,
2663 making the old patch fail to apply cleanly.  Below is an updated
2664 patch, including the shell wrapper I use to start Signal.  The
2665 original version required a new user to locate the JavaScript console
2666 and call a function from there.  I got help from a friend with more
2667 JavaScript knowledge than me to modify the code to provide a GUI
2668 button instead.  This mean that to get started you just need to run
2669 the wrapper and click the 'Register without mobile phone' to get going
2670 now.  I've also modified the timeout code to always set it to 90 days
2671 in the future, to avoid having to patch the code regularly.</p>
2672
2673 <p>So, the updated recipe for Debian Jessie:</p>
2674
2675 <ol>
2676
2677 <li>First, install required packages to get the source code and the
2678 browser you need.  Signal only work with Chrome/Chromium, as far as I
2679 know, so you need to install it.
2680
2681 <pre>
2682 apt install git tor chromium
2683 git clone https://github.com/WhisperSystems/Signal-Desktop.git
2684 </pre></li>
2685
2686 <li>Modify the source code using command listed in the the patch
2687 block below.</li>
2688
2689 <li>Start Signal using the run-signal-app wrapper (for example using
2690 <tt>`pwd`/run-signal-app</tt>).
2691
2692 <li>Click on the 'Register without mobile phone', will in a phone
2693 number you can receive calls to the next minute, receive the
2694 verification code and enter it into the form field and press
2695 'Register'.  Note, the phone number you use will be user Signal
2696 username, ie the way others can find you on Signal.</li>
2697
2698 <li>You can now use Signal to contact others.  Note, new contacts do
2699 not show up in the contact list until you restart Signal, and there is
2700 no way to assign names to Contacts.  There is also no way to create or
2701 update chat groups.  I suspect this is because the web app do not have
2702 a associated contact database.</li>
2703
2704 </ol>
2705
2706 <p>I am still a bit uneasy about using Signal, because of the way its
2707 main author moxie0 reject federation and accept dependencies to major
2708 corporations like Google (part of the code is fetched from Google) and
2709 Amazon (the central coordination point is owned by Amazon).  See for
2710 example
2711 <a href="https://github.com/LibreSignal/LibreSignal/issues/37">the
2712 LibreSignal issue tracker</a> for a thread documenting the authors
2713 view on these issues.  But the network effect is strong in this case,
2714 and several of the people I want to communicate with already use
2715 Signal.  Perhaps we can all move to <a href="https://ring.cx/">Ring</a>
2716 once it <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/830265">work on my
2717 laptop</a>?  It already work on Windows and Android, and is included
2718 in <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/ring">Debian</a> and
2719 <a href="https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/ring">Ubuntu</a>, but not
2720 working on Debian Stable.</p>
2721
2722 <p>Anyway, this is the patch I apply to the Signal code to get it
2723 working.  It switch to the production servers, disable to timeout,
2724 make registration easier and add the shell wrapper:</p>
2725
2726 <pre>
2727 cd Signal-Desktop; cat &lt;&lt;EOF | patch -p1
2728 diff --git a/js/background.js b/js/background.js
2729 index 24b4c1d..579345f 100644
2730 --- a/js/background.js
2731 +++ b/js/background.js
2732 @@ -33,9 +33,9 @@
2733          });
2734      });
2735
2736 -    var SERVER_URL = 'https://textsecure-service-staging.whispersystems.org';
2737 +    var SERVER_URL = 'https://textsecure-service-ca.whispersystems.org';
2738      var SERVER_PORTS = [80, 4433, 8443];
2739 -    var ATTACHMENT_SERVER_URL = 'https://whispersystems-textsecure-attachments-staging.s3.amazonaws.com';
2740 +    var ATTACHMENT_SERVER_URL = 'https://whispersystems-textsecure-attachments.s3.amazonaws.com';
2741      var messageReceiver;
2742      window.getSocketStatus = function() {
2743          if (messageReceiver) {
2744 diff --git a/js/expire.js b/js/expire.js
2745 index 639aeae..beb91c3 100644
2746 --- a/js/expire.js
2747 +++ b/js/expire.js
2748 @@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
2749  ;(function() {
2750      'use strict';
2751 -    var BUILD_EXPIRATION = 0;
2752 +    var BUILD_EXPIRATION = Date.now() + (90 * 24 * 60 * 60 * 1000);
2753
2754      window.extension = window.extension || {};
2755
2756 diff --git a/js/views/install_view.js b/js/views/install_view.js
2757 index 7816f4f..1d6233b 100644
2758 --- a/js/views/install_view.js
2759 +++ b/js/views/install_view.js
2760 @@ -38,7 +38,8 @@
2761              return {
2762                  'click .step1': this.selectStep.bind(this, 1),
2763                  'click .step2': this.selectStep.bind(this, 2),
2764 -                'click .step3': this.selectStep.bind(this, 3)
2765 +                'click .step3': this.selectStep.bind(this, 3),
2766 +                'click .callreg': function() { extension.install('standalone') },
2767              };
2768          },
2769          clearQR: function() {
2770 diff --git a/options.html b/options.html
2771 index dc0f28e..8d709f6 100644
2772 --- a/options.html
2773 +++ b/options.html
2774 @@ -14,7 +14,10 @@
2775          &lt;div class='nav'>
2776            &lt;h1>{{ installWelcome }}&lt;/h1>
2777            &lt;p>{{ installTagline }}&lt;/p>
2778 -          &lt;div> &lt;a class='button step2'>{{ installGetStartedButton }}&lt;/a> &lt;/div>
2779 +          &lt;div> &lt;a class='button step2'>{{ installGetStartedButton }}&lt;/a>
2780 +           &lt;br> &lt;a class="button callreg">Register without mobile phone&lt;/a>
2781 +
2782 +         &lt;/div>
2783            &lt;span class='dot step1 selected'>&lt;/span>
2784            &lt;span class='dot step2'>&lt;/span>
2785            &lt;span class='dot step3'>&lt;/span>
2786 --- /dev/null   2016-10-07 09:55:13.730181472 +0200
2787 +++ b/run-signal-app   2016-10-10 08:54:09.434172391 +0200
2788 @@ -0,0 +1,12 @@
2789 +#!/bin/sh
2790 +set -e
2791 +cd $(dirname $0)
2792 +mkdir -p userdata
2793 +userdata="`pwd`/userdata"
2794 +if [ -d "$userdata" ] && [ ! -d "$userdata/.git" ] ; then
2795 +    (cd $userdata && git init)
2796 +fi
2797 +(cd $userdata && git add . && git commit -m "Current status." || true)
2798 +exec chromium \
2799 +  --proxy-server="socks://localhost:9050" \
2800 +  --user-data-dir=$userdata --load-and-launch-app=`pwd`
2801 EOF
2802 chmod a+rx run-signal-app
2803 </pre>
2804
2805 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
2806 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
2807 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
2808
2809       </div>
2810       <div class="tags">
2811
2812
2813         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance</a>.
2814
2815
2816       </div>
2817     </div>
2818     <div class="padding"></div>
2819
2820     <div class="entry">
2821       <div class="title">
2822         <a href="http://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>
2823       </div>
2824       <div class="date">
2825          7th October 2016
2826       </div>
2827       <div class="body">
2828         <p><a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/isenkram">The Isenkram
2829 system</a> provide a practical and easy way to figure out which
2830 packages support the hardware in a given machine.  The command line
2831 tool <tt>isenkram-lookup</tt> and the tasksel options provide a
2832 convenient way to list and install packages relevant for the current
2833 hardware during system installation, both user space packages and
2834 firmware packages. The GUI background daemon on the other hand provide
2835 a pop-up proposing to install packages when a new dongle is inserted
2836 while using the computer.  For example, if you plug in a smart card
2837 reader, the system will ask if you want to install <tt>pcscd</tt> if
2838 that package isn't already installed, and if you plug in a USB video
2839 camera the system will ask if you want to install <tt>cheese</tt> if
2840 cheese is currently missing.  This already work just fine.</p>
2841
2842 <p>But Isenkram depend on a database mapping from hardware IDs to
2843 package names.  When I started no such database existed in Debian, so
2844 I made my own data set and included it with the isenkram package and
2845 made isenkram fetch the latest version of this database from git using
2846 http.  This way the isenkram users would get updated package proposals
2847 as soon as I learned more about hardware related packages.</p>
2848
2849 <p>The hardware is identified using modalias strings.  The modalias
2850 design is from the Linux kernel where most hardware descriptors are
2851 made available as a strings that can be matched using filename style
2852 globbing.  It handle USB, PCI, DMI and a lot of other hardware related
2853 identifiers.</p>
2854
2855 <p>The downside to the Isenkram specific database is that there is no
2856 information about relevant distribution / Debian version, making
2857 isenkram propose obsolete packages too.  But along came AppStream, a
2858 cross distribution mechanism to store and collect metadata about
2859 software packages.  When I heard about the proposal, I contacted the
2860 people involved and suggested to add a hardware matching rule using
2861 modalias strings in the specification, to be able to use AppStream for
2862 mapping hardware to packages.  This idea was accepted and AppStream is
2863 now a great way for a package to announce the hardware it support in a
2864 distribution neutral way.  I wrote
2865 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Using_appstream_with_isenkram_to_install_hardware_related_packages_in_Debian.html">a
2866 recipe on how to add such meta-information</a> in a blog post last
2867 December.  If you have a hardware related package in Debian, please
2868 announce the relevant hardware IDs using AppStream.</p>
2869
2870 <p>In Debian, almost all packages that can talk to a LEGO Mindestorms
2871 RCX or NXT unit, announce this support using AppStream.  The effect is
2872 that when you insert such LEGO robot controller into your Debian
2873 machine, Isenkram will propose to install the packages needed to get
2874 it working.  The intention is that this should allow the local user to
2875 start programming his robot controller right away without having to
2876 guess what packages to use or which permissions to fix.</p>
2877
2878 <p>But when I sat down with my son the other day to program our NXT
2879 unit using his Debian Stretch computer, I discovered something
2880 annoying.  The local console user (ie my son) did not get access to
2881 the USB device for programming the unit.  This used to work, but no
2882 longer in Jessie and Stretch.  After some investigation and asking
2883 around on #debian-devel, I discovered that this was because udev had
2884 changed the mechanism used to grant access to local devices.  The
2885 ConsoleKit mechanism from <tt>/lib/udev/rules.d/70-udev-acl.rules</tt>
2886 no longer applied, because LDAP users no longer was added to the
2887 plugdev group during login.  Michael Biebl told me that this method
2888 was obsolete and the new method used ACLs instead.  This was good
2889 news, as the plugdev mechanism is a mess when using a remote user
2890 directory like LDAP.  Using ACLs would make sure a user lost device
2891 access when she logged out, even if the user left behind a background
2892 process which would retain the plugdev membership with the ConsoleKit
2893 setup.  Armed with this knowledge I moved on to fix the access problem
2894 for the LEGO Mindstorms related packages.</p>
2895
2896 <p>The new system uses a udev tag, 'uaccess'.  It can either be
2897 applied directly for a device, or is applied in
2898 /lib/udev/rules.d/70-uaccess.rules for classes of devices.  As the
2899 LEGO Mindstorms udev rules did not have a class, I decided to add the
2900 tag directly in the udev rules files included in the packages.  Here
2901 is one example.  For the nqc C compiler for the RCX, the
2902 <tt>/lib/udev/rules.d/60-nqc.rules</tt> file now look like this:
2903
2904 <p><pre>
2905 SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ACTION=="add", ATTR{idVendor}=="0694", ATTR{idProduct}=="0001", \
2906     SYMLINK+="rcx-%k", TAG+="uaccess"
2907 </pre></p>
2908
2909 <p>The key part is the 'TAG+="uaccess"' at the end.  I suspect all
2910 packages using plugdev in their /lib/udev/rules.d/ files should be
2911 changed to use this tag (either directly or indirectly via
2912 <tt>70-uaccess.rules</tt>).  Perhaps a lintian check should be created
2913 to detect this?</p>
2914
2915 <p>I've been unable to find good documentation on the uaccess feature.
2916 It is unclear to me if the uaccess tag is an internal implementation
2917 detail like the udev-acl tag used by
2918 <tt>/lib/udev/rules.d/70-udev-acl.rules</tt>.  If it is, I guess the
2919 indirect method is the preferred way.  Michael
2920 <a href="https://github.com/systemd/systemd/issues/4288">asked for more
2921 documentation from the systemd project</a> and I hope it will make
2922 this clearer.  For now I use the generic classes when they exist and
2923 is already handled by <tt>70-uaccess.rules</tt>, and add the tag
2924 directly if no such class exist.</p>
2925
2926 <p>To learn more about the isenkram system, please check out
2927 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram/">my
2928 blog posts tagged isenkram</a>.</p>
2929
2930 <p>To help out making life for LEGO constructors in Debian easier,
2931 please join us on our IRC channel
2932 <a href="irc://irc.debian.org/%23debian-lego">#debian-lego</a> and join
2933 the <a href="https://alioth.debian.org/projects/debian-lego/">Debian
2934 LEGO team</a> in the Alioth project we created yesterday.  A mailing
2935 list is not yet created, but we are working on it. :)</p>
2936
2937 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
2938 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
2939 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
2940
2941       </div>
2942       <div class="tags">
2943
2944
2945         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram">isenkram</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/lego">lego</a>.
2946
2947
2948       </div>
2949     </div>
2950     <div class="padding"></div>
2951
2952     <div class="entry">
2953       <div class="title">
2954         <a href="http://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>
2955       </div>
2956       <div class="date">
2957         30th August 2016
2958       </div>
2959       <div class="body">
2960         <p>In April we
2961 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lets_make_a_Norwegian_Bokm_l_edition_of_The_Debian_Administrator_s_Handbook.html">started
2962 to work</a> on a Norwegian Bokmål edition of the "open access" book on
2963 how to set up and administrate a Debian system.  Today I am happy to
2964 report that the first draft is now publicly available.  You can find
2965 it on <a href="https://debian-handbook.info/get/">get the Debian
2966 Administrator's Handbook page</a> (under Other languages).  The first
2967 eight chapters have a first draft translation, and we are working on
2968 proofreading the content.  If you want to help out, please start
2969 contributing using
2970 <a href="https://hosted.weblate.org/projects/debian-handbook/">the
2971 hosted weblate project page</a>, and get in touch using
2972 <a href="http://lists.alioth.debian.org/mailman/listinfo/debian-handbook-translators">the
2973 translators mailing list</a>.  Please also check out
2974 <a href="https://debian-handbook.info/contribute/">the instructions for
2975 contributors</a>.  A good way to contribute is to proofread the text
2976 and update weblate if you find errors.</p>
2977
2978 <p>Our goal is still to make the Norwegian book available on paper as well as
2979 electronic form.</p>
2980
2981       </div>
2982       <div class="tags">
2983
2984
2985         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian-handbook">debian-handbook</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
2986
2987
2988       </div>
2989     </div>
2990     <div class="padding"></div>
2991
2992     <div class="entry">
2993       <div class="title">
2994         <a href="http://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>
2995       </div>
2996       <div class="date">
2997         11th August 2016
2998       </div>
2999       <div class="body">
3000         <p>This summer, I read a great article
3001 "<a href="https://www.usenix.org/publications/login/summer2016/curtsinger">coz:
3002 This Is the Profiler You're Looking For</a>" in USENIX ;login: about
3003 how to profile multi-threaded programs.  It presented a system for
3004 profiling software by running experiences in the running program,
3005 testing how run time performance is affected by "speeding up" parts of
3006 the code to various degrees compared to a normal run.  It does this by
3007 slowing down parallel threads while the "faster up" code is running
3008 and measure how this affect processing time.  The processing time is
3009 measured using probes inserted into the code, either using progress
3010 counters (COZ_PROGRESS) or as latency meters (COZ_BEGIN/COZ_END).  It
3011 can also measure unmodified code by measuring complete the program
3012 runtime and running the program several times instead.</p>
3013
3014 <p>The project and presentation was so inspiring that I would like to
3015 get the system into Debian.  I
3016 <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=830708">created
3017 a WNPP request for it</a> and contacted upstream to try to make the
3018 system ready for Debian by sending patches.  The build process need to
3019 be changed a bit to avoid running 'git clone' to get dependencies, and
3020 to include the JavaScript web page used to visualize the collected
3021 profiling information included in the source package.
3022 But I expect that should work out fairly soon.</p>
3023
3024 <p>The way the system work is fairly simple.  To run an coz experiment
3025 on a binary with debug symbols available, start the program like this:
3026
3027 <p><blockquote><pre>
3028 coz run --- program-to-run
3029 </pre></blockquote></p>
3030
3031 <p>This will create a text file profile.coz with the instrumentation
3032 information.  To show what part of the code affect the performance
3033 most, use a web browser and either point it to
3034 <a href="http://plasma-umass.github.io/coz/">http://plasma-umass.github.io/coz/</a>
3035 or use the copy from git (in the gh-pages branch).  Check out this web
3036 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
3037 profiling more useful you include &lt;coz.h&gt; and insert the
3038 COZ_PROGRESS or COZ_BEGIN and COZ_END at appropriate places in the
3039 code, rebuild and run the profiler.  This allow coz to do more
3040 targeted experiments.</p>
3041
3042 <p>A video published by ACM
3043 <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jE0V-p1odPg">presenting the
3044 Coz profiler</a> is available from Youtube.  There is also a paper
3045 from the 25th Symposium on Operating Systems Principles available
3046 titled
3047 <a href="https://www.usenix.org/conference/atc16/technical-sessions/presentation/curtsinger">Coz:
3048 finding code that counts with causal profiling</a>.</p>
3049
3050 <p><a href="https://github.com/plasma-umass/coz">The source code</a>
3051 for Coz is available from github.  It will only build with clang
3052 because it uses a
3053 <a href="https://gcc.gnu.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=55606">C++
3054 feature missing in GCC</a>, but I've submitted
3055 <a href="https://github.com/plasma-umass/coz/pull/67">a patch to solve
3056 it</a> and hope it will be included in the upstream source soon.</p>
3057
3058 <p>Please get in touch if you, like me, would like to see this piece
3059 of software in Debian.  I would very much like some help with the
3060 packaging effort, as I lack the in depth knowledge on how to package
3061 C++ libraries.</p>
3062
3063       </div>
3064       <div class="tags">
3065
3066
3067         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nice free software">nice free software</a>.
3068
3069
3070       </div>
3071     </div>
3072     <div class="padding"></div>
3073
3074     <div class="entry">
3075       <div class="title">
3076         <a href="http://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>
3077       </div>
3078       <div class="date">
3079          7th July 2016
3080       </div>
3081       <div class="body">
3082         <p>Yesterday, I tried to unlock a HTC Desire HD phone, and it proved
3083 to be a slight challenge.  Here is the recipe if I ever need to do it
3084 again.  It all started by me wanting to try the recipe to set up
3085 <a href="https://blog.torproject.org/blog/mission-impossible-hardening-android-security-and-privacy">an
3086 hardened Android installation</a> from the Tor project blog on a
3087 device I had access to.  It is a old mobile phone with a broken
3088 microphone The initial idea had been to just
3089 <a href="http://wiki.cyanogenmod.org/w/Install_CM_for_ace">install
3090 CyanogenMod on it</a>, but did not quite find time to start on it
3091 until a few days ago.</p>
3092
3093 <p>The unlock process is supposed to be simple: (1) Boot into the boot
3094 loader (press volume down and power at the same time), (2) select
3095 'fastboot' before (3) connecting the device via USB to a Linux
3096 machine, (4) request the device identifier token by running 'fastboot
3097 oem get_identifier_token', (5) request the device unlocking key using
3098 the <a href="http://www.htcdev.com/bootloader/">HTC developer web
3099 site</a> and unlock the phone using the key file emailed to you.</p>
3100
3101 <p>Unfortunately, this only work fi you have hboot version 2.00.0029
3102 or newer, and the device I was working on had 2.00.0027.  This
3103 apparently can be easily fixed by downloading a Windows program and
3104 running it on your Windows machine, if you accept the terms Microsoft
3105 require you to accept to use Windows - which I do not.  So I had to
3106 come up with a different approach.  I got a lot of help from AndyCap
3107 on #nuug, and would not have been able to get this working without
3108 him.</p>
3109
3110 <p>First I needed to extract the hboot firmware from
3111 <a href="http://www.htcdev.com/ruu/PD9810000_Ace_Sense30_S_hboot_2.00.0029.exe">the
3112 windows binary for HTC Desire HD</a> downloaded as 'the RUU' from HTC.
3113 For this there is is <a href="https://github.com/kmdm/unruu/">a github
3114 project named unruu</a> using libunshield.  The unshield tool did not
3115 recognise the file format, but unruu worked and extracted rom.zip,
3116 containing the new hboot firmware and a text file describing which
3117 devices it would work for.</p>
3118
3119 <p>Next, I needed to get the new firmware into the device.  For this I
3120 followed some instructions
3121 <a href="http://www.htc1guru.com/2013/09/new-ruu-zips-posted/">available
3122 from HTC1Guru.com</a>, and ran these commands as root on a Linux
3123 machine with Debian testing:</p>
3124
3125 <p><pre>
3126 adb reboot-bootloader
3127 fastboot oem rebootRUU
3128 fastboot flash zip rom.zip
3129 fastboot flash zip rom.zip
3130 fastboot reboot
3131 </pre></p>
3132
3133 <p>The flash command apparently need to be done twice to take effect,
3134 as the first is just preparations and the second one do the flashing.
3135 The adb command is just to get to the boot loader menu, so turning the
3136 device on while holding volume down and the power button should work
3137 too.</p>
3138
3139 <p>With the new hboot version in place I could start following the
3140 instructions on the HTC developer web site.  I got the device token
3141 like this:</p>
3142
3143 <p><pre>
3144 fastboot oem get_identifier_token 2>&1 | sed 's/(bootloader) //'
3145 </pre>
3146
3147 <p>And once I got the unlock code via email, I could use it like
3148 this:</p>
3149
3150 <p><pre>
3151 fastboot flash unlocktoken Unlock_code.bin
3152 </pre></p>
3153
3154 <p>And with that final step in place, the phone was unlocked and I
3155 could start stuffing the software of my own choosing into the device.
3156 So far I only inserted a replacement recovery image to wipe the phone
3157 before I start.  We will see what happen next.  Perhaps I should
3158 install <a href="https://www.debian.org/">Debian</a> on it. :)</p>
3159
3160       </div>
3161       <div class="tags">
3162
3163
3164         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bootsystem">bootsystem</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/opphavsrett">opphavsrett</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>.
3165
3166
3167       </div>
3168     </div>
3169     <div class="padding"></div>
3170
3171     <div class="entry">
3172       <div class="title">
3173         <a href="http://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>
3174       </div>
3175       <div class="date">
3176          3rd July 2016
3177       </div>
3178       <div class="body">
3179         <p>For a while now, I have wanted to test
3180 <a href="https://whispersystems.org/">the Signal app</a>, as it is
3181 said to provide end to end encrypted communication and several of my
3182 friends and family are already using it.  As I by choice do not own a
3183 mobile phone, this proved to be harder than expected.  And I wanted to
3184 have the source of the client and know that it was the code used on my
3185 machine.  But yesterday I managed to get it working.  I used the
3186 Github source, compared it to the source in
3187 <a href="https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/signal-private-messenger/bikioccmkafdpakkkcpdbppfkghcmihk?hl=en-US">the
3188 Signal Chrome app</a> available from the Chrome web store, applied
3189 patches to use the production Signal servers, started the app and
3190 asked for the hidden "register without a smart phone" form.  Here is
3191 the recipe how I did it.</p>
3192
3193 <p>First, I fetched the Signal desktop source from Github, using
3194
3195 <pre>
3196 git clone https://github.com/WhisperSystems/Signal-Desktop.git
3197 </pre>
3198
3199 <p>Next, I patched the source to use the production servers, to be
3200 able to talk to other Signal users:</p>
3201
3202 <pre>
3203 cat &lt;&lt;EOF | patch -p0
3204 diff -ur ./js/background.js userdata/Default/Extensions/bikioccmkafdpakkkcpdbppfkghcmihk/0.15.0_0/js/background.js
3205 --- ./js/background.js  2016-06-29 13:43:15.630344628 +0200
3206 +++ userdata/Default/Extensions/bikioccmkafdpakkkcpdbppfkghcmihk/0.15.0_0/js/background.js    2016-06-29 14:06:29.530300934 +0200
3207 @@ -47,8 +47,8 @@
3208          });
3209      });
3210
3211 -    var SERVER_URL = 'https://textsecure-service-staging.whispersystems.org';
3212 -    var ATTACHMENT_SERVER_URL = 'https://whispersystems-textsecure-attachments-staging.s3.amazonaws.com';
3213 +    var SERVER_URL = 'https://textsecure-service-ca.whispersystems.org:4433';
3214 +    var ATTACHMENT_SERVER_URL = 'https://whispersystems-textsecure-attachments.s3.amazonaws.com';
3215      var messageReceiver;
3216      window.getSocketStatus = function() {
3217          if (messageReceiver) {
3218 diff -ur ./js/expire.js userdata/Default/Extensions/bikioccmkafdpakkkcpdbppfkghcmihk/0.15.0_0/js/expire.js
3219 --- ./js/expire.js      2016-06-29 13:43:15.630344628 +0200
3220 +++ userdata/Default/Extensions/bikioccmkafdpakkkcpdbppfkghcmihk/0.15.0_0/js/expire.js2016-06-29 14:06:29.530300934 +0200
3221 @@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
3222  ;(function() {
3223      'use strict';
3224 -    var BUILD_EXPIRATION = 0;
3225 +    var BUILD_EXPIRATION = 1474492690000;
3226
3227      window.extension = window.extension || {};
3228
3229 EOF
3230 </pre>
3231
3232 <p>The first part is changing the servers, and the second is updating
3233 an expiration timestamp.  This timestamp need to be updated regularly.
3234 It is set 90 days in the future by the build process (Gruntfile.js).
3235 The value is seconds since 1970 times 1000, as far as I can tell.</p>
3236
3237 <p>Based on a tip and good help from the #nuug IRC channel, I wrote a
3238 script to launch Signal in Chromium.</p>
3239
3240 <pre>
3241 #!/bin/sh
3242 cd $(dirname $0)
3243 mkdir -p userdata
3244 exec chromium \
3245   --proxy-server="socks://localhost:9050" \
3246   --user-data-dir=`pwd`/userdata --load-and-launch-app=`pwd`
3247 </pre>
3248
3249 <p> The script start the app and configure Chromium to use the Tor
3250 SOCKS5 proxy to make sure those controlling the Signal servers (today
3251 Amazon and Whisper Systems) as well as those listening on the lines
3252 will have a harder time location my laptop based on the Signal
3253 connections if they use source IP address.</p>
3254
3255 <p>When the script starts, one need to follow the instructions under
3256 "Standalone Registration" in the CONTRIBUTING.md file in the git
3257 repository.  I right clicked on the Signal window to get up the
3258 Chromium debugging tool, visited the 'Console' tab and wrote
3259 'extension.install("standalone")' on the console prompt to get the
3260 registration form.  Then I entered by land line phone number and
3261 pressed 'Call'.  5 seconds later the phone rang and a robot voice
3262 repeated the verification code three times.  After entering the number
3263 into the verification code field in the form, I could start using
3264 Signal from my laptop.
3265
3266 <p>As far as I can tell, The Signal app will leak who is talking to
3267 whom and thus who know who to those controlling the central server,
3268 but such leakage is hard to avoid with a centrally controlled server
3269 setup.  It is something to keep in mind when using Signal - the
3270 content of your chats are harder to intercept, but the meta data
3271 exposing your contact network is available to people you do not know.
3272 So better than many options, but not great.  And sadly the usage is
3273 connected to my land line, thus allowing those controlling the server
3274 to associate it to my home and person.  I would prefer it if only
3275 those I knew could tell who I was on Signal.  There are options
3276 avoiding such information leakage, but most of my friends are not
3277 using them, so I am stuck with Signal for now.</p>
3278
3279 <p><strong>Update 2017-01-10</strong>: There is an updated blog post
3280 on this topic in
3281 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Experience_and_updated_recipe_for_using_the_Signal_app_without_a_mobile_phone.html">Experience
3282 and updated recipe for using the Signal app without a mobile
3283 phone</a>.</p>
3284
3285       </div>
3286       <div class="tags">
3287
3288
3289         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance</a>.
3290
3291
3292       </div>
3293     </div>
3294     <div class="padding"></div>
3295
3296     <div class="entry">
3297       <div class="title">
3298         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_new__best__multimedia_player_in_Debian_.html">The new "best" multimedia player in Debian?</a>
3299       </div>
3300       <div class="date">
3301          6th June 2016
3302       </div>
3303       <div class="body">
3304         <p>When I set out a few weeks ago to figure out
3305 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/What_is_the_best_multimedia_player_in_Debian_.html">which
3306 multimedia player in Debian claimed to support most file formats /
3307 MIME types</a>, I was a bit surprised how varied the sets of MIME types
3308 the various players claimed support for.  The range was from 55 to 130
3309 MIME types.  I suspect most media formats are supported by all
3310 players, but this is not really reflected in the MimeTypes values in
3311 their desktop files.  There are probably also some bogus MIME types
3312 listed, but it is hard to identify which one this is.</p>
3313
3314 <p>Anyway, in the mean time I got in touch with upstream for some of
3315 the players suggesting to add more MIME types to their desktop files,
3316 and decided to spend some time myself improving the situation for my
3317 favorite media player VLC.  The fixes for VLC entered Debian unstable
3318 yesterday. The complete list of MIME types can be seen on the
3319 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DebianMultimedia/PlayerSupport">Multimedia
3320 player MIME type support status</a> Debian wiki page.</p>
3321
3322 <p>The new "best" multimedia player in Debian?  It is VLC, followed by
3323 totem, parole, kplayer, gnome-mpv, mpv, smplayer, mplayer-gui and
3324 kmplayer.  I am sure some of the other players desktop files support
3325 several of the formats currently listed as working only with vlc,
3326 toten and parole.</p>
3327
3328 <p>A sad observation is that only 14 MIME types are listed as
3329 supported by all the tested multimedia players in Debian in their
3330 desktop files: audio/mpeg, audio/vnd.rn-realaudio, audio/x-mpegurl,
3331 audio/x-ms-wma, audio/x-scpls, audio/x-wav, video/mp4, video/mpeg,
3332 video/quicktime, video/vnd.rn-realvideo, video/x-matroska,
3333 video/x-ms-asf, video/x-ms-wmv and video/x-msvideo.  Personally I find
3334 it sad that video/ogg and video/webm is not supported by all the media
3335 players in Debian.  As far as I can tell, all of them can handle both
3336 formats.</p>
3337
3338       </div>
3339       <div class="tags">
3340
3341
3342         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/multimedia">multimedia</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/video">video</a>.
3343
3344
3345       </div>
3346     </div>
3347     <div class="padding"></div>
3348
3349     <div class="entry">
3350       <div class="title">
3351         <a href="http://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>
3352       </div>
3353       <div class="date">
3354          5th June 2016
3355       </div>
3356       <div class="body">
3357         <p>Many years ago, when koffice was fresh and with few users, I
3358 decided to test its presentation tool when making the slides for a
3359 talk I was giving for NUUG on Japhar, a free Java virtual machine.  I
3360 wrote the first draft of the slides, saved the result and went to bed
3361 the day before I would give the talk.  The next day I took a plane to
3362 the location where the meeting should take place, and on the plane I
3363 started up koffice again to polish the talk a bit, only to discover
3364 that kpresenter refused to load its own data file.  I cursed a bit and
3365 started making the slides again from memory, to have something to
3366 present when I arrived.  I tested that the saved files could be
3367 loaded, and the day seemed to be rescued.  I continued to polish the
3368 slides until I suddenly discovered that the saved file could no longer
3369 be loaded into kpresenter.  In the end I had to rewrite the slides
3370 three times, condensing the content until the talk became shorter and
3371 shorter.  After the talk I was able to pinpoint the problem &ndash;
3372 kpresenter wrote inline images in a way itself could not understand.
3373 Eventually that bug was fixed and kpresenter ended up being a great
3374 program to make slides.  The point I'm trying to make is that we
3375 expect a program to be able to load its own data files, and it is
3376 embarrassing to its developers if it can't.</p>
3377
3378 <p>Did you ever experience a program failing to load its own data
3379 files from the desktop file browser?  It is not a uncommon problem.  A
3380 while back I discovered that the screencast recorder
3381 gtk-recordmydesktop would save an Ogg Theora video file the KDE file
3382 browser would refuse to open.  No video player claimed to understand
3383 such file.  I tracked down the cause being <tt>file --mime-type</tt>
3384 returning the application/ogg MIME type, which no video player I had
3385 installed listed as a MIME type they would understand.  I asked for
3386 <a href="http://bugs.gw.com/view.php?id=382">file to change its
3387 behavour</a> and use the MIME type video/ogg instead.  I also asked
3388 several video players to add video/ogg to their desktop files, to give
3389 the file browser an idea what to do about Ogg Theora files.  After a
3390 while, the desktop file browsers in Debian started to handle the
3391 output from gtk-recordmydesktop properly.</p>
3392
3393 <p>But history repeats itself.  A few days ago I tested the music
3394 system Rosegarden again, and I discovered that the KDE and xfce file
3395 browsers did not know what to do with the Rosegarden project files
3396 (*.rg).  I've reported <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/825993">the
3397 rosegarden problem to BTS</a> and a fix is commited to git and will be
3398 included in the next upload.  To increase the chance of me remembering
3399 how to fix the problem next time some program fail to load its files
3400 from the file browser, here are some notes on how to fix it.</p>
3401
3402 <p>The file browsers in Debian in general operates on MIME types.
3403 There are two sources for the MIME type of a given file.  The output from
3404 <tt>file --mime-type</tt> mentioned above, and the content of the
3405 shared MIME type registry (under /usr/share/mime/).  The file MIME
3406 type is mapped to programs supporting the MIME type, and this
3407 information is collected from
3408 <a href="https://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Specifications/desktop-entry-spec/">the
3409 desktop files</a> available in /usr/share/applications/.  If there is
3410 one desktop file claiming support for the MIME type of the file, it is
3411 activated when asking to open a given file.  If there are more, one
3412 can normally select which one to use by right-clicking on the file and
3413 selecting the wanted one using 'Open with' or similar.  In general
3414 this work well.  But it depend on each program picking a good MIME
3415 type (preferably
3416 <a href="http://www.iana.org/assignments/media-types/media-types.xhtml">a
3417 MIME type registered with IANA</a>), file and/or the shared MIME
3418 registry recognizing the file and the desktop file to list the MIME
3419 type in its list of supported MIME types.</p>
3420
3421 <p>The <tt>/usr/share/mime/packages/rosegarden.xml</tt> entry for
3422 <a href="http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Specifications/shared-mime-info-spec">the
3423 Shared MIME database</a> look like this:</p>
3424
3425 <p><blockquote><pre>
3426 &lt;?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?&gt;
3427 &lt;mime-info xmlns="http://www.freedesktop.org/standards/shared-mime-info"&gt;
3428   &lt;mime-type type="audio/x-rosegarden"&gt;
3429     &lt;sub-class-of type="application/x-gzip"/&gt;
3430     &lt;comment&gt;Rosegarden project file&lt;/comment&gt;
3431     &lt;glob pattern="*.rg"/&gt;
3432   &lt;/mime-type&gt;
3433 &lt;/mime-info&gt;
3434 </pre></blockquote></p>
3435
3436 <p>This states that audio/x-rosegarden is a kind of application/x-gzip
3437 (it is a gzipped XML file).  Note, it is much better to use an
3438 official MIME type registered with IANA than it is to make up ones own
3439 unofficial ones like the x-rosegarden type used by rosegarden.</p>
3440
3441 <p>The desktop file of the rosegarden program failed to list
3442 audio/x-rosegarden in its list of supported MIME types, causing the
3443 file browsers to have no idea what to do with *.rg files:</p>
3444
3445 <p><blockquote><pre>
3446 % grep Mime /usr/share/applications/rosegarden.desktop
3447 MimeType=audio/x-rosegarden-composition;audio/x-rosegarden-device;audio/x-rosegarden-project;audio/x-rosegarden-template;audio/midi;
3448 X-KDE-NativeMimeType=audio/x-rosegarden-composition
3449 %
3450 </pre></blockquote></p>
3451
3452 <p>The fix was to add "audio/x-rosegarden;" at the end of the
3453 MimeType= line.</p>
3454
3455 <p>If you run into a file which fail to open the correct program when
3456 selected from the file browser, please check out the output from
3457 <tt>file --mime-type</tt> for the file, ensure the file ending and
3458 MIME type is registered somewhere under /usr/share/mime/ and check
3459 that some desktop file under /usr/share/applications/ is claiming
3460 support for this MIME type.  If not, please report a bug to have it
3461 fixed. :)</p>
3462
3463       </div>
3464       <div class="tags">
3465
3466
3467         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
3468
3469
3470       </div>
3471     </div>
3472     <div class="padding"></div>
3473
3474     <div class="entry">
3475       <div class="title">
3476         <a href="http://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>
3477       </div>
3478       <div class="date">
3479         25th May 2016
3480       </div>
3481       <div class="body">
3482         <p><a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/isenkram">The isenkram
3483 system</a> is a user-focused solution in Debian for handling hardware
3484 related packages.  The idea is to have a database of mappings between
3485 hardware and packages, and pop up a dialog suggesting for the user to
3486 install the packages to use a given hardware dongle.  Some use cases
3487 are when you insert a Yubikey, it proposes to install the software
3488 needed to control it; when you insert a braille reader list it
3489 proposes to install the packages needed to send text to the reader;
3490 and when you insert a ColorHug screen calibrator it suggests to
3491 install the driver for it.  The system work well, and even have a few
3492 command line tools to install firmware packages and packages for the
3493 hardware already in the machine (as opposed to hotpluggable hardware).</p>
3494
3495 <p>The system was initially written using aptdaemon, because I found
3496 good documentation and example code on how to use it.  But aptdaemon
3497 is going away and is generally being replaced by
3498 <a href="http://www.freedesktop.org/software/PackageKit/">PackageKit</a>,
3499 so Isenkram needed a rewrite.  And today, thanks to the great patch
3500 from my college Sunil Mohan Adapa in the FreedomBox project, the
3501 rewrite finally took place.  I've just uploaded a new version of
3502 Isenkram into Debian Unstable with the patch included, and the default
3503 for the background daemon is now to use PackageKit.  To check it out,
3504 install the <tt>isenkram</tt> package and insert some hardware dongle
3505 and see if it is recognised.</p>
3506
3507 <p>If you want to know what kind of packages isenkram would propose for
3508 the machine it is running on, you can check out the isenkram-lookup
3509 program.  This is what it look like on a Thinkpad X230:</p>
3510
3511 <p><blockquote><pre>
3512 % isenkram-lookup
3513 bluez
3514 cheese
3515 fprintd
3516 fprintd-demo
3517 gkrellm-thinkbat
3518 hdapsd
3519 libpam-fprintd
3520 pidgin-blinklight
3521 thinkfan
3522 tleds
3523 tp-smapi-dkms
3524 tp-smapi-source
3525 tpb
3526 %p
3527 </pre></blockquote></p>
3528
3529 <p>The hardware mappings come from several places.  The preferred way
3530 is for packages to announce their hardware support using
3531 <a href="https://www.freedesktop.org/software/appstream/docs/">the
3532 cross distribution appstream system</a>.
3533 See
3534 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram/">previous
3535 blog posts about isenkram</a> to learn how to do that.</p>
3536
3537       </div>
3538       <div class="tags">
3539
3540
3541         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram">isenkram</a>.
3542
3543
3544       </div>
3545     </div>
3546     <div class="padding"></div>
3547
3548     <div class="entry">
3549       <div class="title">
3550         <a href="http://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>
3551       </div>
3552       <div class="date">
3553         23rd May 2016
3554       </div>
3555       <div class="body">
3556         <p>Yesterday I updated the
3557 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/battery-stats">battery-stats
3558 package in Debian</a> with a few patches sent to me by skilled and
3559 enterprising users.  There were some nice user and visible changes.
3560 First of all, both desktop menu entries now work.  A design flaw in
3561 one of the script made the history graph fail to show up (its PNG was
3562 dumped in ~/.xsession-errors) if no controlling TTY was available.
3563 The script worked when called from the command line, but not when
3564 called from the desktop menu.  I changed this to look for a DISPLAY
3565 variable or a TTY before deciding where to draw the graph, and now the
3566 graph window pop up as expected.</p>
3567
3568 <p>The next new feature is a discharge rate estimator in one of the
3569 graphs (the one showing the last few hours).  New is also the user of
3570 colours showing charging in blue and discharge in red.  The percentages
3571 of this graph is relative to last full charge, not battery design
3572 capacity.</p>
3573
3574 <p align="center"><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2016-05-23-battery-stats-rate.png"/></p>
3575
3576 <p>The other graph show the entire history of the collected battery
3577 statistics, comparing it to the design capacity of the battery to
3578 visualise how the battery life time get shorter over time.  The red
3579 line in this graph is what the previous graph considers 100 percent:
3580
3581 <p align="center"><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2016-05-23-battery-stats-history.png"/></p>
3582
3583 <p>In this graph you can see that I only charge the battery to 80
3584 percent of last full capacity, and how the capacity of the battery is
3585 shrinking. :(</p>
3586
3587 <p>The last new feature is in the collector, which now will handle
3588 more hardware models.  On some hardware, Linux power supply
3589 information is stored in /sys/class/power_supply/ACAD/, while the
3590 collector previously only looked in /sys/class/power_supply/AC/.  Now
3591 both are checked to figure if there is power connected to the
3592 machine.</p>
3593
3594 <p>If you are interested in how your laptop battery is doing, please
3595 check out the
3596 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/battery-stats">battery-stats</a>
3597 in Debian unstable, or rebuild it on Jessie to get it working on
3598 Debian stable. :) The upstream source is available from <a
3599 href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/battery-stats">github</a>.
3600 Patches are very welcome.</p>
3601
3602 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
3603 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
3604 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
3605
3606       </div>
3607       <div class="tags">
3608
3609
3610         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
3611
3612
3613       </div>
3614     </div>
3615     <div class="padding"></div>
3616
3617     <div class="entry">
3618       <div class="title">
3619         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_now_with_ZFS_on_Linux_included.html">Debian now with ZFS on Linux included</a>
3620       </div>
3621       <div class="date">
3622         12th May 2016
3623       </div>
3624       <div class="body">
3625         <p>Today, after many years of hard work from many people,
3626 <a href="http://zfsonlinux.org/">ZFS for Linux</a> finally entered
3627 Debian.  The package status can be seen on
3628 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/zfs-linux">the package tracker
3629 for zfs-linux</a>.  and
3630 <a href="https://qa.debian.org/developer.php?login=pkg-zfsonlinux-devel@lists.alioth.debian.org">the
3631 team status page</a>. If you want to help out, please join us.
3632 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/gitweb/?p=pkg-zfsonlinux/zfs.git">The
3633 source code</a> is available via git on Alioth.  It would also be
3634 great if you could help out with
3635 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/dkms">the dkms package</a>, as
3636 it is an important piece of the puzzle to get ZFS working.</p>
3637
3638       </div>
3639       <div class="tags">
3640
3641
3642         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
3643
3644
3645       </div>
3646     </div>
3647     <div class="padding"></div>
3648
3649     <div class="entry">
3650       <div class="title">
3651         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/What_is_the_best_multimedia_player_in_Debian_.html">What is the best multimedia player in Debian?</a>
3652       </div>
3653       <div class="date">
3654          8th May 2016
3655       </div>
3656       <div class="body">
3657         <p><strong>Where I set out to figure out which multimedia player in
3658 Debian claim support for most file formats.</strong></p>
3659
3660 <p>A few years ago, I had a look at the media support for Browser
3661 plugins in Debian, to get an idea which plugins to include in Debian
3662 Edu.  I created a script to extract the set of supported MIME types
3663 for each plugin, and used this to find out which multimedia browser
3664 plugin supported most file formats / media types.
3665 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/BrowserMultimedia">The
3666 result</a> can still be seen on the Debian wiki, even though it have
3667 not been updated for a while.  But browser plugins are less relevant
3668 these days, so I thought it was time to look at standalone
3669 players.</p>
3670
3671 <p>A few days ago I was tired of VLC not being listed as a viable
3672 player when I wanted to play videos from the Norwegian National
3673 Broadcasting Company, and decided to investigate why.  The cause is a
3674 <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/822245">missing MIME type in the VLC
3675 desktop file</a>.  In the process I wrote a script to compare the set
3676 of MIME types announced in the desktop file and the browser plugin,
3677 only to discover that there is quite a large difference between the
3678 two for VLC.  This discovery made me dig up the script I used to
3679 compare browser plugins, and adjust it to compare desktop files
3680 instead, to try to figure out which multimedia player in Debian
3681 support most file formats.</p>
3682
3683 <p>The result can be seen on the Debian Wiki, as
3684 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DebianMultimedia/PlayerSupport">a
3685 table listing all MIME types supported by one of the packages included
3686 in the table</a>, with the package supporting most MIME types being
3687 listed first in the table.</p>
3688
3689 </p>The best multimedia player in Debian?  It is totem, followed by
3690 parole, kplayer, mpv, vlc, smplayer mplayer-gui gnome-mpv and
3691 kmplayer.  Time for the other players to update their announced MIME
3692 support?</p>
3693
3694       </div>
3695       <div class="tags">
3696
3697
3698         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/multimedia">multimedia</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/video">video</a>.
3699
3700
3701       </div>
3702     </div>
3703     <div class="padding"></div>
3704
3705     <div class="entry">
3706       <div class="title">
3707         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_Pyra___handheld_computer_with_Debian_preinstalled.html">The Pyra - handheld computer with Debian preinstalled</a>
3708       </div>
3709       <div class="date">
3710          4th May 2016
3711       </div>
3712       <div class="body">
3713         A friend of mine made me aware of
3714 <a href="https://pyra-handheld.com/boards/pages/pyra/">The Pyra</a>, a
3715 handheld computer which will be delivered with Debian preinstalled.  I
3716 would love to get one of those for my birthday. :)</p>
3717
3718 <p>The machine is a complete ARM-based PC with micro HDMI, SATA, USB
3719 plugs and many others connectors, and include a full keyboard and a 5"
3720 LCD touch screen.  The 6000mAh battery is claimed to provide a whole
3721 day of battery life time, but I have not seen any independent tests
3722 confirming this.  The vendor is still collecting preorders, and the
3723 last I heard last night was that 22 more orders were needed before
3724 production started.</p>
3725
3726 <p>As far as I know, this is the first handheld preinstalled with
3727 Debian.  Please let me know if you know of any others.  Is it the
3728 first computer being sold with Debian preinstalled?</p>
3729
3730       </div>
3731       <div class="tags">
3732
3733
3734         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
3735
3736
3737       </div>
3738     </div>
3739     <div class="padding"></div>
3740
3741     <div class="entry">
3742       <div class="title">
3743         <a href="http://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>
3744       </div>
3745       <div class="date">
3746         10th April 2016
3747       </div>
3748       <div class="body">
3749         <p>During this weekends
3750 <a href="http://www.nuug.no/news/Oslo__Takk_for_feilfiksingsfesten.shtml">bug
3751 squashing party and developer gathering</a>, we decided to do our part
3752 to make sure there are good books about Debian available in Norwegian
3753 Bokmål, and got in touch with the people behind the
3754 <a href="http://debian-handbook.info/">Debian Administrator's Handbook
3755 project</a> to get started.  If you want to help out, please start
3756 contributing using
3757 <a href="https://hosted.weblate.org/projects/debian-handbook/">the
3758 hosted weblate project page</a>, and get in touch using
3759 <a href="http://lists.alioth.debian.org/mailman/listinfo/debian-handbook-translators">the
3760 translators mailing list</a>.  Please also check out
3761 <a href="https://debian-handbook.info/contribute/">the instructions for
3762 contributors</a>.</p>
3763
3764 <p>The book is already available on paper in English, French and
3765 Japanese, and our goal is to get it available on paper in Norwegian
3766 Bokmål too.  In addition to the paper edition, there are also EPUB and
3767 Mobi versions available.  And there are incomplete translations
3768 available for many more languages.</p>
3769
3770       </div>
3771       <div class="tags">
3772
3773
3774         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian-handbook">debian-handbook</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
3775
3776
3777       </div>
3778     </div>
3779     <div class="padding"></div>
3780
3781     <div class="entry">
3782       <div class="title">
3783         <a href="http://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>
3784       </div>
3785       <div class="date">
3786          7th April 2016
3787       </div>
3788       <div class="body">
3789         <p>Just for fun I had a look at the popcon number of ZFS related
3790 packages in Debian, and was quite surprised with what I found.  I use
3791 ZFS myself at home, but did not really expect many others to do so.
3792 But I might be wrong.</p>
3793
3794 <p>According to
3795 <a href="https://qa.debian.org/popcon.php?package=spl-linux">the popcon
3796 results for spl-linux</a>, there are 1019 Debian installations, or
3797 0.53% of the population, with the package installed.  As far as I know
3798 the only use of the spl-linux package is as a support library for ZFS
3799 on Linux, so I use it here as proxy for measuring the number of ZFS
3800 installation on Linux in Debian.  In the kFreeBSD variant of Debian
3801 the ZFS feature is already available, and there
3802 <a href="https://qa.debian.org/popcon.php?package=zfsutils">the popcon
3803 results for zfsutils</a> show 1625 Debian installations or 0.84% of
3804 the population.  So I guess I am not alone in using ZFS on Debian.</p>
3805
3806 <p>But even though the Debian project leader Lucas Nussbaum
3807 <a href="https://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce/2015/04/msg00006.html">announced
3808 in April 2015</a> that the legal obstacles blocking ZFS on Debian were
3809 cleared, the package is still not in Debian.  The package is again in
3810 the NEW queue.  Several uploads have been rejected so far because the
3811 debian/copyright file was incomplete or wrong, but there is no reason
3812 to give up.  The current status can be seen on
3813 <a href="https://qa.debian.org/developer.php?login=pkg-zfsonlinux-devel@lists.alioth.debian.org">the
3814 team status page</a>, and
3815 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/gitweb/?p=pkg-zfsonlinux/zfs.git">the
3816 source code</a> is available on Alioth.</p>
3817
3818 <p>As I want ZFS to be included in next version of Debian to make sure
3819 my home server can function in the future using only official Debian
3820 packages, and the current blocker is to get the debian/copyright file
3821 accepted by the FTP masters in Debian, I decided a while back to try
3822 to help out the team.  This was the background for my blog post about
3823 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Creating__updating_and_checking_debian_copyright_semi_automatically.html">creating,
3824 updating and checking debian/copyright semi-automatically</a>, and I
3825 used the techniques I explored there to try to find any errors in the
3826 copyright file.  It is not very easy to check every one of the around
3827 2000 files in the source package, but I hope we this time got it
3828 right.  If you want to help out, check out the git source and try to
3829 find missing entries in the debian/copyright file.</p>
3830
3831       </div>
3832       <div class="tags">
3833
3834
3835         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
3836
3837
3838       </div>
3839     </div>
3840     <div class="padding"></div>
3841
3842     <div class="entry">
3843       <div class="title">
3844         <a href="http://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>
3845       </div>
3846       <div class="date">
3847         23rd March 2016
3848       </div>
3849       <div class="body">
3850         <p>Since this morning, the battery-stats package in Debian include an
3851 extended collector that will collect the complete battery history for
3852 later processing and graphing.  The original collector store the
3853 battery level as percentage of last full level, while the new
3854 collector also record battery vendor, model, serial number, design
3855 full level, last full level and current battery level.  This make it
3856 possible to predict the lifetime of the battery as well as visualise
3857 the energy flow when the battery is charging or discharging.</p>
3858
3859 <p>The new tools are available in <tt>/usr/share/battery-stats/</tt>
3860 in the version 0.5.1 package in unstable.  Get the new battery level graph
3861 and lifetime prediction by running:
3862
3863 <p><pre>
3864 /usr/share/battery-stats/battery-stats-graph /var/log/battery-stats.csv
3865 </pre></p>
3866
3867 <p>Or select the 'Battery Level Graph' from your application menu.</p>
3868
3869 <p>The flow in/out of the battery can be seen by running (no menu
3870 entry yet):</p>
3871
3872 <p><pre>
3873 /usr/share/battery-stats/battery-stats-graph-flow
3874 </pre></p>
3875
3876 <p>I'm not quite happy with the way the data is visualised, at least
3877 when there are few data points.  The graphs look a bit better with a
3878 few years of data.</p>
3879
3880 <p>A while back one important feature I use in the battery stats
3881 collector broke in Debian.  The scripts in
3882 <tt>/usr/lib/pm-utils/power.d/</tt> were no longer executed.  I
3883 suspect it happened when Jessie started using systemd, but I do not
3884 know.  The issue is reported as
3885 <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/818649">bug #818649</a> against
3886 pm-utils.  I managed to work around it by adding an udev rule to call
3887 the collector script every time the power connector is connected and
3888 disconnected.  With this fix in place it was finally time to make a
3889 new release of the package, and get it into Debian.</p>
3890
3891 <p>If you are interested in how your laptop battery is doing, please
3892 check out the
3893 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/battery-stats">battery-stats</a>
3894 in Debian unstable, or rebuild it on Jessie to get it working on
3895 Debian stable. :) The upstream source is available from
3896 <a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/battery-stats">github</a>.
3897 As always, patches are very welcome.</p>
3898
3899       </div>
3900       <div class="tags">
3901
3902
3903         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
3904
3905
3906       </div>
3907     </div>
3908     <div class="padding"></div>
3909
3910     <div class="entry">
3911       <div class="title">
3912         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Making_battery_measurements_a_little_easier_in_Debian.html">Making battery measurements a little easier in Debian</a>
3913       </div>
3914       <div class="date">
3915         15th March 2016
3916       </div>
3917       <div class="body">
3918         <p>Back in September, I blogged about
3919 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_life_and_death_of_a_laptop_battery.html">the
3920 system I wrote to collect statistics about my laptop battery</a>, and
3921 how it showed the decay and death of this battery (now replaced).  I
3922 created a simple deb package to handle the collection and graphing,
3923 but did not want to upload it to Debian as there were already
3924 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/battery-stats">a battery-stats
3925 package in Debian</a> that should do the same thing, and I did not see
3926 a point of uploading a competing package when battery-stats could be
3927 fixed instead.  I reported a few bugs about its non-function, and
3928 hoped someone would step in and fix it.  But no-one did.</p>
3929
3930 <p>I got tired of waiting a few days ago, and took matters in my own
3931 hands.  The end result is that I am now the new upstream developer of
3932 battery stats (<a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/battery-stats">available from github</a>) and part of the team maintaining
3933 battery-stats in Debian, and the package in Debian unstable is finally
3934 able to collect battery status using the <tt>/sys/class/power_supply/</tt>
3935 information provided by the Linux kernel.  If you install the
3936 battery-stats package from unstable now, you will be able to get a
3937 graph of the current battery fill level, to get some idea about the
3938 status of the battery.  The source package build and work just fine in
3939 Debian testing and stable (and probably oldstable too, but I have not
3940 tested).  The default graph you get for that system look like this:</p>
3941
3942 <p align="center"><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2016-03-15-battery-stats-graph-example.png" width="70%" align="center"></p>
3943
3944 <p>My plans for the future is to merge my old scripts into the
3945 battery-stats package, as my old scripts collected a lot more details
3946 about the battery.  The scripts are merged into the upstream
3947 battery-stats git repository already, but I am not convinced they work
3948 yet, as I changed a lot of paths along the way.  Will have to test a
3949 bit more before I make a new release.</p>
3950
3951 <p>I will also consider changing the file format slightly, as I
3952 suspect the way I combine several values into one field might make it
3953 impossible to know the type of the value when using it for processing
3954 and graphing.</p>
3955
3956 <p>If you would like I would like to keep an close eye on your laptop
3957 battery, check out the battery-stats package in
3958 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/battery-stats">Debian</a> and
3959 on
3960 <a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/battery-stats">github</a>.
3961 I would love some help to improve the system further.</p>
3962
3963       </div>
3964       <div class="tags">
3965
3966
3967         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
3968
3969
3970       </div>
3971     </div>
3972     <div class="padding"></div>
3973
3974     <div class="entry">
3975       <div class="title">
3976         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Creating__updating_and_checking_debian_copyright_semi_automatically.html">Creating, updating and checking debian/copyright semi-automatically</a>
3977       </div>
3978       <div class="date">
3979         19th February 2016
3980       </div>
3981       <div class="body">
3982         <p>Making packages for Debian requires quite a lot of attention to
3983 details.  And one of the details is the content of the
3984 debian/copyright file, which should list all relevant licenses used by
3985 the code in the package in question, preferably in
3986 <a href="https://www.debian.org/doc/packaging-manuals/copyright-format/1.0/">machine
3987 readable DEP5 format</a>.</p>
3988
3989 <p>For large packages with lots of contributors it is hard to write
3990 and update this file manually, and if you get some detail wrong, the
3991 package is normally rejected by the ftpmasters.  So getting it right
3992 the first time around get the package into Debian faster, and save
3993 both you and the ftpmasters some work..  Today, while trying to figure
3994 out what was wrong with
3995 <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=686447">the
3996 zfsonlinux copyright file</a>, I decided to spend some time on
3997 figuring out the options for doing this job automatically, or at least
3998 semi-automatically.</p>
3999
4000 <p>Lucikly, there are at least two tools available for generating the
4001 file based on the code in the source package,
4002 <tt><a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/debmake">debmake</a></tt>
4003 and <tt><a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/cme">cme</a></tt>.  I'm
4004 not sure which one of them came first, but both seem to be able to
4005 create a sensible draft file.  As far as I can tell, none of them can
4006 be trusted to get the result just right, so the content need to be
4007 polished a bit before the file is OK to upload.  I found the debmake
4008 option in
4009 <a href="http://goofying-with-debian.blogspot.com/2014/07/debmake-checking-source-against-dep-5.html">a
4010 blog posts from 2014</a>.
4011
4012 <p>To generate using debmake, use the -cc option:
4013
4014 <p><pre>
4015 debmake -cc > debian/copyright
4016 </pre></p>
4017
4018 <p>Note there are some problems with python and non-ASCII names, so
4019 this might not be the best option.</p>
4020
4021 <p>The cme option is based on a config parsing library, and I found
4022 this approach in
4023 <a href="https://ddumont.wordpress.com/2015/04/05/improving-creation-of-debian-copyright-file/">a
4024 blog post from 2015</a>.  To generate using cme, use the 'update
4025 dpkg-copyright' option:
4026
4027 <p><pre>
4028 cme update dpkg-copyright
4029 </pre></p>
4030
4031 <p>This will create or update debian/copyright.  The cme tool seem to
4032 handle UTF-8 names better than debmake.</p>
4033
4034 <p>When the copyright file is created, I would also like some help to
4035 check if the file is correct.  For this I found two good options,
4036 <tt>debmake -k</tt> and <tt>license-reconcile</tt>.  The former seem
4037 to focus on license types and file matching, and is able to detect
4038 ineffective blocks in the copyright file.  The latter reports missing
4039 copyright holders and years, but was confused by inconsistent license
4040 names (like CDDL vs. CDDL-1.0).  I suspect it is good to use both and
4041 fix all issues reported by them before uploading.  But I do not know
4042 if the tools and the ftpmasters agree on what is important to fix in a
4043 copyright file, so the package might still be rejected.</p>
4044
4045 <p>The devscripts tool <tt>licensecheck</tt> deserve mentioning.  It
4046 will read through the source and try to find all copyright statements.
4047 It is not comparing the result to the content of debian/copyright, but
4048 can be useful when verifying the content of the copyright file.</p>
4049
4050 <p>Are you aware of better tools in Debian to create and update
4051 debian/copyright file.  Please let me know, or blog about it on
4052 planet.debian.org.</p>
4053
4054 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
4055 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
4056 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
4057
4058 <p><strong>Update 2016-02-20</strong>: I got a tip from Mike Gabriel
4059 on how to use licensecheck and cdbs to create a draft copyright file
4060
4061 <p><pre>
4062 licensecheck --copyright -r `find * -type f` | \
4063   /usr/lib/cdbs/licensecheck2dep5 > debian/copyright.auto
4064 </pre></p>
4065
4066 <p>He mentioned that he normally check the generated file into the
4067 version control system to make it easier to discover license and
4068 copyright changes in the upstream source.  I will try to do the same
4069 with my packages in the future.</p>
4070
4071 <p><strong>Update 2016-02-21</strong>: The cme author recommended
4072 against using -quiet for new users, so I removed it from the proposed
4073 command line.</p>
4074
4075       </div>
4076       <div class="tags">
4077
4078
4079         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
4080
4081
4082       </div>
4083     </div>
4084     <div class="padding"></div>
4085
4086     <div class="entry">
4087       <div class="title">
4088         <a href="http://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>
4089       </div>
4090       <div class="date">
4091          4th February 2016
4092       </div>
4093       <div class="body">
4094         <p>The <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DEP-11">appstream system</a>
4095 is taking shape in Debian, and one provided feature is a very
4096 convenient way to tell you which package to install to make a given
4097 firmware file available when the kernel is looking for it.  This can
4098 be done using apt-file too, but that is for someone else to blog
4099 about. :)</p>
4100
4101 <p>Here is a small recipe to find the package with a given firmware
4102 file, in this example I am looking for ctfw-3.2.3.0.bin, randomly
4103 picked from the set of firmware announced using appstream in Debian
4104 unstable.  In general you would be looking for the firmware requested
4105 by the kernel during kernel module loading.  To find the package
4106 providing the example file, do like this:</p>
4107
4108 <blockquote><pre>
4109 % apt install appstream
4110 [...]
4111 % apt update
4112 [...]
4113 % appstreamcli what-provides firmware:runtime ctfw-3.2.3.0.bin | \
4114   awk '/Package:/ {print $2}'
4115 firmware-qlogic
4116 %
4117 </pre></blockquote>
4118
4119 <p>See <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/AppStream/Guidelines">the
4120 appstream wiki</a> page to learn how to embed the package metadata in
4121 a way appstream can use.</p>
4122
4123 <p>This same approach can be used to find any package supporting a
4124 given MIME type.  This is very useful when you get a file you do not
4125 know how to handle.  First find the mime type using <tt>file
4126 --mime-type</tt>, and next look up the package providing support for
4127 it.  Lets say you got an SVG file.  Its MIME type is image/svg+xml,
4128 and you can find all packages handling this type like this:</p>
4129
4130 <blockquote><pre>
4131 % apt install appstream
4132 [...]
4133 % apt update
4134 [...]
4135 % appstreamcli what-provides mimetype image/svg+xml | \
4136   awk '/Package:/ {print $2}'
4137 bkchem
4138 phototonic
4139 inkscape
4140 shutter
4141 tetzle
4142 geeqie
4143 xia
4144 pinta
4145 gthumb
4146 karbon
4147 comix
4148 mirage
4149 viewnior
4150 postr
4151 ristretto
4152 kolourpaint4
4153 eog
4154 eom
4155 gimagereader
4156 midori
4157 %
4158 </pre></blockquote>
4159
4160 <p>I believe the MIME types are fetched from the desktop file for
4161 packages providing appstream metadata.</p>
4162
4163       </div>
4164       <div class="tags">
4165
4166
4167         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
4168
4169
4170       </div>
4171     </div>
4172     <div class="padding"></div>
4173
4174     <div class="entry">
4175       <div class="title">
4176         <a href="http://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>
4177       </div>
4178       <div class="date">
4179         24th January 2016
4180       </div>
4181       <div class="body">
4182         <p>Most people seem not to realise that every time they walk around
4183 with the computerised radio beacon known as a mobile phone their
4184 position is tracked by the phone company and often stored for a long
4185 time (like every time a SMS is received or sent).  And if their
4186 computerised radio beacon is capable of running programs (often called
4187 mobile apps) downloaded from the Internet, these programs are often
4188 also capable of tracking their location (if the app requested access
4189 during installation).  And when these programs send out information to
4190 central collection points, the location is often included, unless
4191 extra care is taken to not send the location.  The provided
4192 information is used by several entities, for good and bad (what is
4193 good and bad, depend on your point of view).  What is certain, is that
4194 the private sphere and the right to free movement is challenged and
4195 perhaps even eradicated for those announcing their location this way,
4196 when they share their whereabouts with private and public
4197 entities.</p>
4198
4199 <p align="center"><img width="70%" src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2016-01-24-nice-creepy-desktop-window.png"></p>
4200
4201 <p>The phone company logs provide a register of locations to check out
4202 when one want to figure out what the tracked person was doing.  It is
4203 unavailable for most of us, but provided to selected government
4204 officials, company staff, those illegally buying information from
4205 unfaithful servants and crackers stealing the information.  But the
4206 public information can be collected and analysed, and a free software
4207 tool to do so is called
4208 <a href="http://www.geocreepy.com/">Creepy or Cree.py</a>.  I
4209 discovered it when I read
4210 <a href="http://www.aftenposten.no/kultur/Slik-kan-du-bli-overvaket-pa-Twitter-og-Instagram-uten-a-ane-det-7787884.html">an
4211 article about Creepy</a> in the Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten i
4212 November 2014, and decided to check if it was available in Debian.
4213 The python program was in Debian, but
4214 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/creepy">the version in
4215 Debian</a> was completely broken and practically unmaintained.  I
4216 uploaded a new version which did not work quite right, but did not
4217 have time to fix it then.  This Christmas I decided to finally try to
4218 get Creepy operational in Debian.  Now a fixed version is available in
4219 Debian unstable and testing, and almost all Debian specific patches
4220 are now included
4221 <a href="https://github.com/jkakavas/creepy">upstream</a>.</p>
4222
4223 <p>The Creepy program visualises geolocation information fetched from
4224 Twitter, Instagram, Flickr and Google+, and allow one to get a
4225 complete picture of every social media message posted recently in a
4226 given area, or track the movement of a given individual across all
4227 these services.  Earlier it was possible to use the search API of at
4228 least some of these services without identifying oneself, but these
4229 days it is impossible.  This mean that to use Creepy, you need to
4230 configure it to log in as yourself on these services, and provide
4231 information to them about your search interests.  This should be taken
4232 into account when using Creepy, as it will also share information
4233 about yourself with the services.</p>
4234
4235 <p>The picture above show the twitter messages sent from (or at least
4236 geotagged with a position from) the city centre of Oslo, the capital
4237 of Norway.  One useful way to use Creepy is to first look at
4238 information tagged with an area of interest, and next look at all the
4239 information provided by one or more individuals who was in the area.
4240 I tested it by checking out which celebrity provide their location in
4241 twitter messages by checkout out who sent twitter messages near a
4242 Norwegian TV station, and next could track their position over time,
4243 making it possible to locate their home and work place, among other
4244 things.  A similar technique have been
4245 <a href="http://www.buzzfeed.com/maxseddon/does-this-soldiers-instagram-account-prove-russia-is-covertl">used
4246 to locate Russian soldiers in Ukraine</a>, and it is both a powerful
4247 tool to discover lying governments, and a useful tool to help people
4248 understand the value of the private information they provide to the
4249 public.</p>
4250
4251 <p>The package is not trivial to backport to Debian Stable/Jessie, as
4252 it depend on several python modules currently missing in Jessie (at
4253 least python-instagram, python-flickrapi and
4254 python-requests-toolbelt).</p>
4255
4256 <p>(I have uploaded
4257 <a href="https://screenshots.debian.net/package/creepy">the image to
4258 screenshots.debian.net</a> and licensed it under the same terms as the
4259 Creepy program in Debian.)</p>
4260
4261       </div>
4262       <div class="tags">
4263
4264
4265         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nice free software">nice free software</a>.
4266
4267
4268       </div>
4269     </div>
4270     <div class="padding"></div>
4271
4272     <div class="entry">
4273       <div class="title">
4274         <a href="http://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>
4275       </div>
4276       <div class="date">
4277         15th January 2016
4278       </div>
4279       <div class="body">
4280         <p>During his DebConf15 keynote, Jacob Appelbaum
4281 <a href="https://summit.debconf.org/debconf15/meeting/331/what-is-to-be-done/">observed
4282 that those listening on the Internet lines would have good reason to
4283 believe a computer have a given security hole</a> if it download a
4284 security fix from a Debian mirror.  This is a good reason to always
4285 use encrypted connections to the Debian mirror, to make sure those
4286 listening do not know which IP address to attack.  In August, Richard
4287 Hartmann observed that encryption was not enough, when it was possible
4288 to interfere download size to security patches or the fact that
4289 download took place shortly after a security fix was released, and
4290 <a href="http://richardhartmann.de/blog/posts/2015/08/24-Tor-enabled_Debian_mirror/">proposed
4291 to always use Tor to download packages from the Debian mirror</a>.  He
4292 was not the first to propose this, as the
4293 <tt><a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/apt-transport-tor">apt-transport-tor</a></tt>
4294 package by Tim Retout already existed to make it easy to convince apt
4295 to use <a href="https://www.torproject.org/">Tor</a>, but I was not
4296 aware of that package when I read the blog post from Richard.</p>
4297
4298 <p>Richard discussed the idea with Peter Palfrader, one of the Debian
4299 sysadmins, and he set up a Tor hidden service on one of the central
4300 Debian mirrors using the address vwakviie2ienjx6t.onion, thus making
4301 it possible to download packages directly between two tor nodes,
4302 making sure the network traffic always were encrypted.</p>
4303
4304 <p>Here is a short recipe for enabling this on your machine, by
4305 installing <tt>apt-transport-tor</tt> and replacing http and https
4306 urls with tor+http and tor+https, and using the hidden service instead
4307 of the official Debian mirror site.  I recommend installing
4308 <tt>etckeeper</tt> before you start to have a history of the changes
4309 done in /etc/.</p>
4310
4311 <blockquote><pre>
4312 apt install apt-transport-tor
4313 sed -i 's% http://ftp.debian.org/% tor+http://vwakviie2ienjx6t.onion/%' /etc/apt/sources.list
4314 sed -i 's% http% tor+http%' /etc/apt/sources.list
4315 </pre></blockquote>
4316
4317 <p>If you have more sources listed in /etc/apt/sources.list.d/, run
4318 the sed commands for these too.  The sed command is assuming your are
4319 using the ftp.debian.org Debian mirror.  Adjust the command (or just
4320 edit the file manually) to match your mirror.</p>
4321
4322 <p>This work in Debian Jessie and later.  Note that tools like
4323 <tt>apt-file</tt> only recently started using the apt transport
4324 system, and do not work with these tor+http URLs.  For
4325 <tt>apt-file</tt> you need the version currently in experimental,
4326 which need a recent apt version currently only in unstable.  So if you
4327 need a working <tt>apt-file</tt>, this is not for you.</p>
4328
4329 <p>Another advantage from this change is that your machine will start
4330 using Tor regularly and at fairly random intervals (every time you
4331 update the package lists or upgrade or install a new package), thus
4332 masking other Tor traffic done from the same machine.  Using Tor will
4333 become normal for the machine in question.</p>
4334
4335 <p>On <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/FreedomBox">Freedombox</a>, APT
4336 is set up by default to use <tt>apt-transport-tor</tt> when Tor is
4337 enabled.  It would be great if it was the default on any Debian
4338 system.</p>
4339
4340       </div>
4341       <div class="tags">
4342
4343
4344         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>.
4345
4346
4347       </div>
4348     </div>
4349     <div class="padding"></div>
4350
4351     <div class="entry">
4352       <div class="title">
4353         <a href="http://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>
4354       </div>
4355       <div class="date">
4356         23rd December 2015
4357       </div>
4358       <div class="body">
4359         <p>When I was a kid, we used to collect "car numbers", as we used to
4360 call the car license plate numbers in those days.  I would write the
4361 numbers down in my little book and compare notes with the other kids
4362 to see how many region codes we had seen and if we had seen some
4363 exotic or special region codes and numbers.  It was a fun game to pass
4364 time, as we kids have plenty of it.</p>
4365
4366 <p>A few days I came across
4367 <a href="https://github.com/openalpr/openalpr">the OpenALPR
4368 project</a>, a free software project to automatically discover and
4369 report license plates in images and video streams, and provide the
4370 "car numbers" in a machine readable format.  I've been looking for
4371 such system for a while now, because I believe it is a bad idea that the
4372 <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automatic_number_plate_recognition">automatic
4373 number plate recognition</a> tool only is available in the hands of
4374 the powerful, and want it to be available also for the powerless to
4375 even the score when it comes to surveillance and sousveillance.  I
4376 discovered the developer
4377 <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/747509">wanted to get the tool into
4378 Debian</a>, and as I too wanted it to be in Debian, I volunteered to
4379 help him get it into shape to get the package uploaded into the Debian
4380 archive.</p>
4381
4382 <p>Today we finally managed to get the package into shape and uploaded
4383 it into Debian, where it currently
4384 <a href="https://ftp-master.debian.org//new/openalpr_2.2.1-1.html">waits
4385 in the NEW queue</a> for review by the Debian ftpmasters.</p>
4386
4387 <p>I guess you are wondering why on earth such tool would be useful
4388 for the common folks, ie those not running a large government
4389 surveillance system?  Well, I plan to put it in a computer on my bike
4390 and in my car, tracking the cars nearby and allowing me to be notified
4391 when number plates on my watch list are discovered.  Another use case
4392 was suggested by a friend of mine, who wanted to set it up at his home
4393 to open the car port automatically when it discovered the plate on his
4394 car.  When I mentioned it perhaps was a bit foolhardy to allow anyone
4395 capable of placing his license plate number of a piece of cardboard to
4396 open his car port, men replied that it was always unlocked anyway.  I
4397 guess for such use case it make sense.  I am sure there are other use
4398 cases too, for those with imagination and a vision.</p>
4399
4400 <p>If you want to build your own version of the Debian package, check
4401 out the upstream git source and symlink ./distros/debian to ./debian/
4402 before running "debuild" to build the source.  Or wait a bit until the
4403 package show up in unstable.</p>
4404
4405       </div>
4406       <div class="tags">
4407
4408
4409         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nice free software">nice free software</a>.
4410
4411
4412       </div>
4413     </div>
4414     <div class="padding"></div>
4415
4416     <div class="entry">
4417       <div class="title">
4418         <a href="http://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>
4419       </div>
4420       <div class="date">
4421         20th December 2015
4422       </div>
4423       <div class="body">
4424         <p>Around three years ago, I created
4425 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/isenkram">the isenkram
4426 system</a> to get a more practical solution in Debian for handing
4427 hardware related packages.  A GUI system in the isenkram package will
4428 present a pop-up dialog when some hardware dongle supported by
4429 relevant packages in Debian is inserted into the machine.  The same
4430 lookup mechanism to detect packages is available as command line
4431 tools in the isenkram-cli package.  In addition to mapping hardware,
4432 it will also map kernel firmware files to packages and make it easy to
4433 install needed firmware packages automatically.  The key for this
4434 system to work is a good way to map hardware to packages, in other
4435 words, allow packages to announce what hardware they will work
4436 with.</p>
4437
4438 <p>I started by providing data files in the isenkram source, and
4439 adding code to download the latest version of these data files at run
4440 time, to ensure every user had the most up to date mapping available.
4441 I also added support for storing the mapping in the Packages file in
4442 the apt repositories, but did not push this approach because while I
4443 was trying to figure out how to best store hardware/package mappings,
4444 <a href="http://www.freedesktop.org/software/appstream/docs/">the
4445 appstream system</a> was announced.  I got in touch and suggested to
4446 add the hardware mapping into that data set to be able to use
4447 appstream as a data source, and this was accepted at least for the
4448 Debian version of appstream.</p>
4449
4450 <p>A few days ago using appstream in Debian for this became possible,
4451 and today I uploaded a new version 0.20 of isenkram adding support for
4452 appstream as a data source for mapping hardware to packages.  The only
4453 package so far using appstream to announce its hardware support is my
4454 pymissile package.  I got help from Matthias Klumpp with figuring out
4455 how do add the required
4456 <a href="https://appstream.debian.org/html/sid/main/metainfo/pymissile.html">metadata
4457 in pymissile</a>.  I added a file debian/pymissile.metainfo.xml with
4458 this content:</p>
4459
4460 <blockquote><pre>
4461 &lt;?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?&gt;
4462 &lt;component&gt;
4463   &lt;id&gt;pymissile&lt;/id&gt;
4464   &lt;metadata_license&gt;MIT&lt;/metadata_license&gt;
4465   &lt;name&gt;pymissile&lt;/name&gt;
4466   &lt;summary&gt;Control original Striker USB Missile Launcher&lt;/summary&gt;
4467   &lt;description&gt;
4468     &lt;p&gt;
4469       Pymissile provides a curses interface to control an original
4470       Marks and Spencer / Striker USB Missile Launcher, as well as a
4471       motion control script to allow a webcamera to control the
4472       launcher.
4473     &lt;/p&gt;
4474   &lt;/description&gt;
4475   &lt;provides&gt;
4476     &lt;modalias&gt;usb:v1130p0202d*&lt;/modalias&gt;
4477   &lt;/provides&gt;
4478 &lt;/component&gt;
4479 </pre></blockquote>
4480
4481 <p>The key for isenkram is the component/provides/modalias value,
4482 which is a glob style match rule for hardware specific strings
4483 (modalias strings) provided by the Linux kernel.  In this case, it
4484 will map to all USB devices with vendor code 1130 and product code
4485 0202.</p>
4486
4487 <p>Note, it is important that the license of all the metadata files
4488 are compatible to have permissions to aggregate them into archive wide
4489 appstream files.  Matthias suggested to use MIT or BSD licenses for
4490 these files.  A challenge is figuring out a good id for the data, as
4491 it is supposed to be globally unique and shared across distributions
4492 (in other words, best to coordinate with upstream what to use).  But
4493 it can be changed later or, so we went with the package name as
4494 upstream for this project is dormant.</p>
4495
4496 <p>To get the metadata file installed in the correct location for the
4497 mirror update scripts to pick it up and include its content the
4498 appstream data source, the file must be installed in the binary
4499 package under /usr/share/appdata/.  I did this by adding the following
4500 line to debian/pymissile.install:</p>
4501
4502 <blockquote><pre>
4503 debian/pymissile.metainfo.xml usr/share/appdata
4504 </pre></blockquote>
4505
4506 <p>With that in place, the command line tool isenkram-lookup will list
4507 all packages useful on the current computer automatically, and the GUI
4508 pop-up handler will propose to install the package not already
4509 installed if a hardware dongle is inserted into the machine in
4510 question.</p>
4511
4512 <p>Details of the modalias field in appstream is available from the
4513 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DEP-11">DEP-11</a> proposal.</p>
4514
4515 <p>To locate the modalias values of all hardware present in a machine,
4516 try running this command on the command line:</p>
4517
4518 <blockquote><pre>
4519 cat $(find /sys/devices/|grep modalias)
4520 </pre></blockquote>
4521
4522 <p>To learn more about the isenkram system, please check out
4523 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram/">my
4524 blog posts tagged isenkram</a>.</p>
4525
4526       </div>
4527       <div class="tags">
4528
4529
4530         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram">isenkram</a>.
4531
4532
4533       </div>
4534     </div>
4535     <div class="padding"></div>
4536
4537     <div class="entry">
4538       <div class="title">
4539         <a href="http://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>
4540       </div>
4541       <div class="date">
4542         30th November 2015
4543       </div>
4544       <div class="body">
4545         <p>A blog post from my fellow Debian developer Paul Wise titled
4546 "<a href="http://bonedaddy.net/pabs3/log/2015/11/27/sfc-supporter/">The
4547 GPL is not magic pixie dust</a>" explain the importance of making sure
4548 the <a href="http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html">GPL</a> is enforced.
4549 I quote the blog post from Paul in full here with his permission:<p>
4550
4551 <blockquote>
4552
4553 <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>
4554
4555 <blockquote>
4556 The GPL is not magic pixie dust. It does not work by itself.<br/>
4557
4558 The first step is to choose a
4559 <a href="https://copyleft.org/">copyleft</a> license for your
4560 code.<br/>
4561
4562 The next step is, when someone fails to follow that copyleft license,
4563 <b>it must be enforced</b><br/>
4564
4565 and its a simple fact of our modern society that such type of
4566 work<br/>
4567
4568 is incredibly expensive to do and incredibly difficult to do.
4569 </blockquote>
4570
4571 <p><small>-- <a href="http://ebb.org/bkuhn/">Bradley Kuhn</a>, in
4572 <a href="http://faif.us/" title="Free as in Freedom">FaiF</a>
4573 <a href="http://faif.us/cast/2015/nov/24/0x57/">episode
4574 0x57</a></small></p>
4575
4576 <p>As the Debian Website
4577 <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/794116">used</a>
4578 <a href="https://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/webwml/webwml/english/intro/free.wml?r1=1.24&amp;r2=1.25">to</a>
4579 imply, public domain and permissively licensed software can lead to
4580 the production of more proprietary software as people discover useful
4581 software, extend it and or incorporate it into their hardware or
4582 software products.  Copyleft licenses such as the GNU GPL were created
4583 to close off this avenue to the production of proprietary software but
4584 such licenses are not enough.  With the ongoing adoption of Free
4585 Software by individuals and groups, inevitably the community's
4586 expectations of license compliance are violated, usually out of
4587 ignorance of the way Free Software works, but not always.  As Karen
4588 and Bradley explained in <a href="http://faif.us/" title="Free as in
4589 Freedom">FaiF</a>
4590 <a href="http://faif.us/cast/2015/nov/24/0x57/">episode 0x57</a>,
4591 copyleft is nothing if no-one is willing and able to stand up in court
4592 to protect it.  The reality of today's world is that legal
4593 representation is expensive, difficult and time consuming.  With
4594 <a href="http://gpl-violations.org/">gpl-violations.org</a> in hiatus
4595 <a href="http://gpl-violations.org/news/20151027-homepage-recovers/">until</a>
4596 some time in 2016, the <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/">Software
4597 Freedom Conservancy</a> (a tax-exempt charity) is the major defender
4598 of the Linux project, Debian and other groups against GPL violations.
4599 In March the SFC supported a
4600 <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/news/2015/mar/05/vmware-lawsuit/">lawsuit
4601 by Christoph Hellwig</a> against VMware for refusing to
4602 <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/linux-compliance/vmware-lawsuit-faq.html">comply
4603 with the GPL</a> in relation to their use of parts of the Linux
4604 kernel.  Since then two of their sponsors pulled corporate funding and
4605 conferences
4606 <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/blog/2015/nov/24/faif-carols-fundraiser/">blocked
4607 or cancelled their talks</a>.  As a result they have decided to rely
4608 less on corporate funding and more on the broad community of
4609 individuals who support Free Software and copyleft.  So the SFC has
4610 <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/news/2015/nov/23/2015fundraiser/">launched</a>
4611 a <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/supporter/">campaign</a> to create
4612 a community of folks who stand up for copyleft and the GPL by
4613 supporting their work on promoting and supporting copyleft and Free
4614 Software.</p>
4615
4616 <p>If you support Free Software,
4617 <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/blog/2015/nov/26/like-what-I-do/">like</a>
4618 what the SFC do, agree with their
4619 <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/linux-compliance/principles.html">compliance
4620 principles</a>, are happy about their
4621 <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/supporter/">successes</a> in 2015,
4622 work on a project that is an SFC
4623 <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/members/current/">member</a> and or
4624 just want to stand up for copyleft, please join
4625 <a href="https://identi.ca/cwebber/image/JQGPA4qbTyyp3-MY8QpvuA">Christopher
4626 Allan Webber</a>,
4627 <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/blog/2015/nov/24/faif-carols-fundraiser/">Carol
4628 Smith</a>,
4629 <a href="http://www.jonobacon.org/2015/11/25/supporting-software-freedom-conservancy/">Jono
4630 Bacon</a>, myself and
4631 <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/sponsors/#supporters">others</a> in
4632 becoming a
4633 <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/supporter/">supporter</a>.  For the
4634 next week your donation will be
4635 <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/news/2015/nov/27/black-friday/">matched</a>
4636 by an anonymous donor.  Please also consider asking your employer to
4637 match your donation or become a sponsor of SFC.  Don't forget to
4638 spread the word about your support for SFC via email, your blog and or
4639 social media accounts.</p>
4640
4641 </blockquote>
4642
4643 <p>I agree with Paul on this topic and just signed up as a Supporter
4644 of Software Freedom Conservancy myself.  Perhaps you should be a
4645 supporter too?</p>
4646
4647       </div>
4648       <div class="tags">
4649
4650
4651         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/opphavsrett">opphavsrett</a>.
4652
4653
4654       </div>
4655     </div>
4656     <div class="padding"></div>
4657
4658     <div class="entry">
4659       <div class="title">
4660         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/PGP_key_transition_statement_for_key_EE4E02F9.html">PGP key transition statement for key EE4E02F9</a>
4661       </div>
4662       <div class="date">
4663         17th November 2015
4664       </div>
4665       <div class="body">
4666         <p>I've needed a new OpenPGP key for a while, but have not had time to
4667 set it up properly.  I wanted to generate it offline and have it
4668 available on <a href="http://shop.kernelconcepts.de/#openpgp">a OpenPGP
4669 smart card</a> for daily use, and learning how to do it and finding
4670 time to sit down with an offline machine almost took forever.  But
4671 finally I've been able to complete the process, and have now moved
4672 from my old GPG key to a new GPG key.  See
4673 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2015-11-17-new-gpg-key-transition.txt">the
4674 full transition statement, signed with both my old and new key</a> for
4675 the details.  This is my new key:</p>
4676
4677 <pre>
4678 pub   3936R/<a href="http://pgp.cs.uu.nl/stats/111D6B29EE4E02F9.html">111D6B29EE4E02F9</a> 2015-11-03 [expires: 2019-11-14]
4679       Key fingerprint = 3AC7 B2E3 ACA5 DF87 78F1  D827 111D 6B29 EE4E 02F9
4680 uid                  Petter Reinholdtsen &lt;pere@hungry.com&gt;
4681 uid                  Petter Reinholdtsen &lt;pere@debian.org&gt;
4682 sub   4096R/87BAFB0E 2015-11-03 [expires: 2019-11-02]
4683 sub   4096R/F91E6DE9 2015-11-03 [expires: 2019-11-02]
4684 sub   4096R/A0439BAB 2015-11-03 [expires: 2019-11-02]
4685 </pre>
4686
4687 <p>The key can be downloaded from the OpenPGP key servers, signed by
4688 my old key.</p>
4689
4690 <p>If you signed my old key
4691 (<a href="http://pgp.cs.uu.nl/stats/DB4CCC4B2A30D729.html">DB4CCC4B2A30D729</a>),
4692 I'd very much appreciate a signature on my new key, details and
4693 instructions in the transition statement. I m happy to reciprocate if
4694 you have a similarly signed transition statement to present.</p>
4695
4696       </div>
4697       <div class="tags">
4698
4699
4700         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>.
4701
4702
4703       </div>
4704     </div>
4705     <div class="padding"></div>
4706
4707     <div class="entry">
4708       <div class="title">
4709         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_life_and_death_of_a_laptop_battery.html">The life and death of a laptop battery</a>
4710       </div>
4711       <div class="date">
4712         24th September 2015
4713       </div>
4714       <div class="body">
4715         <p>When I get a new laptop, the battery life time at the start is OK.
4716 But this do not last.  The last few laptops gave me a feeling that
4717 within a year, the life time is just a fraction of what it used to be,
4718 and it slowly become painful to use the laptop without power connected
4719 all the time.  Because of this, when I got a new Thinkpad X230 laptop
4720 about two years ago, I decided to monitor its battery state to have
4721 more hard facts when the battery started to fail.</p>
4722
4723 <img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2015-09-24-laptop-battery-graph.png"/>
4724
4725 <p>First I tried to find a sensible Debian package to record the
4726 battery status, assuming that this must be a problem already handled
4727 by someone else.  I found
4728 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/battery-stats">battery-stats</a>,
4729 which collects statistics from the battery, but it was completely
4730 broken.  I sent a few suggestions to the maintainer, but decided to
4731 write my own collector as a shell script while I waited for feedback
4732 from him.  Via
4733 <a href="http://www.ifweassume.com/2013/08/the-de-evolution-of-my-laptop-battery.html">a
4734 blog post about the battery development on a MacBook Air</a> I also
4735 discovered
4736 <a href="https://github.com/jradavenport/batlog.git">batlog</a>, not
4737 available in Debian.</p>
4738
4739 <p>I started my collector 2013-07-15, and it has been collecting
4740 battery stats ever since. Now my
4741 /var/log/hjemmenett-battery-status.log file contain around 115,000
4742 measurements, from the time the battery was working great until now,
4743 when it is unable to charge above 7% of original capacity.  My
4744 collector shell script is quite simple and look like this:</p>
4745
4746 <pre>
4747 #!/bin/sh
4748 # Inspired by
4749 # http://www.ifweassume.com/2013/08/the-de-evolution-of-my-laptop-battery.html
4750 # See also
4751 # http://blog.sleeplessbeastie.eu/2013/01/02/debian-how-to-monitor-battery-capacity/
4752 logfile=/var/log/hjemmenett-battery-status.log
4753
4754 files="manufacturer model_name technology serial_number \
4755     energy_full energy_full_design energy_now cycle_count status"
4756
4757 if [ ! -e "$logfile" ] ; then
4758     (
4759         printf "timestamp,"
4760         for f in $files; do
4761             printf "%s," $f
4762         done
4763         echo
4764     ) > "$logfile"
4765 fi
4766
4767 log_battery() {
4768     # Print complete message in one echo call, to avoid race condition
4769     # when several log processes run in parallel.
4770     msg=$(printf "%s," $(date +%s); \
4771         for f in $files; do \
4772             printf "%s," $(cat $f); \
4773         done)
4774     echo "$msg"
4775 }
4776
4777 cd /sys/class/power_supply
4778
4779 for bat in BAT*; do
4780     (cd $bat && log_battery >> "$logfile")
4781 done
4782 </pre>
4783
4784 <p>The script is called when the power management system detect a
4785 change in the power status (power plug in or out), and when going into
4786 and out of hibernation and suspend.  In addition, it collect a value
4787 every 10 minutes.  This make it possible for me know when the battery
4788 is discharging, charging and how the maximum charge change over time.
4789 The code for the Debian package
4790 <a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/battery-status">is now
4791 available on github</a>.</p>
4792
4793 <p>The collected log file look like this:</p>
4794
4795 <pre>
4796 timestamp,manufacturer,model_name,technology,serial_number,energy_full,energy_full_design,energy_now,cycle_count,status,
4797 1376591133,LGC,45N1025,Li-ion,974,62800000,62160000,39050000,0,Discharging,
4798 [...]
4799 1443090528,LGC,45N1025,Li-ion,974,4900000,62160000,4900000,0,Full,
4800 1443090601,LGC,45N1025,Li-ion,974,4900000,62160000,4900000,0,Full,
4801 </pre>
4802
4803 <p>I wrote a small script to create a graph of the charge development
4804 over time.  This graph depicted above show the slow death of my laptop
4805 battery.</p>
4806
4807 <p>But why is this happening?  Why are my laptop batteries always
4808 dying in a year or two, while the batteries of space probes and
4809 satellites keep working year after year.  If we are to believe
4810 <a href="http://batteryuniversity.com/learn/article/how_to_prolong_lithium_based_batteries">Battery
4811 University</a>, the cause is me charging the battery whenever I have a
4812 chance, and the fix is to not charge the Lithium-ion batteries to 100%
4813 all the time, but to stay below 90% of full charge most of the time.
4814 I've been told that the Tesla electric cars
4815 <a href="http://my.teslamotors.com/de_CH/forum/forums/battery-charge-limit">limit
4816 the charge of their batteries to 80%</a>, with the option to charge to
4817 100% when preparing for a longer trip (not that I would want a car
4818 like Tesla where rights to privacy is abandoned, but that is another
4819 story), which I guess is the option we should have for laptops on
4820 Linux too.</p>
4821
4822 <p>Is there a good and generic way with Linux to tell the battery to
4823 stop charging at 80%, unless requested to charge to 100% once in
4824 preparation for a longer trip?  I found
4825 <a href="http://askubuntu.com/questions/34452/how-can-i-limit-battery-charging-to-80-capacity">one
4826 recipe on askubuntu for Ubuntu to limit charging on Thinkpad to
4827 80%</a>, but could not get it to work (kernel module refused to
4828 load).</p>
4829
4830 <p>I wonder why the battery capacity was reported to be more than 100%
4831 at the start.  I also wonder why the "full capacity" increases some
4832 times, and if it is possible to repeat the process to get the battery
4833 back to design capacity.  And I wonder if the discharge and charge
4834 speed change over time, or if this stay the same.  I did not yet try
4835 to write a tool to calculate the derivative values of the battery
4836 level, but suspect some interesting insights might be learned from
4837 those.</p>
4838
4839 <p>Update 2015-09-24: I got a tip to install the packages
4840 acpi-call-dkms and tlp (unfortunately missing in Debian stable)
4841 packages instead of the tp-smapi-dkms package I had tried to use
4842 initially, and use 'tlp setcharge 40 80' to change when charging start
4843 and stop.  I've done so now, but expect my existing battery is toast
4844 and need to be replaced.  The proposal is unfortunately Thinkpad
4845 specific.</p>
4846
4847       </div>
4848       <div class="tags">
4849
4850
4851         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
4852
4853
4854       </div>
4855     </div>
4856     <div class="padding"></div>
4857
4858     <div class="entry">
4859       <div class="title">
4860         <a href="http://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>
4861       </div>
4862       <div class="date">
4863          5th July 2015
4864       </div>
4865       <div class="body">
4866         <p>Several people contacted me after my previous blog post about my
4867 need for a new laptop, and provided very useful feedback.  I wish to
4868 thank every one of these.  Several pointed me to the possibility of
4869 fixing my X230, and I am already in the process of getting Lenovo to
4870 do so thanks to the on site, next day support contract covering the
4871 machine.  But the battery is almost useless (I expect to replace it
4872 with a non-official battery) and I do not expect the machine to live
4873 for many more years, so it is time to plan its replacement.  If I did
4874 not have a support contract, it was suggested to find replacement parts
4875 using <a href="http://www.francecrans.com/">FrancEcrans</a>, but it
4876 might present a language barrier as I do not understand French.</p>
4877
4878 <p>One tip I got was to use the
4879 <a href="https://skinflint.co.uk/?cat=nb">Skinflint</a> web service to
4880 compare laptop models.  It seem to have more models available than
4881 prisjakt.no.  Another tip I got from someone I know have similar
4882 keyboard preferences was that the HP EliteBook 840 keyboard is not
4883 very good, and this matches my experience with earlier EliteBook
4884 keyboards I tested.  Because of this, I will not consider it any further.
4885
4886 <p>When I wrote my blog post, I was not aware of Thinkpad X250, the
4887 newest Thinkpad X model.  The keyboard reintroduces mouse buttons
4888 (which is missing from the X240), and is working fairly well with
4889 Debian Sid/Unstable according to
4890 <a href="http://www.corsac.net/X250/">Corsac.net</a>.  The reports I
4891 got on the keyboard quality are not consistent.  Some say the keyboard
4892 is good, others say it is ok, while others say it is not very good.
4893 Those with experience from X41 and and X60 agree that the X250
4894 keyboard is not as good as those trusty old laptops, and suggest I
4895 keep and fix my X230 instead of upgrading, or get a used X230 to
4896 replace it.  I'm also told that the X250 lack leds for caps lock, disk
4897 activity and battery status, which is very convenient on my X230.  I'm
4898 also told that the CPU fan is running very often, making it a bit
4899 noisy.  In any case, the X250 do not work out of the box with Debian
4900 Stable/Jessie, one of my requirements.</p>
4901
4902 <p>I have also gotten a few vendor proposals, one was
4903 <a href="http://pro-star.com">Pro-Star</a>, another was
4904 <a href="http://shop.gluglug.org.uk/product/libreboot-x200/">Libreboot</a>.
4905 The latter look very attractive to me.</p>
4906
4907 <p>Again, thank you all for the very useful feedback.  It help a lot
4908 as I keep looking for a replacement.</p>
4909
4910 <p>Update 2015-07-06: I was recommended to check out the
4911 <a href="">lapstore.de</a> web shop for used laptops.  They got several
4912 different
4913 <a href="http://www.lapstore.de/f.php/shop/lapstore/f/411/lang/x/kw/Lenovo_ThinkPad_X_Serie/">old
4914 thinkpad X models</a>, and provide one year warranty.</p>
4915
4916       </div>
4917       <div class="tags">
4918
4919
4920         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
4921
4922
4923       </div>
4924     </div>
4925     <div class="padding"></div>
4926
4927     <div class="entry">
4928       <div class="title">
4929         <a href="http://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>
4930       </div>
4931       <div class="date">
4932          3rd July 2015
4933       </div>
4934       <div class="body">
4935         <p>My primary work horse laptop is failing, and will need a
4936 replacement soon.  The left 5 cm of the screen on my Thinkpad X230
4937 started flickering yesterday, and I suspect the cause is a broken
4938 cable, as changing the angle of the screen some times get rid of the
4939 flickering.</p>
4940
4941 <p>My requirements have not really changed since I bought it, and is
4942 still as
4943 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Thank_you_Thinkpad_X41__for_your_long_and_trustworthy_service.html">I
4944 described them in 2013</a>.  The last time I bought a laptop, I had
4945 good help from
4946 <a href="http://www.prisjakt.no/category.php?k=353">prisjakt.no</a>
4947 where I could select at least a few of the requirements (mouse pin,
4948 wifi, weight) and go through the rest manually.  Three button mouse
4949 and a good keyboard is not available as an option, and all the three
4950 laptop models proposed today (Thinkpad X240, HP EliteBook 820 G1 and
4951 G2) lack three mouse buttons).  It is also unclear to me how good the
4952 keyboard on the HP EliteBooks are.  I hope Lenovo have not messed up
4953 the keyboard, even if the quality and robustness in the X series have
4954 deteriorated since X41.</p>
4955
4956 <p>I wonder how I can find a sensible laptop when none of the options
4957 seem sensible to me?  Are there better services around to search the
4958 set of available laptops for features?  Please send me an email if you
4959 have suggestions.</p>
4960
4961 <p>Update 2015-07-23: I got a suggestion to check out the FSF
4962 <a href="http://www.fsf.org/resources/hw/endorsement/respects-your-freedom">list
4963 of endorsed hardware</a>, which is useful background information.</p>
4964
4965       </div>
4966       <div class="tags">
4967
4968
4969         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
4970
4971
4972       </div>
4973     </div>
4974     <div class="padding"></div>
4975
4976     <div class="entry">
4977       <div class="title">
4978         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_stay_with_sysvinit_in_Debian_Jessie.html">How to stay with sysvinit in Debian Jessie</a>
4979       </div>
4980       <div class="date">
4981         22nd November 2014
4982       </div>
4983       <div class="body">
4984         <p>By now, it is well known that Debian Jessie will not be using
4985 sysvinit as its boot system by default.  But how can one keep using
4986 sysvinit in Jessie?  It is fairly easy, and here are a few recipes,
4987 courtesy of
4988 <a href="http://www.vitavonni.de/blog/201410/2014102101-avoiding-systemd.html">Erich
4989 Schubert</a> and
4990 <a href="http://smcv.pseudorandom.co.uk/2014/still_universal/">Simon
4991 McVittie</a>.
4992
4993 <p>If you already are using Wheezy and want to upgrade to Jessie and
4994 keep sysvinit as your boot system, create a file
4995 <tt>/etc/apt/preferences.d/use-sysvinit</tt> with this content before
4996 you upgrade:</p>
4997
4998 <p><blockquote><pre>
4999 Package: systemd-sysv
5000 Pin: release o=Debian
5001 Pin-Priority: -1
5002 </pre></blockquote><p>
5003
5004 <p>This file content will tell apt and aptitude to not consider
5005 installing systemd-sysv as part of any installation and upgrade
5006 solution when resolving dependencies, and thus tell it to avoid
5007 systemd as a default boot system.  The end result should be that the
5008 upgraded system keep using sysvinit.</p>
5009
5010 <p>If you are installing Jessie for the first time, there is no way to
5011 get sysvinit installed by default (debootstrap used by
5012 debian-installer have no option for this), but one can tell the
5013 installer to switch to sysvinit before the first boot.  Either by
5014 using a kernel argument to the installer, or by adding a line to the
5015 preseed file used.  First, the kernel command line argument:
5016
5017 <p><blockquote><pre>
5018 preseed/late_command="in-target apt-get install --purge -y sysvinit-core"
5019 </pre></blockquote><p>
5020
5021 <p>Next, the line to use in a preseed file:</p>
5022
5023 <p><blockquote><pre>
5024 d-i preseed/late_command string in-target apt-get install -y sysvinit-core
5025 </pre></blockquote><p>
5026
5027 <p>One can of course also do this after the first boot by installing
5028 the sysvinit-core package.</p>
5029
5030 <p>I recommend only using sysvinit if you really need it, as the
5031 sysvinit boot sequence in Debian have several hardware specific bugs
5032 on Linux caused by the fact that it is unpredictable when hardware
5033 devices show up during boot.  But on the other hand, the new default
5034 boot system still have a few rough edges I hope will be fixed before
5035 Jessie is released.</p>
5036
5037 <p>Update 2014-11-26: Inspired by
5038 <ahref="https://www.mirbsd.org/permalinks/wlog-10-tg_e20141125-tg.htm#e20141125-tg_wlog-10-tg">a
5039 blog post by Torsten Glaser</a>, added --purge to the preseed
5040 line.</p>
5041
5042       </div>
5043       <div class="tags">
5044
5045
5046         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bootsystem">bootsystem</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
5047
5048
5049       </div>
5050     </div>
5051     <div class="padding"></div>
5052
5053     <div class="entry">
5054       <div class="title">
5055         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/A_Debian_package_for_SMTP_via_Tor__aka_SMTorP__using_exim4.html">A Debian package for SMTP via Tor (aka SMTorP) using exim4</a>
5056       </div>
5057       <div class="date">
5058         10th November 2014
5059       </div>
5060       <div class="body">
5061         <p>The right to communicate with your friends and family in private,
5062 without anyone snooping, is a right every citicen have in a liberal
5063 democracy.  But this right is under serious attack these days.</p>
5064
5065 <p>A while back it occurred to me that one way to make the dragnet
5066 surveillance conducted by NSA, GCHQ, FRA and others (and confirmed by
5067 the whisleblower Snowden) more expensive for Internet email,
5068 is to deliver all email using SMTP via Tor.  Such SMTP option would be
5069 a nice addition to the FreedomBox project if we could send email
5070 between FreedomBox machines without leaking metadata about the emails
5071 to the people peeking on the wire.  I
5072 <a href="http://lists.alioth.debian.org/pipermail/freedombox-discuss/2014-October/006493.html">proposed
5073 this on the FreedomBox project mailing list in October</a> and got a
5074 lot of useful feedback and suggestions.  It also became obvious to me
5075 that this was not a novel idea, as the same idea was tested and
5076 documented by Johannes Berg as early as 2006, and both
5077 <a href="https://github.com/pagekite/Mailpile/wiki/SMTorP">the
5078 Mailpile</a> and <a href="http://dee.su/cables">the Cables</a> systems
5079 propose a similar method / protocol to pass emails between users.</p>
5080
5081 <p>To implement such system one need to set up a Tor hidden service
5082 providing the SMTP protocol on port 25, and use email addresses
5083 looking like username@hidden-service-name.onion.  With such addresses
5084 the connections to port 25 on hidden-service-name.onion using Tor will
5085 go to the correct SMTP server.  To do this, one need to configure the
5086 Tor daemon to provide the hidden service and the mail server to accept
5087 emails for this .onion domain.  To learn more about Exim configuration
5088 in Debian and test the design provided by Johannes Berg in his FAQ, I
5089 set out yesterday to create a Debian package for making it trivial to
5090 set up such SMTP over Tor service based on Debian.  Getting it to work
5091 were fairly easy, and
5092 <a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/exim4-smtorp">the
5093 source code for the Debian package</a> is available from github.  I
5094 plan to move it into Debian if further testing prove this to be a
5095 useful approach.</p>
5096
5097 <p>If you want to test this, set up a blank Debian machine without any
5098 mail system installed (or run <tt>apt-get purge exim4-config</tt> to
5099 get rid of exim4).  Install tor, clone the git repository mentioned
5100 above, build the deb and install it on the machine.  Next, run
5101 <tt>/usr/lib/exim4-smtorp/setup-exim-hidden-service</tt> and follow
5102 the instructions to get the service up and running.  Restart tor and
5103 exim when it is done, and test mail delivery using swaks like
5104 this:</p>
5105
5106 <p><blockquote><pre>
5107 torsocks swaks --server dutlqrrmjhtfa3vp.onion \
5108   --to fbx@dutlqrrmjhtfa3vp.onion
5109 </pre></blockquote></p>
5110
5111 <p>This will test the SMTP delivery using tor.  Replace the email
5112 address with your own address to test your server. :)</p>
5113
5114 <p>The setup procedure is still to complex, and I hope it can be made
5115 easier and more automatic.  Especially the tor setup need more work.
5116 Also, the package include a tor-smtp tool written in C, but its task
5117 should probably be rewritten in some script language to make the deb
5118 architecture independent.  It would probably also make the code easier
5119 to review.  The tor-smtp tool currently need to listen on a socket for
5120 exim to talk to it and is started using xinetd.  It would be better if
5121 no daemon and no socket is needed.  I suspect it is possible to get
5122 exim to run a command line tool for delivery instead of talking to a
5123 socket, and hope to figure out how in a future version of this
5124 system.</p>
5125
5126 <p>Until I wipe my test machine, I can be reached using the
5127 <tt>fbx@dutlqrrmjhtfa3vp.onion</tt> mail address, deliverable over
5128 SMTorP. :)</p>
5129
5130       </div>
5131       <div class="tags">
5132
5133
5134         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freedombox">freedombox</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/personvern">personvern</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance</a>.
5135
5136
5137       </div>
5138     </div>
5139     <div class="padding"></div>
5140
5141     <div class="entry">
5142       <div class="title">
5143         <a href="http://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>
5144       </div>
5145       <div class="date">
5146         22nd October 2014
5147       </div>
5148       <div class="body">
5149         <p>If you ever had to moderate a mailman list, like the ones on
5150 alioth.debian.org, you know the web interface is fairly slow to
5151 operate.  First you visit one web page, enter the moderation password
5152 and get a new page shown with a list of all the messages to moderate
5153 and various options for each email address.  This take a while for
5154 every list you moderate, and you need to do it regularly to do a good
5155 job as a list moderator.  But there is a quick alternative,
5156 <a href="http://heim.ifi.uio.no/kjetilho/hacks/#listadmin">the
5157 listadmin program</a>.  It allow you to check lists for new messages
5158 to moderate in a fraction of a second.  Here is a test run on two
5159 lists I recently took over:</p>
5160
5161 <p><blockquote><pre>
5162 % time listadmin xiph
5163 fetching data for pkg-xiph-commits@lists.alioth.debian.org ... nothing in queue
5164 fetching data for pkg-xiph-maint@lists.alioth.debian.org ... nothing in queue
5165
5166 real    0m1.709s
5167 user    0m0.232s
5168 sys     0m0.012s
5169 %
5170 </pre></blockquote></p>
5171
5172 <p>In 1.7 seconds I had checked two mailing lists and confirmed that
5173 there are no message in the moderation queue.  Every morning I
5174 currently moderate 68 mailman lists, and it normally take around two
5175 minutes.  When I took over the two pkg-xiph lists above a few days
5176 ago, there were 400 emails waiting in the moderator queue.  It took me
5177 less than 15 minutes to process them all using the listadmin
5178 program.</p>
5179
5180 <p>If you install
5181 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/listadmin">the listadmin
5182 package</a> from Debian and create a file <tt>~/.listadmin.ini</tt>
5183 with content like this, the moderation task is a breeze:</p>
5184
5185 <p><blockquote><pre>
5186 username username@example.org
5187 spamlevel 23
5188 default discard
5189 discard_if_reason "Posting restricted to members only. Remove us from your mail list."
5190
5191 password secret
5192 adminurl https://{domain}/mailman/admindb/{list}
5193 mailman-list@lists.example.com
5194
5195 password hidden
5196 other-list@otherserver.example.org
5197 </pre></blockquote></p>
5198
5199 <p>There are other options to set as well.  Check the manual page to
5200 learn the details.</p>
5201
5202 <p>If you are forced to moderate lists on a mailman installation where
5203 the SSL certificate is self signed or not properly signed by a
5204 generally accepted signing authority, you can set a environment
5205 variable when calling listadmin to disable SSL verification:</p>
5206
5207 <p><blockquote><pre>
5208 PERL_LWP_SSL_VERIFY_HOSTNAME=0 listadmin
5209 </pre></blockquote></p>
5210
5211 <p>If you want to moderate a subset of the lists you take care of, you
5212 can provide an argument to the listadmin script like I do in the
5213 initial screen dump (the xiph argument).  Using an argument, only
5214 lists matching the argument string will be processed.  This make it
5215 quick to accept messages if you notice the moderation request in your
5216 email.</p>
5217
5218 <p>Without the listadmin program, I would never be the moderator of 68
5219 mailing lists, as I simply do not have time to spend on that if the
5220 process was any slower. The listadmin program have saved me hours of
5221 time I could spend elsewhere over the years.  It truly is nice free
5222 software.</p>
5223
5224 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
5225 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
5226 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
5227
5228 <p>Update 2014-10-27: Added missing 'username' statement in
5229 configuration example.  Also, I've been told that the
5230 PERL_LWP_SSL_VERIFY_HOSTNAME=0 setting do not work for everyone.  Not
5231 sure why.</p>
5232
5233       </div>
5234       <div class="tags">
5235
5236
5237         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nice free software">nice free software</a>.
5238
5239
5240       </div>
5241     </div>
5242     <div class="padding"></div>
5243
5244     <div class="entry">
5245       <div class="title">
5246         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Jessie__PXE_and_automatic_firmware_installation.html">Debian Jessie, PXE and automatic firmware installation</a>
5247       </div>
5248       <div class="date">
5249         17th October 2014
5250       </div>
5251       <div class="body">
5252         <p>When PXE installing laptops with Debian, I often run into the
5253 problem that the WiFi card require some firmware to work properly.
5254 And it has been a pain to fix this using preseeding in Debian.
5255 Normally something more is needed.  But thanks to
5256 <a href="https://packages.qa.debian.org/i/isenkram.html">my isenkram
5257 package</a> and its recent tasksel extension, it has now become easy
5258 to do this using simple preseeding.</p>
5259
5260 <p>The isenkram-cli package provide tasksel tasks which will install
5261 firmware for the hardware found in the machine (actually, requested by
5262 the kernel modules for the hardware).  (It can also install user space
5263 programs supporting the hardware detected, but that is not the focus
5264 of this story.)</p>
5265
5266 <p>To get this working in the default installation, two preeseding
5267 values are needed.  First, the isenkram-cli package must be installed
5268 into the target chroot (aka the hard drive) before tasksel is executed
5269 in the pkgsel step of the debian-installer system.  This is done by
5270 preseeding the base-installer/includes debconf value to include the
5271 isenkram-cli package.  The package name is next passed to debootstrap
5272 for installation.  With the isenkram-cli package in place, tasksel
5273 will automatically use the isenkram tasks to detect hardware specific
5274 packages for the machine being installed and install them, because
5275 isenkram-cli contain tasksel tasks.</p>
5276
5277 <p>Second, one need to enable the non-free APT repository, because
5278 most firmware unfortunately is non-free.  This is done by preseeding
5279 the apt-mirror-setup step.  This is unfortunate, but for a lot of
5280 hardware it is the only option in Debian.</p>
5281
5282 <p>The end result is two lines needed in your preseeding file to get
5283 firmware installed automatically by the installer:</p>
5284
5285 <p><blockquote><pre>
5286 base-installer base-installer/includes string isenkram-cli
5287 apt-mirror-setup apt-setup/non-free boolean true
5288 </pre></blockquote></p>
5289
5290 <p>The current version of isenkram-cli in testing/jessie will install
5291 both firmware and user space packages when using this method.  It also
5292 do not work well, so use version 0.15 or later.  Installing both
5293 firmware and user space packages might give you a bit more than you
5294 want, so I decided to split the tasksel task in two, one for firmware
5295 and one for user space programs.  The firmware task is enabled by
5296 default, while the one for user space programs is not.  This split is
5297 implemented in the package currently in unstable.</p>
5298
5299 <p>If you decide to give this a go, please let me know (via email) how
5300 this recipe work for you. :)</p>
5301
5302 <p>So, I bet you are wondering, how can this work.  First and
5303 foremost, it work because tasksel is modular, and driven by whatever
5304 files it find in /usr/lib/tasksel/ and /usr/share/tasksel/.  So the
5305 isenkram-cli package place two files for tasksel to find.  First there
5306 is the task description file (/usr/share/tasksel/descs/isenkram.desc):</p>
5307
5308 <p><blockquote><pre>
5309 Task: isenkram-packages
5310 Section: hardware
5311 Description: Hardware specific packages (autodetected by isenkram)
5312  Based on the detected hardware various hardware specific packages are
5313  proposed.
5314 Test-new-install: show show
5315 Relevance: 8
5316 Packages: for-current-hardware
5317
5318 Task: isenkram-firmware
5319 Section: hardware
5320 Description: Hardware specific firmware packages (autodetected by isenkram)
5321  Based on the detected hardware various hardware specific firmware
5322  packages are proposed.
5323 Test-new-install: mark show
5324 Relevance: 8
5325 Packages: for-current-hardware-firmware
5326 </pre></blockquote></p>
5327
5328 <p>The key parts are Test-new-install which indicate how the task
5329 should be handled and the Packages line referencing to a script in
5330 /usr/lib/tasksel/packages/.  The scripts use other scripts to get a
5331 list of packages to install.  The for-current-hardware-firmware script
5332 look like this to list relevant firmware for the machine:
5333
5334 <p><blockquote><pre>
5335 #!/bin/sh
5336 #
5337 PATH=/usr/sbin:$PATH
5338 export PATH
5339 isenkram-autoinstall-firmware -l
5340 </pre></blockquote></p>
5341
5342 <p>With those two pieces in place, the firmware is installed by
5343 tasksel during the normal d-i run. :)</p>
5344
5345 <p>If you want to test what tasksel will install when isenkram-cli is
5346 installed, run <tt>DEBIAN_PRIORITY=critical tasksel --test
5347 --new-install</tt> to get the list of packages that tasksel would
5348 install.</p>
5349
5350 <p><a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/">Debian Edu</a> will be
5351 pilots in testing this feature, as isenkram is used there now to
5352 install firmware, replacing the earlier scripts.</p>
5353
5354       </div>
5355       <div class="tags">
5356
5357
5358         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram">isenkram</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sysadmin">sysadmin</a>.
5359
5360
5361       </div>
5362     </div>
5363     <div class="padding"></div>
5364
5365     <div class="entry">
5366       <div class="title">
5367         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Ubuntu_used_to_show_the_bread_prizes_at_ICA_Storo.html">Ubuntu used to show the bread prizes at ICA Storo</a>
5368       </div>
5369       <div class="date">
5370          4th October 2014
5371       </div>
5372       <div class="body">
5373         <p>Today I came across an unexpected Ubuntu boot screen.  Above the
5374 bread shelf on the ICA shop at Storo in Oslo, the grub menu of Ubuntu
5375 with Linux kernel 3.2.0-23 (ie probably version 12.04 LTS) was stuck
5376 on a screen normally showing the bread types and prizes:</p>
5377
5378 <p align="center"><img width="70%" src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2014-10-04-ubuntu-ica-storo-crop.jpeg"></p>
5379
5380 <p>If it had booted as it was supposed to, I would never had known
5381 about this hidden Linux installation.  It is interesting what
5382 <a href="http://revealingerrors.com/">errors can reveal</a>.</p>
5383
5384       </div>
5385       <div class="tags">
5386
5387
5388         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
5389
5390
5391       </div>
5392     </div>
5393     <div class="padding"></div>
5394
5395     <div class="entry">
5396       <div class="title">
5397         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/New_lsdvd_release_version_0_17_is_ready.html">New lsdvd release version 0.17 is ready</a>
5398       </div>
5399       <div class="date">
5400          4th October 2014
5401       </div>
5402       <div class="body">
5403         <p>The <a href="https://sourceforge.net/p/lsdvd/">lsdvd project</a>
5404 got a new set of developers a few weeks ago, after the original
5405 developer decided to step down and pass the project to fresh blood.
5406 This project is now maintained by Petter Reinholdtsen and Steve
5407 Dibb.</p>
5408
5409 <p>I just wrapped up
5410 <a href="https://sourceforge.net/p/lsdvd/mailman/message/32896061/">a
5411 new lsdvd release</a>, available in git or from
5412 <a href="https://sourceforge.net/projects/lsdvd/files/lsdvd/">the
5413 download page</a>.  This is the changelog dated 2014-10-03 for version
5414 0.17.</p>
5415
5416 <ul>
5417
5418  <li>Ignore 'phantom' audio, subtitle tracks</li>
5419  <li>Check for garbage in the program chains, which indicate that a track is
5420    non-existant, to work around additional copy protection</li>
5421  <li>Fix displaying content type for audio tracks, subtitles</li>
5422  <li>Fix pallete display of first entry</li>
5423  <li>Fix include orders</li>
5424  <li>Ignore read errors in titles that would not be displayed anyway</li>
5425  <li>Fix the chapter count</li>
5426  <li>Make sure the array size and the array limit used when initialising
5427    the palette size is the same.</li>
5428  <li>Fix array printing.</li>
5429  <li>Correct subsecond calculations.</li>
5430  <li>Add sector information to the output format.</li>
5431  <li>Clean up code to be closer to ANSI C and compile without warnings
5432    with more GCC compiler warnings.</li>
5433
5434 </ul>
5435
5436 <p>This change bring together patches for lsdvd in use in various
5437 Linux and Unix distributions, as well as patches submitted to the
5438 project the last nine years.  Please check it out. :)</p>
5439
5440       </div>
5441       <div class="tags">
5442
5443
5444         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/lsdvd">lsdvd</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/multimedia">multimedia</a>.
5445
5446
5447       </div>
5448     </div>
5449     <div class="padding"></div>
5450
5451     <div class="entry">
5452       <div class="title">
5453         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_test_Debian_Edu_Jessie_despite_some_fatal_problems_with_the_installer.html">How to test Debian Edu Jessie despite some fatal problems with the installer</a>
5454       </div>
5455       <div class="date">
5456         26th September 2014
5457       </div>
5458       <div class="body">
5459         <p>The <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux
5460 project</a> provide a Linux solution for schools, including a
5461 powerful desktop with education software, a central server providing
5462 web pages, user database, user home directories, central login and PXE
5463 boot of both  clients without disk and the installation to install Debian
5464 Edu on machines with disk (and a few other services perhaps to small
5465 to mention here).  We in the Debian Edu team are currently working on
5466 the Jessie based version, trying to get everything in shape before the
5467 freeze, to avoid having to maintain our own package repository in the
5468 future.  The
5469 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Status/Jessie">current
5470 status</a> can be seen on the Debian wiki, and there is still heaps of
5471 work left.  Some fatal problems block testing, breaking the installer,
5472 but it is possible to work around these to get anyway.  Here is a
5473 recipe on how to get the installation limping along.</p>
5474
5475 <p>First, download the test ISO via
5476 <a href="ftp://ftp.skolelinux.no/cd-edu-testing-nolocal-netinst/debian-edu-amd64-i386-NETINST-1.iso">ftp</a>,
5477 <a href="http://ftp.skolelinux.no/cd-edu-testing-nolocal-netinst/debian-edu-amd64-i386-NETINST-1.iso">http</a>
5478 or rsync (use
5479 ftp.skolelinux.org::cd-edu-testing-nolocal-netinst/debian-edu-amd64-i386-NETINST-1.iso).
5480 The ISO build was broken on Tuesday, so we do not get a new ISO every
5481 12 hours or so, but thankfully the ISO we already got we are able to
5482 install with some tweaking.</p>
5483
5484 <p>When you get to the Debian Edu profile question, go to tty2
5485 (use Alt-Ctrl-F2), run</p>
5486
5487 <p><blockquote><pre>
5488 nano /usr/bin/edu-eatmydata-install
5489 </pre></blockquote></p>
5490
5491 <p>and add 'exit 0' as the second line, disabling the eatmydata
5492 optimization.  Return to the installation, select the profile you want
5493 and continue.  Without this change, exim4-config will fail to install
5494 due to a known bug in eatmydata.</p>
5495
5496 <p>When you get the grub question at the end, answer /dev/sda (or if
5497 this do not work, figure out what your correct value would be.  All my
5498 test machines need /dev/sda, so I have no advice if it do not fit
5499 your need.</p>
5500
5501 <p>If you installed a profile including a graphical desktop, log in as
5502 root after the initial boot from hard drive, and install the
5503 education-desktop-XXX metapackage.  XXX can be kde, gnome, lxde, xfce
5504 or mate.  If you want several desktop options, install more than one
5505 metapackage.  Once this is done, reboot and you should have a working
5506 graphical login screen.  This workaround should no longer be needed
5507 once the education-tasks package version 1.801 enter testing in two
5508 days.</p>
5509
5510 <p>I believe the ISO build will start working on two days when the new
5511 tasksel package enter testing and Steve McIntyre get a chance to
5512 update the debian-cd git repository.  The eatmydata, grub and desktop
5513 issues are already fixed in unstable and testing, and should show up
5514 on the ISO as soon as the ISO build start working again.  Well the
5515 eatmydata optimization is really just disabled.  The proper fix
5516 require an upload by the eatmydata maintainer applying the patch
5517 provided in bug <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/702711">#702711</a>.
5518 The rest have proper fixes in unstable.</p>
5519
5520 <p>I hope this get you going with the installation testing, as we are
5521 quickly running out of time trying to get our Jessie based
5522 installation ready before the distribution freeze in a month.</p>
5523
5524       </div>
5525       <div class="tags">
5526
5527
5528         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
5529
5530
5531       </div>
5532     </div>
5533     <div class="padding"></div>
5534
5535     <div class="entry">
5536       <div class="title">
5537         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Suddenly_I_am_the_new_upstream_of_the_lsdvd_command_line_tool.html">Suddenly I am the new upstream of the lsdvd command line tool</a>
5538       </div>
5539       <div class="date">
5540         25th September 2014
5541       </div>
5542       <div class="body">
5543         <p>I use the <a href="https://sourceforge.net/p/lsdvd/">lsdvd tool</a>
5544 to handle my fairly large DVD collection.  It is a nice command line
5545 tool to get details about a DVD, like title, tracks, track length,
5546 etc, in XML, Perl or human readable format.  But lsdvd have not seen
5547 any new development since 2006 and had a few irritating bugs affecting
5548 its use with some DVDs.  Upstream seemed to be dead, and in January I
5549 sent a small probe asking for a version control repository for the
5550 project, without any reply.  But I use it regularly and would like to
5551 get <a href="https://packages.qa.debian.org/lsdvd">an updated version
5552 into Debian</a>.  So two weeks ago I tried harder to get in touch with
5553 the project admin, and after getting a reply from him explaining that
5554 he was no longer interested in the project, I asked if I could take
5555 over.  And yesterday, I became project admin.</p>
5556
5557 <p>I've been in touch with a Gentoo developer and the Debian
5558 maintainer interested in joining forces to maintain the upstream
5559 project, and I hope we can get a new release out fairly quickly,
5560 collecting the patches spread around on the internet into on place.
5561 I've added the relevant Debian patches to the freshly created git
5562 repository, and expect the Gentoo patches to make it too.  If you got
5563 a DVD collection and care about command line tools, check out
5564 <a href="https://sourceforge.net/p/lsdvd/git/ci/master/tree/">the git source</a> and join
5565 <a href="https://sourceforge.net/p/lsdvd/mailman/">the project mailing
5566 list</a>. :)</p>
5567
5568       </div>
5569       <div class="tags">
5570
5571
5572         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/lsdvd">lsdvd</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/multimedia">multimedia</a>.
5573
5574
5575       </div>
5576     </div>
5577     <div class="padding"></div>
5578
5579     <div class="entry">
5580       <div class="title">
5581         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Speeding_up_the_Debian_installer_using_eatmydata_and_dpkg_divert.html">Speeding up the Debian installer using eatmydata and dpkg-divert</a>
5582       </div>
5583       <div class="date">
5584         16th September 2014
5585       </div>
5586       <div class="body">
5587         <p>The <a href="https://www.debian.org/">Debian</a> installer could be
5588 a lot quicker.  When we install more than 2000 packages in
5589 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Skolelinux / Debian Edu</a> using
5590 tasksel in the installer, unpacking the binary packages take forever.
5591 A part of the slow I/O issue was discussed in
5592 <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/613428">bug #613428</a> about too
5593 much file system sync-ing done by dpkg, which is the package
5594 responsible for unpacking the binary packages.  Other parts (like code
5595 executed by postinst scripts) might also sync to disk during
5596 installation.  All this sync-ing to disk do not really make sense to
5597 me.  If the machine crash half-way through, I start over, I do not try
5598 to salvage the half installed system.  So the failure sync-ing is
5599 supposed to protect against, hardware or system crash, is not really
5600 relevant while the installer is running.</p>
5601
5602 <p>A few days ago, I thought of a way to get rid of all the file
5603 system sync()-ing in a fairly non-intrusive way, without the need to
5604 change the code in several packages.  The idea is not new, but I have
5605 not heard anyone propose the approach using dpkg-divert before.  It
5606 depend on the small and clever package
5607 <a href="https://packages.qa.debian.org/eatmydata">eatmydata</a>, which
5608 uses LD_PRELOAD to replace the system functions for syncing data to
5609 disk with functions doing nothing, thus allowing programs to live
5610 dangerous while speeding up disk I/O significantly.  Instead of
5611 modifying the implementation of dpkg, apt and tasksel (which are the
5612 packages responsible for selecting, fetching and installing packages),
5613 it occurred to me that we could just divert the programs away, replace
5614 them with a simple shell wrapper calling
5615 "eatmydata&nbsp;$program&nbsp;$@", to get the same effect.
5616 Two days ago I decided to test the idea, and wrapped up a simple
5617 implementation for the Debian Edu udeb.</p>
5618
5619 <p>The effect was stunning.  In my first test it reduced the running
5620 time of the pkgsel step (installing tasks) from 64 to less than 44
5621 minutes (20 minutes shaved off the installation) on an old Dell
5622 Latitude D505 machine.  I am not quite sure what the optimised time
5623 would have been, as I messed up the testing a bit, causing the debconf
5624 priority to get low enough for two questions to pop up during
5625 installation.  As soon as I saw the questions I moved the installation
5626 along, but do not know how long the question were holding up the
5627 installation.  I did some more measurements using Debian Edu Jessie,
5628 and got these results.  The time measured is the time stamp in
5629 /var/log/syslog between the "pkgsel: starting tasksel" and the
5630 "pkgsel: finishing up" lines, if you want to do the same measurement
5631 yourself.  In Debian Edu, the tasksel dialog do not show up, and the
5632 timing thus do not depend on how quickly the user handle the tasksel
5633 dialog.</p>
5634
5635 <p><table>
5636
5637 <tr>
5638 <th>Machine/setup</th>
5639 <th>Original tasksel</th>
5640 <th>Optimised tasksel</th>
5641 <th>Reduction</th>
5642 </tr>
5643
5644 <tr>
5645 <td>Latitude D505 Main+LTSP LXDE</td>
5646 <td>64 min (07:46-08:50)</td>
5647 <td><44 min (11:27-12:11)</td>
5648 <td>>20 min 18%</td>
5649 </tr>
5650
5651 <tr>
5652 <td>Latitude D505 Roaming LXDE</td>
5653 <td>57 min (08:48-09:45)</td>
5654 <td>34 min (07:43-08:17)</td>
5655 <td>23 min 40%</td>
5656 </tr>
5657
5658 <tr>
5659 <td>Latitude D505 Minimal</td>
5660 <td>22 min (10:37-10:59)</td>
5661 <td>11 min (11:16-11:27)</td>
5662 <td>11 min 50%</td>
5663 </tr>
5664
5665 <tr>
5666 <td>Thinkpad X200 Minimal</td>
5667 <td>6 min (08:19-08:25)</td>
5668 <td>4 min (08:04-08:08)</td>
5669 <td>2 min 33%</td>
5670 </tr>
5671
5672 <tr>
5673 <td>Thinkpad X200 Roaming KDE</td>
5674 <td>19 min (09:21-09:40)</td>
5675 <td>15 min (10:25-10:40)</td>
5676 <td>4 min 21%</td>
5677 </tr>
5678
5679 </table></p>
5680
5681 <p>The test is done using a netinst ISO on a USB stick, so some of the
5682 time is spent downloading packages.  The connection to the Internet
5683 was 100Mbit/s during testing, so downloading should not be a
5684 significant factor in the measurement.  Download typically took a few
5685 seconds to a few minutes, depending on the amount of packages being
5686 installed.</p>
5687
5688 <p>The speedup is implemented by using two hooks in
5689 <a href="https://www.debian.org/devel/debian-installer/">Debian
5690 Installer</a>, the pre-pkgsel.d hook to set up the diverts, and the
5691 finish-install.d hook to remove the divert at the end of the
5692 installation.  I picked the pre-pkgsel.d hook instead of the
5693 post-base-installer.d hook because I test using an ISO without the
5694 eatmydata package included, and the post-base-installer.d hook in
5695 Debian Edu can only operate on packages included in the ISO.  The
5696 negative effect of this is that I am unable to activate this
5697 optimization for the kernel installation step in d-i.  If the code is
5698 moved to the post-base-installer.d hook, the speedup would be larger
5699 for the entire installation.</p>
5700
5701 <p>I've implemented this in the
5702 <a href="https://packages.qa.debian.org/debian-edu-install">debian-edu-install</a>
5703 git repository, and plan to provide the optimization as part of the
5704 Debian Edu installation.  If you want to test this yourself, you can
5705 create two files in the installer (or in an udeb).  One shell script
5706 need do go into /usr/lib/pre-pkgsel.d/, with content like this:</p>
5707
5708 <p><blockquote><pre>
5709 #!/bin/sh
5710 set -e
5711 . /usr/share/debconf/confmodule
5712 info() {
5713     logger -t my-pkgsel "info: $*"
5714 }
5715 error() {
5716     logger -t my-pkgsel "error: $*"
5717 }
5718 override_install() {
5719     apt-install eatmydata || true
5720     if [ -x /target/usr/bin/eatmydata ] ; then
5721         for bin in dpkg apt-get aptitude tasksel ; do
5722             file=/usr/bin/$bin
5723             # Test that the file exist and have not been diverted already.
5724             if [ -f /target$file ] ; then
5725                 info "diverting $file using eatmydata"
5726                 printf "#!/bin/sh\neatmydata $bin.distrib \"\$@\"\n" \
5727                     > /target$file.edu
5728                 chmod 755 /target$file.edu
5729                 in-target dpkg-divert --package debian-edu-config \
5730                     --rename --quiet --add $file
5731                 ln -sf ./$bin.edu /target$file
5732             else
5733                 error "unable to divert $file, as it is missing."
5734             fi
5735         done
5736     else
5737         error "unable to find /usr/bin/eatmydata after installing the eatmydata pacage"
5738     fi
5739 }
5740
5741 override_install
5742 </pre></blockquote></p>
5743
5744 <p>To clean up, another shell script should go into
5745 /usr/lib/finish-install.d/ with code like this:
5746
5747 <p><blockquote><pre>
5748 #! /bin/sh -e
5749 . /usr/share/debconf/confmodule
5750 error() {
5751     logger -t my-finish-install "error: $@"
5752 }
5753 remove_install_override() {
5754     for bin in dpkg apt-get aptitude tasksel ; do
5755         file=/usr/bin/$bin
5756         if [ -x /target$file.edu ] ; then
5757             rm /target$file
5758             in-target dpkg-divert --package debian-edu-config \
5759                 --rename --quiet --remove $file
5760             rm /target$file.edu
5761         else
5762             error "Missing divert for $file."
5763         fi
5764     done
5765     sync # Flush file buffers before continuing
5766 }
5767
5768 remove_install_override
5769 </pre></blockquote></p>
5770
5771 <p>In Debian Edu, I placed both code fragments in a separate script
5772 edu-eatmydata-install and call it from the pre-pkgsel.d and
5773 finish-install.d scripts.</p>
5774
5775 <p>By now you might ask if this change should get into the normal
5776 Debian installer too?  I suspect it should, but am not sure the
5777 current debian-installer coordinators find it useful enough.  It also
5778 depend on the side effects of the change.  I'm not aware of any, but I
5779 guess we will see if the change is safe after some more testing.
5780 Perhaps there is some package in Debian depending on sync() and
5781 fsync() having effect?  Perhaps it should go into its own udeb, to
5782 allow those of us wanting to enable it to do so without affecting
5783 everyone.</p>
5784
5785 <p>Update 2014-09-24: Since a few days ago, enabling this optimization
5786 will break installation of all programs using gnutls because of
5787 <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/702711">bug #702711</a>.  An updated
5788 eatmydata package in Debian will solve it.</p>
5789
5790 <p>Update 2014-10-17: The bug mentioned above is fixed in testing and
5791 the optimization work again.  And I have discovered that the
5792 dpkg-divert trick is not really needed and implemented a slightly
5793 simpler approach as part of the debian-edu-install package.  See
5794 tools/edu-eatmydata-install in the source package.</p>
5795
5796 <p>Update 2014-11-11: Unfortunately, a new
5797 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/765738">bug #765738</a> in eatmydata only
5798 triggering on i386 made it into testing, and broke this installation
5799 optimization again.  If <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/768893">unblock
5800 request 768893</a> is accepted, it should be working again.</p>
5801
5802       </div>
5803       <div class="tags">
5804
5805
5806         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
5807
5808
5809       </div>
5810     </div>
5811     <div class="padding"></div>
5812
5813     <div class="entry">
5814       <div class="title">
5815         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Good_bye_subkeys_pgp_net__welcome_pool_sks_keyservers_net.html">Good bye subkeys.pgp.net, welcome pool.sks-keyservers.net</a>
5816       </div>
5817       <div class="date">
5818         10th September 2014
5819       </div>
5820       <div class="body">
5821         <p>Yesterday, I had the pleasure of attending a talk with the
5822 <a href="http://www.nuug.no/">Norwegian Unix User Group</a> about
5823 <a href="http://www.nuug.no/aktiviteter/20140909-sks-keyservers/">the
5824 OpenPGP keyserver pool sks-keyservers.net</a>, and was very happy to
5825 learn that there is a large set of publicly available key servers to
5826 use when looking for peoples public key.  So far I have used
5827 subkeys.pgp.net, and some times wwwkeys.nl.pgp.net when the former
5828 were misbehaving, but those days are ended.  The servers I have used
5829 up until yesterday have been slow and some times unavailable.  I hope
5830 those problems are gone now.</p>
5831
5832 <p>Behind the round robin DNS entry of the
5833 <a href="https://sks-keyservers.net/">sks-keyservers.net</a> service
5834 there is a pool of more than 100 keyservers which are checked every
5835 day to ensure they are well connected and up to date.  It must be
5836 better than what I have used so far. :)</p>
5837
5838 <p>Yesterdays speaker told me that the service is the default
5839 keyserver provided by the default configuration in GnuPG, but this do
5840 not seem to be used in Debian.  Perhaps it should?</p>
5841
5842 <p>Anyway, I've updated my ~/.gnupg/options file to now include this
5843 line:</p>
5844
5845 <p><blockquote><pre>
5846 keyserver pool.sks-keyservers.net
5847 </pre></blockquote></p>
5848
5849 <p>With GnuPG version 2 one can also locate the keyserver using SRV
5850 entries in DNS.  Just for fun, I did just that at work, so now every
5851 user of GnuPG at the University of Oslo should find a OpenGPG
5852 keyserver automatically should their need it:</p>
5853
5854 <p><blockquote><pre>
5855 % host -t srv _pgpkey-http._tcp.uio.no
5856 _pgpkey-http._tcp.uio.no has SRV record 0 100 11371 pool.sks-keyservers.net.
5857 %
5858 </pre></blockquote></p>
5859
5860 <p>Now if only
5861 <a href="http://ietfreport.isoc.org/idref/draft-shaw-openpgp-hkp/">the
5862 HKP lookup protocol</a> supported finding signature paths, I would be
5863 very happy.  It can look up a given key or search for a user ID, but I
5864 normally do not want that, but to find a trust path from my key to
5865 another key.  Given a user ID or key ID, I would like to find (and
5866 download) the keys representing a signature path from my key to the
5867 key in question, to be able to get a trust path between the two keys.
5868 This is as far as I can tell not possible today.  Perhaps something
5869 for a future version of the protocol?</p>
5870
5871       </div>
5872       <div class="tags">
5873
5874
5875         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/personvern">personvern</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>.
5876
5877
5878       </div>
5879     </div>
5880     <div class="padding"></div>
5881
5882     <div class="entry">
5883       <div class="title">
5884         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/From_English_wiki_to_translated_PDF_and_epub_via_Docbook.html">From English wiki to translated PDF and epub via Docbook</a>
5885       </div>
5886       <div class="date">
5887         17th June 2014
5888       </div>
5889       <div class="body">
5890         <p>The <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux
5891 project</a> provide an instruction manual for teachers, system
5892 administrators and other users that contain useful tips for setting up
5893 and maintaining a Debian Edu installation.  This text is about how the
5894 text processing of this manual is handled in the project.</p>
5895
5896 <p>One goal of the project is to provide information in the native
5897 language of its users, and for this we need to handle translations.
5898 But we also want to make sure each language contain the same
5899 information, so for this we need a good way to keep the translations
5900 in sync.  And we want it to be easy for our users to improve the
5901 documentation, avoiding the need to learn special formats or tools to
5902 contribute, and the obvious way to do this is to make it possible to
5903 edit the documentation using a web browser.  We also want it to be
5904 easy for translators to keep the translation up to date, and give them
5905 help in figuring out what need to be translated. Here is the list of
5906 tools and the process we have found trying to reach all these
5907 goals.</p>
5908
5909 <p>We maintain the authoritative source of our manual in the
5910 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Documentation/Wheezy/">Debian
5911 wiki</a>, as several wiki pages written in English.  It consist of one
5912 front page with references to the different chapters, several pages
5913 for each chapter, and finally one "collection page" gluing all the
5914 chapters together into one large web page (aka
5915 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Documentation/Wheezy/AllInOne">the
5916 AllInOne page</a>).  The AllInOne page is the one used for further
5917 processing and translations.  Thanks to the fact that the
5918 <a href="http://moinmo.in/">MoinMoin</a> installation on
5919 wiki.debian.org support exporting pages in
5920 <a href="http://www.docbook.org/">the Docbook format</a>, we can fetch
5921 the list of pages to export using the raw version of the AllInOne
5922 page, loop over each of them to generate a Docbook XML version of the
5923 manual.  This process also download images and transform image
5924 references to use the locally downloaded images.  The generated
5925 Docbook XML files are slightly broken, so some post-processing is done
5926 using the <tt>documentation/scripts/get_manual</tt> program, and the
5927 result is a nice Docbook XML file (debian-edu-wheezy-manual.xml) and
5928 a handfull of images.  The XML file can now be used to generate PDF, HTML
5929 and epub versions of the English manual.  This is the basic step of
5930 our process, making PDF (using dblatex), HTML (using xsltproc) and
5931 epub (using dbtoepub) version from Docbook XML, and the resulting files
5932 are placed in the debian-edu-doc-en binary package.</p>
5933
5934 <p>But English documentation is not enough for us.  We want translated
5935 documentation too, and we want to make it easy for translators to
5936 track the English original.  For this we use the
5937 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/p/poxml.html">poxml</a> package,
5938 which allow us to transform the English Docbook XML file into a
5939 translation file (a .pot file), usable with the normal gettext based
5940 translation tools used by those translating free software.  The pot
5941 file is used to create and maintain translation files (several .po
5942 files), which the translations update with the native language
5943 translations of all titles, paragraphs and blocks of text in the
5944 original.  The next step is combining the original English Docbook XML
5945 and the translation file (say debian-edu-wheezy-manual.nb.po), to
5946 create a translated Docbook XML file (in this case
5947 debian-edu-wheezy-manual.nb.xml).  This translated (or partly
5948 translated, if the translation is not complete) Docbook XML file can
5949 then be used like the original to create a PDF, HTML and epub version
5950 of the documentation.</p>
5951
5952 <p>The translators use different tools to edit the .po files.  We
5953 recommend using
5954 <a href="http://www.kde.org/applications/development/lokalize/">lokalize</a>,
5955 while some use emacs and vi, others can use web based editors like
5956 <a href="http://pootle.translatehouse.org/">Poodle</a> or
5957 <a href="https://www.transifex.com/">Transifex</a>.  All we care about
5958 is where the .po file end up, in our git repository.  Updated
5959 translations can either be committed directly to git, or submitted as
5960 <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/src:debian-edu-doc">bug reports
5961 against the debian-edu-doc package</a>.</p>
5962
5963 <p>One challenge is images, which both might need to be translated (if
5964 they show translated user applications), and are needed in different
5965 formats when creating PDF and HTML versions (epub is a HTML version in
5966 this regard).  For this we transform the original PNG images to the
5967 needed density and format during build, and have a way to provide
5968 translated images by storing translated versions in
5969 images/$LANGUAGECODE/.  I am a bit unsure about the details here.  The
5970 package maintainers know more.</p>
5971
5972 <p>If you wonder what the result look like, we provide
5973 <a href="http://maintainer.skolelinux.org/debian-edu-doc/">the content
5974 of the documentation packages on the web</a>.  See for example the
5975 <a href="http://maintainer.skolelinux.org/debian-edu-doc/it/debian-edu-wheezy-manual.pdf">Italian
5976 PDF version</a> or the
5977 <a href="http://maintainer.skolelinux.org/debian-edu-doc/de/debian-edu-wheezy-manual.html">German
5978 HTML version</a>.  We do not yet build the epub version by default,
5979 but perhaps it will be done in the future.</p>
5980
5981 <p>To learn more, check out
5982 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/d/debian-edu-doc.html">the
5983 debian-edu-doc package</a>,
5984 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Documentation/Wheezy/">the
5985 manual on the wiki</a> and
5986 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Documentation/Wheezy/Translations">the
5987 translation instructions</a> in the manual.</p>
5988
5989       </div>
5990       <div class="tags">
5991
5992
5993         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/docbook">docbook</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
5994
5995
5996       </div>
5997     </div>
5998     <div class="padding"></div>
5999
6000     <div class="entry">
6001       <div class="title">
6002         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Install_hardware_dependent_packages_using_tasksel__Isenkram_0_7_.html">Install hardware dependent packages using tasksel (Isenkram 0.7)</a>
6003       </div>
6004       <div class="date">
6005         23rd April 2014
6006       </div>
6007       <div class="body">
6008         <p>It would be nice if it was easier in Debian to get all the hardware
6009 related packages relevant for the computer installed automatically.
6010 So I implemented one, using
6011 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/isenkram">my Isenkram
6012 package</a>.  To use it, install the tasksel and isenkram packages and
6013 run tasksel as user root.  You should be presented with a new option,
6014 "Hardware specific packages (autodetected by isenkram)".  When you
6015 select it, tasksel will install the packages isenkram claim is fit for
6016 the current hardware, hot pluggable or not.<p>
6017
6018 <p>The implementation is in two files, one is the tasksel menu entry
6019 description, and the other is the script used to extract the list of
6020 packages to install.  The first part is in
6021 <tt>/usr/share/tasksel/descs/isenkram.desc</tt> and look like
6022 this:</p>
6023
6024 <p><blockquote><pre>
6025 Task: isenkram
6026 Section: hardware
6027 Description: Hardware specific packages (autodetected by isenkram)
6028  Based on the detected hardware various hardware specific packages are
6029  proposed.
6030 Test-new-install: mark show
6031 Relevance: 8
6032 Packages: for-current-hardware
6033 </pre></blockquote></p>
6034
6035 <p>The second part is in
6036 <tt>/usr/lib/tasksel/packages/for-current-hardware</tt> and look like
6037 this:</p>
6038
6039 <p><blockquote><pre>
6040 #!/bin/sh
6041 #
6042 (
6043     isenkram-lookup
6044     isenkram-autoinstall-firmware -l
6045 ) | sort -u
6046 </pre></blockquote></p>
6047
6048 <p>All in all, a very short and simple implementation making it
6049 trivial to install the hardware dependent package we all may want to
6050 have installed on our machines.  I've not been able to find a way to
6051 get tasksel to tell you exactly which packages it plan to install
6052 before doing the installation.  So if you are curious or careful,
6053 check the output from the isenkram-* command line tools first.</p>
6054
6055 <p>The information about which packages are handling which hardware is
6056 fetched either from the isenkram package itself in
6057 /usr/share/isenkram/, from git.debian.org or from the APT package
6058 database (using the Modaliases header).  The APT package database
6059 parsing have caused a nasty resource leak in the isenkram daemon (bugs
6060 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/719837">#719837</a> and
6061 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/730704">#730704</a>).  The cause is in
6062 the python-apt code (bug
6063 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/745487">#745487</a>), but using a
6064 workaround I was able to get rid of the file descriptor leak and
6065 reduce the memory leak from ~30 MiB per hardware detection down to
6066 around 2 MiB per hardware detection.  It should make the desktop
6067 daemon a lot more useful.  The fix is in version 0.7 uploaded to
6068 unstable today.</p>
6069
6070 <p>I believe the current way of mapping hardware to packages in
6071 Isenkram is is a good draft, but in the future I expect isenkram to
6072 use the AppStream data source for this.  A proposal for getting proper
6073 AppStream support into Debian is floating around as
6074 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DEP-11">DEP-11</a>, and
6075 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/SummerOfCode2014/Projects#SummerOfCode2014.2FProjects.2FAppStreamDEP11Implementation.AppStream.2FDEP-11_for_the_Debian_Archive">GSoC
6076 project</a> will take place this summer to improve the situation.  I
6077 look forward to seeing the result, and welcome patches for isenkram to
6078 start using the information when it is ready.</p>
6079
6080 <p>If you want your package to map to some specific hardware, either
6081 add a "Xb-Modaliases" header to your control file like I did in
6082 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/pymissile">the pymissile
6083 package</a> or submit a bug report with the details to the isenkram
6084 package.  See also
6085 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram/">all my
6086 blog posts tagged isenkram</a> for details on the notation.  I expect
6087 the information will be migrated to AppStream eventually, but for the
6088 moment I got no better place to store it.</p>
6089
6090       </div>
6091       <div class="tags">
6092
6093
6094         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram">isenkram</a>.
6095
6096
6097       </div>
6098     </div>
6099     <div class="padding"></div>
6100
6101     <div class="entry">
6102       <div class="title">
6103         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/FreedomBox_milestone___all_packages_now_in_Debian_Sid.html">FreedomBox milestone - all packages now in Debian Sid</a>
6104       </div>
6105       <div class="date">
6106         15th April 2014
6107       </div>
6108       <div class="body">
6109         <p>The <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/FreedomBox">Freedombox
6110 project</a> is working on providing the software and hardware to make
6111 it easy for non-technical people to host their data and communication
6112 at home, and being able to communicate with their friends and family
6113 encrypted and away from prying eyes.  It is still going strong, and
6114 today a major mile stone was reached.</p>
6115
6116 <p>Today, the last of the packages currently used by the project to
6117 created the system images were accepted into Debian Unstable.  It was
6118 the freedombox-setup package, which is used to configure the images
6119 during build and on the first boot.  Now all one need to get going is
6120 the build code from the freedom-maker git repository and packages from
6121 Debian.  And once the freedombox-setup package enter testing, we can
6122 build everything directly from Debian. :)</p>
6123
6124 <p>Some key packages used by Freedombox are
6125 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/freedombox-setup">freedombox-setup</a>,
6126 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/plinth">plinth</a>,
6127 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/pagekite">pagekite</a>,
6128 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/tor">tor</a>,
6129 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/privoxy">privoxy</a>,
6130 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/owncloud">owncloud</a> and
6131 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/dnsmasq">dnsmasq</a>.  There
6132 are plans to integrate more packages into the setup.  User
6133 documentation is maintained on the Debian wiki.  Please
6134 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/FreedomBox/Manual/Jessie">check out
6135 the manual</a> and help us improve it.</p>
6136
6137 <p>To test for yourself and create boot images with the FreedomBox
6138 setup, run this on a Debian machine using a user with sudo rights to
6139 become root:</p>
6140
6141 <p><pre>
6142 sudo apt-get install git vmdebootstrap mercurial python-docutils \
6143   mktorrent extlinux virtualbox qemu-user-static binfmt-support \
6144   u-boot-tools
6145 git clone http://anonscm.debian.org/git/freedombox/freedom-maker.git \
6146   freedom-maker
6147 make -C freedom-maker dreamplug-image raspberry-image virtualbox-image
6148 </pre></p>
6149
6150 <p>Root access is needed to run debootstrap and mount loopback
6151 devices.  See the README in the freedom-maker git repo for more
6152 details on the build.  If you do not want all three images, trim the
6153 make line.  Note that the virtualbox-image target is not really
6154 virtualbox specific.  It create a x86 image usable in kvm, qemu,
6155 vmware and any other x86 virtual machine environment.  You might need
6156 the version of vmdebootstrap in Jessie to get the build working, as it
6157 include fixes for a race condition with kpartx.</p>
6158
6159 <p>If you instead want to install using a Debian CD and the preseed
6160 method, boot a Debian Wheezy ISO and use this boot argument to load
6161 the preseed values:</p>
6162
6163 <p><pre>
6164 url=<a href="http://www.reinholdtsen.name/freedombox/preseed-jessie.dat">http://www.reinholdtsen.name/freedombox/preseed-jessie.dat</a>
6165 </pre></p>
6166
6167 <p>I have not tested it myself the last few weeks, so I do not know if
6168 it still work.</p>
6169
6170 <p>If you wonder how to help, one task you could look at is using
6171 systemd as the boot system.  It will become the default for Linux in
6172 Jessie, so we need to make sure it is usable on the Freedombox.  I did
6173 a simple test a few weeks ago, and noticed dnsmasq failed to start
6174 during boot when using systemd.  I suspect there are other problems
6175 too. :) To detect problems, there is a test suite included, which can
6176 be run from the plinth web interface.</p>
6177
6178 <p>Give it a go and let us know how it goes on the mailing list, and help
6179 us get the new release published. :) Please join us on
6180 <a href="irc://irc.debian.org:6667/%23freedombox">IRC (#freedombox on
6181 irc.debian.org)</a> and
6182 <a href="http://lists.alioth.debian.org/mailman/listinfo/freedombox-discuss">the
6183 mailing list</a> if you want to help make this vision come true.</p>
6184
6185       </div>
6186       <div class="tags">
6187
6188
6189         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freedombox">freedombox</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/web">web</a>.
6190
6191
6192       </div>
6193     </div>
6194     <div class="padding"></div>
6195
6196     <div class="entry">
6197       <div class="title">
6198         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/S3QL__a_locally_mounted_cloud_file_system___nice_free_software.html">S3QL, a locally mounted cloud file system - nice free software</a>
6199       </div>
6200       <div class="date">
6201          9th April 2014
6202       </div>
6203       <div class="body">
6204         <p>For a while now, I have been looking for a sensible offsite backup
6205 solution for use at home.  My requirements are simple, it must be
6206 cheap and locally encrypted (in other words, I keep the encryption
6207 keys, the storage provider do not have access to my private files).
6208 One idea me and my friends had many years ago, before the cloud
6209 storage providers showed up, was to use Google mail as storage,
6210 writing a Linux block device storing blocks as emails in the mail
6211 service provided by Google, and thus get heaps of free space.  On top
6212 of this one can add encryption, RAID and volume management to have
6213 lots of (fairly slow, I admit that) cheap and encrypted storage.  But
6214 I never found time to implement such system.  But the last few weeks I
6215 have looked at a system called
6216 <a href="https://bitbucket.org/nikratio/s3ql/">S3QL</a>, a locally
6217 mounted network backed file system with the features I need.</p>
6218
6219 <p>S3QL is a fuse file system with a local cache and cloud storage,
6220 handling several different storage providers, any with Amazon S3,
6221 Google Drive or OpenStack API.  There are heaps of such storage
6222 providers.  S3QL can also use a local directory as storage, which
6223 combined with sshfs allow for file storage on any ssh server.  S3QL
6224 include support for encryption, compression, de-duplication, snapshots
6225 and immutable file systems, allowing me to mount the remote storage as
6226 a local mount point, look at and use the files as if they were local,
6227 while the content is stored in the cloud as well.  This allow me to
6228 have a backup that should survive fire.  The file system can not be
6229 shared between several machines at the same time, as only one can
6230 mount it at the time, but any machine with the encryption key and
6231 access to the storage service can mount it if it is unmounted.</p>
6232
6233 <p>It is simple to use.  I'm using it on Debian Wheezy, where the
6234 package is included already.  So to get started, run <tt>apt-get
6235 install s3ql</tt>.  Next, pick a storage provider.  I ended up picking
6236 Greenqloud, after reading their nice recipe on
6237 <a href="https://greenqloud.zendesk.com/entries/44611757-How-To-Use-S3QL-to-mount-a-StorageQloud-bucket-on-Debian-Wheezy">how
6238 to use S3QL with their Amazon S3 service</a>, because I trust the laws
6239 in Iceland more than those in USA when it come to keeping my personal
6240 data safe and private, and thus would rather spend money on a company
6241 in Iceland.  Another nice recipe is available from the article
6242 <a href="http://www.admin-magazine.com/HPC/Articles/HPC-Cloud-Storage">S3QL
6243 Filesystem for HPC Storage</a> by Jeff Layton in the HPC section of
6244 Admin magazine.  When the provider is picked, figure out how to get
6245 the API key needed to connect to the storage API.  With Greencloud,
6246 the key did not show up until I had added payment details to my
6247 account.</p>
6248
6249 <p>Armed with the API access details, it is time to create the file
6250 system.  First, create a new bucket in the cloud.  This bucket is the
6251 file system storage area.  I picked a bucket name reflecting the
6252 machine that was going to store data there, but any name will do.
6253 I'll refer to it as <tt>bucket-name</tt> below.  In addition, one need
6254 the API login and password, and a locally created password.  Store it
6255 all in ~root/.s3ql/authinfo2 like this:
6256
6257 <p><blockquote><pre>
6258 [s3c]
6259 storage-url: s3c://s.greenqloud.com:443/bucket-name
6260 backend-login: API-login
6261 backend-password: API-password
6262 fs-passphrase: local-password
6263 </pre></blockquote></p>
6264
6265 <p>I create my local passphrase using <tt>pwget 50</tt> or similar,
6266 but any sensible way to create a fairly random password should do it.
6267 Armed with these details, it is now time to run mkfs, entering the API
6268 details and password to create it:</p>
6269
6270 <p><blockquote><pre>
6271 # mkdir -m 700 /var/lib/s3ql-cache
6272 # mkfs.s3ql --cachedir /var/lib/s3ql-cache --authfile /root/.s3ql/authinfo2 \
6273   --ssl s3c://s.greenqloud.com:443/bucket-name
6274 Enter backend login:
6275 Enter backend password:
6276 Before using S3QL, make sure to read the user's guide, especially
6277 the 'Important Rules to Avoid Loosing Data' section.
6278 Enter encryption password:
6279 Confirm encryption password:
6280 Generating random encryption key...
6281 Creating metadata tables...
6282 Dumping metadata...
6283 ..objects..
6284 ..blocks..
6285 ..inodes..
6286 ..inode_blocks..
6287 ..symlink_targets..
6288 ..names..
6289 ..contents..
6290 ..ext_attributes..
6291 Compressing and uploading metadata...
6292 Wrote 0.00 MB of compressed metadata.
6293 # </pre></blockquote></p>
6294
6295 <p>The next step is mounting the file system to make the storage available.
6296
6297 <p><blockquote><pre>
6298 # mount.s3ql --cachedir /var/lib/s3ql-cache --authfile /root/.s3ql/authinfo2 \
6299   --ssl --allow-root s3c://s.greenqloud.com:443/bucket-name /s3ql
6300 Using 4 upload threads.
6301 Downloading and decompressing metadata...
6302 Reading metadata...
6303 ..objects..
6304 ..blocks..
6305 ..inodes..
6306 ..inode_blocks..
6307 ..symlink_targets..
6308 ..names..
6309 ..contents..
6310 ..ext_attributes..
6311 Mounting filesystem...
6312 # df -h /s3ql
6313 Filesystem                              Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
6314 s3c://s.greenqloud.com:443/bucket-name  1.0T     0  1.0T   0% /s3ql
6315 #
6316 </pre></blockquote></p>
6317
6318 <p>The file system is now ready for use.  I use rsync to store my
6319 backups in it, and as the metadata used by rsync is downloaded at
6320 mount time, no network traffic (and storage cost) is triggered by
6321 running rsync.  To unmount, one should not use the normal umount
6322 command, as this will not flush the cache to the cloud storage, but
6323 instead running the umount.s3ql command like this:
6324
6325 <p><blockquote><pre>
6326 # umount.s3ql /s3ql
6327 #
6328 </pre></blockquote></p>
6329
6330 <p>There is a fsck command available to check the file system and
6331 correct any problems detected.  This can be used if the local server
6332 crashes while the file system is mounted, to reset the "already
6333 mounted" flag.  This is what it look like when processing a working
6334 file system:</p>
6335
6336 <p><blockquote><pre>
6337 # fsck.s3ql --force --ssl s3c://s.greenqloud.com:443/bucket-name
6338 Using cached metadata.
6339 File system seems clean, checking anyway.
6340 Checking DB integrity...
6341 Creating temporary extra indices...
6342 Checking lost+found...
6343 Checking cached objects...
6344 Checking names (refcounts)...
6345 Checking contents (names)...
6346 Checking contents (inodes)...
6347 Checking contents (parent inodes)...
6348 Checking objects (reference counts)...
6349 Checking objects (backend)...
6350 ..processed 5000 objects so far..
6351 ..processed 10000 objects so far..
6352 ..processed 15000 objects so far..
6353 Checking objects (sizes)...
6354 Checking blocks (referenced objects)...
6355 Checking blocks (refcounts)...
6356 Checking inode-block mapping (blocks)...
6357 Checking inode-block mapping (inodes)...
6358 Checking inodes (refcounts)...
6359 Checking inodes (sizes)...
6360 Checking extended attributes (names)...
6361 Checking extended attributes (inodes)...
6362 Checking symlinks (inodes)...
6363 Checking directory reachability...
6364 Checking unix conventions...
6365 Checking referential integrity...
6366 Dropping temporary indices...
6367 Backing up old metadata...
6368 Dumping metadata...
6369 ..objects..
6370 ..blocks..
6371 ..inodes..
6372 ..inode_blocks..
6373 ..symlink_targets..
6374 ..names..
6375 ..contents..
6376 ..ext_attributes..
6377 Compressing and uploading metadata...
6378 Wrote 0.89 MB of compressed metadata.
6379 #
6380 </pre></blockquote></p>
6381
6382 <p>Thanks to the cache, working on files that fit in the cache is very
6383 quick, about the same speed as local file access.  Uploading large
6384 amount of data is to me limited by the bandwidth out of and into my
6385 house.  Uploading 685 MiB with a 100 MiB cache gave me 305 kiB/s,
6386 which is very close to my upload speed, and downloading the same
6387 Debian installation ISO gave me 610 kiB/s, close to my download speed.
6388 Both were measured using <tt>dd</tt>.  So for me, the bottleneck is my
6389 network, not the file system code.  I do not know what a good cache
6390 size would be, but suspect that the cache should e larger than your
6391 working set.</p>
6392
6393 <p>I mentioned that only one machine can mount the file system at the
6394 time.  If another machine try, it is told that the file system is
6395 busy:</p>
6396
6397 <p><blockquote><pre>
6398 # mount.s3ql --cachedir /var/lib/s3ql-cache --authfile /root/.s3ql/authinfo2 \
6399   --ssl --allow-root s3c://s.greenqloud.com:443/bucket-name /s3ql
6400 Using 8 upload threads.
6401 Backend reports that fs is still mounted elsewhere, aborting.
6402 #
6403 </pre></blockquote></p>
6404
6405 <p>The file content is uploaded when the cache is full, while the
6406 metadata is uploaded once every 24 hour by default.  To ensure the
6407 file system content is flushed to the cloud, one can either umount the
6408 file system, or ask S3QL to flush the cache and metadata using
6409 s3qlctrl:
6410
6411 <p><blockquote><pre>
6412 # s3qlctrl upload-meta /s3ql
6413 # s3qlctrl flushcache /s3ql
6414 #
6415 </pre></blockquote></p>
6416
6417 <p>If you are curious about how much space your data uses in the
6418 cloud, and how much compression and deduplication cut down on the
6419 storage usage, you can use s3qlstat on the mounted file system to get
6420 a report:</p>
6421
6422 <p><blockquote><pre>
6423 # s3qlstat /s3ql
6424 Directory entries:    9141
6425 Inodes:               9143
6426 Data blocks:          8851
6427 Total data size:      22049.38 MB
6428 After de-duplication: 21955.46 MB (99.57% of total)
6429 After compression:    21877.28 MB (99.22% of total, 99.64% of de-duplicated)
6430 Database size:        2.39 MB (uncompressed)
6431 (some values do not take into account not-yet-uploaded dirty blocks in cache)
6432 #
6433 </pre></blockquote></p>
6434
6435 <p>I mentioned earlier that there are several possible suppliers of
6436 storage.  I did not try to locate them all, but am aware of at least
6437 <a href="https://www.greenqloud.com/">Greenqloud</a>,
6438 <a href="http://drive.google.com/">Google Drive</a>,
6439 <a href="http://aws.amazon.com/s3/">Amazon S3 web serivces</a>,
6440 <a href="http://www.rackspace.com/">Rackspace</a> and
6441 <a href="http://crowncloud.net/">Crowncloud</A>.  The latter even
6442 accept payment in Bitcoin.  Pick one that suit your need.  Some of
6443 them provide several GiB of free storage, but the prize models are
6444 quite different and you will have to figure out what suits you
6445 best.</p>
6446
6447 <p>While researching this blog post, I had a look at research papers
6448 and posters discussing the S3QL file system.  There are several, which
6449 told me that the file system is getting a critical check by the
6450 science community and increased my confidence in using it.  One nice
6451 poster is titled
6452 "<a href="http://www.lanl.gov/orgs/adtsc/publications/science_highlights_2013/docs/pg68_69.pdf">An
6453 Innovative Parallel Cloud Storage System using OpenStack’s SwiftObject
6454 Store and Transformative Parallel I/O Approach</a>" by Hsing-Bung
6455 Chen, Benjamin McClelland, David Sherrill, Alfred Torrez, Parks Fields
6456 and Pamela Smith.  Please  have a look.</p>
6457
6458 <p>Given my problems with different file systems earlier, I decided to
6459 check out the mounted S3QL file system to see if it would be usable as
6460 a home directory (in other word, that it provided POSIX semantics when
6461 it come to locking and umask handling etc).  Running
6462 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Testing_if_a_file_system_can_be_used_for_home_directories___.html">my
6463 test code to check file system semantics</a>, I was happy to discover that
6464 no error was found.  So the file system can be used for home
6465 directories, if one chooses to do so.</p>
6466
6467 <p>If you do not want a locally file system, and want something that
6468 work without the Linux fuse file system, I would like to mention the
6469 <a href="http://www.tarsnap.com/">Tarsnap service</a>, which also
6470 provide locally encrypted backup using a command line client.  It have
6471 a nicer access control system, where one can split out read and write
6472 access, allowing some systems to write to the backup and others to
6473 only read from it.</p>
6474
6475 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
6476 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
6477 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
6478
6479       </div>
6480       <div class="tags">
6481
6482
6483         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nice free software">nice free software</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/personvern">personvern</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>.
6484
6485
6486       </div>
6487     </div>
6488     <div class="padding"></div>
6489
6490     <div class="entry">
6491       <div class="title">
6492         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Freedombox_on_Dreamplug__Raspberry_Pi_and_virtual_x86_machine.html">Freedombox on Dreamplug, Raspberry Pi and virtual x86 machine</a>
6493       </div>
6494       <div class="date">
6495         14th March 2014
6496       </div>
6497       <div class="body">
6498         <p>The <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/FreedomBox">Freedombox
6499 project</a> is working on providing the software and hardware for
6500 making it easy for non-technical people to host their data and
6501 communication at home, and being able to communicate with their
6502 friends and family encrypted and away from prying eyes.  It has been
6503 going on for a while, and is slowly progressing towards a new test
6504 release (0.2).</p>
6505
6506 <p>And what day could be better than the Pi day to announce that the
6507 new version will provide "hard drive" / SD card / USB stick images for
6508 Dreamplug, Raspberry Pi and VirtualBox (or any other virtualization
6509 system), and can also be installed using a Debian installer preseed
6510 file.  The Debian based Freedombox is now based on Debian Jessie,
6511 where most of the needed packages used are already present.  Only one,
6512 the freedombox-setup package, is missing.  To try to build your own
6513 boot image to test the current status, fetch the freedom-maker scripts
6514 and build using
6515 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/vmdebootstrap">vmdebootstrap</a>
6516 with a user with sudo access to become root:
6517
6518 <pre>
6519 git clone http://anonscm.debian.org/git/freedombox/freedom-maker.git \
6520   freedom-maker
6521 sudo apt-get install git vmdebootstrap mercurial python-docutils \
6522   mktorrent extlinux virtualbox qemu-user-static binfmt-support \
6523   u-boot-tools
6524 make -C freedom-maker dreamplug-image raspberry-image virtualbox-image
6525 </pre>
6526
6527 <p>Root access is needed to run debootstrap and mount loopback
6528 devices.  See the README for more details on the build. If you do not
6529 want all three images, trim the make line.  But note that thanks to <a
6530 href="https://bugs.debian.org/741407">a race condition in
6531 vmdebootstrap</a>, the build might fail without the patch to the
6532 kpartx call.</p>
6533
6534 <p>If you instead want to install using a Debian CD and the preseed
6535 method, boot a Debian Wheezy ISO and use this boot argument to load
6536 the preseed values:</p>
6537
6538 <pre>
6539 url=<a href="http://www.reinholdtsen.name/freedombox/preseed-jessie.dat">http://www.reinholdtsen.name/freedombox/preseed-jessie.dat</a>
6540 </pre>
6541
6542 <p>But note that due to <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/740673">a
6543 recently introduced bug in apt in Jessie</a>, the installer will
6544 currently hang while setting up APT sources.  Killing the
6545 '<tt>apt-cdrom ident</tt>' process when it hang a few times during the
6546 installation will get the installation going.  This affect all
6547 installations in Jessie, and I expect it will be fixed soon.</p>
6548
6549 <p>Give it a go and let us know how it goes on the mailing list, and help
6550 us get the new release published. :) Please join us on
6551 <a href="irc://irc.debian.org:6667/%23freedombox">IRC (#freedombox on
6552 irc.debian.org)</a> and
6553 <a href="http://lists.alioth.debian.org/mailman/listinfo/freedombox-discuss">the
6554 mailing list</a> if you want to help make this vision come true.</p>
6555
6556       </div>
6557       <div class="tags">
6558
6559
6560         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freedombox">freedombox</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/web">web</a>.
6561
6562
6563       </div>
6564     </div>
6565     <div class="padding"></div>
6566
6567     <div class="entry">
6568       <div class="title">
6569         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/New_home_and_release_1_0_for_netgroup_and_innetgr__aka_ng_utils_.html">New home and release 1.0 for netgroup and innetgr (aka ng-utils)</a>
6570       </div>
6571       <div class="date">
6572         22nd February 2014
6573       </div>
6574       <div class="body">
6575         <p>Many years ago, I wrote a GPL licensed version of the netgroup and
6576 innetgr tools, because I needed them in
6577 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Skolelinux</a>.  I called the project
6578 ng-utils, and it has served me well.  I placed the project under the
6579 <a href="http://www.hungry.com/">Hungry Programmer</a> umbrella, and it was maintained in our CVS
6580 repository.  But many years ago, the CVS repository was dropped (lost,
6581 not migrated to new hardware, not sure), and the project have lacked a
6582 proper home since then.</p>
6583
6584 <p>Last summer, I had a look at the package and made a new release
6585 fixing a irritating crash bug, but was unable to store the changes in
6586 a proper source control system.  I applied for a project on
6587 <a href="https://alioth.debian.org/">Alioth</a>, but did not have time
6588 to follow up on it.  Until today. :)</p>
6589
6590 <p>After many hours of cleaning and migration, the ng-utils project
6591 now have a new home, and a git repository with the highlight of the
6592 history of the project.  I published all release tarballs and imported
6593 them into the git repository.  As the project is really stable and not
6594 expected to gain new features any time soon, I decided to make a new
6595 release and call it 1.0.  Visit the new project home on
6596 <a href="https://alioth.debian.org/projects/ng-utils/">https://alioth.debian.org/projects/ng-utils/</a>
6597 if you want to check it out.  The new version is also uploaded into
6598 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/n/ng-utils.html">Debian Unstable</a>.</p>
6599
6600       </div>
6601       <div class="tags">
6602
6603
6604         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
6605
6606
6607       </div>
6608     </div>
6609     <div class="padding"></div>
6610
6611     <div class="entry">
6612       <div class="title">
6613         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Testing_sysvinit_from_experimental_in_Debian_Hurd.html">Testing sysvinit from experimental in Debian Hurd</a>
6614       </div>
6615       <div class="date">
6616          3rd February 2014
6617       </div>
6618       <div class="body">
6619         <p>A few days ago I decided to try to help the Hurd people to get
6620 their changes into sysvinit, to allow them to use the normal sysvinit
6621 boot system instead of their old one.  This follow up on the
6622 <a href="https://teythoon.cryptobitch.de//categories/gsoc.html">great
6623 Google Summer of Code work</a> done last summer by Justus Winter to
6624 get Debian on Hurd working more like Debian on Linux.  To get started,
6625 I downloaded a prebuilt hard disk image from
6626 <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>,
6627 and started it using virt-manager.</p>
6628
6629 <p>The first think I had to do after logging in (root without any
6630 password) was to get the network operational.  I followed
6631 <a href="https://www.debian.org/ports/hurd/hurd-install">the
6632 instructions on the Debian GNU/Hurd ports page</a> and ran these
6633 commands as root to get the machine to accept a IP address from the
6634 kvm internal DHCP server:</p>
6635
6636 <p><blockquote><pre>
6637 settrans -fgap /dev/netdde /hurd/netdde
6638 kill $(ps -ef|awk '/[p]finet/ { print $2}')
6639 kill $(ps -ef|awk '/[d]evnode/ { print $2}')
6640 dhclient /dev/eth0
6641 </pre></blockquote></p>
6642
6643 <p>After this, the machine had internet connectivity, and I could
6644 upgrade it and install the sysvinit packages from experimental and
6645 enable it as the default boot system in Hurd.</p>
6646
6647 <p>But before I did that, I set a password on the root user, as ssh is
6648 running on the machine it for ssh login to work a password need to be
6649 set.  Also, note that a bug somewhere in openssh on Hurd block
6650 compression from working.  Remember to turn that off on the client
6651 side.</p>
6652
6653 <p>Run these commands as root to upgrade and test the new sysvinit
6654 stuff:</p>
6655
6656 <p><blockquote><pre>
6657 cat > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/experimental.list &lt;&lt;EOF
6658 deb http://http.debian.net/debian/ experimental main
6659 EOF
6660 apt-get update
6661 apt-get dist-upgrade
6662 apt-get install -t experimental initscripts sysv-rc sysvinit \
6663     sysvinit-core sysvinit-utils
6664 update-alternatives --config runsystem
6665 </pre></blockquote></p>
6666
6667 <p>To reboot after switching boot system, you have to use
6668 <tt>reboot-hurd</tt> instead of just <tt>reboot</tt>, as there is not
6669 yet a sysvinit process able to receive the signals from the normal
6670 'reboot' command.  After switching to sysvinit as the boot system,
6671 upgrading every package and rebooting, the network come up with DHCP
6672 after boot as it should, and the settrans/pkill hack mentioned at the
6673 start is no longer needed.  But for some strange reason, there are no
6674 longer any login prompt in the virtual console, so I logged in using
6675 ssh instead.
6676
6677 <p>Note that there are some race conditions in Hurd making the boot
6678 fail some times.  No idea what the cause is, but hope the Hurd porters
6679 figure it out.  At least Justus said on IRC (#debian-hurd on
6680 irc.debian.org) that they are aware of the problem.  A way to reduce
6681 the impact is to upgrade to the Hurd packages built by Justus by
6682 adding this repository to the machine:</p>
6683
6684 <p><blockquote><pre>
6685 cat > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/hurd-ci.list &lt;&lt;EOF
6686 deb http://darnassus.sceen.net/~teythoon/hurd-ci/ sid main
6687 EOF
6688 </pre></blockquote></p>
6689
6690 <p>At the moment the prebuilt virtual machine get some packages from
6691 http://ftp.debian-ports.org/debian, because some of the packages in
6692 unstable do not yet include the required patches that are lingering in
6693 BTS.  This is the completely list of "unofficial" packages installed:</p>
6694
6695 <p><blockquote><pre>
6696 # aptitude search '?narrow(?version(CURRENT),?origin(Debian Ports))'
6697 i   emacs                   - GNU Emacs editor (metapackage)
6698 i   gdb                     - GNU Debugger
6699 i   hurd-recommended        - Miscellaneous translators
6700 i   isc-dhcp-client         - ISC DHCP client
6701 i   isc-dhcp-common         - common files used by all the isc-dhcp* packages
6702 i   libc-bin                - Embedded GNU C Library: Binaries
6703 i   libc-dev-bin            - Embedded GNU C Library: Development binaries
6704 i   libc0.3                 - Embedded GNU C Library: Shared libraries
6705 i A libc0.3-dbg             - Embedded GNU C Library: detached debugging symbols
6706 i   libc0.3-dev             - Embedded GNU C Library: Development Libraries and Hea
6707 i   multiarch-support       - Transitional package to ensure multiarch compatibilit
6708 i A x11-common              - X Window System (X.Org) infrastructure
6709 i   xorg                    - X.Org X Window System
6710 i A xserver-xorg            - X.Org X server
6711 i A xserver-xorg-input-all  - X.Org X server -- input driver metapackage
6712 #
6713 </pre></blockquote></p>
6714
6715 <p>All in all, testing hurd has been an interesting experience. :)
6716 X.org did not work out of the box and I never took the time to follow
6717 the porters instructions to fix it.  This time I was interested in the
6718 command line stuff.<p>
6719
6720       </div>
6721       <div class="tags">
6722
6723
6724         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bootsystem">bootsystem</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
6725
6726
6727       </div>
6728     </div>
6729     <div class="padding"></div>
6730
6731     <div class="entry">
6732       <div class="title">
6733         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/New_chrpath_release_0_16.html">New chrpath release 0.16</a>
6734       </div>
6735       <div class="date">
6736         14th January 2014
6737       </div>
6738       <div class="body">
6739         <p><a href="http://www.coverity.com/">Coverity</a> is a nice tool to
6740 find problems in C, C++ and Java code using static source code
6741 analysis.  It can detect a lot of different problems, and is very
6742 useful to find memory and locking bugs in the error handling part of
6743 the source.  The company behind it provide
6744 <a href="https://scan.coverity.com/">check of free software projects as
6745 a community service</a>, and many hundred free software projects are
6746 already checked.  A few days ago I decided to have a closer look at
6747 the Coverity system, and discovered that the
6748 <a href="http://www.gnu.org/software/gnash/">gnash</a> and
6749 <a href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/ipmitool/">ipmitool</a>
6750 projects I am involved with was already registered.  But these are
6751 fairly big, and I would also like to have a small and easy project to
6752 check, and decided to <a href="http://scan.coverity.com/projects/1179">request
6753 checking of the chrpath project</a>.  It was
6754 added to the checker and discovered seven potential defects.  Six of
6755 these were real, mostly resource "leak" when the program detected an
6756 error.  Nothing serious, as the resources would be released a fraction
6757 of a second later when the program exited because of the error, but it
6758 is nice to do it right in case the source of the program some time in
6759 the future end up in a library.  Having fixed all defects and added
6760 <a href="https://lists.alioth.debian.org/mailman/listinfo/chrpath-devel">a
6761 mailing list for the chrpath developers</a>, I decided it was time to
6762 publish a new release.  These are the release notes:</p>
6763
6764 <p>New in 0.16 released 2014-01-14:</p>
6765
6766 <ul>
6767
6768   <li>Fixed all minor bugs discovered by Coverity.</li>
6769   <li>Updated config.sub and config.guess from the GNU project.</li>
6770   <li>Mention new project mailing list in the documentation.</li>
6771
6772 </ul>
6773
6774 <p>You can
6775 <a href="https://alioth.debian.org/frs/?group_id=31052">download the
6776 new version 0.16 from alioth</a>.  Please let us know via the Alioth
6777 project if something is wrong with the new release.  The test suite
6778 did not discover any old errors, so if you find a new one, please also
6779 include a test suite check.</p>
6780
6781       </div>
6782       <div class="tags">
6783
6784
6785         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/chrpath">chrpath</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
6786
6787
6788       </div>
6789     </div>
6790     <div class="padding"></div>
6791
6792     <div class="entry">
6793       <div class="title">
6794         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/New_chrpath_release_0_15.html">New chrpath release 0.15</a>
6795       </div>
6796       <div class="date">
6797         24th November 2013
6798       </div>
6799       <div class="body">
6800         <p>After many years break from the package and a vain hope that
6801 development would be continued by someone else, I finally pulled my
6802 acts together this morning and wrapped up a new release of chrpath,
6803 the command line tool to modify the rpath and runpath of already
6804 compiled ELF programs.  The update was triggered by the persistence of
6805 Isha Vishnoi at IBM, which needed a new config.guess file to get
6806 support for the ppc64le architecture (powerpc 64-bit Little Endian) he
6807 is working on.  I checked the
6808 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/chrpath">Debian</a>,
6809 <a href="https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/chrpath">Ubuntu</a> and
6810 <a href="https://admin.fedoraproject.org/pkgdb/acls/name/chrpath">Fedora</a>
6811 packages for interesting patches (failed to find the source from
6812 OpenSUSE and Mandriva packages), and found quite a few nice fixes.
6813 These are the release notes:</p>
6814
6815 <p>New in 0.15 released 2013-11-24:</p>
6816
6817 <ul>
6818
6819   <li>Updated config.sub and config.guess from the GNU project to work
6820    with newer architectures.  Thanks to isha vishnoi for the heads
6821    up.</li>
6822
6823   <li>Updated README with current URLs.</li>
6824
6825   <li>Added byteswap fix found in Ubuntu, credited Jeremy Kerr and
6826    Matthias Klose.</li>
6827
6828   <li>Added missing help for -k|--keepgoing option, using patch by
6829    Petr Machata found in Fedora.</li>
6830
6831   <li>Rewrite removal of RPATH/RUNPATH to make sure the entry in
6832    .dynamic is a NULL terminated string.  Based on patch found in
6833    Fedora credited Axel Thimm and Christian Krause.</li>
6834
6835 </ul>
6836
6837 <p>You can
6838 <a href="https://alioth.debian.org/frs/?group_id=31052">download the
6839 new version 0.15 from alioth</a>.  Please let us know via the Alioth
6840 project if something is wrong with the new release.  The test suite
6841 did not discover any old errors, so if you find a new one, please also
6842 include a testsuite check.</p>
6843
6844       </div>
6845       <div class="tags">
6846
6847
6848         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/chrpath">chrpath</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
6849
6850
6851       </div>
6852     </div>
6853     <div class="padding"></div>
6854
6855     <div class="entry">
6856       <div class="title">
6857         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_init_d_boot_script_example_for_rsyslog.html">Debian init.d boot script example for rsyslog</a>
6858       </div>
6859       <div class="date">
6860          2nd November 2013
6861       </div>
6862       <div class="body">
6863         <p>If one of the points of switching to a new init system in Debian is
6864 <a href="http://thomas.goirand.fr/blog/?p=147">to get rid of huge
6865 init.d scripts</a>, I doubt we need to switch away from sysvinit and
6866 init.d scripts at all.  Here is an example init.d script, ie a rewrite
6867 of /etc/init.d/rsyslog:</p>
6868
6869 <p><pre>
6870 #!/lib/init/init-d-script
6871 ### BEGIN INIT INFO
6872 # Provides:          rsyslog
6873 # Required-Start:    $remote_fs $time
6874 # Required-Stop:     umountnfs $time
6875 # X-Stop-After:      sendsigs
6876 # Default-Start:     2 3 4 5
6877 # Default-Stop:      0 1 6
6878 # Short-Description: enhanced syslogd
6879 # Description:       Rsyslog is an enhanced multi-threaded syslogd.
6880 #                    It is quite compatible to stock sysklogd and can be
6881 #                    used as a drop-in replacement.
6882 ### END INIT INFO
6883 DESC="enhanced syslogd"
6884 DAEMON=/usr/sbin/rsyslogd
6885 </pre></p>
6886
6887 <p>Pretty minimalistic to me... For the record, the original sysv-rc
6888 script was 137 lines, and the above is just 15 lines, most of it meta
6889 info/comments.</p>
6890
6891 <p>How to do this, you ask?  Well, one create a new script
6892 /lib/init/init-d-script looking something like this:
6893
6894 <p><pre>
6895 #!/bin/sh
6896
6897 # Define LSB log_* functions.
6898 # Depend on lsb-base (>= 3.2-14) to ensure that this file is present
6899 # and status_of_proc is working.
6900 . /lib/lsb/init-functions
6901
6902 #
6903 # Function that starts the daemon/service
6904
6905 #
6906 do_start()
6907 {
6908         # Return
6909         #   0 if daemon has been started
6910         #   1 if daemon was already running
6911         #   2 if daemon could not be started
6912         start-stop-daemon --start --quiet --pidfile $PIDFILE --exec $DAEMON --test > /dev/null \
6913                 || return 1
6914         start-stop-daemon --start --quiet --pidfile $PIDFILE --exec $DAEMON -- \
6915                 $DAEMON_ARGS \
6916                 || return 2
6917         # Add code here, if necessary, that waits for the process to be ready
6918         # to handle requests from services started subsequently which depend
6919         # on this one.  As a last resort, sleep for some time.
6920 }
6921
6922 #
6923 # Function that stops the daemon/service
6924 #
6925 do_stop()
6926 {
6927         # Return
6928         #   0 if daemon has been stopped
6929         #   1 if daemon was already stopped
6930         #   2 if daemon could not be stopped
6931         #   other if a failure occurred
6932         start-stop-daemon --stop --quiet --retry=TERM/30/KILL/5 --pidfile $PIDFILE --name $NAME
6933         RETVAL="$?"
6934         [ "$RETVAL" = 2 ] && return 2
6935         # Wait for children to finish too if this is a daemon that forks
6936         # and if the daemon is only ever run from this initscript.
6937         # If the above conditions are not satisfied then add some other code
6938         # that waits for the process to drop all resources that could be
6939         # needed by services started subsequently.  A last resort is to
6940         # sleep for some time.
6941         start-stop-daemon --stop --quiet --oknodo --retry=0/30/KILL/5 --exec $DAEMON
6942         [ "$?" = 2 ] && return 2
6943         # Many daemons don't delete their pidfiles when they exit.
6944         rm -f $PIDFILE
6945         return "$RETVAL"
6946 }
6947
6948 #
6949 # Function that sends a SIGHUP to the daemon/service
6950 #
6951 do_reload() {
6952         #
6953         # If the daemon can reload its configuration without
6954         # restarting (for example, when it is sent a SIGHUP),
6955         # then implement that here.
6956         #
6957         start-stop-daemon --stop --signal 1 --quiet --pidfile $PIDFILE --name $NAME
6958         return 0
6959 }
6960
6961 SCRIPTNAME=$1
6962 scriptbasename="$(basename $1)"
6963 echo "SN: $scriptbasename"
6964 if [ "$scriptbasename" != "init-d-library" ] ; then
6965     script="$1"
6966     shift
6967     . $script
6968 else
6969     exit 0
6970 fi
6971
6972 NAME=$(basename $DAEMON)
6973 PIDFILE=/var/run/$NAME.pid
6974
6975 # Exit if the package is not installed
6976 #[ -x "$DAEMON" ] || exit 0
6977
6978 # Read configuration variable file if it is present
6979 [ -r /etc/default/$NAME ] && . /etc/default/$NAME
6980
6981 # Load the VERBOSE setting and other rcS variables
6982 . /lib/init/vars.sh
6983
6984 case "$1" in
6985   start)
6986         [ "$VERBOSE" != no ] && log_daemon_msg "Starting $DESC" "$NAME"
6987         do_start
6988         case "$?" in
6989                 0|1) [ "$VERBOSE" != no ] && log_end_msg 0 ;;
6990                 2) [ "$VERBOSE" != no ] && log_end_msg 1 ;;
6991         esac
6992         ;;
6993   stop)
6994         [ "$VERBOSE" != no ] && log_daemon_msg "Stopping $DESC" "$NAME"
6995         do_stop
6996         case "$?" in
6997                 0|1) [ "$VERBOSE" != no ] && log_end_msg 0 ;;
6998                 2) [ "$VERBOSE" != no ] && log_end_msg 1 ;;
6999         esac
7000         ;;
7001   status)
7002         status_of_proc "$DAEMON" "$NAME" && exit 0 || exit $?
7003         ;;
7004   #reload|force-reload)
7005         #
7006         # If do_reload() is not implemented then leave this commented out
7007         # and leave 'force-reload' as an alias for 'restart'.
7008         #
7009         #log_daemon_msg "Reloading $DESC" "$NAME"
7010         #do_reload
7011         #log_end_msg $?
7012         #;;
7013   restart|force-reload)
7014         #
7015         # If the "reload" option is implemented then remove the
7016         # 'force-reload' alias
7017         #
7018         log_daemon_msg "Restarting $DESC" "$NAME"
7019         do_stop
7020         case "$?" in
7021           0|1)
7022                 do_start
7023                 case "$?" in
7024                         0) log_end_msg 0 ;;
7025                         1) log_end_msg 1 ;; # Old process is still running
7026                         *) log_end_msg 1 ;; # Failed to start
7027                 esac
7028                 ;;
7029           *)
7030                 # Failed to stop
7031                 log_end_msg 1
7032                 ;;
7033         esac
7034         ;;
7035   *)
7036         echo "Usage: $SCRIPTNAME {start|stop|status|restart|force-reload}" >&2
7037         exit 3
7038         ;;
7039 esac
7040
7041 :
7042 </pre></p>
7043
7044 <p>It is based on /etc/init.d/skeleton, and could be improved quite a
7045 lot.  I did not really polish the approach, so it might not always
7046 work out of the box, but you get the idea.  I did not try very hard to
7047 optimize it nor make it more robust either.</p>
7048
7049 <p>A better argument for switching init system in Debian than reducing
7050 the size of init scripts (which is a good thing to do anyway), is to
7051 get boot system that is able to handle the kernel events sensibly and
7052 robustly, and do not depend on the boot to run sequentially.  The boot
7053 and the kernel have not behaved sequentially in years.</p>
7054
7055       </div>
7056       <div class="tags">
7057
7058
7059         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bootsystem">bootsystem</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
7060
7061
7062       </div>
7063     </div>
7064     <div class="padding"></div>
7065
7066     <div class="entry">
7067       <div class="title">
7068         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Browser_plugin_for_SPICE__spice_xpi__uploaded_to_Debian.html">Browser plugin for SPICE (spice-xpi) uploaded to Debian</a>
7069       </div>
7070       <div class="date">
7071          1st November 2013
7072       </div>
7073       <div class="body">
7074         <p><a href="http://www.spice-space.org/">The SPICE protocol</a> for
7075 remote display access is the preferred solution with oVirt and RedHat
7076 Enterprise Virtualization, and I was sad to discover the other day
7077 that the browser plugin needed to use these systems seamlessly was
7078 missing in Debian.  The <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/668284">request
7079 for a package</a> was from 2012-04-10 with no progress since
7080 2013-04-01, so I decided to wrap up a package based on the great work
7081 from Cajus Pollmeier and put it in a collab-maint maintained git
7082 repository to get a package I could use.  I would very much like
7083 others to help me maintain the package (or just take over, I do not
7084 mind), but as no-one had volunteered so far, I just uploaded it to
7085 NEW.  I hope it will be available in Debian in a few days.</p>
7086
7087 <p>The source is now available from
7088 <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>
7089
7090       </div>
7091       <div class="tags">
7092
7093
7094         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
7095
7096
7097       </div>
7098     </div>
7099     <div class="padding"></div>
7100
7101     <div class="entry">
7102       <div class="title">
7103         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Teaching_vmdebootstrap_to_create_Raspberry_Pi_SD_card_images.html">Teaching vmdebootstrap to create Raspberry Pi SD card images</a>
7104       </div>
7105       <div class="date">
7106         27th October 2013
7107       </div>
7108       <div class="body">
7109         <p>The
7110 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/v/vmdebootstrap.html">vmdebootstrap</a>
7111 program is a a very nice system to create virtual machine images.  It
7112 create a image file, add a partition table, mount it and run
7113 debootstrap in the mounted directory to create a Debian system on a
7114 stick.  Yesterday, I decided to try to teach it how to make images for
7115 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/RaspberryPi">Raspberry Pi</a>, as part
7116 of a plan to simplify the build system for
7117 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/FreedomBox">the FreedomBox
7118 project</a>.  The FreedomBox project already uses vmdebootstrap for
7119 the virtualbox images, but its current build system made multistrap
7120 based system for Dreamplug images, and it is lacking support for
7121 Raspberry Pi.</p>
7122
7123 <p>Armed with the knowledge on how to build "foreign" (aka non-native
7124 architecture) chroots for Raspberry Pi, I dived into the vmdebootstrap
7125 code and adjusted it to be able to build armel images on my amd64
7126 Debian laptop.  I ended up giving vmdebootstrap five new options,
7127 allowing me to replicate the image creation process I use to make
7128 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/A_Raspberry_Pi_based_batman_adv_Mesh_network_node.html">Debian
7129 Jessie based mesh node images for the Raspberry Pi</a>.  First, the
7130 <tt>--foreign /path/to/binfm_handler</tt> option tell vmdebootstrap to
7131 call debootstrap with --foreign and to copy the handler into the
7132 generated chroot before running the second stage.  This allow
7133 vmdebootstrap to create armel images on an amd64 host.  Next I added
7134 two new options <tt>--bootsize size</tt> and <tt>--boottype
7135 fstype</tt> to teach it to create a separate /boot/ partition with the
7136 given file system type, allowing me to create an image with a vfat
7137 partition for the /boot/ stuff.  I also added a <tt>--variant
7138 variant</tt> option to allow me to create smaller images without the
7139 Debian base system packages installed.  Finally, I added an option
7140 <tt>--no-extlinux</tt> to tell vmdebootstrap to not install extlinux
7141 as a boot loader.  It is not needed on the Raspberry Pi and probably
7142 most other non-x86 architectures.  The changes were accepted by the
7143 upstream author of vmdebootstrap yesterday and today, and is now
7144 available from
7145 <a href="http://git.liw.fi/cgi-bin/cgit/cgit.cgi/vmdebootstrap/">the
7146 upstream project page</a>.</p>
7147
7148 <p>To use it to build a Raspberry Pi image using Debian Jessie, first
7149 create a small script (the customize script) to add the non-free
7150 binary blob needed to boot the Raspberry Pi and the APT source
7151 list:</p>
7152
7153 <p><pre>
7154 #!/bin/sh
7155 set -e # Exit on first error
7156 rootdir="$1"
7157 cd "$rootdir"
7158 cat &lt;&lt;EOF > etc/apt/sources.list
7159 deb http://http.debian.net/debian/ jessie main contrib non-free
7160 EOF
7161 # Install non-free binary blob needed to boot Raspberry Pi.  This
7162 # install a kernel somewhere too.
7163 wget https://raw.github.com/Hexxeh/rpi-update/master/rpi-update \
7164     -O $rootdir/usr/bin/rpi-update
7165 chmod a+x $rootdir/usr/bin/rpi-update
7166 mkdir -p $rootdir/lib/modules
7167 touch $rootdir/boot/start.elf
7168 chroot $rootdir rpi-update
7169 </pre></p>
7170
7171 <p>Next, fetch the latest vmdebootstrap script and call it like this
7172 to build the image:</p>
7173
7174 <pre>
7175 sudo ./vmdebootstrap \
7176     --variant minbase \
7177     --arch armel \
7178     --distribution jessie \
7179     --mirror http://http.debian.net/debian \
7180     --image test.img \
7181     --size 600M \
7182     --bootsize 64M \
7183     --boottype vfat \
7184     --log-level debug \
7185     --verbose \
7186     --no-kernel \
7187     --no-extlinux \
7188     --root-password raspberry \
7189     --hostname raspberrypi \
7190     --foreign /usr/bin/qemu-arm-static \
7191     --customize `pwd`/customize \
7192     --package netbase \
7193     --package git-core \
7194     --package binutils \
7195     --package ca-certificates \
7196     --package wget \
7197     --package kmod
7198 </pre></p>
7199
7200 <p>The list of packages being installed are the ones needed by
7201 rpi-update to make the image bootable on the Raspberry Pi, with the
7202 exception of netbase, which is needed by debootstrap to find
7203 /etc/hosts with the minbase variant.  I really wish there was a way to
7204 set up an Raspberry Pi using only packages in the Debian archive, but
7205 that is not possible as far as I know, because it boots from the GPU
7206 using a non-free binary blob.</p>
7207
7208 <p>The build host need debootstrap, kpartx and qemu-user-static and
7209 probably a few others installed.  I have not checked the complete
7210 build dependency list.</p>
7211
7212 <p>The resulting image will not use the hardware floating point unit
7213 on the Raspberry PI, because the armel architecture in Debian is not
7214 optimized for that use.  So the images created will be a bit slower
7215 than <a href="http://www.raspbian.org/">Raspbian</a> based images.</p>
7216
7217       </div>
7218       <div class="tags">
7219
7220
7221         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freedombox">freedombox</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/mesh network">mesh network</a>.
7222
7223
7224       </div>
7225     </div>
7226     <div class="padding"></div>
7227
7228     <div class="entry">
7229       <div class="title">
7230         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Good_causes__Debian_Outreach_Program_for_Women__EFF_documenting_the_spying_and_Open_access_in_Norway.html">Good causes: Debian Outreach Program for Women, EFF documenting the spying and Open access in Norway</a>
7231       </div>
7232       <div class="date">
7233         15th October 2013
7234       </div>
7235       <div class="body">
7236         <p>The last few days I came across a few good causes that should get
7237 wider attention.  I recommend signing and donating to each one of
7238 these. :)</p>
7239
7240 <p>Via <a href="http://www.debian.org/News/weekly/2013/18/">Debian
7241 Project News for 2013-10-14</a> I came across the Outreach Program for
7242 Women program which is a Google Summer of Code like initiative to get
7243 more women involved in free software.  One debian sponsor has offered
7244 to match <a href="http://debian.ch/opw2013">any donation done to Debian
7245 earmarked</a> for this initiative.  I donated a few minutes ago, and
7246 hope you will to. :)</p>
7247
7248 <p>And the Electronic Frontier Foundation just announced plans to
7249 create <a href="https://supporters.eff.org/donate/nsa-videos">video
7250 documentaries about the excessive spying</a> on every Internet user that
7251 take place these days, and their need to fund the work.  I've already
7252 donated.  Are you next?</p>
7253
7254 <p>For my Norwegian audience, the organisation Studentenes og
7255 Akademikernes Internasjonale Hjelpefond is collecting signatures for a
7256 statement under the heading
7257 <a href="http://saih.no/Bloggers_United/">Bloggers United for Open
7258 Access</a> for those of us asking for more focus on open access in the
7259 Norwegian government.  So far 499 signatures.  I hope you will sign it
7260 too.</p>
7261
7262       </div>
7263       <div class="tags">
7264
7265
7266         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/opphavsrett">opphavsrett</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance</a>.
7267
7268
7269       </div>
7270     </div>
7271     <div class="padding"></div>
7272
7273     <div class="entry">
7274       <div class="title">
7275         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Videos_about_the_Freedombox_project___for_inspiration_and_learning.html">Videos about the Freedombox project - for inspiration and learning</a>
7276       </div>
7277       <div class="date">
7278         27th September 2013
7279       </div>
7280       <div class="body">
7281         <p>The <a href="http://www.freedomboxfoundation.org/">Freedombox
7282 project</a> have been going on for a while, and have presented the
7283 vision, ideas and solution several places.  Here is a little
7284 collection of videos of talks and presentation of the project.</p>
7285
7286 <ul>
7287
7288 <li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ukvUz5taxvA">FreedomBox -
7289 2,5 minute marketing film</a> (Youtube)</li>
7290
7291 <li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SzW25QTVWsE">Eben Moglen
7292 discusses the Freedombox on CBS news 2011</a> (Youtube)</li>
7293
7294 <li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ae8SZbxfE0g">Eben Moglen -
7295 Freedom in the Cloud - Software Freedom, Privacy and and Security for
7296 Web 2.0 and Cloud computing at ISOC-NY Public Meeting 2010</a>
7297 (Youtube)</li>
7298
7299 <li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNaIji_3xBE">Fosdem 2011
7300 Keynote by Eben Moglen presenting the Freedombox</a> (Youtube)</li>
7301
7302 <li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bDDUyJSQ9s">Presentation of
7303 the Freedombox by James Vasile at Elevate in Gratz 2011</a> (Youtube)</li>
7304
7305 <li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQTmnk27g9s"> Freedombox -
7306 Discovery, Identity, and Trust by Nick Daly at Freedombox Hackfest New
7307 York City in 2012</a> (Youtube)</li>
7308
7309 <li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tkbSB4Ba7Ck">Introduction
7310 to the Freedombox at Freedombox Hackfest New York City in 2012</a>
7311 (Youtube)</li>
7312
7313 <li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-P2Jaeg0aQ">Freedom, Out
7314 of the Box! by Bdale Garbee at linux.conf.au Ballarat, 2012</a> (Youtube) </li>
7315
7316 <li><a href="https://archive.fosdem.org/2013/schedule/event/freedombox/">Freedombox
7317 1.0 by Eben Moglen and Bdale Garbee at Fosdem 2013</a> (FOSDEM) </li>
7318
7319 <li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e1LpYX2zVYg">What is the
7320 FreedomBox today by Bdale Garbee at Debconf13 in Vaumarcus
7321 2013</a> (Youtube)</li>
7322
7323 </ul>
7324
7325 <p>A larger list is available from
7326 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/FreedomBox/TalksAndPresentations">the
7327 Freedombox Wiki</a>.</p>
7328
7329 <p>On other news, I am happy to report that Freedombox based on Debian
7330 Jessie is coming along quite well, and soon both Owncloud and using
7331 Tor should be available for testers of the Freedombox solution. :) In
7332 a few weeks I hope everything needed to test it is included in Debian.
7333 The withsqlite package is already in Debian, and the plinth package is
7334 pending in NEW.  The third and vital part of that puzzle is the
7335 metapackage/setup framework, which is still pending an upload.  Join
7336 us on <a href="irc://irc.debian.org:6667/%23freedombox">IRC
7337 (#freedombox on irc.debian.org)</a> and
7338 <a href="http://lists.alioth.debian.org/mailman/listinfo/freedombox-discuss">the
7339 mailing list</a> if you want to help make this vision come true.</p>
7340
7341       </div>
7342       <div class="tags">
7343
7344
7345         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freedombox">freedombox</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/web">web</a>.
7346
7347
7348       </div>
7349     </div>
7350     <div class="padding"></div>
7351
7352     <div class="entry">
7353       <div class="title">
7354         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Recipe_to_test_the_Freedombox_project_on_amd64_or_Raspberry_Pi.html">Recipe to test the Freedombox project on amd64 or Raspberry Pi</a>
7355       </div>
7356       <div class="date">
7357         10th September 2013
7358       </div>
7359       <div class="body">
7360         <p>I was introduced to the
7361 <a href="http://www.freedomboxfoundation.org/">Freedombox project</a>
7362 in 2010, when Eben Moglen presented his vision about serving the need
7363 of non-technical people to keep their personal information private and
7364 within the legal protection of their own homes.  The idea is to give
7365 people back the power over their network and machines, and return
7366 Internet back to its intended peer-to-peer architecture.  Instead of
7367 depending on a central service, the Freedombox will give everyone
7368 control over their own basic infrastructure.</p>
7369
7370 <p>I've intended to join the effort since then, but other tasks have
7371 taken priority.  But this summers nasty news about the misuse of trust
7372 and privilege exercised by the "western" intelligence gathering
7373 communities increased my eagerness to contribute to a point where I
7374 actually started working on the project a while back.</p>
7375
7376 <p>The <a href="https://alioth.debian.org/projects/freedombox/">initial
7377 Debian initiative</a> based on the vision from Eben Moglen, is to
7378 create a simple and cheap Debian based appliance that anyone can hook
7379 up in their home and get access to secure and private services and
7380 communication.  The initial deployment platform have been the
7381 <a href="http://www.globalscaletechnologies.com/t-dreamplugdetails.aspx">Dreamplug</a>,
7382 which is a piece of hardware I do not own.  So to be able to test what
7383 the current Freedombox setup look like, I had to come up with a way to install
7384 it on some hardware I do have access to.  I have rewritten the
7385 <a href="https://github.com/NickDaly/freedom-maker">freedom-maker</a>
7386 image build framework to use .deb packages instead of only copying
7387 setup into the boot images, and thanks to this rewrite I am able to
7388 set up any machine supported by Debian Wheezy as a Freedombox, using
7389 the previously mentioned deb (and a few support debs for packages
7390 missing in Debian).</p>
7391
7392 <p>The current Freedombox setup consist of a set of bootstrapping
7393 scripts
7394 (<a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/freedombox-setup">freedombox-setup</a>),
7395 and a administrative web interface
7396 (<a href="https://github.com/NickDaly/Plinth">plinth</a> + exmachina +
7397 withsqlite), as well as a privacy enhancing proxy based on
7398 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/privoxy">privoxy</a>
7399 (freedombox-privoxy).  There is also a web/javascript based XMPP
7400 client (<a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/jwchat">jwchat</a>)
7401 trying (unsuccessfully so far) to talk to the XMPP server
7402 (<a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/ejabberd">ejabberd</a>).  The
7403 web interface is pluggable, and the goal is to use it to enable OpenID
7404 services, mesh network connectivity, use of TOR, etc, etc.  Not much of
7405 this is really working yet, see
7406 <a href="https://github.com/NickDaly/freedombox-todos/blob/master/TODO">the
7407 project TODO</a> for links to GIT repositories.  Most of the code is
7408 on github at the moment.  The HTTP proxy is operational out of the
7409 box, and the admin web interface can be used to add/remove plinth
7410 users.  I've not been able to do anything else with it so far, but
7411 know there are several branches spread around github and other places
7412 with lots of half baked features.</p>
7413
7414 <p>Anyway, if you want to have a look at the current state, the
7415 following recipes should work to give you a test machine to poke
7416 at.</p>
7417
7418 <p><strong>Debian Wheezy amd64</strong></p>
7419
7420 <ol>
7421
7422 <li>Fetch normal Debian Wheezy installation ISO.</li>
7423 <li>Boot from it, either as CD or USB stick.</li>
7424 <li><p>Press [tab] on the boot prompt and add this as a boot argument
7425 to the Debian installer:<p>
7426 <pre>url=<a href="http://www.reinholdtsen.name/freedombox/preseed-wheezy.dat">http://www.reinholdtsen.name/freedombox/preseed-wheezy.dat</a></pre></li>
7427
7428 <li>Answer the few language/region/password questions and pick disk to
7429 install on.</li>
7430
7431 <li>When the installation is finished and the machine have rebooted a
7432 few times, your Freedombox is ready for testing.</li>
7433
7434 </ol>
7435
7436 <p><strong>Raspberry Pi Raspbian</strong></p>
7437
7438 <ol>
7439
7440 <li>Fetch a Raspbian SD card image, create SD card.</li>
7441 <li>Boot from SD card, extend file system to fill the card completely.</li>
7442 <li><p>Log in and add this to /etc/sources.list:</p>
7443 <pre>
7444 deb <a href="http://www.reinholdtsen.name/freedombox/">http://www.reinholdtsen.name/freedombox</a> wheezy main
7445 </pre></li>
7446 <li><p>Run this as root:</p>
7447 <pre>
7448 wget -O - http://www.reinholdtsen.name/freedombox/BE1A583D.asc | \
7449    apt-key add -
7450 apt-get update
7451 apt-get install freedombox-setup
7452 /usr/lib/freedombox/setup
7453 </pre></li>
7454 <li>Reboot into your freshly created Freedombox.</li>
7455
7456 </ol>
7457
7458 <p>You can test it on other architectures too, but because the
7459 freedombox-privoxy package is binary, it will only work as intended on
7460 the architectures where I have had time to build the binary and put it
7461 in my APT repository.  But do not let this stop you.  It is only a
7462 short "<tt>apt-get source -b freedombox-privoxy</tt>" away. :)</p>
7463
7464 <p>Note that by default Freedombox is a DHCP server on the
7465 192.168.1.0/24 subnet, so if this is your subnet be careful and turn
7466 off the DHCP server by running "<tt>update-rc.d isc-dhcp-server
7467 disable</tt>" as root.</p>
7468
7469 <p>Please let me know if this works for you, or if you have any
7470 problems.  We gather on the IRC channel
7471 <a href="irc://irc.debian.org:6667/%23freedombox">#freedombox</a> on
7472 irc.debian.org and the
7473 <a href="http://lists.alioth.debian.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/freedombox-discuss">project
7474 mailing list</a>.</p>
7475
7476 <p>Once you get your freedombox operational, you can visit
7477 <tt>http://your-host-name:8001/</tt> to see the state of the plint
7478 welcome screen (dead end - do not be surprised if you are unable to
7479 get past it), and next visit <tt>http://your-host-name:8001/help/</tt>
7480 to look at the rest of plinth.  The default user is 'admin' and the
7481 default password is 'secret'.</p>
7482
7483       </div>
7484       <div class="tags">
7485
7486
7487         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freedombox">freedombox</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/web">web</a>.
7488
7489
7490       </div>
7491     </div>
7492     <div class="padding"></div>
7493
7494     <div class="entry">
7495       <div class="title">
7496         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Intel_180_SSD_disk_with_Lenovo_firmware_can_not_use_Intel_firmware.html">Intel 180 SSD disk with Lenovo firmware can not use Intel firmware</a>
7497       </div>
7498       <div class="date">
7499         18th August 2013
7500       </div>
7501       <div class="body">
7502         <p>Earlier, I reported about
7503 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_fix_a_Thinkpad_X230_with_a_broken_180_GB_SSD_disk.html">my
7504 problems using an Intel SSD 520 Series 180 GB disk</a>.  Friday I was
7505 told by IBM that the original disk should be thrown away.  And as
7506 there no longer was a problem if I bricked the firmware, I decided
7507 today to try to install Intel firmware to replace the Lenovo firmware
7508 currently on the disk.</p>
7509
7510 <p>I searched the Intel site for firmware, and found
7511 <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>
7512 (aka Intel SATA Solid-State Drive Firmware Update Tool) which
7513 according to the site should contain the latest firmware for SSD
7514 disks.  I inserted the broken disk in one of my spare laptops and
7515 booted the ISO from a USB stick.  The disk was recognized, but the
7516 program claimed the newest firmware already were installed and refused
7517 to insert any Intel firmware.  So no change, and the disk is still
7518 unable to handle write load. :( I guess the only way to get them
7519 working would be if Lenovo releases new firmware.  No idea how likely
7520 that is.  Anyway, just blogging about this test for completeness.  I
7521 got a working Samsung disk, and see no point in spending more time on
7522 the broken disks.</p>
7523
7524       </div>
7525       <div class="tags">
7526
7527
7528         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
7529
7530
7531       </div>
7532     </div>
7533     <div class="padding"></div>
7534
7535     <div class="entry">
7536       <div class="title">
7537         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/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>
7538       </div>
7539       <div class="date">
7540         17th July 2013
7541       </div>
7542       <div class="body">
7543         <p>Today I switched to
7544 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_Thinkpad_is_dead__long_live_the_Thinkpad_X230_.html">my
7545 new laptop</a>.  I've previously written about the problems I had with
7546 my new Thinkpad X230, which was delivered with an
7547 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Intel_SSD_520_Series_180_GB_with_Lenovo_firmware_still_lock_up_from_sustained_writes.html">180
7548 GB Intel SSD disk with Lenovo firmware</a> that did not handle
7549 sustained writes.  My hardware supplier have been very forthcoming in
7550 trying to find a solution, and after first trying with another
7551 identical 180 GB disks they decided to send me a 256 GB Samsung SSD
7552 disk instead to fix it once and for all.  The Samsung disk survived
7553 the installation of Debian with encrypted disks (filling the disk with
7554 random data during installation killed the first two), and I thus
7555 decided to trust it with my data.  I have installed it as a Debian Edu
7556 Wheezy roaming workstation hooked up with my Debian Edu Squeeze main
7557 server at home using Kerberos and LDAP, and will use it as my work
7558 station from now on.</p>
7559
7560 <p>As this is a solid state disk with no moving parts, I believe the
7561 Debian Wheezy default installation need to be tuned a bit to increase
7562 performance and increase life time of the disk.  The Linux kernel and
7563 user space applications do not yet adjust automatically to such
7564 environment.  To make it easier for my self, I created a draft Debian
7565 package <tt>ssd-setup</tt> to handle this tuning.  The
7566 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/gitweb/?p=collab-maint/ssd-setup.git">source
7567 for the ssd-setup package</a> is available from collab-maint, and it
7568 is set up to adjust the setup of the machine by just installing the
7569 package.  If there is any non-SSD disk in the machine, the package
7570 will refuse to install, as I did not try to write any logic to sort
7571 file systems in SSD and non-SSD file systems.</p>
7572
7573 <p>I consider the package a draft, as I am a bit unsure how to best
7574 set up Debian Wheezy with an SSD.  It is adjusted to my use case,
7575 where I set up the machine with one large encrypted partition (in
7576 addition to /boot), put LVM on top of this and set up partitions on
7577 top of this again.  See the README file in the package source for the
7578 references I used to pick the settings.  At the moment these
7579 parameters are tuned:</p>
7580
7581 <ul>
7582
7583 <li>Set up cryptsetup to pass TRIM commands to the physical disk
7584     (adding discard to /etc/crypttab)</li>
7585
7586 <li>Set up LVM to pass on TRIM commands to the underlying device (in
7587     this case a cryptsetup partition) by changing issue_discards from
7588     0 to 1 in /etc/lvm/lvm.conf.</li>
7589
7590 <li>Set relatime as a file system option for ext3 and ext4 file
7591     systems.</li>
7592
7593 <li>Tell swap to use TRIM commands by adding 'discard' to
7594     /etc/fstab.</li>
7595
7596 <li>Change I/O scheduler from cfq to deadline using a udev rule.</li>
7597
7598 <li>Run fstrim on every ext3 and ext4 file system every night (from
7599     cron.daily).</li>
7600
7601 <li>Adjust sysctl values vm.swappiness to 1 and vm.vfs_cache_pressure
7602     to 50 to reduce the kernel eagerness to swap out processes.</li>
7603
7604 </ul>
7605
7606 <p>During installation, I cancelled the part where the installer fill
7607 the disk with random data, as this would kill the SSD performance for
7608 little gain.  My goal with the encrypted file system is to ensure
7609 those stealing my laptop end up with a brick and not a working
7610 computer.  I have no hope in keeping the really resourceful people
7611 from getting the data on the disk (see
7612 <a href="http://xkcd.com/538/">XKCD #538</a> for an explanation why).
7613 Thus I concluded that adding the discard option to crypttab is the
7614 right thing to do.</p>
7615
7616 <p>I considered using the noop I/O scheduler, as several recommended
7617 it for SSD, but others recommended deadline and a benchmark I found
7618 indicated that deadline might be better for interactive use.</p>
7619
7620 <p>I also considered using the 'discard' file system option for ext3
7621 and ext4, but read that it would give a performance hit ever time a
7622 file is removed, and thought it best to that that slowdown once a day
7623 instead of during my work.</p>
7624
7625 <p>My package do not set up tmpfs on /var/run, /var/lock and /tmp, as
7626 this is already done by Debian Edu.</p>
7627
7628 <p>I have not yet started on the user space tuning.  I expect
7629 iceweasel need some tuning, and perhaps other applications too, but
7630 have not yet had time to investigate those parts.</p>
7631
7632 <p>The package should work on Ubuntu too, but I have not yet tested it
7633 there.</p>
7634
7635 <p>As for the answer to the question in the title of this blog post,
7636 as far as I know, the only solution I know about is to replace the
7637 disk.  It might be possible to flash it with Intel firmware instead of
7638 the Lenovo firmware.  But I have not tried and did not want to do so
7639 without approval from Lenovo as I wanted to keep the warranty on the
7640 disk until a solution was found and they wanted the broken disks
7641 back.</p>
7642
7643       </div>
7644       <div class="tags">
7645
7646
7647         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
7648
7649
7650       </div>
7651     </div>
7652     <div class="padding"></div>
7653
7654     <div class="entry">
7655       <div class="title">
7656         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Intel_SSD_520_Series_180_GB_with_Lenovo_firmware_still_lock_up_from_sustained_writes.html">Intel SSD 520 Series 180 GB with Lenovo firmware still lock up from sustained writes</a>
7657       </div>
7658       <div class="date">
7659         10th July 2013
7660       </div>
7661       <div class="body">
7662         <p>A few days ago, I wrote about
7663 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_Thinkpad_is_dead__long_live_the_Thinkpad_X230_.html">the
7664 problems I experienced with my new X230 and its SSD disk</a>, which
7665 was dying during installation because it is unable to cope with
7666 sustained write.  My supplier is in contact with
7667 <a href="http://www.lenovo.com/">Lenovo</a>, and they wanted to send a
7668 replacement disk to try to fix the problem.  They decided to send an
7669 identical model, so my hopes for a permanent fix was slim.</p>
7670
7671 <p>Anyway, today I got the replacement disk and tried to install
7672 Debian Edu Wheezy with encrypted disk on it.  The new disk have the
7673 same firmware version as the original.  This time my hope raised
7674 slightly as the installation progressed, as the original disk used to
7675 die after 4-7% of the disk was written to, while this time it kept
7676 going past 10%, 20%, 40% and even past 50%.  But around 60%, the disk
7677 died again and I was back on square one.  I still do not have a new
7678 laptop with a disk I can trust.  I can not live with a disk that might
7679 lock up when I download a new
7680 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux</a> ISO or
7681 other large files.  I look forward to hearing from my supplier with
7682 the next proposal from Lenovo.</p>
7683
7684 <p>The original disk is marked Intel SSD 520 Series 180 GB,
7685 11S0C38722Z1ZNME35X1TR, ISN: CVCV321407HB180EGN, SA: G57560302, FW:
7686 LF1i, 29MAY2013, PBA: G39779-300, LBA 351,651,888, LI P/N: 0C38722,
7687 Pb-free 2LI, LC P/N: 16-200366, WWN: 55CD2E40002756C4, Model:
7688 SSDSC2BW180A3L 2.5" 6Gb/s SATA SSD 180G 5V 1A, ASM P/N 0C38732, FRU
7689 P/N 45N8295, P0C38732.</p>
7690
7691 <p>The replacement disk is marked Intel SSD 520 Series 180 GB,
7692 11S0C38722Z1ZNDE34N0L0, ISN: CVCV315306RK180EGN, SA: G57560-302, FW:
7693 LF1i, 22APR2013, PBA: G39779-300, LBA 351,651,888, LI P/N: 0C38722,
7694 Pb-free 2LI, LC P/N: 16-200366, WWN: 55CD2E40000AB69E, Model:
7695 SSDSC2BW180A3L 2.5" 6Gb/s SATA SSD 180G 5V 1A, ASM P/N 0C38732, FRU
7696 P/N 45N8295, P0C38732.</p>
7697
7698 <p>The only difference is in the first number (serial number?), ISN,
7699 SA, date and WNPP values.  Mentioning all the details here in case
7700 someone is able to use the information to find a way to identify the
7701 failing disk among working ones (if any such working disk actually
7702 exist).</p>
7703
7704       </div>
7705       <div class="tags">
7706
7707
7708         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
7709
7710
7711       </div>
7712     </div>
7713     <div class="padding"></div>
7714
7715     <div class="entry">
7716       <div class="title">
7717         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/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>
7718       </div>
7719       <div class="date">
7720          9th July 2013
7721       </div>
7722       <div class="body">
7723         <p>The upcoming Saturday, 2013-07-13, we are organising a combined
7724 Debian Edu developer gathering and Debian and Ubuntu bug squashing
7725 party in Oslo.  It is organised by <a href="http://www.nuug.no/">the
7726 member assosiation NUUG</a> and
7727 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">the Debian Edu / Skolelinux
7728 project</a> together with <a href="http://bitraf.no/">the hack space
7729 Bitraf</a>.</p>
7730
7731 <p>It starts 10:00 and continue until late evening.  Everyone is
7732 welcome, and there is no fee to participate.  There is on the other
7733 hand limited space, and only room for 30 people.  Please put your name
7734 on <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/BSP/2013/07/13/no/Oslo">the event
7735 wiki page</a> if you plan to join us.</p>
7736
7737       </div>
7738       <div class="tags">
7739
7740
7741         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
7742
7743
7744       </div>
7745     </div>
7746     <div class="padding"></div>
7747
7748     <div class="entry">
7749       <div class="title">
7750         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_Thinkpad_is_dead__long_live_the_Thinkpad_X230_.html">The Thinkpad is dead, long live the Thinkpad X230?</a>
7751       </div>
7752       <div class="date">
7753          5th July 2013
7754       </div>
7755       <div class="body">
7756         <p>Half a year ago, I reported that I had to find a
7757 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Thank_you_Thinkpad_X41__for_your_long_and_trustworthy_service.html">replacement
7758 for my trusty old Thinkpad X41</a>.  Unfortunately I did not have much
7759 time to spend on it, and it took a while to find a model I believe
7760 will do the job, but two days ago the replacement finally arrived.  I
7761 ended up picking a
7762 <a href="http://www.linlap.com/lenovo_thinkpad_x230">Thinkpad X230</a>
7763 with SSD disk (NZDAJMN).  I first test installed Debian Edu Wheezy as
7764 a roaming workstation, and it seemed to work flawlessly.  But my
7765 second installation with encrypted disk was not as successful.  More
7766 on that below.</p>
7767
7768 <p>I had a hard time trying to track down a good laptop, as my most
7769 important requirements (robust and with a good keyboard) are never
7770 listed in the feature list.  But I did get good help from the search
7771 feature at <a href="http://www.prisjakt.no/">Prisjakt</a>, which
7772 allowed me to limit the list of interesting laptops based on my other
7773 requirements.  A bit surprising that SSD disk are not disks according
7774 to that search interface, so I had to drop specifying the number of
7775 disks from my search parameters.  I also asked around among friends to
7776 get their impression on keyboards and robustness.</p>
7777
7778 <p>So the new laptop arrived, and it is quite a lot wider than the
7779 X41.  I am not quite convinced about the keyboard, as it is
7780 significantly wider than my old keyboard, and I have to stretch my
7781 hand a lot more to reach the edges.  But the key response is fairly
7782 good and the individual key shape is fairly easy to handle, so I hope
7783 I will get used to it.  My old X40 was starting to fail, and I really
7784 needed a new laptop now. :)</p>
7785
7786 <p>Turning off the touch pad was simple.  All it took was a quick
7787 visit to the BIOS during boot it disable it.</p>
7788
7789 <p>But there is a fatal problem with the laptop.  The 180 GB SSD disk
7790 lock up during load.  And this happen when installing Debian Wheezy
7791 with encrypted disk, while the disk is being filled with random data.
7792 I also tested to install Ubuntu Raring, and it happen there too if I
7793 reenable the code to fill the disk with random data (it is disabled by
7794 default in Ubuntu).  And the bug with is already known.  It was
7795 reported to Debian as <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/691427">BTS
7796 report #691427 2012-10-25</a> (journal commit I/O error on brand-new
7797 Thinkpad T430s ext4 on lvm on SSD).  It is also reported to the Linux
7798 kernel developers as
7799 <a href="https://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=51861">Kernel bugzilla
7800 report #51861 2012-12-20</a> (Intel SSD 520 stops working under load
7801 (SSDSC2BW180A3L in Lenovo ThinkPad T430s)). It is also reported on the
7802 Lenovo forums, both for
7803 <a href="http://forums.lenovo.com/t5/T400-T500-and-newer-T-series/T430s-Intel-SSD-520-180GB-issue/m-p/1070549">T430
7804 2012-11-10</a> and for
7805 <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
7806 03-20-2013</a>.  The problem do not only affect installation.  The
7807 reports state that the disk lock up during use if many writes are done
7808 on the disk, so it is much no use to work around the installation
7809 problem and end up with a computer that can lock up at any moment.
7810 There is even a
7811 <a href="https://git.efficios.com/?p=test-ssd.git">small C program
7812 available</a> that will lock up the hard drive after running a few
7813 minutes by writing to a file.</p>
7814
7815 <p>I've contacted my supplier and asked how to handle this, and after
7816 contacting PCHELP Norway (request 01D1FDP) which handle support
7817 requests for Lenovo, his first suggestion was to upgrade the disk
7818 firmware.  Unfortunately there is no newer firmware available from
7819 Lenovo, as my disk already have the most recent one (version LF1i).  I
7820 hope to hear more from him today and hope the problem can be
7821 fixed. :)</p>
7822
7823       </div>
7824       <div class="tags">
7825
7826
7827         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
7828
7829
7830       </div>
7831     </div>
7832     <div class="padding"></div>
7833
7834     <div class="entry">
7835       <div class="title">
7836         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_Thinkpad_is_dead__long_live_the_Thinkpad_X230.html">The Thinkpad is dead, long live the Thinkpad X230</a>
7837       </div>
7838       <div class="date">
7839          4th July 2013
7840       </div>
7841       <div class="body">
7842         <p>Half a year ago, I reported that I had to find a replacement for my
7843 trusty old Thinkpad X41.  Unfortunately I did not have much time to
7844 spend on it, but today the replacement finally arrived.  I ended up
7845 picking a <a href="http://www.linlap.com/lenovo_thinkpad_x230">Thinkpad
7846 X230</a> with SSD disk (NZDAJMN).  I first test installed Debian Edu
7847 Wheezy as a roaming workstation, and it worked flawlessly.  As I write
7848 this, it is installing what I hope will be a more final installation,
7849 with a encrypted hard drive to ensure any dope head stealing it end up
7850 with an expencive door stop.</p>
7851
7852 <p>I had a hard time trying to track down a good laptop, as my most
7853 important requirements (robust and with a good keyboard) are never
7854 listed in the feature list.  But I did get good help from the search
7855 feature at <ahref="http://www.prisjakt.no/">Prisjakt</a>, which
7856 allowed me to limit the list of interesting laptops based on my other
7857 requirements.  A bit surprising that SSD disk are not disks, so I had
7858 to drop number of disks from my search parameters.</p>
7859
7860 <p>I am not quite convinced about the keyboard, as it is significantly
7861 wider than my old keyboard, and I have to stretch my hand a lot more
7862 to reach the edges.  But the key response is fairly good and the
7863 individual key shape is fairly easy to handle, so I hope I will get
7864 used to it.  My old X40 was starting to fail, and I really needed a
7865 new laptop now. :)</p>
7866
7867 <p>I look forward to figuring out how to turn off the touch pad.</p>
7868
7869       </div>
7870       <div class="tags">
7871
7872
7873         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
7874
7875
7876       </div>
7877     </div>
7878     <div class="padding"></div>
7879
7880     <div class="entry">
7881       <div class="title">
7882         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Automatically_locate_and_install_required_firmware_packages_on_Debian__Isenkram_0_4_.html">Automatically locate and install required firmware packages on Debian (Isenkram 0.4)</a>
7883       </div>
7884       <div class="date">
7885         25th June 2013
7886       </div>
7887       <div class="body">
7888         <p>It annoys me when the computer fail to do automatically what it is
7889 perfectly capable of, and I have to do it manually to get things
7890 working.  One such task is to find out what firmware packages are
7891 needed to get the hardware on my computer working.  Most often this
7892 affect the wifi card, but some times it even affect the RAID
7893 controller or the ethernet card.  Today I pushed version 0.4 of the
7894 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/isenkram">Isenkram package</a>
7895 including a new script isenkram-autoinstall-firmware handling the
7896 process of asking all the loaded kernel modules what firmware files
7897 they want, find debian packages providing these files and install the
7898 debian packages.  Here is a test run on my laptop:</p>
7899
7900 <p><pre>
7901 # isenkram-autoinstall-firmware
7902 info: kernel drivers requested extra firmware: ipw2200-bss.fw ipw2200-ibss.fw ipw2200-sniffer.fw
7903 info: fetching http://http.debian.net/debian/dists/squeeze/Contents-i386.gz
7904 info: locating packages with the requested firmware files
7905 info: Updating APT sources after adding non-free APT source
7906 info: trying to install firmware-ipw2x00
7907 firmware-ipw2x00
7908 firmware-ipw2x00
7909 Preconfiguring packages ...
7910 Selecting previously deselected package firmware-ipw2x00.
7911 (Reading database ... 259727 files and directories currently installed.)
7912 Unpacking firmware-ipw2x00 (from .../firmware-ipw2x00_0.28+squeeze1_all.deb) ...
7913 Setting up firmware-ipw2x00 (0.28+squeeze1) ...
7914 #
7915 </pre></p>
7916
7917 <p>When all the requested firmware is present, a simple message is
7918 printed instead:</p>
7919
7920 <p><pre>
7921 # isenkram-autoinstall-firmware
7922 info: did not find any firmware files requested by loaded kernel modules.  exiting
7923 #
7924 </pre></p>
7925
7926 <p>It could use some polish, but it is already working well and saving
7927 me some time when setting up new machines. :)</p>
7928
7929 <p>So, how does it work?  It look at the set of currently loaded
7930 kernel modules, and look up each one of them using modinfo, to find
7931 the firmware files listed in the module meta-information.  Next, it
7932 download the Contents file from a nearby APT mirror, and search for
7933 the firmware files in this file to locate the package with the
7934 requested firmware file.  If the package is in the non-free section, a
7935 non-free APT source is added and the package is installed using
7936 <tt>apt-get install</tt>.  The end result is a slightly better working
7937 machine.</p>
7938
7939 <p>I hope someone find time to implement a more polished version of
7940 this script as part of the hw-detect debian-installer module, to
7941 finally fix <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/655507">BTS report
7942 #655507</a>.  There really is no need to insert USB sticks with
7943 firmware during a PXE install when the packages already are available
7944 from the nearby Debian mirror.</p>
7945
7946       </div>
7947       <div class="tags">
7948
7949
7950         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram">isenkram</a>.
7951
7952
7953       </div>
7954     </div>
7955     <div class="padding"></div>
7956
7957     <div class="entry">
7958       <div class="title">
7959         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Fixing_the_Linux_black_screen_of_death_on_machines_with_Intel_HD_video.html">Fixing the Linux black screen of death on machines with Intel HD video</a>
7960       </div>
7961       <div class="date">
7962         11th June 2013
7963       </div>
7964       <div class="body">
7965         <p>When installing RedHat, Fedora, Debian and Ubuntu on some machines,
7966 the screen just turn black when Linux boot, either during installation
7967 or on first boot from the hard disk.  I've seen it once in a while the
7968 last few years, but only recently understood the cause.  I've seen it
7969 on HP laptops, and on my latest acquaintance the Packard Bell laptop.
7970 The reason seem to be in the wiring of some laptops.  The system to
7971 control the screen background light is inverted, so when Linux try to
7972 turn the brightness fully on, it end up turning it off instead.  I do
7973 not know which Linux drivers are affected, but this post is about the
7974 i915 driver used by the
7975 <a href="http://www.linlap.com/packard_bell_easynote_lv">Packard Bell
7976 EasyNote LV</a>, Thinkpad X40 and many other laptops.</p>
7977
7978 <p>The problem can be worked around two ways.  Either by adding
7979 i915.invert_brightness=1 as a kernel option, or by adding a file in
7980 /etc/modprobe.d/ to tell modprobe to add the invert_brightness=1
7981 option when it load the i915 kernel module.  On Debian and Ubuntu, it
7982 can be done by running these commands as root:</p>
7983
7984 <pre>
7985 echo options i915 invert_brightness=1 | tee /etc/modprobe.d/i915.conf
7986 update-initramfs -u -k all
7987 </pre>
7988
7989 <p>Since March 2012 there is
7990 <a href="http://git.kernel.org/cgit/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/commit/?id=4dca20efb1a9c2efefc28ad2867e5d6c3f5e1955">a
7991 mechanism in the Linux kernel</a> to tell the i915 driver which
7992 hardware have this problem, and get the driver to invert the
7993 brightness setting automatically.  To use it, one need to add a row in
7994 <a href="http://git.kernel.org/cgit/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/tree/drivers/gpu/drm/i915/intel_display.c">the
7995 intel_quirks array</a> in the driver source
7996 <tt>drivers/gpu/drm/i915/intel_display.c</tt> (look for "<tt>static
7997 struct intel_quirk intel_quirks</tt>"), specifying the PCI device
7998 number (vendor number 8086 is assumed) and subdevice vendor and device
7999 number.</p>
8000
8001 <p>My Packard Bell EasyNote LV got this output from <tt>lspci
8002 -vvnn</tt> for the video card in question:</p>
8003
8004 <p><pre>
8005 00:02.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: Intel Corporation \
8006     3rd Gen Core processor Graphics Controller [8086:0156] \
8007     (rev 09) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
8008  Subsystem: Acer Incorporated [ALI] Device [1025:0688]
8009  Control: I/O+ Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- \
8010     ParErr- Stepping- SE RR- FastB2B- DisINTx+
8011  Status: Cap+ 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B+ ParErr- DEVSEL=fast >TAbort- \
8012     <TAbort- <MAbort->SERR- <PERR- INTx-
8013  Latency: 0
8014  Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 42
8015  Region 0: Memory at c2000000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4M]
8016  Region 2: Memory at b0000000 (64-bit, prefetchable) [size=256M]
8017  Region 4: I/O ports at 4000 [size=64]
8018  Expansion ROM at <unassigned> [disabled]
8019  Capabilities: <access denied>
8020  Kernel driver in use: i915
8021 </pre></p>
8022
8023 <p>The resulting intel_quirks entry would then look like this:</p>
8024
8025 <p><pre>
8026 struct intel_quirk intel_quirks[] = {
8027        ...
8028         /* Packard Bell EasyNote LV11HC needs invert brightness quirk */
8029         { 0x0156, 0x1025, 0x0688, quirk_invert_brightness },
8030        ...
8031 }
8032 </pre></p>
8033
8034 <p>According to the kernel module instructions (as seen using
8035 <tt>modinfo i915</tt>), information about hardware needing the
8036 invert_brightness flag should be sent to the
8037 <a href="http://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/dri-devel">dri-devel
8038 (at) lists.freedesktop.org</a> mailing list to reach the kernel
8039 developers.  But my email about the laptop sent 2013-06-03 have not
8040 yet shown up in
8041 <a href="http://lists.freedesktop.org/archives/dri-devel/2013-June/thread.html">the
8042 web archive for the mailing list</a>, so I suspect they do not accept
8043 emails from non-subscribers.  Because of this, I sent my patch also to
8044 the Debian bug tracking system instead as
8045 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/710938">BTS report #710938</a>, to make
8046 sure the patch is not lost.</p>
8047
8048 <p>Unfortunately, it is not enough to fix the kernel to get Laptops
8049 with this problem working properly with Linux.  If you use Gnome, your
8050 worries should be over at this point.  But if you use KDE, there is
8051 something in KDE ignoring the invert_brightness setting and turning on
8052 the screen during login.  I've reported it to Debian as
8053 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/711237">BTS report #711237</a>, and
8054 have no idea yet how to figure out exactly what subsystem is doing
8055 this.  Perhaps you can help?  Perhaps you know what the Gnome
8056 developers did to handle this, and this can give a clue to the KDE
8057 developers?  Or you know where in KDE the screen brightness is changed
8058 during login?  If so, please update the BTS report (or get in touch if
8059 you do not know how to update BTS).</p>
8060
8061 <p>Update 2013-07-19: The correct fix for this machine seem to be
8062 acpi_backlight=vendor, to disable ACPI backlight support completely,
8063 as the ACPI information on the machine is trash and it is better to
8064 leave it to the intel video driver to control the screen
8065 backlight.</p>
8066
8067       </div>
8068       <div class="tags">
8069
8070
8071         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
8072
8073
8074       </div>
8075     </div>
8076     <div class="padding"></div>
8077
8078     <div class="entry">
8079       <div class="title">
8080         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_install_Linux_on_a_Packard_Bell_Easynote_LV_preinstalled_with_Windows_8.html">How to install Linux on a Packard Bell Easynote LV preinstalled with Windows 8</a>
8081       </div>
8082       <div class="date">
8083         27th May 2013
8084       </div>
8085       <div class="body">
8086         <p>Two days ago, I asked
8087 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_can_I_install_Linux_on_a_Packard_Bell_Easynote_LV_preinstalled_with_Windows_8_.html">how
8088 I could install Linux on a Packard Bell EasyNote LV computer
8089 preinstalled with Windows 8</a>.  I found a solution, but am horrified
8090 with the obstacles put in the way of Linux users on a laptop with UEFI
8091 and Windows 8.</p>
8092
8093 <p>I never found out if the cause of my problems were the use of UEFI
8094 secure booting or fast boot.  I suspect fast boot was the problem,
8095 causing the firmware to boot directly from HD without considering any
8096 key presses and alternative devices, but do not know UEFI settings
8097 enough to tell.</p>
8098
8099 <p>There is no way to install Linux on the machine in question without
8100 opening the box and disconnecting the hard drive!  This is as far as I
8101 can tell, the only way to get access to the firmware setup menu
8102 without accepting the Windows 8 license agreement.  I am told (and
8103 found description on how to) that it is possible to configure the
8104 firmware setup once booted into Windows 8.  But as I believe the terms
8105 of that agreement are completely unacceptable, accepting the license
8106 was never an alternative.  I do not enter agreements I do not intend
8107 to follow.</p>
8108
8109 <p>I feared I had to return the laptops and ask for a refund, and
8110 waste many hours on this, but luckily there was a way to get it to
8111 work.  But I would not recommend it to anyone planning to run Linux on
8112 it, and I have become sceptical to Windows 8 certified laptops.  Is
8113 this the way Linux will be forced out of the market place, by making
8114 it close to impossible for "normal" users to install Linux without
8115 accepting the Microsoft Windows license terms?  Or at least not
8116 without risking to loose the warranty?</p>
8117
8118 <p>I've updated the
8119 <a href="http://www.linlap.com/packard_bell_easynote_lv">Linux Laptop
8120 wiki page for Packard Bell EasyNote LV</a>, to ensure the next person
8121 do not have to struggle as much as I did to get Linux into the
8122 machine.</p>
8123
8124 <p>Thanks to Bob Rosbag, Florian Weimer, Philipp Kern, Ben Hutching,
8125 Michael Tokarev and others for feedback and ideas.</p>
8126
8127       </div>
8128       <div class="tags">
8129
8130
8131         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
8132
8133
8134       </div>
8135     </div>
8136     <div class="padding"></div>
8137
8138     <div class="entry">
8139       <div class="title">
8140         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_can_I_install_Linux_on_a_Packard_Bell_Easynote_LV_preinstalled_with_Windows_8_.html">How can I install Linux on a Packard Bell Easynote LV preinstalled with Windows 8?</a>
8141       </div>
8142       <div class="date">
8143         25th May 2013
8144       </div>
8145       <div class="body">
8146         <p>I've run into quite a problem the last few days.  I bought three
8147 new laptops for my parents and a few others.  I bought Packard Bell
8148 Easynote LV to run Kubuntu on and use as their home computer.  But I
8149 am completely unable to figure out how to install Linux on it.  The
8150 computer is preinstalled with Windows 8, and I suspect it uses UEFI
8151 instead of a BIOS to boot.</p>
8152
8153 <p>The problem is that I am unable to get it to PXE boot, and unable
8154 to get it to boot the Linux installer from my USB stick.  I have yet
8155 to try the DVD install, and still hope it will work.  when I turn on
8156 the computer, there is no information on what buttons to press to get
8157 the normal boot menu.  I expect to get some boot menu to select PXE or
8158 USB stick booting.  When booting, it first ask for the language to
8159 use, then for some regional settings, and finally if I will accept the
8160 Windows 8 terms of use.  As these terms are completely unacceptable to
8161 me, I have no other choice but to turn off the computer and try again
8162 to get it to boot the Linux installer.</p>
8163
8164 <p>I have gathered my findings so far on a Linlap page about the
8165 <a href="http://www.linlap.com/packard_bell_easynote_lv">Packard Bell
8166 EasyNote LV</a> model.  If you have any idea how to get Linux
8167 installed on this machine, please get in touch or update that wiki
8168 page.  If I can't find a way to install Linux, I will have to return
8169 the laptop to the seller and find another machine for my parents.</p>
8170
8171 <p>I wonder, is this the way Linux will be forced out of the market
8172 using UEFI and "secure boot" by making it impossible to install Linux
8173 on new Laptops?</p>
8174
8175       </div>
8176       <div class="tags">
8177
8178
8179         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
8180
8181
8182       </div>
8183     </div>
8184     <div class="padding"></div>
8185
8186     <div class="entry">
8187       <div class="title">
8188         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_transform_a_Debian_based_system_to_a_Debian_Edu_installation.html">How to transform a Debian based system to a Debian Edu installation</a>
8189       </div>
8190       <div class="date">
8191         17th May 2013
8192       </div>
8193       <div class="body">
8194         <p><a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux</a> is
8195 an operating system based on Debian intended for use in schools.  It
8196 contain a turn-key solution for the computer network provided to
8197 pupils in the primary schools.  It provide both the central server,
8198 network boot servers and desktop environments with heaps of
8199 educational software.  The project was founded almost 12 years ago,
8200 2001-07-02.  If you want to support the project, which is in need for
8201 cash to fund developer gatherings and other project related activity,
8202 <a href="http://www.linuxiskolen.no/slxdebianlabs/donations.html">please
8203 donate some money</a>.
8204
8205 <p>A topic that come up again and again on the Debian Edu mailing
8206 lists and elsewhere, is the question on how to transform a Debian or
8207 Ubuntu installation into a Debian Edu installation.  It isn't very
8208 hard, and last week I wrote a script to replicate the steps done by
8209 the Debian Edu installer.</p>
8210
8211 <p>The script,
8212 <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/>
8213 in the debian-edu-config package, will go through these six steps and
8214 transform an existing Debian Wheezy or Ubuntu (untested) installation
8215 into a Debian Edu Workstation:</p>
8216
8217 <ol>
8218
8219 <li>Add skolelinux related APT sources.</li>
8220 <li>Create /etc/debian-edu/config with the wanted configuration.</li>
8221 <li>Install debian-edu-install to load preseeding values and pull in
8222     our configuration.</li>
8223 <li>Preseed debconf database with profile setup in
8224     /etc/debian-edu/config, and run tasksel to install packages
8225     according to the profile specified in the config above,
8226     overriding some of the Debian automation machinery.</li>
8227 <li>Run debian-edu-cfengine-D installation to configure everything
8228     that could not be done using preseeding.</li>
8229 <li>Ask for a reboot to enable all the configuration changes.</li>
8230
8231 </ol>
8232
8233 <p>There are some steps in the Debian Edu installation that can not be
8234 replicated like this.  Disk partitioning and LVM setup, for example.
8235 So this script just assume there is enough disk space to install all
8236 the needed packages.</p>
8237
8238 <p>The script was created to help a Debian Edu student working on
8239 setting up <a href="http://www.raspberrypi.org">Raspberry Pi</a> as a
8240 Debian Edu client, and using it he can take the existing
8241 <a href="http://www.raspbian.org/FrontPage‎">Raspbian</a> installation and
8242 transform it into a fully functioning Debian Edu Workstation (or
8243 Roaming Workstation, or whatever :).</p>
8244
8245 <p>The default setting in the script is to create a KDE Workstation.
8246 If a LXDE based Roaming workstation is wanted instead, modify the
8247 PROFILE and DESKTOP values at the top to look like this instead:</p>
8248
8249 <p><pre>
8250 PROFILE="Roaming-Workstation"
8251 DESKTOP="lxde"
8252 </pre></p>
8253
8254 <p>The script could even become useful to set up Debian Edu servers in
8255 the cloud, by starting with a virtual Debian installation at some
8256 virtual hosting service and setting up all the services on first
8257 boot.</p>
8258
8259       </div>
8260       <div class="tags">
8261
8262
8263         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
8264
8265
8266       </div>
8267     </div>
8268     <div class="padding"></div>
8269
8270     <div class="entry">
8271       <div class="title">
8272         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian__the_Linux_distribution_of_choice_for_LEGO_designers_.html">Debian, the Linux distribution of choice for LEGO designers?</a>
8273       </div>
8274       <div class="date">
8275         11th May 2013
8276       </div>
8277       <div class="body">
8278         <P>In January,
8279 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/New_IRC_channel_for_LEGO_designers_using_Debian.html">I
8280 announced a</a> new <a href="irc://irc.debian.org/%23debian-lego">IRC
8281 channel #debian-lego</a>, for those of us in the Debian and Linux
8282 community interested in <a href="http://www.lego.com/">LEGO</a>, the
8283 marvellous construction system from Denmark.  We also created
8284 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/LegoDesigners">a wiki page</a> to have
8285 a place to take notes and write down our plans and hopes.  And several
8286 people showed up to help.  I was very happy to see the effect of my
8287 call.  Since the small start, we have a debtags tag
8288 <a href="http://debtags.debian.net/search/bytag?wl=hardware::hobby:lego">hardware::hobby:lego</a>
8289 tag for LEGO related packages, and now count 10 packages related to
8290 LEGO and <a href="http://mindstorms.lego.com/">Mindstorms</a>:</p>
8291
8292 <p><table>
8293 <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>
8294 <tr><td><a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/leocad">leocad</a></td><td>virtual brick CAD software</td></tr>
8295 <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>
8296 <tr><td><a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/lnpd">lnpd</a></td><td>daemon for LNP communication with BrickOS</td></tr>
8297 <tr><td><a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/nbc">nbc</a></td><td>compiler for LEGO Mindstorms NXT bricks</td></tr>
8298 <tr><td><a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/nqc">nqc</a></td><td>Not Quite C compiler for LEGO Mindstorms RCX</td></tr>
8299 <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>
8300 <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>
8301 <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>
8302 <tr><td><a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/t2n">t2n</a></td><td>simple command-line tool for Lego NXT</td></tr>
8303 </table></p>
8304
8305 <p>Some of these are available in Wheezy, and all but one are
8306 currently available in Jessie/testing.  leocad is so far only
8307 available in experimental.</p>
8308
8309 <p>If you care about LEGO in Debian, please join us on IRC and help
8310 adding the rest of the great free software tools available on Linux
8311 for LEGO designers.</p>
8312
8313       </div>
8314       <div class="tags">
8315
8316
8317         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/lego">lego</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/robot">robot</a>.
8318
8319
8320       </div>
8321     </div>
8322     <div class="padding"></div>
8323
8324     <div class="entry">
8325       <div class="title">
8326         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Wheezy_is_out___and_Debian_Edu___Skolelinux_should_soon_follow___newinwheezy.html">Debian Wheezy is out - and Debian Edu / Skolelinux should soon follow! #newinwheezy</a>
8327       </div>
8328       <div class="date">
8329          5th May 2013
8330       </div>
8331       <div class="body">
8332         <p>When I woke up this morning, I was very happy to see that the
8333 <a href="http://www.debian.org/News/2013/20130504">release announcement
8334 for Debian Wheezy</a> was waiting in my mail box.  This is a great
8335 Debian release, and I expect to move my machines at home over to it fairly
8336 soon.</p>
8337
8338 <p>The new debian release contain heaps of new stuff, and one program
8339 in particular make me very happy to see included.  The
8340 <a href="http://scratch.mit.edu/">Scratch</a> program, made famous by
8341 the <a href="http://www.code.org/">Teach kids code</a> movement, is
8342 included for the first time.  Alongside similar programs like
8343 <a href="http://edu.kde.org/kturtle/">kturtle</a> and
8344 <a href="http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Activities/Turtle_Art">turtleart</a>,
8345 it allow for visual programming where syntax errors can not happen,
8346 and a friendly programming environment for learning to control the
8347 computer.  Scratch will also be included in the next release of Debian
8348 Edu.</a>
8349
8350 <p>And now that Wheezy is wrapped up, we can wrap up the next Debian
8351 Edu/Skolelinux release too.  The
8352 <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-edu/2013/04/msg00132.html">first
8353 alpha release</a> went out last week, and the next should soon
8354 follow.<p>
8355
8356       </div>
8357       <div class="tags">
8358
8359
8360         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
8361
8362
8363       </div>
8364     </div>
8365     <div class="padding"></div>
8366
8367     <div class="entry">
8368       <div class="title">
8369         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Isenkram_0_2_finally_in_the_Debian_archive.html">Isenkram 0.2 finally in the Debian archive</a>
8370       </div>
8371       <div class="date">
8372          3rd April 2013
8373       </div>
8374       <div class="body">
8375         <p>Today the <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/isenkram">Isenkram
8376 package</a> finally made it into the archive, after lingering in NEW
8377 for many months.  I uploaded it to the Debian experimental suite
8378 2013-01-27, and today it was accepted into the archive.</p>
8379
8380 <p>Isenkram is a system for suggesting to users what packages to
8381 install to work with a pluggable hardware device.  The suggestion pop
8382 up when the device is plugged in.  For example if a Lego Mindstorm NXT
8383 is inserted, it will suggest to install the program needed to program
8384 the NXT controller.  Give it a go, and report bugs and suggestions to
8385 BTS. :)</p>
8386
8387       </div>
8388       <div class="tags">
8389
8390
8391         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram">isenkram</a>.
8392
8393
8394       </div>
8395     </div>
8396     <div class="padding"></div>
8397
8398     <div class="entry">
8399       <div class="title">
8400         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Bitcoin_GUI_now_available_from_Debian_unstable__and_Ubuntu_raring_.html">Bitcoin GUI now available from Debian/unstable (and Ubuntu/raring)</a>
8401       </div>
8402       <div class="date">
8403          2nd February 2013
8404       </div>
8405       <div class="body">
8406         <p>My
8407 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_backport_bitcoin_qt_version_0_7_2_2_to_Debian_Squeeze.html">last
8408 bitcoin related blog post</a> mentioned that the new
8409 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/bitcoin">bitcoin package</a> for
8410 Debian was waiting in NEW.  It was accepted by the Debian ftp-masters
8411 2013-01-19, and have been available in unstable since then.  It was
8412 automatically copied to Ubuntu, and is available in their Raring
8413 version too.</p>
8414
8415 <p>But there is a strange problem with the build that block this new
8416 version from being available on the i386 and kfreebsd-i386
8417 architectures.  For some strange reason, the autobuilders in Debian
8418 for these architectures fail to run the test suite on these
8419 architectures (<a href="http://bugs.debian.org/672524">BTS #672524</a>).
8420 We are so far unable to reproduce it when building it manually, and
8421 no-one have been able to propose a fix.  If you got an idea what is
8422 failing, please let us know via the BTS.</p>
8423
8424 <p>One feature that is annoying me with of the bitcoin client, because
8425 I often run low on disk space, is the fact that the client will exit
8426 if it run short on space (<a href="http://bugs.debian.org/696715">BTS
8427 #696715</a>).  So make sure you have enough disk space when you run
8428 it. :)</p>
8429
8430 <p>As usual, if you use bitcoin and want to show your support of my
8431 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
8432 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
8433
8434       </div>
8435       <div class="tags">
8436
8437
8438         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bitcoin">bitcoin</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
8439
8440
8441       </div>
8442     </div>
8443     <div class="padding"></div>
8444
8445     <div class="entry">
8446       <div class="title">
8447         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Welcome_to_the_world__Isenkram_.html">Welcome to the world, Isenkram!</a>
8448       </div>
8449       <div class="date">
8450         22nd January 2013
8451       </div>
8452       <div class="body">
8453         <p>Yesterday, I
8454 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/First_prototype_ready_making_hardware_easier_to_use_in_Debian.html">asked
8455 for testers</a> for my prototype for making Debian better at handling
8456 pluggable hardware devices, which I
8457 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lets_make_hardware_dongles_easier_to_use_in_Debian.html">set
8458 out to create</a> earlier this month.  Several valuable testers showed
8459 up, and caused me to really want to to open up the development to more
8460 people.  But before I did this, I want to come up with a sensible name
8461 for this project.  Today I finally decided on a new name, and I have
8462 renamed the project from hw-support-handler to this new name.  In the
8463 process, I moved the source to git and made it available as a
8464 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/gitweb/?p=collab-maint/isenkram.git">collab-maint</a>
8465 repository in Debian.  The new name?  It is <strong>Isenkram</strong>.
8466 To fetch and build the latest version of the source, use</p>
8467
8468 <pre>
8469 git clone http://anonscm.debian.org/git/collab-maint/isenkram.git
8470 cd isenkram && git-buildpackage -us -uc
8471 </pre>
8472
8473 <p>I have not yet adjusted all files to use the new name yet.  If you
8474 want to hack on the source or improve the package, please go ahead.
8475 But please talk to me first on IRC or via email before you do major
8476 changes, to make sure we do not step on each others toes. :)</p>
8477
8478 <p>If you wonder what 'isenkram' is, it is a Norwegian word for iron
8479 stuff, typically meaning tools, nails, screws, etc.  Typical hardware
8480 stuff, in other words.  I've been told it is the Norwegian variant of
8481 the German word eisenkram, for those that are familiar with that
8482 word.</p>
8483
8484 <p><strong>Update 2013-01-26</strong>: Added -us -us to build
8485 instructions, to avoid confusing people with an error from the signing
8486 process.</p>
8487
8488 <p><strong>Update 2013-01-27</strong>: Switch to HTTP URL for the git
8489 clone argument to avoid the need for authentication.</p>
8490
8491       </div>
8492       <div class="tags">
8493
8494
8495         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram">isenkram</a>.
8496
8497
8498       </div>
8499     </div>
8500     <div class="padding"></div>
8501
8502     <div class="entry">
8503       <div class="title">
8504         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/First_prototype_ready_making_hardware_easier_to_use_in_Debian.html">First prototype ready making hardware easier to use in Debian</a>
8505       </div>
8506       <div class="date">
8507         21st January 2013
8508       </div>
8509       <div class="body">
8510         <p>Early this month I set out to try to
8511 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lets_make_hardware_dongles_easier_to_use_in_Debian.html">improve
8512 the Debian support for pluggable hardware devices</a>.  Now my
8513 prototype is working, and it is ready for a larger audience.  To test
8514 it, fetch the
8515 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/">source
8516 from the Debian Edu subversion repository</a>, build and install the
8517 package.  You might have to log out and in again activate the
8518 autostart script.</p>
8519
8520 <p>The design is simple:</p>
8521
8522 <ul>
8523
8524 <li>Add desktop entry in /usr/share/autostart/ causing a program
8525 hw-support-handlerd to start when the user log in.</li>
8526
8527 <li>This program listen for kernel events about new hardware (directly
8528 from the kernel like udev does), not using HAL dbus events as I
8529 initially did.</li>
8530
8531 <li>When new hardware is inserted, look up the hardware modalias in
8532 the APT database, a database
8533 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/modaliases?view=markup">available
8534 via HTTP</a> and a database available as part of the package.</li>
8535
8536 <li>If a package is mapped to the hardware in question, the package
8537 isn't installed yet and this is the first time the hardware was
8538 plugged in, show a desktop notification suggesting to install the
8539 package or packages.</li>
8540
8541 <li>If the user click on the 'install package now' button, ask
8542 aptdaemon via the PackageKit API to install the requrired package.</li>
8543
8544 <li>aptdaemon ask for root password or sudo password, and install the
8545 package while showing progress information in a window.</li>
8546
8547 </ul>
8548
8549 <p>I still need to come up with a better name for the system.  Here
8550 are some screen shots showing the prototype in action.  First the
8551 notification, then the password request, and finally the request to
8552 approve all the dependencies.  Sorry for the Norwegian Bokmål GUI.</p>
8553
8554 <p><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-01-21-hw-support-1-notification.png">
8555 <br><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-01-21-hw-support-2-password.png">
8556 <br><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-01-21-hw-support-3-dependencies.png">
8557 <br><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-01-21-hw-support-4-installing.png">
8558 <br><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-01-21-hw-support-5-installing-details.png" width="70%"></p>
8559
8560 <p>The prototype still need to be improved with longer timeouts, but
8561 is already useful.  The database of hardware to package mappings also
8562 need more work.  It is currently compatible with the Ubuntu way of
8563 storing such information in the package control file, but could be
8564 changed to use other formats instead or in addition to the current
8565 method.  I've dropped the use of discover for this mapping, as the
8566 modalias approach is more flexible and easier to use on Linux as long
8567 as the Linux kernel expose its modalias strings directly.</p>
8568
8569 <p><strong>Update 2013-01-21 16:50</strong>: Due to popular demand,
8570 here is the command required to check out and build the source: Use
8571 '<tt>svn checkout
8572 svn://svn.debian.org/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/; cd
8573 hw-support-handler; debuild</tt>'.  If you lack debuild, install the
8574 devscripts package.</p>
8575
8576 <p><strong>Update 2013-01-23 12:00</strong>: The project is now
8577 renamed to Isenkram and the source moved from the Debian Edu
8578 subversion repository to a Debian collab-maint git repository.  See
8579 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Welcome_to_the_world__Isenkram_.html">build
8580 instructions</a> for details.</p>
8581
8582       </div>
8583       <div class="tags">
8584
8585
8586         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram">isenkram</a>.
8587
8588
8589       </div>
8590     </div>
8591     <div class="padding"></div>
8592
8593     <div class="entry">
8594       <div class="title">
8595         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Thank_you_Thinkpad_X41__for_your_long_and_trustworthy_service.html">Thank you Thinkpad X41, for your long and trustworthy service</a>
8596       </div>
8597       <div class="date">
8598         19th January 2013
8599       </div>
8600       <div class="body">
8601         <p>This Christmas my trusty old laptop died.  It died quietly and
8602 suddenly in bed.  With a quiet whimper, it went completely quiet and
8603 black.  The power button was no longer able to turn it on.  It was a
8604 IBM Thinkpad X41, and the best laptop I ever had.  Better than both
8605 Thinkpads X30, X31, X40, X60, X61 and X61S.  Far better than the
8606 Compaq I had before that.  Now I need to find a replacement.  To keep
8607 going during Christmas, I moved the one year old SSD disk to my old
8608 X40 where it fitted (only one I had left that could use it), but it is
8609 not a durable solution.
8610
8611 <p>My laptop needs are fairly modest.  This is my wishlist from when I
8612 got a new one more than 10 years ago.  It still holds true.:)</p>
8613
8614 <ul>
8615
8616 <li>Lightweight (around 1 kg) and small volume (preferably smaller
8617   than A4).</li>
8618 <li>Robust, it will be in my backpack every day.</li>
8619 <li>Three button mouse and a mouse pin instead of touch pad.</li>
8620 <li>Long battery life time.  Preferable a week.</li>
8621 <li>Internal WIFI network card.</li>
8622 <li>Internal Twisted Pair network card.</li>
8623 <li>Some USB slots (2-3 is plenty)</li>
8624 <li>Good keyboard - similar to the Thinkpad.</li>
8625 <li>Video resolution at least 1024x768, with size around 12" (A4 paper
8626 size).</li>
8627 <li>Hardware supported by Debian Stable, ie the default kernel and
8628   X.org packages.</li>
8629 <li>Quiet, preferably fan free (or at least not using the fan most of
8630   the time).
8631
8632 </ul>
8633
8634 <p>You will notice that there are no RAM and CPU requirements in the
8635 list.  The reason is simply that the specifications on laptops the
8636 last 10-15 years have been sufficient for my needs, and I have to look
8637 at other features to choose my laptop.  But are there still made as
8638 robust laptops as my X41?  The Thinkpad X60/X61 proved to be less
8639 robust, and Thinkpads seem to be heading in the wrong direction since
8640 Lenovo took over.  But I've been told that X220 and X1 Carbon might
8641 still be useful.</p>
8642
8643 <p>Perhaps I should rethink my needs, and look for a pad with an
8644 external keyboard?  I'll have to check the
8645 <a href="http://www.linux-laptop.net/">Linux Laptops site</a> for
8646 well-supported laptops, or perhaps just buy one preinstalled from one
8647 of the vendors listed on the <a href="http://linuxpreloaded.com/">Linux
8648 Pre-loaded site</a>.</p>
8649
8650       </div>
8651       <div class="tags">
8652
8653
8654         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
8655
8656
8657       </div>
8658     </div>
8659     <div class="padding"></div>
8660
8661     <div class="entry">
8662       <div class="title">
8663         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_find_a_browser_plugin_supporting_a_given_MIME_type.html">How to find a browser plugin supporting a given MIME type</a>
8664       </div>
8665       <div class="date">
8666         18th January 2013
8667       </div>
8668       <div class="body">
8669         <p>Some times I try to figure out which Iceweasel browser plugin to
8670 install to get support for a given MIME type.  Thanks to
8671 <a href="https://wiki.ubuntu.com/MozillaTeam/Plugins">specifications
8672 done by Ubuntu</a> and Mozilla, it is possible to do this in Debian.
8673 Unfortunately, not very many packages provide the needed meta
8674 information, Anyway, here is a small script to look up all browser
8675 plugin packages announcing ther MIME support using this specification:</p>
8676
8677 <pre>
8678 #!/usr/bin/python
8679 import sys
8680 import apt
8681 def pkgs_handling_mimetype(mimetype):
8682     cache = apt.Cache()
8683     cache.open(None)
8684     thepkgs = []
8685     for pkg in cache:
8686         version = pkg.candidate
8687         if version is None:
8688             version = pkg.installed
8689         if version is None:
8690             continue
8691         record = version.record
8692         if not record.has_key('Npp-MimeType'):
8693             continue
8694         mime_types = record['Npp-MimeType'].split(',')
8695         for t in mime_types:
8696             t = t.rstrip().strip()
8697             if t == mimetype:
8698                 thepkgs.append(pkg.name)
8699     return thepkgs
8700 mimetype = "audio/ogg"
8701 if 1 < len(sys.argv):
8702     mimetype = sys.argv[1]
8703 print "Browser plugin packages supporting %s:" % mimetype
8704 for pkg in pkgs_handling_mimetype(mimetype):
8705     print "  %s" %pkg
8706 </pre>
8707
8708 <p>It can be used like this to look up a given MIME type:</p>
8709
8710 <pre>
8711 % ./apt-find-browserplug-for-mimetype
8712 Browser plugin packages supporting audio/ogg:
8713   gecko-mediaplayer
8714 % ./apt-find-browserplug-for-mimetype application/x-shockwave-flash
8715 Browser plugin packages supporting application/x-shockwave-flash:
8716   browser-plugin-gnash
8717 %
8718 </pre>
8719
8720 <p>In Ubuntu this mechanism is combined with support in the browser
8721 itself to query for plugins and propose to install the needed
8722 packages.  It would be great if Debian supported such feature too.  Is
8723 anyone working on adding it?</p>
8724
8725 <p><strong>Update 2013-01-18 14:20</strong>: The Debian BTS
8726 request for icweasel support for this feature is
8727 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/484010">#484010</a> from 2008 (and
8728 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/698426">#698426</a> from today).  Lack
8729 of manpower and wish for a different design is the reason thus feature
8730 is not yet in iceweasel from Debian.</p>
8731
8732       </div>
8733       <div class="tags">
8734
8735
8736         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
8737
8738
8739       </div>
8740     </div>
8741     <div class="padding"></div>
8742
8743     <div class="entry">
8744       <div class="title">
8745         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/What_is_the_most_supported_MIME_type_in_Debian_.html">What is the most supported MIME type in Debian?</a>
8746       </div>
8747       <div class="date">
8748         16th January 2013
8749       </div>
8750       <div class="body">
8751         <p>The <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/AppStreamDebianProposal">DEP-11
8752 proposal to add AppStream information to the Debian archive</a>, is a
8753 proposal to make it possible for a Desktop application to propose to
8754 the user some package to install to gain support for a given MIME
8755 type, font, library etc. that is currently missing.  With such
8756 mechanism in place, it would be possible for the desktop to
8757 automatically propose and install leocad if some LDraw file is
8758 downloaded by the browser.</p>
8759
8760 <p>To get some idea about the current content of the archive, I decided
8761 to write a simple program to extract all .desktop files from the
8762 Debian archive and look up the claimed MIME support there.  The result
8763 can be found on the
8764 <a href="http://ftp.skolelinux.org/pub/AppStreamTest">Skolelinux FTP
8765 site</a>.  Using the collected information, it become possible to
8766 answer the question in the title.  Here are the 20 most supported MIME
8767 types in Debian stable (Squeeze), testing (Wheezy) and unstable (Sid).
8768 The complete list is available from the link above.</p>
8769
8770 <p><strong>Debian Stable:</strong></p>
8771
8772 <pre>
8773   count MIME type
8774   ----- -----------------------
8775      32 text/plain
8776      30 audio/mpeg
8777      29 image/png
8778      28 image/jpeg
8779      27 application/ogg
8780      26 audio/x-mp3
8781      25 image/tiff
8782      25 image/gif
8783      22 image/bmp
8784      22 audio/x-wav
8785      20 audio/x-flac
8786      19 audio/x-mpegurl
8787      18 video/x-ms-asf
8788      18 audio/x-musepack
8789      18 audio/x-mpeg
8790      18 application/x-ogg
8791      17 video/mpeg
8792      17 audio/x-scpls
8793      17 audio/ogg
8794      16 video/x-ms-wmv
8795 </pre>
8796
8797 <p><strong>Debian Testing:</strong></p>
8798
8799 <pre>
8800   count MIME type
8801   ----- -----------------------
8802      33 text/plain
8803      32 image/png
8804      32 image/jpeg
8805      29 audio/mpeg
8806      27 image/gif
8807      26 image/tiff
8808      26 application/ogg
8809      25 audio/x-mp3
8810      22 image/bmp
8811      21 audio/x-wav
8812      19 audio/x-mpegurl
8813      19 audio/x-mpeg
8814      18 video/mpeg
8815      18 audio/x-scpls
8816      18 audio/x-flac
8817      18 application/x-ogg
8818      17 video/x-ms-asf
8819      17 text/html
8820      17 audio/x-musepack
8821      16 image/x-xbitmap
8822 </pre>
8823
8824 <p><strong>Debian Unstable:</strong></p>
8825
8826 <pre>
8827   count MIME type
8828   ----- -----------------------
8829      31 text/plain
8830      31 image/png
8831      31 image/jpeg
8832      29 audio/mpeg
8833      28 application/ogg
8834      27 image/gif
8835      26 image/tiff
8836      26 audio/x-mp3
8837      23 audio/x-wav
8838      22 image/bmp
8839      21 audio/x-flac
8840      20 audio/x-mpegurl
8841      19 audio/x-mpeg
8842      18 video/x-ms-asf
8843      18 video/mpeg
8844      18 audio/x-scpls
8845      18 application/x-ogg
8846      17 audio/x-musepack
8847      16 video/x-ms-wmv
8848      16 video/x-msvideo
8849 </pre>
8850
8851 <p>I am told that PackageKit can provide an API to access the kind of
8852 information mentioned in DEP-11.  I have not yet had time to look at
8853 it, but hope the PackageKit people in Debian are on top of these
8854 issues.</p>
8855
8856 <p><strong>Update 2013-01-16 13:35</strong>: Updated numbers after
8857 discovering a typo in my script.</p>
8858
8859       </div>
8860       <div class="tags">
8861
8862
8863         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
8864
8865
8866       </div>
8867     </div>
8868     <div class="padding"></div>
8869
8870     <div class="entry">
8871       <div class="title">
8872         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Using_modalias_info_to_find_packages_handling_my_hardware.html">Using modalias info to find packages handling my hardware</a>
8873       </div>
8874       <div class="date">
8875         15th January 2013
8876       </div>
8877       <div class="body">
8878         <p>Yesterday, I wrote about the
8879 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Modalias_strings___a_practical_way_to_map__stuff__to_hardware.html">modalias
8880 values provided by the Linux kernel</a> following my hope for
8881 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lets_make_hardware_dongles_easier_to_use_in_Debian.html">better
8882 dongle support in Debian</a>.  Using this knowledge, I have tested how
8883 modalias values attached to package names can be used to map packages
8884 to hardware.  This allow the system to look up and suggest relevant
8885 packages when I plug in some new hardware into my machine, and replace
8886 discover and discover-data as the database used to map hardware to
8887 packages.</p>
8888
8889 <p>I create a modaliases file with entries like the following,
8890 containing package name, kernel module name (if relevant, otherwise
8891 the package name) and globs matching the relevant hardware
8892 modalias.</p>
8893
8894 <p><blockquote>
8895 Package: package-name
8896 <br>Modaliases: module(modaliasglob, modaliasglob, modaliasglob)</p>
8897 </blockquote></p>
8898
8899 <p>It is fairly trivial to write code to find the relevant packages
8900 for a given modalias value using this file.</p>
8901
8902 <p>An entry like this would suggest the video and picture application
8903 cheese for many USB web cameras (interface bus class 0E01):</p>
8904
8905 <p><blockquote>
8906 Package: cheese
8907 <br>Modaliases: cheese(usb:v*p*d*dc*dsc*dp*ic0Eisc01ip*)</p>
8908 </blockquote></p>
8909
8910 <p>An entry like this would suggest the pcmciautils package when a
8911 CardBus bridge (bus class 0607) PCI device is present:</p>
8912
8913 <p><blockquote>
8914 Package: pcmciautils
8915 <br>Modaliases: pcmciautils(pci:v*d*sv*sd*bc06sc07i*)
8916 </blockquote></p>
8917
8918 <p>An entry like this would suggest the package colorhug-client when
8919 plugging in a ColorHug with USB IDs 04D8:F8DA:</p>
8920
8921 <p><blockquote>
8922 Package: colorhug-client
8923 <br>Modaliases: colorhug-client(usb:v04D8pF8DAd*)</p>
8924 </blockquote></p>
8925
8926 <p>I believe the format is compatible with the format of the Packages
8927 file in the Debian archive.  Ubuntu already uses their Packages file
8928 to store their mappings from packages to hardware.</p>
8929
8930 <p>By adding a XB-Modaliases: header in debian/control, any .deb can
8931 announce the hardware it support in a way my prototype understand.
8932 This allow those publishing packages in an APT source outside the
8933 Debian archive as well as those backporting packages to make sure the
8934 hardware mapping are included in the package meta information.  I've
8935 tested such header in the pymissile package, and its modalias mapping
8936 is working as it should with my prototype.  It even made it to Ubuntu
8937 Raring.</p>
8938
8939 <p>To test if it was possible to look up supported hardware using only
8940 the shell tools available in the Debian installer, I wrote a shell
8941 implementation of the lookup code.  The idea is to create files for
8942 each modalias and let the shell do the matching.  Please check out and
8943 try the
8944 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/hw-support-lookup?view=co">hw-support-lookup</a>
8945 shell script.  It run without any extra dependencies and fetch the
8946 hardware mappings from the Debian archive and the subversion
8947 repository where I currently work on my prototype.</p>
8948
8949 <p>When I use it on a machine with a yubikey inserted, it suggest to
8950 install yubikey-personalization:</p>
8951
8952 <p><blockquote>
8953 % ./hw-support-lookup
8954 <br>yubikey-personalization
8955 <br>%
8956 </blockquote></p>
8957
8958 <p>When I run it on my Thinkpad X40 with a PCMCIA/CardBus slot, it
8959 propose to install the pcmciautils package:</p>
8960
8961 <p><blockquote>
8962 % ./hw-support-lookup
8963 <br>pcmciautils
8964 <br>%
8965 </blockquote></p>
8966
8967 <p>If you know of any hardware-package mapping that should be added to
8968 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/modaliases?view=co">my
8969 database</a>, please tell me about it.</p>
8970
8971 <p>It could be possible to generate several of the mappings between
8972 packages and hardware.  One source would be to look at packages with
8973 kernel modules, ie packages with *.ko files in /lib/modules/, and
8974 extract their modalias information.  Another would be to look at
8975 packages with udev rules, ie packages with files in
8976 /lib/udev/rules.d/, and extract their vendor/model information to
8977 generate a modalias matching rule.  I have not tested any of these to
8978 see if it work.</p>
8979
8980 <p>If you want to help implementing a system to let us propose what
8981 packages to install when new hardware is plugged into a Debian
8982 machine, please send me an email or talk to me on
8983 <a href="irc://irc.debian.org/%23debian-devel">#debian-devel</a>.</p>
8984
8985       </div>
8986       <div class="tags">
8987
8988
8989         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram">isenkram</a>.
8990
8991
8992       </div>
8993     </div>
8994     <div class="padding"></div>
8995
8996     <div class="entry">
8997       <div class="title">
8998         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Modalias_strings___a_practical_way_to_map__stuff__to_hardware.html">Modalias strings - a practical way to map "stuff" to hardware</a>
8999       </div>
9000       <div class="date">
9001         14th January 2013
9002       </div>
9003       <div class="body">
9004         <p>While looking into how to look up Debian packages based on hardware
9005 information, to find the packages that support a given piece of
9006 hardware, I refreshed my memory regarding modalias values, and decided
9007 to document the details.  Here are my findings so far, also available
9008 in
9009 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/">the
9010 Debian Edu subversion repository</a>:
9011
9012 <p><strong>Modalias decoded</strong></p>
9013
9014 <p>This document try to explain what the different types of modalias
9015 values stands for.  It is in part based on information from
9016 &lt;URL: <a href="https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Modalias">https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Modalias</a> &gt;,
9017 &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;,
9018 &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
9019 &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;.
9020
9021 <p>The modalias entries for a given Linux machine can be found using
9022 this shell script:</p>
9023
9024 <pre>
9025 find /sys -name modalias -print0 | xargs -0 cat | sort -u
9026 </pre>
9027
9028 <p>The supported modalias globs for a given kernel module can be found
9029 using modinfo:</p>
9030
9031 <pre>
9032 % /sbin/modinfo psmouse | grep alias:
9033 alias:          serio:ty05pr*id*ex*
9034 alias:          serio:ty01pr*id*ex*
9035 %
9036 </pre>
9037
9038 <p><strong>PCI subtype</strong></p>
9039
9040 <p>A typical PCI entry can look like this.  This is an Intel Host
9041 Bridge memory controller:</p>
9042
9043 <p><blockquote>
9044 pci:v00008086d00002770sv00001028sd000001ADbc06sc00i00
9045 </blockquote></p>
9046
9047 <p>This represent these values:</p>
9048
9049 <pre>
9050  v   00008086  (vendor)
9051  d   00002770  (device)
9052  sv  00001028  (subvendor)
9053  sd  000001AD  (subdevice)
9054  bc  06        (bus class)
9055  sc  00        (bus subclass)
9056  i   00        (interface)
9057 </pre>
9058
9059 <p>The vendor/device values are the same values outputted from 'lspci
9060 -n' as 8086:2770.  The bus class/subclass is also shown by lspci as
9061 0600.  The 0600 class is a host bridge.  Other useful bus values are
9062 0300 (VGA compatible card) and 0200 (Ethernet controller).</p>
9063
9064 <p>Not sure how to figure out the interface value, nor what it
9065 means.</p>
9066
9067 <p><strong>USB subtype</strong></p>
9068
9069 <p>Some typical USB entries can look like this.  This is an internal
9070 USB hub in a laptop:</p>
9071
9072 <p><blockquote>
9073 usb:v1D6Bp0001d0206dc09dsc00dp00ic09isc00ip00
9074 </blockquote></p>
9075
9076 <p>Here is the values included in this alias:</p>
9077
9078 <pre>
9079  v    1D6B  (device vendor)
9080  p    0001  (device product)
9081  d    0206  (bcddevice)
9082  dc     09  (device class)
9083  dsc    00  (device subclass)
9084  dp     00  (device protocol)
9085  ic     09  (interface class)
9086  isc    00  (interface subclass)
9087  ip     00  (interface protocol)
9088 </pre>
9089
9090 <p>The 0900 device class/subclass means hub.  Some times the relevant
9091 class is in the interface class section.  For a simple USB web camera,
9092 these alias entries show up:</p>
9093
9094 <p><blockquote>
9095 usb:v0AC8p3420d5000dcEFdsc02dp01ic01isc01ip00
9096 <br>usb:v0AC8p3420d5000dcEFdsc02dp01ic01isc02ip00
9097 <br>usb:v0AC8p3420d5000dcEFdsc02dp01ic0Eisc01ip00
9098 <br>usb:v0AC8p3420d5000dcEFdsc02dp01ic0Eisc02ip00
9099 </blockquote></p>
9100
9101 <p>Interface class 0E01 is video control, 0E02 is video streaming (aka
9102 camera), 0101 is audio control device and 0102 is audio streaming (aka
9103 microphone).  Thus this is a camera with microphone included.</p>
9104
9105 <p><strong>ACPI subtype</strong></p>
9106
9107 <p>The ACPI type is used for several non-PCI/USB stuff.  This is an IR
9108 receiver in a Thinkpad X40:</p>
9109
9110 <p><blockquote>
9111 acpi:IBM0071:PNP0511:
9112 </blockquote></p>
9113
9114 <p>The values between the colons are IDs.</p>
9115
9116 <p><strong>DMI subtype</strong></p>
9117
9118 <p>The DMI table contain lots of information about the computer case
9119 and model.  This is an entry for a IBM Thinkpad X40, fetched from
9120 /sys/devices/virtual/dmi/id/modalias:</p>
9121
9122 <p><blockquote>
9123 dmi:bvnIBM:bvr1UETB6WW(1.66):bd06/15/2005:svnIBM:pn2371H4G:pvrThinkPadX40:rvnIBM:rn2371H4G:rvrNotAvailable:cvnIBM:ct10:cvrNotAvailable:
9124 </blockquote></p>
9125
9126 <p>The values present are</p>
9127
9128 <pre>
9129  bvn  IBM            (BIOS vendor)
9130  bvr  1UETB6WW(1.66) (BIOS version)
9131  bd   06/15/2005     (BIOS date)
9132  svn  IBM            (system vendor)
9133  pn   2371H4G        (product name)
9134  pvr  ThinkPadX40    (product version)
9135  rvn  IBM            (board vendor)
9136  rn   2371H4G        (board name)
9137  rvr  NotAvailable   (board version)
9138  cvn  IBM            (chassis vendor)
9139  ct   10             (chassis type)
9140  cvr  NotAvailable   (chassis version)
9141 </pre>
9142
9143 <p>The chassis type 10 is Notebook.  Other interesting values can be
9144 found in the dmidecode source:</p>
9145
9146 <pre>
9147   3 Desktop
9148   4 Low Profile Desktop
9149   5 Pizza Box
9150   6 Mini Tower
9151   7 Tower
9152   8 Portable
9153   9 Laptop
9154  10 Notebook
9155  11 Hand Held
9156  12 Docking Station
9157  13 All In One
9158  14 Sub Notebook
9159  15 Space-saving
9160  16 Lunch Box
9161  17 Main Server Chassis
9162  18 Expansion Chassis
9163  19 Sub Chassis
9164  20 Bus Expansion Chassis
9165  21 Peripheral Chassis
9166  22 RAID Chassis
9167  23 Rack Mount Chassis
9168  24 Sealed-case PC
9169  25 Multi-system
9170  26 CompactPCI
9171  27 AdvancedTCA
9172  28 Blade
9173  29 Blade Enclosing
9174 </pre>
9175
9176 <p>The chassis type values are not always accurately set in the DMI
9177 table.  For example my home server is a tower, but the DMI modalias
9178 claim it is a desktop.</p>
9179
9180 <p><strong>SerIO subtype</strong></p>
9181
9182 <p>This type is used for PS/2 mouse plugs.  One example is from my
9183 test machine:</p>
9184
9185 <p><blockquote>
9186 serio:ty01pr00id00ex00
9187 </blockquote></p>
9188
9189 <p>The values present are</p>
9190
9191 <pre>
9192   ty  01  (type)
9193   pr  00  (prototype)
9194   id  00  (id)
9195   ex  00  (extra)
9196 </pre>
9197
9198 <p>This type is supported by the psmouse driver.  I am not sure what
9199 the valid values are.</p>
9200
9201 <p><strong>Other subtypes</strong></p>
9202
9203 <p>There are heaps of other modalias subtypes according to
9204 file2alias.c.  There is the rest of the list from that source: amba,
9205 ap, bcma, ccw, css, eisa, hid, i2c, ieee1394, input, ipack, isapnp,
9206 mdio, of, parisc, pcmcia, platform, scsi, sdio, spi, ssb, vio, virtio,
9207 vmbus, x86cpu and zorro.  I did not spend time documenting all of
9208 these, as they do not seem relevant for my intended use with mapping
9209 hardware to packages when new stuff is inserted during run time.</p>
9210
9211 <p><strong>Looking up kernel modules using modalias values</strong></p>
9212
9213 <p>To check which kernel modules provide support for a given modalias,
9214 one can use the following shell script:</p>
9215
9216 <pre>
9217   for id in $(find /sys -name modalias -print0 | xargs -0 cat | sort -u); do \
9218     echo "$id" ; \
9219     /sbin/modprobe --show-depends "$id"|sed 's/^/  /' ; \
9220   done
9221 </pre>
9222
9223 <p>The output can look like this (only the first few entries as the
9224 list is very long on my test machine):</p>
9225
9226 <pre>
9227   acpi:ACPI0003:
9228     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/drivers/acpi/ac.ko
9229   acpi:device:
9230   FATAL: Module acpi:device: not found.
9231   acpi:IBM0068:
9232     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/drivers/char/nvram.ko
9233     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/drivers/leds/led-class.ko
9234     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/net/rfkill/rfkill.ko
9235     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/drivers/platform/x86/thinkpad_acpi.ko
9236   acpi:IBM0071:PNP0511:
9237     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/lib/crc-ccitt.ko
9238     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/net/irda/irda.ko
9239     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/drivers/net/irda/nsc-ircc.ko
9240   [...]
9241 </pre>
9242
9243 <p>If you want to help implementing a system to let us propose what
9244 packages to install when new hardware is plugged into a Debian
9245 machine, please send me an email or talk to me on
9246 <a href="irc://irc.debian.org/%23debian-devel">#debian-devel</a>.</p>
9247
9248 <p><strong>Update 2013-01-15:</strong> Rewrite "cat $(find ...)" to
9249 "find ... -print0 | xargs -0 cat" to make sure it handle directories
9250 in /sys/ with space in them.</p>
9251
9252       </div>
9253       <div class="tags">
9254
9255
9256         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram">isenkram</a>.
9257
9258
9259       </div>
9260     </div>
9261     <div class="padding"></div>
9262
9263     <div class="entry">
9264       <div class="title">
9265         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Moved_the_pymissile_Debian_packaging_to_collab_maint.html">Moved the pymissile Debian packaging to collab-maint</a>
9266       </div>
9267       <div class="date">
9268         10th January 2013
9269       </div>
9270       <div class="body">
9271         <p>As part of my investigation on how to improve the support in Debian
9272 for hardware dongles, I dug up my old Mark and Spencer USB Rocket
9273 Launcher and updated the Debian package
9274 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/pymissile">pymissile</a> to make
9275 sure udev will fix the device permissions when it is plugged in.  I
9276 also added a "Modaliases" header to test it in the Debian archive and
9277 hopefully make the package be proposed by jockey in Ubuntu when a user
9278 plug in his rocket launcher.  In the process I moved the source to a
9279 git repository under collab-maint, to make it easier for any DD to
9280 contribute.  <a href="http://code.google.com/p/pymissile/">Upstream</a>
9281 is not very active, but the software still work for me even after five
9282 years of relative silence.  The new git repository is not listed in
9283 the uploaded package yet, because I want to test the other changes a
9284 bit more before I upload the new version.  If you want to check out
9285 the new version with a .desktop file included, visit the
9286 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/gitweb/?p=collab-maint/pymissile.git">gitweb
9287 view</a> or use "<tt>git clone
9288 git://anonscm.debian.org/collab-maint/pymissile.git</tt>".</p>
9289
9290       </div>
9291       <div class="tags">
9292
9293
9294         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram">isenkram</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/robot">robot</a>.
9295
9296
9297       </div>
9298     </div>
9299     <div class="padding"></div>
9300
9301     <div class="entry">
9302       <div class="title">
9303         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lets_make_hardware_dongles_easier_to_use_in_Debian.html">Lets make hardware dongles easier to use in Debian</a>
9304       </div>
9305       <div class="date">
9306          9th January 2013
9307       </div>
9308       <div class="body">
9309         <p>One thing that annoys me with Debian and Linux distributions in
9310 general, is that there is a great package management system with the
9311 ability to automatically install software packages by downloading them
9312 from the distribution mirrors, but no way to get it to automatically
9313 install the packages I need to use the hardware I plug into my
9314 machine.  Even if the package to use it is easily available from the
9315 Linux distribution.  When I plug in a LEGO Mindstorms NXT, it could
9316 suggest to automatically install the python-nxt, nbc and t2n packages
9317 I need to talk to it.  When I plug in a Yubikey, it could propose the
9318 yubikey-personalization package.  The information required to do this
9319 is available, but no-one have pulled all the pieces together.</p>
9320
9321 <p>Some years ago, I proposed to
9322 <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2010/05/msg01206.html">use
9323 the discover subsystem to implement this</a>.  The idea is fairly
9324 simple:
9325
9326 <ul>
9327
9328 <li>Add a desktop entry in /usr/share/autostart/ pointing to a program
9329   starting when a user log in.</li>
9330
9331 <li>Set this program up to listen for kernel events emitted when new
9332   hardware is inserted into the computer.</li>
9333
9334 <li>When new hardware is inserted, look up the hardware ID in a
9335   database mapping to packages, and take note of any non-installed
9336   packages.</li>
9337
9338 <li>Show a message to the user proposing to install the discovered
9339   package, and make it easy to install it.</li>
9340
9341 </ul>
9342
9343 <p>I am not sure what the best way to implement this is, but my
9344 initial idea was to use dbus events to discover new hardware, the
9345 discover database to find packages and
9346 <a href="http://www.packagekit.org/">PackageKit</a> to install
9347 packages.</p>
9348
9349 <p>Yesterday, I found time to try to implement this idea, and the
9350 draft package is now checked into
9351 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/">the
9352 Debian Edu subversion repository</a>.  In the process, I updated the
9353 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/d/discover-data.html">discover-data</a>
9354 package to map the USB ids of LEGO Mindstorms and Yubikey devices to
9355 the relevant packages in Debian, and uploaded a new version
9356 2.2013.01.09 to unstable.  I also discovered that the current
9357 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/d/discover.html">discover</a>
9358 package in Debian no longer discovered any USB devices, because
9359 /proc/bus/usb/devices is no longer present.  I ported it to use
9360 libusb as a fall back option to get it working.  The fixed package
9361 version 2.1.2-6 is now in experimental (didn't upload it to unstable
9362 because of the freeze).</p>
9363
9364 <p>With this prototype in place, I can insert my Yubikey, and get this
9365 desktop notification to show up (only once, the first time it is
9366 inserted):</p>
9367
9368 <p align="center"><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-01-09-hw-autoinstall.png"></p>
9369
9370 <p>For this prototype to be really useful, some way to automatically
9371 install the proposed packages by pressing the "Please install
9372 program(s)" button should to be implemented.</p>
9373
9374 <p>If this idea seem useful to you, and you want to help make it
9375 happen, please help me update the discover-data database with mappings
9376 from hardware to Debian packages.  Check if 'discover-pkginstall -l'
9377 list the package you would like to have installed when a given
9378 hardware device is inserted into your computer, and report bugs using
9379 reportbug if it isn't.  Or, if you know of a better way to provide
9380 such mapping, please let me know.</p>
9381
9382 <p>This prototype need more work, and there are several questions that
9383 should be considered before it is ready for production use.  Is dbus
9384 the correct way to detect new hardware?  At the moment I look for HAL
9385 dbus events on the system bus, because that is the events I could see
9386 on my Debian Squeeze KDE desktop.  Are there better events to use?
9387 How should the user be notified?  Is the desktop notification
9388 mechanism the best option, or should the background daemon raise a
9389 popup instead?  How should packages be installed?  When should they
9390 not be installed?</p>
9391
9392 <p>If you want to help getting such feature implemented in Debian,
9393 please send me an email. :)</p>
9394
9395       </div>
9396       <div class="tags">
9397
9398
9399         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram">isenkram</a>.
9400
9401
9402       </div>
9403     </div>
9404     <div class="padding"></div>
9405
9406     <div class="entry">
9407       <div class="title">
9408         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/New_IRC_channel_for_LEGO_designers_using_Debian.html">New IRC channel for LEGO designers using Debian</a>
9409       </div>
9410       <div class="date">
9411          2nd January 2013
9412       </div>
9413       <div class="body">
9414         <p>During Christmas, I have worked a bit on the Debian support for
9415 <a href="http://mindstorms.lego.com/en-us/Default.aspx">LEGO Mindstorm
9416 NXT</a>.  My son and I have played a bit with my NXT set, and I
9417 discovered I had to build all the tools myself because none were
9418 already in Debian Squeeze.  If Debian support for LEGO is something
9419 you care about, please join me on the IRC channel
9420 <a href="irc://irc.debian.org/%23debian-lego">#debian-lego</a> (server
9421 irc.debian.org).  There is a lot that could be done to improve the
9422 Debian support for LEGO designers.  For example both CAD software
9423 and Mindstorm compilers are missing. :)</p>
9424
9425 <p>Update 2012-01-03: A
9426 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/LegoDesigners">project page</a>
9427 including links to Lego related packages is now available.</p>
9428
9429       </div>
9430       <div class="tags">
9431
9432
9433         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/lego">lego</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/robot">robot</a>.
9434
9435
9436       </div>
9437     </div>
9438     <div class="padding"></div>
9439
9440     <div class="entry">
9441       <div class="title">
9442         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_backport_bitcoin_qt_version_0_7_2_2_to_Debian_Squeeze.html">How to backport bitcoin-qt version 0.7.2-2 to Debian Squeeze</a>
9443       </div>
9444       <div class="date">
9445         25th December 2012
9446       </div>
9447       <div class="body">
9448         <p>Let me start by wishing you all marry Christmas and a happy new
9449 year!  I hope next year will prove to be a good year.</p>
9450
9451 <p><a href="http://www.bitcoin.org/">Bitcoin</a>, the digital
9452 decentralised "currency" that allow people to transfer bitcoins
9453 between each other with minimal overhead, is a very interesting
9454 experiment.  And as I wrote a few days ago, the bitcoin situation in
9455 <a href="http://www.debian.org/">Debian</a> is about to improve a bit.
9456 The <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/bitcoin">new debian source
9457 package</a> (version 0.7.2-2) was uploaded yesterday, and is waiting
9458 in <a href="http://ftp-master.debian.org/new.html">the NEW queue</A>
9459 for one of the ftpmasters to approve the new bitcoin-qt package
9460 name.</p>
9461
9462 <p>And thanks to the great work of Jonas and the rest of the bitcoin
9463 team in Debian, you can easily test the package in Debian Squeeze
9464 using the following steps to get a set of working packages:</p>
9465
9466 <blockquote><pre>
9467 git clone git://git.debian.org/git/collab-maint/bitcoin
9468 cd bitcoin
9469 DEB_MAINTAINER_MODE=1 DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS=noupnp fakeroot debian/rules clean
9470 DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS=noupnp git-buildpackage --git-ignore-new
9471 </pre></blockquote>
9472
9473 <p>You might have to install some build dependencies as well.  The
9474 list of commands should give you two packages, bitcoind and
9475 bitcoin-qt, ready for use in a Squeeze environment.  Note that the
9476 client will download the complete set of bitcoin "blocks", which need
9477 around 5.6 GiB of data on my machine at the moment.  Make sure your
9478 ~/.bitcoin/ directory have lots of spare room if you want to download
9479 all the blocks.  The client will warn if the disk is getting full, so
9480 there is not really a problem if you got too little room, but you will
9481 not be able to get all the features out of the client.</p>
9482
9483 <p>As usual, if you use bitcoin and want to show your support of my
9484 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
9485 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
9486
9487       </div>
9488       <div class="tags">
9489
9490
9491         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bitcoin">bitcoin</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
9492
9493
9494       </div>
9495     </div>
9496     <div class="padding"></div>
9497
9498     <div class="entry">
9499       <div class="title">
9500         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/A_word_on_bitcoin_support_in_Debian.html">A word on bitcoin support in Debian</a>
9501       </div>
9502       <div class="date">
9503         21st December 2012
9504       </div>
9505       <div class="body">
9506         <p>It has been a while since I wrote about
9507 <a href="http://www.bitcoin.org/">bitcoin</a>, the decentralised
9508 peer-to-peer based crypto-currency, and the reason is simply that I
9509 have been busy elsewhere.  But two days ago, I started looking at the
9510 state of <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/bitcoin">bitcoin in
9511 Debian</a> again to try to recover my old bitcoin wallet.  The package
9512 is now maintained by a
9513 <a href="https://alioth.debian.org/projects/pkg-bitcoin/">team of
9514 people</a>, and the grunt work had already been done by this team.  We
9515 owe a huge thank you to all these team members. :)
9516 But I was sad to discover that the bitcoin client is missing in
9517 Wheezy.  It is only available in Sid (and an outdated client from
9518 backports).  The client had several RC bugs registered in BTS blocking
9519 it from entering testing.  To try to help the team and improve the
9520 situation, I spent some time providing patches and triaging the bug
9521 reports.  I also had a look at the bitcoin package available from Matt
9522 Corallo in a
9523 <a href="https://launchpad.net/~bitcoin/+archive/bitcoin">PPA for
9524 Ubuntu</a>, and moved the useful pieces from that version into the
9525 Debian package.</p>
9526
9527 <p>After checking with the main package maintainer Jonas Smedegaard on
9528 IRC, I pushed several patches into the collab-maint git repository to
9529 improve the package.  It now contains fixes for the RC issues (not from
9530 me, but fixed by Scott Howard), build rules for a Qt GUI client
9531 package, konqueror support for the bitcoin: URI and bash completion
9532 setup.  As I work on Debian Squeeze, I also created
9533 <a href="http://lists.alioth.debian.org/pipermail/pkg-bitcoin-devel/Week-of-Mon-20121217/000041.html">a
9534 patch to backport</a> the latest version.  Jonas is going to look at
9535 it and try to integrate it into the git repository before uploading a
9536 new version to unstable.
9537
9538 <p>I would very much like bitcoin to succeed, to get rid of the
9539 centralized control currently exercised in the monetary system.  I
9540 find it completely unacceptable that the USA government is collecting
9541 transaction data for almost all international money transfers (most are done in USD and transaction logs shipped to the spooks), and
9542 that the major credit card companies can block legal money
9543 transactions to Wikileaks.  But for bitcoin to succeed, more people
9544 need to use bitcoins, and more people need to accept bitcoins when
9545 they sell products and services.  Improving the bitcoin support in
9546 Debian is a small step in the right direction, but not enough.
9547 Unfortunately the user experience when browsing the web and wanting to
9548 pay with bitcoin is still not very good.  The bitcoin: URI is a step
9549 in the right direction, but need to work in most or every browser in
9550 use.  Also the bitcoin-qt client is too heavy to fire up to do a
9551 quick transaction.  I believe there are other clients available, but
9552 have not tested them.</p>
9553
9554 <p>My
9555 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Now_accepting_bitcoins___anonymous_and_distributed_p2p_crypto_money.html">experiment
9556 with bitcoins</a> showed that at least some of my readers use bitcoin.
9557 I received 20.15 BTC so far on the address I provided in my blog two
9558 years ago, as can be
9559 <a href="http://blockexplorer.com/address/15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">seen
9560 on the blockexplorer service</a>.  Thank you everyone for your
9561 donation.  The blockexplorer service demonstrates quite well that
9562 bitcoin is not quite anonymous and untracked. :) I wonder if the
9563 number of users have gone up since then.  If you use bitcoin and want
9564 to show your support of my activity, please send Bitcoin donations to
9565 the same address as last time,
9566 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
9567
9568       </div>
9569       <div class="tags">
9570
9571
9572         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bitcoin">bitcoin</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
9573
9574
9575       </div>
9576     </div>
9577     <div class="padding"></div>
9578
9579     <div class="entry">
9580       <div class="title">
9581         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Git_repository_for_song_book_for_Computer_Scientists.html">Git repository for song book for Computer Scientists</a>
9582       </div>
9583       <div class="date">
9584          7th September 2012
9585       </div>
9586       <div class="body">
9587         <p>As I
9588 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Song_book_for_Computer_Scientists.html">mentioned
9589 this summer</a>, I have created a Computer Science song book a few
9590 years ago, and today I finally found time to create a public
9591 <a href="https://gitorious.org/pere-cs-songbook/pere-cs-songbook">Gitorious
9592 repository for the project</a>.</p>
9593
9594 <p>If you want to help out, please clone the source and submit patches
9595 to the HTML version.  To generate the PDF and PostScript version,
9596 please use prince XML, or let me know about a useful free software
9597 processor capable of creating a good looking PDF from the HTML.</p>
9598
9599 <p>Want to sing?  You can still find the song book in HTML, PDF and
9600 PostScript formats at
9601 <a href="http://www.hungry.com/~pere/cs-songbook/">Petter's Computer
9602 Science Songbook</a>.</p>
9603
9604       </div>
9605       <div class="tags">
9606
9607
9608         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/multimedia">multimedia</a>.
9609
9610
9611       </div>
9612     </div>
9613     <div class="padding"></div>
9614
9615     <div class="entry">
9616       <div class="title">
9617         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Gratulerer_med_19__rsdagen__Debian_.html">Gratulerer med 19-årsdagen, Debian!</a>
9618       </div>
9619       <div class="date">
9620         16th August 2012
9621       </div>
9622       <div class="body">
9623         <p>I dag fyller
9624 <a href="http://www.debian.org/News/2012/20120813">Debian-prosjektet 19
9625 år</a>.  Jeg har fulgt det de siste 12 årene, og er veldig glad for å kunne
9626 si gratulerer med dagen, Debian!</p>
9627
9628       </div>
9629       <div class="tags">
9630
9631
9632         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/norsk">norsk</a>.
9633
9634
9635       </div>
9636     </div>
9637     <div class="padding"></div>
9638
9639     <div class="entry">
9640       <div class="title">
9641         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Song_book_for_Computer_Scientists.html">Song book for Computer Scientists</a>
9642       </div>
9643       <div class="date">
9644         24th June 2012
9645       </div>
9646       <div class="body">
9647         <p>Many years ago, while studying Computer Science at the
9648 <a href="http://www.uit.no/">University of Tromsø</a>, I started
9649 collecting computer related songs for use at parties.  The original
9650 version was written in LaTeX, but a few years ago I got help from
9651 Håkon W. Lie, one of the inventors of W3C CSS, to convert it to HTML
9652 while keeping the ability to create a nice book in PDF format.  I have
9653 not had time to maintain the book for a while now, and guess I should
9654 put it up on some public version control repository where others can
9655 help me extend and update the book.  If anyone is volunteering to help
9656 me with this, send me an email.  Also let me know if there are songs
9657 missing in my book.</p>
9658
9659 <p>I have not mentioned the book on my blog so far, and it occured to
9660 me today that I really should let all my readers share the joys of
9661 singing out load about programming, computers and computer networks.
9662 Especially now that <a href="http://debconf12.debconf.org/">Debconf
9663 12</a> is about to start (and I am not going).  Want to sing?  Check
9664 out <a href="http://www.hungry.com/~pere/cs-songbook/">Petter's
9665 Computer Science Songbook</a>.
9666
9667       </div>
9668       <div class="tags">
9669
9670
9671         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/multimedia">multimedia</a>.
9672
9673
9674       </div>
9675     </div>
9676     <div class="padding"></div>
9677
9678     <div class="entry">
9679       <div class="title">
9680         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Automatically_upgrading_server_firmware_on_Dell_PowerEdge.html">Automatically upgrading server firmware on Dell PowerEdge</a>
9681       </div>
9682       <div class="date">
9683         21st November 2011
9684       </div>
9685       <div class="body">
9686         <p>At work we have heaps of servers.  I believe the total count is
9687 around 1000 at the moment.  To be able to get help from the vendors
9688 when something go wrong, we want to keep the firmware on the servers
9689 up to date.  If the firmware isn't the latest and greatest, the
9690 vendors typically refuse to start debugging any problems until the
9691 firmware is upgraded.  So before every reboot, we want to upgrade the
9692 firmware, and we would really like everyone handling servers at the
9693 university to do this themselves when they plan to reboot a machine.
9694 For that to happen we at the unix server admin group need to provide
9695 the tools to do so.</p>
9696
9697 <p>To make firmware upgrading easier, I am working on a script to
9698 fetch and install the latest firmware for the servers we got.  Most of
9699 our hardware are from Dell and HP, so I have focused on these servers
9700 so far.  This blog post is about the Dell part.</P>
9701
9702 <p>On the Dell FTP site I was lucky enough to find
9703 <a href="ftp://ftp.us.dell.com/catalog/Catalog.xml.gz">an XML file</a>
9704 with firmware information for all 11th generation servers, listing
9705 which firmware should be used on a given model and where on the FTP
9706 site I can find it.  Using a simple perl XML parser I can then
9707 download the shell scripts Dell provides to do firmware upgrades from
9708 within Linux and reboot when all the firmware is primed and ready to
9709 be activated on the first reboot.</p>
9710
9711 <p>This is the Dell related fragment of the perl code I am working on.
9712 Are there anyone working on similar tools for firmware upgrading all
9713 servers at a site?  Please get in touch and lets share resources.</p>
9714
9715 <p><pre>
9716 #!/usr/bin/perl
9717 use strict;
9718 use warnings;
9719 use File::Temp qw(tempdir);
9720 BEGIN {
9721     # Install needed RHEL packages if missing
9722     my %rhelmodules = (
9723         'XML::Simple' => 'perl-XML-Simple',
9724         );
9725     for my $module (keys %rhelmodules) {
9726         eval "use $module;";
9727         if ($@) {
9728             my $pkg = $rhelmodules{$module};
9729             system("yum install -y $pkg");
9730             eval "use $module;";
9731         }
9732     }
9733 }
9734 my $errorsto = 'pere@hungry.com';
9735
9736 upgrade_dell();
9737
9738 exit 0;
9739
9740 sub run_firmware_script {
9741     my ($opts, $script) = @_;
9742     unless ($script) {
9743         print STDERR "fail: missing script name\n";
9744         exit 1
9745     }
9746     print STDERR "Running $script\n\n";
9747
9748     if (0 == system("sh $script $opts")) { # FIXME correct exit code handling
9749         print STDERR "success: firmware script ran succcessfully\n";
9750     } else {
9751         print STDERR "fail: firmware script returned error\n";
9752     }
9753 }
9754
9755 sub run_firmware_scripts {
9756     my ($opts, @dirs) = @_;
9757     # Run firmware packages
9758     for my $dir (@dirs) {
9759         print STDERR "info: Running scripts in $dir\n";
9760         opendir(my $dh, $dir) or die "Unable to open directory $dir: $!";
9761         while (my $s = readdir $dh) {
9762             next if $s =~ m/^\.\.?/;
9763             run_firmware_script($opts, "$dir/$s");
9764         }
9765         closedir $dh;
9766     }
9767 }
9768
9769 sub download {
9770     my $url = shift;
9771     print STDERR "info: Downloading $url\n";
9772     system("wget --quiet \"$url\"");
9773 }
9774
9775 sub upgrade_dell {
9776     my @dirs;
9777     my $product = `dmidecode -s system-product-name`;
9778     chomp $product;
9779
9780     if ($product =~ m/PowerEdge/) {
9781
9782         # on RHEL, these pacakges are needed by the firwmare upgrade scripts
9783         system('yum install -y compat-libstdc++-33.i686 libstdc++.i686 libxml2.i686 procmail');
9784
9785         my $tmpdir = tempdir(
9786             CLEANUP => 1
9787             );
9788         chdir($tmpdir);
9789         fetch_dell_fw('catalog/Catalog.xml.gz');
9790         system('gunzip Catalog.xml.gz');
9791         my @paths = fetch_dell_fw_list('Catalog.xml');
9792         # -q is quiet, disabling interactivity and reducing console output
9793         my $fwopts = "-q";
9794         if (@paths) {
9795             for my $url (@paths) {
9796                 fetch_dell_fw($url);
9797             }
9798             run_firmware_scripts($fwopts, $tmpdir);
9799         } else {
9800             print STDERR "error: Unsupported Dell model '$product'.\n";
9801             print STDERR "error: Please report to $errorsto.\n";
9802         }
9803         chdir('/');
9804     } else {
9805         print STDERR "error: Unsupported Dell model '$product'.\n";
9806         print STDERR "error: Please report to $errorsto.\n";
9807     }
9808 }
9809
9810 sub fetch_dell_fw {
9811     my $path = shift;
9812     my $url = "ftp://ftp.us.dell.com/$path";
9813     download($url);
9814 }
9815
9816 # Using ftp://ftp.us.dell.com/catalog/Catalog.xml.gz, figure out which
9817 # firmware packages to download from Dell.  Only work for Linux
9818 # machines and 11th generation Dell servers.
9819 sub fetch_dell_fw_list {
9820     my $filename = shift;
9821
9822     my $product = `dmidecode -s system-product-name`;
9823     chomp $product;
9824     my ($mybrand, $mymodel) = split(/\s+/, $product);
9825
9826     print STDERR "Finding firmware bundles for $mybrand $mymodel\n";
9827
9828     my $xml = XMLin($filename);
9829     my @paths;
9830     for my $bundle (@{$xml->{SoftwareBundle}}) {
9831         my $brand = $bundle->{TargetSystems}->{Brand}->{Display}->{content};
9832         my $model = $bundle->{TargetSystems}->{Brand}->{Model}->{Display}->{content};
9833         my $oscode;
9834         if ("ARRAY" eq ref $bundle->{TargetOSes}->{OperatingSystem}) {
9835             $oscode = $bundle->{TargetOSes}->{OperatingSystem}[0]->{osCode};
9836         } else {
9837             $oscode = $bundle->{TargetOSes}->{OperatingSystem}->{osCode};
9838         }
9839         if ($mybrand eq $brand && $mymodel eq $model && "LIN" eq $oscode)
9840         {
9841             @paths = map { $_->{path} } @{$bundle->{Contents}->{Package}};
9842         }
9843     }
9844     for my $component (@{$xml->{SoftwareComponent}}) {
9845         my $componenttype = $component->{ComponentType}->{value};
9846
9847         # Drop application packages, only firmware and BIOS
9848         next if 'APAC' eq $componenttype;
9849
9850         my $cpath = $component->{path};
9851         for my $path (@paths) {
9852             if ($cpath =~ m%/$path$%) {
9853                 push(@paths, $cpath);
9854             }
9855         }
9856     }
9857     return @paths;
9858 }
9859 </pre>
9860
9861 <p>The code is only tested on RedHat Enterprise Linux, but I suspect
9862 it could work on other platforms with some tweaking.  Anyone know a
9863 index like Catalog.xml is available from HP for HP servers?  At the
9864 moment I maintain a similar list manually and it is quickly getting
9865 outdated.</p>
9866
9867       </div>
9868       <div class="tags">
9869
9870
9871         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
9872
9873
9874       </div>
9875     </div>
9876     <div class="padding"></div>
9877
9878     <div class="entry">
9879       <div class="title">
9880         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_is_booting_into_runlevel_1_different_from_single_user_boots_.html">How is booting into runlevel 1 different from single user boots?</a>
9881       </div>
9882       <div class="date">
9883          4th August 2011
9884       </div>
9885       <div class="body">
9886         <p>Wouter Verhelst have some
9887 <a href="http://grep.be/blog/en/retorts/pere_kubuntu_boot">interesting
9888 comments and opinions</a> on my blog post on
9889 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/What_should_start_from__etc_rcS_d__in_Debian____almost_nothing.html">the
9890 need to clean up /etc/rcS.d/ in Debian</a> and my blog post about
9891 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/What_is_missing_in_the_Debian_desktop__or_why_my_parents_use_Kubuntu.html">the
9892 default KDE desktop in Debian</a>.  I only have time to address one
9893 small piece of his comment now, and though it best to address the
9894 misunderstanding he bring forward:</p>
9895
9896 <p><blockquote>
9897 Currently, a system admin has four options: [...] boot to a
9898 single-user system (by adding 'single' to the kernel command line;
9899 this runs rcS and rc1 scripts)
9900 </blockquote></p>
9901
9902 <p>This make me believe Wouter believe booting into single user mode
9903 and booting into runlevel 1 is the same.  I am not surprised he
9904 believe this, because it would make sense and is a quite sensible
9905 thing to believe.  But because the boot in Debian is slightly broken,
9906 runlevel 1 do not work properly and it isn't the same as single user
9907 mode.  I'll try to explain what is actually happing, but it is a bit
9908 hard to explain.</p>
9909
9910 <p>Single user mode is defined like this in /etc/inittab:
9911 "<tt>~~:S:wait:/sbin/sulogin</tt>".  This means the only thing that is
9912 executed in single user mode is sulogin.  Single user mode is a boot
9913 state "between" the runlevels, and when booting into single user mode,
9914 only the scripts in /etc/rcS.d/ are executed before the init process
9915 enters the single user state.  When switching to runlevel 1, the state
9916 is in fact not ending in runlevel 1, but it passes through runlevel 1
9917 and end up in the single user mode (see /etc/rc1.d/S03single, which
9918 runs "init -t1 S" to switch to single user mode at the end of runlevel
9919 1.  It is confusing that the 'S' (single user) init mode is not the
9920 mode enabled by /etc/rcS.d/ (which is more like the initial boot
9921 mode).</p>
9922
9923 <p>This summary might make it clearer.  When booting for the first
9924 time into single user mode, the following commands are executed:
9925 "<tt>/etc/init.d/rc S; /sbin/sulogin</tt>".  When booting into
9926 runlevel 1, the following commands are executed: "<tt>/etc/init.d/rc
9927 S; /etc/init.d/rc 1; /sbin/sulogin</tt>".  A problem show up when
9928 trying to continue after visiting single user mode.  Not all services
9929 are started again as they should, causing the machine to end up in an
9930 unpredicatble state.  This is why Debian admins recommend rebooting
9931 after visiting single user mode.</p>
9932
9933 <p>A similar problem with runlevel 1 is caused by the amount of
9934 scripts executed from /etc/rcS.d/.  When switching from say runlevel 2
9935 to runlevel 1, the services started from /etc/rcS.d/ are not properly
9936 stopped when passing through the scripts in /etc/rc1.d/, and not
9937 started again when switching away from runlevel 1 to the runlevels
9938 2-5.  I believe the problem is best fixed by moving all the scripts
9939 out of /etc/rcS.d/ that are not <strong>required</strong> to get a
9940 functioning single user mode during boot.</p>
9941
9942 <p>I have spent several years investigating the Debian boot system,
9943 and discovered this problem a few years ago.  I suspect it originates
9944 from when sysvinit was introduced into Debian, a long time ago.</p>
9945
9946       </div>
9947       <div class="tags">
9948
9949
9950         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bootsystem">bootsystem</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
9951
9952
9953       </div>
9954     </div>
9955     <div class="padding"></div>
9956
9957     <div class="entry">
9958       <div class="title">
9959         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/What_should_start_from__etc_rcS_d__in_Debian____almost_nothing.html">What should start from /etc/rcS.d/ in Debian? - almost nothing</a>
9960       </div>
9961       <div class="date">
9962         30th July 2011
9963       </div>
9964       <div class="body">
9965         <p>In the Debian boot system, several packages include scripts that
9966 are started from /etc/rcS.d/.  In fact, there is a bite more of them
9967 than make sense, and this causes a few problems.  What kind of
9968 problems, you might ask.  There are at least two problems.  The first
9969 is that it is not possible to recover a machine after switching to
9970 runlevel 1.  One need to actually reboot to get the machine back to
9971 the expected state.  The other is that single user boot will sometimes
9972 run into problems because some of the subsystems are activated before
9973 the root login is presented, causing problems when trying to recover a
9974 machine from a problem in that subsystem.  A minor additional point is
9975 that moving more scripts out of rcS.d/ and into the other rc#.d/
9976 directories will increase the amount of scripts that can run in
9977 parallel during boot, and thus decrease the boot time.</p>
9978
9979 <p>So, which scripts should start from rcS.d/.  In short, only the
9980 scripts that _have_ to execute before the root login prompt is
9981 presented during a single user boot should go there.  Everything else
9982 should go into the numeric runlevels.  This means things like
9983 lm-sensors, fuse and x11-common should not run from rcS.d, but from
9984 the numeric runlevels.  Today in Debian, there are around 115 init.d
9985 scripts that are started from rcS.d/, and most of them should be moved
9986 out.  Do your package have one of them?  Please help us make single
9987 user and runlevel 1 better by moving it.</p>
9988
9989 <p>Scripts setting up the screen, keyboard, system partitions
9990 etc. should still be started from rcS.d/, but there is for example no
9991 need to have the network enabled before the single user login prompt
9992 is presented.</p>
9993
9994 <p>As always, things are not so easy to fix as they sound.  To keep
9995 Debian systems working while scripts migrate and during upgrades, the
9996 scripts need to be moved from rcS.d/ to rc2.d/ in reverse dependency
9997 order, ie the scripts that nothing in rcS.d/ depend on can be moved,
9998 and the next ones can only be moved when their dependencies have been
9999 moved first.  This migration must be done sequentially while we ensure
10000 that the package system upgrade packages in the right order to keep
10001 the system state correct.  This will require some coordination when it
10002 comes to network related packages, but most of the packages with
10003 scripts that should migrate do not have anything in rcS.d/ depending
10004 on them.  Some packages have already been updated, like the sudo
10005 package, while others are still left to do.  I wish I had time to work
10006 on this myself, but real live constrains make it unlikely that I will
10007 find time to push this forward.</p>
10008
10009       </div>
10010       <div class="tags">
10011
10012
10013         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bootsystem">bootsystem</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
10014
10015
10016       </div>
10017     </div>
10018     <div class="padding"></div>
10019
10020     <div class="entry">
10021       <div class="title">
10022         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/What_is_missing_in_the_Debian_desktop__or_why_my_parents_use_Kubuntu.html">What is missing in the Debian desktop, or why my parents use Kubuntu</a>
10023       </div>
10024       <div class="date">
10025         29th July 2011
10026       </div>
10027       <div class="body">
10028         <p>While at Debconf11, I have several times during discussions
10029 mentioned the issues I believe should be improved in Debian for its
10030 desktop to be useful for more people.  The use case for this is my
10031 parents, which are currently running Kubuntu which solve the
10032 issues.</p>
10033
10034 <p>I suspect these four missing features are not very hard to
10035 implement.  After all, they are present in Ubuntu, so if we wanted to
10036 do this in Debian we would have a source.</p>
10037
10038 <ol>
10039
10040 <li><strong>Simple GUI based upgrade of packages.</strong> When there
10041 are new packages available for upgrades, a icon in the KDE status bar
10042 indicate this, and clicking on it will activate the simple upgrade
10043 tool to handle it.  I have no problem guiding both of my parents
10044 through the process over the phone.  If a kernel reboot is required,
10045 this too is indicated by the status bars and the upgrade tool.  Last
10046 time I checked, nothing with the same features was working in KDE in
10047 Debian.</li>
10048
10049 <li><strong>Simple handling of missing Firefox browser
10050 plugins.</strong> When the browser encounter a MIME type it do not
10051 currently have a handler for, it will ask the user if the system
10052 should search for a package that would add support for this MIME type,
10053 and if the user say yes, the APT sources will be searched for packages
10054 advertising the MIME type in their control file (visible in the
10055 Packages file in the APT archive).  If one or more packages are found,
10056 it is a simple click of the mouse to add support for the missing mime
10057 type.  If the package require the user to accept some non-free
10058 license, this is explained to the user.  The entire process make it
10059 more clear to the user why something do not work in the browser, and
10060 make the chances higher for the user to blame the web page authors and
10061 not the browser for any missing features.</li>
10062
10063 <li><strong>Simple handling of missing multimedia codec/format
10064 handlers.</strong> When the media players encounter a format or codec
10065 it is not supporting, a dialog pop up asking the user if the system
10066 should search for a package that would add support for it.  This
10067 happen with things like MP3, Windows Media or H.264.  The selection
10068 and installation procedure is very similar to the Firefox browser
10069 plugin handling.  This is as far as I know implemented using a
10070 gstreamer hook.  The end result is that the user easily get access to
10071 the codecs that are present from the APT archives available, while
10072 explaining more on why a given format is unsupported by Ubuntu.</li>
10073
10074 <li><strong>Better browser handling of some MIME types.</strong> When
10075 displaying a text/plain file in my Debian browser, it will propose to
10076 start emacs to show it.  If I remember correctly, when doing the same
10077 in Kunbutu it show the file as a text file in the browser.  At least I
10078 know Opera will show text files within the browser.  I much prefer the
10079 latter behaviour.</li>
10080
10081 </ol>
10082
10083 <p>There are other nice features as well, like the simplified suite
10084 upgrader, but given that I am the one mostly doing the dist-upgrade,
10085 it do not matter much.</p>
10086
10087 <p>I really hope we could get these features in place for the next
10088 Debian release.  It would require the coordinated effort of several
10089 maintainers, but would make the end user experience a lot better.</p>
10090
10091       </div>
10092       <div class="tags">
10093
10094
10095         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/h264">h264</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/multimedia">multimedia</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/web">web</a>.
10096
10097
10098       </div>
10099     </div>
10100     <div class="padding"></div>
10101
10102     <div class="entry">
10103       <div class="title">
10104         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Perl_modules_used_by_FixMyStreet_which_are_missing_in_Debian_Squeeze.html">Perl modules used by FixMyStreet which are missing in Debian/Squeeze</a>
10105       </div>
10106       <div class="date">
10107         26th July 2011
10108       </div>
10109       <div class="body">
10110         <p>The Norwegian <a href="http://www.fiksgatami.no/">FiksGataMi</A>
10111 site is build on Debian/Squeeze, and this platform was chosen because
10112 I am most familiar with Debian (being a Debian Developer for around 10
10113 years) because it is the latest stable Debian release which should get
10114 security support for a few years.</p>
10115
10116 <p>The web service is written in Perl, and depend on some perl modules
10117 that are missing in Debian at the moment.  It would be great if these
10118 modules were added to the Debian archive, allowing anyone to set up
10119 their own <a href="http://www.fixmystreet.com">FixMyStreet</a> clone
10120 in their own country using only Debian packages.  The list of modules
10121 missing in Debian/Squeeze isn't very long, and I hope the perl group
10122 will find time to package the 12 modules Catalyst::Plugin::SmartURI,
10123 Catalyst::Plugin::Unicode::Encoding, Catalyst::View::TT, Devel::Hide,
10124 Sort::Key, Statistics::Distributions, Template::Plugin::Comma,
10125 Template::Plugin::DateTime::Format, Term::Size::Any, Term::Size::Perl,
10126 URI::SmartURI and Web::Scraper to make the maintenance of FixMyStreet
10127 easier in the future.</p>
10128
10129 <p>Thanks to the great tools in Debian, getting the missing modules
10130 installed on my server was a simple call to 'cpan2deb Module::Name'
10131 and 'dpkg -i' to install the resulting package.  But this leave me
10132 with the responsibility of tracking security problems, which I really
10133 do not have time for.</p>
10134
10135       </div>
10136       <div class="tags">
10137
10138
10139         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/fiksgatami">fiksgatami</a>.
10140
10141
10142       </div>
10143     </div>
10144     <div class="padding"></div>
10145
10146     <div class="entry">
10147       <div class="title">
10148         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/A_Norwegian_FixMyStreet_have_kept_me_busy_the_last_few_weeks.html">A Norwegian FixMyStreet have kept me busy the last few weeks</a>
10149       </div>
10150       <div class="date">
10151          3rd April 2011
10152       </div>
10153       <div class="body">
10154         <p>Here is a small update for my English readers.  Most of my blog
10155 posts have been in Norwegian the last few weeks, so here is a short
10156 update in English.</p>
10157
10158 <p>The kids still keep me too busy to get much free software work
10159 done, but I did manage to organise a project to get a Norwegian port
10160 of the British service
10161 <a href="http://www.fixmystreet.com/">FixMyStreet</a> up and running,
10162 and it has been running for a month now.  The entire project has been
10163 organised by me and two others.  Around Christmas we gathered sponsors
10164 to fund the development work.  In January I drafted a contract with
10165 <a href="http://www.mysociety.org/">mySociety</a> on what to develop,
10166 and in February the development took place.  Most of it involved
10167 converting the source to use GPS coordinates instead of British
10168 easting/northing, and the resulting code should be a lot easier to get
10169 running in any country by now.  The Norwegian
10170 <a href="http://www.fiksgatami.no/">FiksGataMi</a> is using
10171 <a href="http://www.openstreetmap.org/">OpenStreetmap</a> as the map
10172 source and the source for administrative borders in Norway, and
10173 support for this had to be added/fixed.</p>
10174
10175 <p>The Norwegian version went live March 3th, and we spent the weekend
10176 polishing the system before we announced it March 7th.  The system is
10177 running on a KVM instance of Debian/Squeeze, and has seen almost 3000
10178 problem reports in a few weeks.  Soon we hope to announce the Android
10179 and iPhone versions making it even easier to report problems with the
10180 public infrastructure.</p>
10181
10182 <p>Perhaps something to consider for those of you in countries without
10183 such service?</p>
10184
10185       </div>
10186       <div class="tags">
10187
10188
10189         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/fiksgatami">fiksgatami</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/kart">kart</a>.
10190
10191
10192       </div>
10193     </div>
10194     <div class="padding"></div>
10195
10196     <div class="entry">
10197       <div class="title">
10198         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Using_NVD_and_CPE_to_track_CVEs_in_locally_maintained_software.html">Using NVD and CPE to track CVEs in locally maintained software</a>
10199       </div>
10200       <div class="date">
10201         28th January 2011
10202       </div>
10203       <div class="body">
10204         <p>The last few days I have looked at ways to track open security
10205 issues here at my work with the University of Oslo.  My idea is that
10206 it should be possible to use the information about security issues
10207 available on the Internet, and check our locally
10208 maintained/distributed software against this information.  It should
10209 allow us to verify that no known security issues are forgotten.  The
10210 CVE database listing vulnerabilities seem like a great central point,
10211 and by using the package lists from Debian mapped to CVEs provided by
10212 the testing security team, I believed it should be possible to figure
10213 out which security holes were present in our free software
10214 collection.</p>
10215
10216 <p>After reading up on the topic, it became obvious that the first
10217 building block is to be able to name software packages in a unique and
10218 consistent way across data sources.  I considered several ways to do
10219 this, for example coming up with my own naming scheme like using URLs
10220 to project home pages or URLs to the Freshmeat entries, or using some
10221 existing naming scheme.  And it seem like I am not the first one to
10222 come across this problem, as MITRE already proposed and implemented a
10223 solution.  Enter the <a href="http://cpe.mitre.org/index.html">Common
10224 Platform Enumeration</a> dictionary, a vocabulary for referring to
10225 software, hardware and other platform components.  The CPE ids are
10226 mapped to CVEs in the <a href="http://web.nvd.nist.gov/">National
10227 Vulnerability Database</a>, allowing me to look up know security
10228 issues for any CPE name.  With this in place, all I need to do is to
10229 locate the CPE id for the software packages we use at the university.
10230 This is fairly trivial (I google for 'cve cpe $package' and check the
10231 NVD entry if a CVE for the package exist).</p>
10232
10233 <p>To give you an example.  The GNU gzip source package have the CPE
10234 name cpe:/a:gnu:gzip.  If the old version 1.3.3 was the package to
10235 check out, one could look up
10236 <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
10237 in NVD</a> and get a list of 6 security holes with public CVE entries.
10238 The most recent one is
10239 <a href="http://web.nvd.nist.gov/view/vuln/detail?vulnId=CVE-2010-0001">CVE-2010-0001</a>,
10240 and at the bottom of the NVD page for this vulnerability the complete
10241 list of affected versions is provided.</p>
10242
10243 <p>The NVD database of CVEs is also available as a XML dump, allowing
10244 for offline processing of issues.  Using this dump, I've written a
10245 small script taking a list of CPEs as input and list all CVEs
10246 affecting the packages represented by these CPEs.  One give it CPEs
10247 with version numbers as specified above and get a list of open
10248 security issues out.</p>
10249
10250 <p>Of course for this approach to be useful, the quality of the NVD
10251 information need to be high.  For that to happen, I believe as many as
10252 possible need to use and contribute to the NVD database.  I notice
10253 RHEL is providing
10254 <a href="https://www.redhat.com/security/data/metrics/rhsamapcpe.txt">a
10255 map from CVE to CPE</a>, indicating that they are using the CPE
10256 information.  I'm not aware of Debian and Ubuntu doing the same.</p>
10257
10258 <p>To get an idea about the quality for free software, I spent some
10259 time making it possible to compare the CVE database from Debian with
10260 the CVE database in NVD.  The result look fairly good, but there are
10261 some inconsistencies in NVD (same software package having several
10262 CPEs), and some inaccuracies (NVD not mentioning buggy packages that
10263 Debian believe are affected by a CVE).  Hope to find time to improve
10264 the quality of NVD, but that require being able to get in touch with
10265 someone maintaining it.  So far my three emails with questions and
10266 corrections have not seen any reply, but I hope contact can be
10267 established soon.</p>
10268
10269 <p>An interesting application for CPEs is cross platform package
10270 mapping.  It would be useful to know which packages in for example
10271 RHEL, OpenSuSe and Mandriva are missing from Debian and Ubuntu, and
10272 this would be trivial if all linux distributions provided CPE entries
10273 for their packages.</p>
10274
10275       </div>
10276       <div class="tags">
10277
10278
10279         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>.
10280
10281
10282       </div>
10283     </div>
10284     <div class="padding"></div>
10285
10286     <div class="entry">
10287       <div class="title">
10288         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Which_module_is_loaded_for_a_given_PCI_and_USB_device_.html">Which module is loaded for a given PCI and USB device?</a>
10289       </div>
10290       <div class="date">
10291         23rd January 2011
10292       </div>
10293       <div class="body">
10294         <p>In the
10295 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/discover-data">discover-data</a>
10296 package in Debian, there is a script to report useful information
10297 about the running hardware for use when people report missing
10298 information.  One part of this script that I find very useful when
10299 debugging hardware problems, is the part mapping loaded kernel module
10300 to the PCI device it claims.  It allow me to quickly see if the kernel
10301 module I expect is driving the hardware I am struggling with.  To see
10302 the output, make sure discover-data is installed and run
10303 <tt>/usr/share/bug/discover-data 3>&1</tt>.  The relevant output on
10304 one of my machines like this:</p>
10305
10306 <pre>
10307 loaded modules:
10308 10de:03eb i2c_nforce2
10309 10de:03f1 ohci_hcd
10310 10de:03f2 ehci_hcd
10311 10de:03f0 snd_hda_intel
10312 10de:03ec pata_amd
10313 10de:03f6 sata_nv
10314 1022:1103 k8temp
10315 109e:036e bttv
10316 109e:0878 snd_bt87x
10317 11ab:4364 sky2
10318 </pre>
10319
10320 <p>The code in question look like this, slightly modified for
10321 readability and to drop the output to file descriptor 3:</p>
10322
10323 <pre>
10324 if [ -d /sys/bus/pci/devices/ ] ; then
10325     echo loaded pci modules:
10326     (
10327         cd /sys/bus/pci/devices/
10328         for address in * ; do
10329             if [ -d "$address/driver/module" ] ; then
10330                 module=`cd $address/driver/module ; pwd -P | xargs basename`
10331                 if grep -q "^$module " /proc/modules ; then
10332                     address=$(echo $address |sed s/0000://)
10333                     id=`lspci -n -s $address | tail -n 1 | awk '{print $3}'`
10334                     echo "$id $module"
10335                 fi
10336             fi
10337         done
10338     )
10339     echo
10340 fi
10341 </pre>
10342
10343 <p>Similar code could be used to extract USB device module
10344 mappings:</p>
10345
10346 <pre>
10347 if [ -d /sys/bus/usb/devices/ ] ; then
10348     echo loaded usb modules:
10349     (
10350         cd /sys/bus/usb/devices/
10351         for address in * ; do
10352             if [ -d "$address/driver/module" ] ; then
10353                 module=`cd $address/driver/module ; pwd -P | xargs basename`
10354                 if grep -q "^$module " /proc/modules ; then
10355                     address=$(echo $address |sed s/0000://)
10356                     id=$(lsusb -s $address | tail -n 1 | awk '{print $6}')
10357                     if [ "$id" ] ; then
10358                         echo "$id $module"
10359                     fi
10360                 fi
10361             fi
10362         done
10363     )
10364     echo
10365 fi
10366 </pre>
10367
10368 <p>This might perhaps be something to include in other tools as
10369 well.</p>
10370
10371       </div>
10372       <div class="tags">
10373
10374
10375         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
10376
10377
10378       </div>
10379     </div>
10380     <div class="padding"></div>
10381
10382     <div class="entry">
10383       <div class="title">
10384         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_test_if_a_laptop_is_working_with_Linux.html">How to test if a laptop is working with Linux</a>
10385       </div>
10386       <div class="date">
10387         22nd December 2010
10388       </div>
10389       <div class="body">
10390         <p>The last few days I have spent at work here at the <a
10391 href="http://www.uio.no/">University of Oslo</a> testing if the new
10392 batch of computers will work with Linux.  Every year for the last few
10393 years the university have organised shared bid of a few thousand
10394 computers, and this year HP won the bid.  Two different desktops and
10395 five different laptops are on the list this year.  We in the UNIX
10396 group want to know which one of these computers work well with RHEL
10397 and Ubuntu, the two Linux distributions we currently handle at the
10398 university.</p>
10399
10400 <p>My test method is simple, and I share it here to get feedback and
10401 perhaps inspire others to test hardware as well.  To test, I PXE
10402 install the OS version of choice, and log in as my normal user and run
10403 a few applications and plug in selected pieces of hardware.  When
10404 something fail, I make a note about this in the test matrix and move
10405 on.  If I have some spare time I try to report the bug to the OS
10406 vendor, but as I only have the machines for a short time, I rarely
10407 have the time to do this for all the problems I find.</p>
10408
10409 <p>Anyway, to get to the point of this post.  Here is the simple tests
10410 I perform on a new model.</p>
10411
10412 <ul>
10413
10414 <li>Is PXE installation working?  I'm testing with RHEL6, Ubuntu Lucid
10415 and Ubuntu Maverik at the moment.  If I feel like it, I also test with
10416 RHEL5 and Debian Edu/Squeeze.</li>
10417
10418 <li>Is X.org working?  If the graphical login screen show up after
10419 installation, X.org is working.</li>
10420
10421 <li>Is hardware accelerated OpenGL working?  Running glxgears (in
10422 package mesa-utils on Ubuntu) and writing down the frames per second
10423 reported by the program.</li>
10424
10425 <li>Is sound working?  With Gnome and KDE, a sound is played when
10426 logging in, and if I can hear this the test is successful.  If there
10427 are several audio exits on the machine, I try them all and check if
10428 the Gnome/KDE audio mixer can control where to send the sound.  I
10429 normally test this by playing
10430 <a href="http://www.nuug.no/aktiviteter/20101012-chef/ ">a HTML5
10431 video</a> in Firefox/Iceweasel.</li>
10432
10433 <li>Is the USB subsystem working?  I test this by plugging in a USB
10434 memory stick and see if Gnome/KDE notices this.</li>
10435
10436 <li>Is the CD/DVD player working?  I test this by inserting any CD/DVD
10437 I have lying around, and see if Gnome/KDE notices this.</li>
10438
10439 <li>Is any built in camera working?  Test using cheese, and see if a
10440 picture from the v4l device show up.</li>
10441
10442 <li>Is bluetooth working?  Use the Gnome/KDE browsing tool to see if
10443 any bluetooth devices are discovered.  In my office, I normally see a
10444 few.</li>
10445
10446 <li>For laptops, is the SD or Compaq Flash reader working.  I have
10447 memory modules lying around, and stick them in and see if Gnome/KDE
10448 notice this.</li>
10449
10450 <li>For laptops, is suspend/hibernate working?  I'm testing if the
10451 special button work, and if the laptop continue to work after
10452 resume.</li>
10453
10454 <li>For laptops, is the extra buttons working, like audio level,
10455 adjusting background light, switching on/off external video output,
10456 switching on/off wifi, bluetooth, etc?  The set of buttons differ from
10457 laptop to laptop, so I just write down which are working and which are
10458 not.</li>
10459
10460 <li>Some laptops have smart card readers, finger print readers,
10461 acceleration sensors etc.  I rarely test these, as I do not know how
10462 to quickly test if they are working or not, so I only document their
10463 existence.</li>
10464
10465 </ul>
10466
10467 <p>By now I suspect you are really curious what the test results are
10468 for the HP machines I am testing.  I'm not done yet, so I will report
10469 the test results later.  For now I can report that HP 8100 Elite work
10470 fine, and hibernation fail with HP EliteBook 8440p on Ubuntu Lucid,
10471 and audio fail on RHEL6.  Ubuntu Maverik worked with 8440p.  As you
10472 can see, I have most machines left to test.  One interesting
10473 observation is that Ubuntu Lucid has almost twice the frame rate than
10474 RHEL6 with glxgears.  No idea why.</p>
10475
10476       </div>
10477       <div class="tags">
10478
10479
10480         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
10481
10482
10483       </div>
10484     </div>
10485     <div class="padding"></div>
10486
10487     <div class="entry">
10488       <div class="title">
10489         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Some_thoughts_on_BitCoins.html">Some thoughts on BitCoins</a>
10490       </div>
10491       <div class="date">
10492         11th December 2010
10493       </div>
10494       <div class="body">
10495         <p>As I continue to explore
10496 <a href="http://www.bitcoin.org/">BitCoin</a>, I've starting to wonder
10497 what properties the system have, and how it will be affected by laws
10498 and regulations here in Norway.  Here are some random notes.</p>
10499
10500 <p>One interesting thing to note is that since the transactions are
10501 verified using a peer to peer network, all details about a transaction
10502 is known to everyone.  This means that if a BitCoin address has been
10503 published like I did with mine in my initial post about BitCoin, it is
10504 possible for everyone to see how many BitCoins have been transfered to
10505 that address.  There is even a web service to look at the details for
10506 all transactions.  There I can see that my address
10507 <a href="http://blockexplorer.com/address/15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a>
10508 have received 16.06 Bitcoin, the
10509 <a href="http://blockexplorer.com/address/1LfdGnGuWkpSJgbQySxxCWhv8MHqvwst3">1LfdGnGuWkpSJgbQySxxCWhv8MHqvwst3</a>
10510 address of Simon Phipps have received 181.97 BitCoin and the address
10511 <a href="http://blockexplorer.com/address/1MCwBbhNGp5hRm5rC1Aims2YFRe2SXPYKt">1MCwBbhNGp5hRm5rC1Aims2YFRe2SXPYKt</A>
10512 of EFF have received 2447.38 BitCoins so far.  Thank you to each and
10513 every one of you that donated bitcoins to support my activity. The
10514 fact that anyone can see how much money was transfered to a given
10515 address make it more obvious why the BitCoin community recommend to
10516 generate and hand out a new address for each transaction.  I'm told
10517 there is no way to track which addresses belong to a given person or
10518 organisation without the person or organisation revealing it
10519 themselves, as Simon, EFF and I have done.</p>
10520
10521 <p>In Norway, and in most other countries, there are laws and
10522 regulations limiting how much money one can transfer across the border
10523 without declaring it.  There are money laundering, tax and accounting
10524 laws and regulations I would expect to apply to the use of BitCoin.
10525 If the Skolelinux foundation
10526 (<a href="http://linuxiskolen.no/slxdebianlabs/donations.html">SLX
10527 Debian Labs</a>) were to accept donations in BitCoin in addition to
10528 normal bank transfers like EFF is doing, how should this be accounted?
10529 Given that it is impossible to know if money can cross the border or
10530 not, should everything or nothing be declared?  What exchange rate
10531 should be used when calculating taxes?  Would receivers have to pay
10532 income tax if the foundation were to pay Skolelinux contributors in
10533 BitCoin?  I have no idea, but it would be interesting to know.</p>
10534
10535 <p>For a currency to be useful and successful, it must be trusted and
10536 accepted by a lot of users.  It must be possible to get easy access to
10537 the currency (as a wage or using currency exchanges), and it must be
10538 easy to spend it.  At the moment BitCoin seem fairly easy to get
10539 access to, but there are very few places to spend it.  I am not really
10540 a regular user of any of the vendor types currently accepting BitCoin,
10541 so I wonder when my kind of shop would start accepting BitCoins.  I
10542 would like to buy electronics, travels and subway tickets, not herbs
10543 and books. :) The currency is young, and this will improve over time
10544 if it become popular, but I suspect regular banks will start to lobby
10545 to get BitCoin declared illegal if it become popular.  I'm sure they
10546 will claim it is helping fund terrorism and money laundering (which
10547 probably would be true, as is any currency in existence), but I
10548 believe the problems should be solved elsewhere and not by blaming
10549 currencies.</p>
10550
10551 <p>The process of creating new BitCoins is called mining, and it is
10552 CPU intensive process that depend on a bit of luck as well (as one is
10553 competing against all the other miners currently spending CPU cycles
10554 to see which one get the next lump of cash).  The "winner" get 50
10555 BitCoin when this happen.  Yesterday I came across the obvious way to
10556 join forces to increase ones changes of getting at least some coins,
10557 by coordinating the work on mining BitCoins across several machines
10558 and people, and sharing the result if one is lucky and get the 50
10559 BitCoins.  Check out
10560 <a href="http://www.bluishcoder.co.nz/bitcoin-pool/">BitCoin Pool</a>
10561 if this sounds interesting.  I have not had time to try to set up a
10562 machine to participate there yet, but have seen that running on ones
10563 own for a few days have not yield any BitCoins througth mining
10564 yet.</p>
10565
10566 <p>Update 2010-12-15: Found an <a
10567 href="http://inertia.posterous.com/reply-to-the-underground-economist-why-bitcoi">interesting
10568 criticism</a> of bitcoin.  Not quite sure how valid it is, but thought
10569 it was interesting to read.  The arguments presented seem to be
10570 equally valid for gold, which was used as a currency for many years.</p>
10571
10572       </div>
10573       <div class="tags">
10574
10575
10576         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bitcoin">bitcoin</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/personvern">personvern</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>.
10577
10578
10579       </div>
10580     </div>
10581     <div class="padding"></div>
10582
10583     <div class="entry">
10584       <div class="title">
10585         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Now_accepting_bitcoins___anonymous_and_distributed_p2p_crypto_money.html">Now accepting bitcoins - anonymous and distributed p2p crypto-money</a>
10586       </div>
10587       <div class="date">
10588         10th December 2010
10589       </div>
10590       <div class="body">
10591         <p>With this weeks lawless
10592 <a href="http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2010/12/06/wikileaks/index.html">governmental
10593 attacks</a> on Wikileak and
10594 <a href="http://www.salon.com/technology/dan_gillmor/2010/12/06/war_on_speech">free
10595 speech</a>, it has become obvious that PayPal, visa and mastercard can
10596 not be trusted to handle money transactions.
10597 A blog post from
10598 <a href="http://webmink.com/2010/12/06/now-accepting-bitcoin/">Simon
10599 Phipps on bitcoin</a> reminded me about a project that a friend of
10600 mine mentioned earlier.  I decided to follow Simon's example, and get
10601 involved with <a href="http://www.bitcoin.org/">BitCoin</a>.  I got
10602 some help from my friend to get it all running, and he even handed me
10603 some bitcoins to get started.  I even donated a few bitcoins to Simon
10604 for helping me remember BitCoin.</p>
10605
10606 <p>So, what is bitcoins, you probably wonder?  It is a digital
10607 crypto-currency, decentralised and handled using peer-to-peer
10608 networks.  It allows anonymous transactions and prohibits central
10609 control over the transactions, making it impossible for governments
10610 and companies alike to block donations and other transactions.  The
10611 source is free software, and while the key dependency wxWidgets 2.9
10612 for the graphical user interface is missing in Debian, the command
10613 line client builds just fine.  Hopefully Jonas
10614 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/578157">will get the package into
10615 Debian</a> soon.</p>
10616
10617 <p>Bitcoins can be converted to other currencies, like USD and EUR.
10618 There are <a href="http://www.bitcoin.org/trade">companies accepting
10619 bitcoins</a> when selling services and goods, and there are even
10620 currency "stock" markets where the exchange rate is decided.  There
10621 are not many users so far, but the concept seems promising.  If you
10622 want to get started and lack a friend with any bitcoins to spare,
10623 you can even get
10624 <a href="https://freebitcoins.appspot.com/">some for free</a> (0.05
10625 bitcoin at the time of writing).  Use
10626 <a href="http://www.bitcoinwatch.com/">BitcoinWatch</a> to keep an eye
10627 on the current exchange rates.</p>
10628
10629 <p>As an experiment, I have decided to set up bitcoind on one of my
10630 machines.  If you want to support my activity, please send Bitcoin
10631 donations to the address
10632 <b>15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</b>.  Thank you!</p>
10633
10634       </div>
10635       <div class="tags">
10636
10637
10638         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bitcoin">bitcoin</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/personvern">personvern</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>.
10639
10640
10641       </div>
10642     </div>
10643     <div class="padding"></div>
10644
10645     <div class="entry">
10646       <div class="title">
10647         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Why_isn_t_Debian_Edu_using_VLC_.html">Why isn't Debian Edu using VLC?</a>
10648       </div>
10649       <div class="date">
10650         27th November 2010
10651       </div>
10652       <div class="body">
10653         <p>In the latest issue of Linux Journal, the readers choices were
10654 presented, and the winner among the multimedia player were VLC.
10655 Personally, I like VLC, and it is my player of choice when I first try
10656 to play a video file or stream.  Only if VLC fail will I drag out
10657 gmplayer to see if it can do better.  The reason is mostly the failure
10658 model and trust.  When VLC fail, it normally pop up a error message
10659 reporting the problem.  When mplayer fail, it normally segfault or
10660 just hangs.  The latter failure mode drain my trust in the program.<p>
10661
10662 <p>But even if VLC is my player of choice, we have choosen to use
10663 mplayer in <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian
10664 Edu/Skolelinux</a>.  The reason is simple.  We need a good browser
10665 plugin to play web videos seamlessly, and the VLC browser plugin is
10666 not very good.  For example, it lack in-line control buttons, so there
10667 is no way for the user to pause the video.  Also, when I
10668 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/BrowserMultimedia">last
10669 tested the browser plugins</a> available in Debian, the VLC plugin
10670 failed on several video pages where mplayer based plugins worked.  If
10671 the browser plugin for VLC was as good as the gecko-mediaplayer
10672 package (which uses mplayer), we would switch.</P>
10673
10674 <p>While VLC is a good player, its user interface is slightly
10675 annoying.  The most annoying feature is its inconsistent use of
10676 keyboard shortcuts.  When the player is in full screen mode, its
10677 shortcuts are different from when it is playing the video in a window.
10678 For example, space only work as pause when in full screen mode.  I
10679 wish it had consisten shortcuts and that space also would work when in
10680 window mode.  Another nice shortcut in gmplayer is [enter] to restart
10681 the current video.  It is very nice when playing short videos from the
10682 web and want to restart it when new people arrive to have a look at
10683 what is going on.</p>
10684
10685       </div>
10686       <div class="tags">
10687
10688
10689         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/multimedia">multimedia</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/video">video</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/web">web</a>.
10690
10691
10692       </div>
10693     </div>
10694     <div class="padding"></div>
10695
10696     <div class="entry">
10697       <div class="title">
10698         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lenny__Squeeze_upgrades_of_the_Gnome_and_KDE_desktop__now_with_apt_get_autoremove.html">Lenny->Squeeze upgrades of the Gnome and KDE desktop, now with apt-get autoremove</a>
10699       </div>
10700       <div class="date">
10701         22nd November 2010
10702       </div>
10703       <div class="body">
10704         <p>Michael Biebl suggested to me on IRC, that I changed my automated
10705 upgrade testing of the
10706 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/~pere/debian-upgrade-testing/">Lenny
10707 Gnome and KDE Desktop</a> to do <tt>apt-get autoremove</tt> when using apt-get.
10708 This seem like a very good idea, so I adjusted by test scripts and
10709 can now present the updated result from today:</p>
10710
10711 <p>This is for Gnome:</p>
10712
10713 <p>Installed using apt-get, missing with aptitude</p>
10714
10715 <blockquote><p>
10716   apache2.2-bin
10717   aptdaemon
10718   baobab
10719   binfmt-support
10720   browser-plugin-gnash
10721   cheese-common
10722   cli-common
10723   cups-pk-helper
10724   dmz-cursor-theme
10725   empathy
10726   empathy-common
10727   freedesktop-sound-theme
10728   freeglut3
10729   gconf-defaults-service
10730   gdm-themes
10731   gedit-plugins
10732   geoclue
10733   geoclue-hostip
10734   geoclue-localnet
10735   geoclue-manual
10736   geoclue-yahoo
10737   gnash
10738   gnash-common
10739   gnome
10740   gnome-backgrounds
10741   gnome-cards-data
10742   gnome-codec-install
10743   gnome-core
10744   gnome-desktop-environment
10745   gnome-disk-utility
10746   gnome-screenshot
10747   gnome-search-tool
10748   gnome-session-canberra
10749   gnome-system-log
10750   gnome-themes-extras
10751   gnome-themes-more
10752   gnome-user-share
10753   gstreamer0.10-fluendo-mp3
10754   gstreamer0.10-tools
10755   gtk2-engines
10756   gtk2-engines-pixbuf
10757   gtk2-engines-smooth
10758   hamster-applet
10759   libapache2-mod-dnssd
10760   libapr1
10761   libaprutil1
10762   libaprutil1-dbd-sqlite3
10763   libaprutil1-ldap
10764   libart2.0-cil
10765   libboost-date-time1.42.0
10766   libboost-python1.42.0
10767   libboost-thread1.42.0
10768   libchamplain-0.4-0
10769   libchamplain-gtk-0.4-0
10770   libcheese-gtk18
10771   libclutter-gtk-0.10-0
10772   libcryptui0
10773   libdiscid0
10774   libelf1
10775   libepc-1.0-2
10776   libepc-common
10777   libepc-ui-1.0-2
10778   libfreerdp-plugins-standard
10779   libfreerdp0
10780   libgconf2.0-cil
10781   libgdata-common
10782   libgdata7
10783   libgdu-gtk0
10784   libgee2
10785   libgeoclue0
10786   libgexiv2-0
10787   libgif4
10788   libglade2.0-cil
10789   libglib2.0-cil
10790   libgmime2.4-cil
10791   libgnome-vfs2.0-cil
10792   libgnome2.24-cil
10793   libgnomepanel2.24-cil
10794   libgpod-common
10795   libgpod4
10796   libgtk2.0-cil
10797   libgtkglext1
10798   libgtksourceview2.0-common
10799   libmono-addins-gui0.2-cil
10800   libmono-addins0.2-cil
10801   libmono-cairo2.0-cil
10802   libmono-corlib2.0-cil
10803   libmono-i18n-west2.0-cil
10804   libmono-posix2.0-cil
10805   libmono-security2.0-cil
10806   libmono-sharpzip2.84-cil
10807   libmono-system2.0-cil
10808   libmtp8
10809   libmusicbrainz3-6
10810   libndesk-dbus-glib1.0-cil
10811   libndesk-dbus1.0-cil
10812   libopal3.6.8
10813   libpolkit-gtk-1-0
10814   libpt2.6.7
10815   libpython2.6
10816   librpm1
10817   librpmio1
10818   libsdl1.2debian
10819   libsrtp0
10820   libssh-4
10821   libtelepathy-farsight0
10822   libtelepathy-glib0
10823   libtidy-0.99-0
10824   media-player-info
10825   mesa-utils
10826   mono-2.0-gac
10827   mono-gac
10828   mono-runtime
10829   nautilus-sendto
10830   nautilus-sendto-empathy
10831   p7zip-full
10832   pkg-config
10833   python-aptdaemon
10834   python-aptdaemon-gtk
10835   python-axiom
10836   python-beautifulsoup
10837   python-bugbuddy
10838   python-clientform
10839   python-coherence
10840   python-configobj
10841   python-crypto
10842   python-cupshelpers
10843   python-elementtree
10844   python-epsilon
10845   python-evolution
10846   python-feedparser
10847   python-gdata
10848   python-gdbm
10849   python-gst0.10
10850   python-gtkglext1
10851   python-gtksourceview2
10852   python-httplib2
10853   python-louie
10854   python-mako
10855   python-markupsafe
10856   python-mechanize
10857   python-nevow
10858   python-notify
10859   python-opengl
10860   python-openssl
10861   python-pam
10862   python-pkg-resources
10863   python-pyasn1
10864   python-pysqlite2
10865   python-rdflib
10866   python-serial
10867   python-tagpy
10868   python-twisted-bin
10869   python-twisted-conch
10870   python-twisted-core
10871   python-twisted-web
10872   python-utidylib
10873   python-webkit
10874   python-xdg
10875   python-zope.interface
10876   remmina
10877   remmina-plugin-data
10878   remmina-plugin-rdp
10879   remmina-plugin-vnc
10880   rhythmbox-plugin-cdrecorder
10881   rhythmbox-plugins
10882   rpm-common
10883   rpm2cpio
10884   seahorse-plugins
10885   shotwell
10886   software-center
10887   system-config-printer-udev
10888   telepathy-gabble
10889   telepathy-mission-control-5
10890   telepathy-salut
10891   tomboy
10892   totem
10893   totem-coherence
10894   totem-mozilla
10895   totem-plugins
10896   transmission-common
10897   xdg-user-dirs
10898   xdg-user-dirs-gtk
10899   xserver-xephyr
10900 </p></blockquote>
10901
10902 <p>Installed using apt-get, removed with aptitude</p>
10903
10904 <blockquote><p>
10905   cheese
10906   ekiga
10907   eog
10908   epiphany-extensions
10909   evolution-exchange
10910   fast-user-switch-applet
10911   file-roller
10912   gcalctool
10913   gconf-editor
10914   gdm
10915   gedit
10916   gedit-common
10917   gnome-games
10918   gnome-games-data
10919   gnome-nettool
10920   gnome-system-tools
10921   gnome-themes
10922   gnuchess
10923   gucharmap
10924   guile-1.8-libs
10925   libavahi-ui0
10926   libdmx1
10927   libgalago3
10928   libgtk-vnc-1.0-0
10929   libgtksourceview2.0-0
10930   liblircclient0
10931   libsdl1.2debian-alsa
10932   libspeexdsp1
10933   libsvga1
10934   rhythmbox
10935   seahorse
10936   sound-juicer
10937   system-config-printer
10938   totem-common
10939   transmission-gtk
10940   vinagre
10941   vino
10942 </p></blockquote>
10943
10944 <p>Installed using aptitude, missing with apt-get</p>
10945
10946 <blockquote><p>
10947   gstreamer0.10-gnomevfs
10948 </p></blockquote>
10949
10950 <p>Installed using aptitude, removed with apt-get</p>
10951
10952 <blockquote><p>
10953 [nothing]
10954 </p></blockquote>
10955
10956 <p>This is for KDE:</p>
10957
10958 <p>Installed using apt-get, missing with aptitude</p>
10959
10960 <blockquote><p>
10961   ksmserver
10962 </p></blockquote>
10963
10964 <p>Installed using apt-get, removed with aptitude</p>
10965
10966 <blockquote><p>
10967   kwin
10968   network-manager-kde
10969 </p></blockquote>
10970
10971 <p>Installed using aptitude, missing with apt-get</p>
10972
10973 <blockquote><p>
10974   arts
10975   dolphin
10976   freespacenotifier
10977   google-gadgets-gst
10978   google-gadgets-xul
10979   kappfinder
10980   kcalc
10981   kcharselect
10982   kde-core
10983   kde-plasma-desktop
10984   kde-standard
10985   kde-window-manager
10986   kdeartwork
10987   kdeartwork-emoticons
10988   kdeartwork-style
10989   kdeartwork-theme-icon
10990   kdebase
10991   kdebase-apps
10992   kdebase-workspace
10993   kdebase-workspace-bin
10994   kdebase-workspace-data
10995   kdeeject
10996   kdelibs
10997   kdeplasma-addons
10998   kdeutils
10999   kdewallpapers
11000   kdf
11001   kfloppy
11002   kgpg
11003   khelpcenter4
11004   kinfocenter
11005   konq-plugins-l10n
11006   konqueror-nsplugins
11007   kscreensaver
11008   kscreensaver-xsavers
11009   ktimer
11010   kwrite
11011   libgle3
11012   libkde4-ruby1.8
11013   libkonq5
11014   libkonq5-templates
11015   libnetpbm10
11016   libplasma-ruby
11017   libplasma-ruby1.8
11018   libqt4-ruby1.8
11019   marble-data
11020   marble-plugins
11021   netpbm
11022   nuvola-icon-theme
11023   plasma-dataengines-workspace
11024   plasma-desktop
11025   plasma-desktopthemes-artwork
11026   plasma-runners-addons
11027   plasma-scriptengine-googlegadgets
11028   plasma-scriptengine-python
11029   plasma-scriptengine-qedje
11030   plasma-scriptengine-ruby
11031   plasma-scriptengine-webkit
11032   plasma-scriptengines
11033   plasma-wallpapers-addons
11034   plasma-widget-folderview
11035   plasma-widget-networkmanagement
11036   ruby
11037   sweeper
11038   update-notifier-kde
11039   xscreensaver-data-extra
11040   xscreensaver-gl
11041   xscreensaver-gl-extra
11042   xscreensaver-screensaver-bsod
11043 </p></blockquote>
11044
11045 <p>Installed using aptitude, removed with apt-get</p>
11046
11047 <blockquote><p>
11048   ark
11049   google-gadgets-common
11050   google-gadgets-qt
11051   htdig
11052   kate
11053   kdebase-bin
11054   kdebase-data
11055   kdepasswd
11056   kfind
11057   klipper
11058   konq-plugins
11059   konqueror
11060   ksysguard
11061   ksysguardd
11062   libarchive1
11063   libcln6
11064   libeet1
11065   libeina-svn-06
11066   libggadget-1.0-0b
11067   libggadget-qt-1.0-0b
11068   libgps19
11069   libkdecorations4
11070   libkephal4
11071   libkonq4
11072   libkonqsidebarplugin4a
11073   libkscreensaver5
11074   libksgrd4
11075   libksignalplotter4
11076   libkunitconversion4
11077   libkwineffects1a
11078   libmarblewidget4
11079   libntrack-qt4-1
11080   libntrack0
11081   libplasma-geolocation-interface4
11082   libplasmaclock4a
11083   libplasmagenericshell4
11084   libprocesscore4a
11085   libprocessui4a
11086   libqalculate5
11087   libqedje0a
11088   libqtruby4shared2
11089   libqzion0a
11090   libruby1.8
11091   libscim8c2a
11092   libsmokekdecore4-3
11093   libsmokekdeui4-3
11094   libsmokekfile3
11095   libsmokekhtml3
11096   libsmokekio3
11097   libsmokeknewstuff2-3
11098   libsmokeknewstuff3-3
11099   libsmokekparts3
11100   libsmokektexteditor3
11101   libsmokekutils3
11102   libsmokenepomuk3
11103   libsmokephonon3
11104   libsmokeplasma3
11105   libsmokeqtcore4-3
11106   libsmokeqtdbus4-3
11107   libsmokeqtgui4-3
11108   libsmokeqtnetwork4-3
11109   libsmokeqtopengl4-3
11110   libsmokeqtscript4-3
11111   libsmokeqtsql4-3
11112   libsmokeqtsvg4-3
11113   libsmokeqttest4-3
11114   libsmokeqtuitools4-3
11115   libsmokeqtwebkit4-3
11116   libsmokeqtxml4-3
11117   libsmokesolid3
11118   libsmokesoprano3
11119   libtaskmanager4a
11120   libtidy-0.99-0
11121   libweather-ion4a
11122   libxklavier16
11123   libxxf86misc1
11124   okteta
11125   oxygencursors
11126   plasma-dataengines-addons
11127   plasma-scriptengine-superkaramba
11128   plasma-widget-lancelot
11129   plasma-widgets-addons
11130   plasma-widgets-workspace
11131   polkit-kde-1
11132   ruby1.8
11133   systemsettings
11134   update-notifier-common
11135 </p></blockquote>
11136
11137 <p>Running apt-get autoremove made the results using apt-get and
11138 aptitude a bit more similar, but there are still quite a lott of
11139 differences.  I have no idea what packages should be installed after
11140 the upgrade, but hope those that do can have a look.</p>
11141
11142       </div>
11143       <div class="tags">
11144
11145
11146         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
11147
11148
11149       </div>
11150     </div>
11151     <div class="padding"></div>
11152
11153     <div class="entry">
11154       <div class="title">
11155         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Migrating_Xen_virtual_machines_using_LVM_to_KVM_using_disk_images.html">Migrating Xen virtual machines using LVM to KVM using disk images</a>
11156       </div>
11157       <div class="date">
11158         22nd November 2010
11159       </div>
11160       <div class="body">
11161         <p>Most of the computers in use by the
11162 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu/Skolelinux project</a>
11163 are virtual machines.  And they have been Xen machines running on a
11164 fairly old IBM eserver xseries 345 machine, and we wanted to migrate
11165 them to KVM on a newer Dell PowerEdge 2950 host machine.  This was a
11166 bit harder that it could have been, because we set up the Xen virtual
11167 machines to get the virtual partitions from LVM, which as far as I
11168 know is not supported by KVM.  So to migrate, we had to convert
11169 several LVM logical volumes to partitions on a virtual disk file.</p>
11170
11171 <p>I found
11172 <a href="http://searchnetworking.techtarget.com.au/articles/35011-Six-steps-for-migrating-Xen-virtual-machines-to-KVM">a
11173 nice recipe</a> to do this, and wrote the following script to do the
11174 migration.  It uses qemu-img from the qemu package to make the disk
11175 image, parted to partition it, losetup and kpartx to present the disk
11176 image partions as devices, and dd to copy the data.  I NFS mounted the
11177 new servers storage area on the old server to do the migration.</p>
11178
11179 <pre>
11180 #!/bin/sh
11181
11182 # Based on
11183 # http://searchnetworking.techtarget.com.au/articles/35011-Six-steps-for-migrating-Xen-virtual-machines-to-KVM
11184
11185 set -e
11186 set -x
11187
11188 if [ -z "$1" ] ; then
11189     echo "Usage: $0 &lt;hostname&gt;"
11190     exit 1
11191 else
11192     host="$1"
11193 fi
11194
11195 if [ ! -e /dev/vg_data/$host-disk ] ; then
11196     echo "error: unable to find LVM volume for $host"
11197     exit 1
11198 fi
11199
11200 # Partitions need to be a bit bigger than the LVM LVs.  not sure why.
11201 disksize=$( lvs --units m | grep $host-disk | awk '{sum = sum + $4} END { print int(sum * 1.05) }')
11202 swapsize=$( lvs --units m | grep $host-swap | awk '{sum = sum + $4} END { print int(sum * 1.05) }')
11203 totalsize=$(( ( $disksize + $swapsize ) ))
11204
11205 img=$host.img
11206 #dd if=/dev/zero of=$img bs=1M count=$(( $disksize + $swapsize ))
11207 qemu-img create $img ${totalsize}MMaking room on the Debian Edu/Sqeeze DVD
11208
11209 parted $img mklabel msdos
11210 parted $img mkpart primary linux-swap 0 $disksize
11211 parted $img mkpart primary ext2 $disksize $totalsize
11212 parted $img set 1 boot on
11213
11214 modprobe dm-mod
11215 losetup /dev/loop0 $img
11216 kpartx -a /dev/loop0
11217
11218 dd if=/dev/vg_data/$host-disk of=/dev/mapper/loop0p1 bs=1M
11219 fsck.ext3 -f /dev/mapper/loop0p1 || true
11220 mkswap /dev/mapper/loop0p2
11221
11222 kpartx -d /dev/loop0
11223 losetup -d /dev/loop0
11224 </pre>
11225
11226 <p>The script is perhaps so simple that it is not copyrightable, but
11227 if it is, it is licenced using GPL v2 or later at your discretion.</p>
11228
11229 <p>After doing this, I booted a Debian CD in rescue mode in KVM with
11230 the new disk image attached, installed grub-pc and linux-image-686 and
11231 set up grub to boot from the disk image.  After this, the KVM machines
11232 seem to work just fine.</p>
11233
11234       </div>
11235       <div class="tags">
11236
11237
11238         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
11239
11240
11241       </div>
11242     </div>
11243     <div class="padding"></div>
11244
11245     <div class="entry">
11246       <div class="title">
11247         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lenny__Squeeze_upgrades__apt_vs_aptitude_with_the_Gnome_and_KDE_desktop.html">Lenny->Squeeze upgrades, apt vs aptitude with the Gnome and KDE desktop</a>
11248       </div>
11249       <div class="date">
11250         20th November 2010
11251       </div>
11252       <div class="body">
11253         <p>I'm still running upgrade testing of the
11254 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/~pere/debian-upgrade-testing/">Lenny
11255 Gnome and KDE Desktop</a>, but have not had time to spend on reporting the
11256 status.  Here is a short update based on a test I ran 20101118.</p>
11257
11258 <p>I still do not know what a correct migration should look like, so I
11259 report any differences between apt and aptitude and hope someone else
11260 can see if anything should be changed.</p>
11261
11262 <p>This is for Gnome:</p>
11263
11264 <p>Installed using apt-get, missing with aptitude</p>
11265
11266 <blockquote><p>
11267   apache2.2-bin aptdaemon at-spi baobab binfmt-support
11268   browser-plugin-gnash cheese-common cli-common cpp-4.3 cups-pk-helper
11269   dmz-cursor-theme empathy empathy-common finger
11270   freedesktop-sound-theme freeglut3 gconf-defaults-service gdm-themes
11271   gedit-plugins geoclue geoclue-hostip geoclue-localnet geoclue-manual
11272   geoclue-yahoo gnash gnash-common gnome gnome-backgrounds
11273   gnome-cards-data gnome-codec-install gnome-core
11274   gnome-desktop-environment gnome-disk-utility gnome-screenshot
11275   gnome-search-tool gnome-session-canberra gnome-spell
11276   gnome-system-log gnome-themes-extras gnome-themes-more
11277   gnome-user-share gs-common gstreamer0.10-fluendo-mp3
11278   gstreamer0.10-tools gtk2-engines gtk2-engines-pixbuf
11279   gtk2-engines-smooth hal-info hamster-applet libapache2-mod-dnssd
11280   libapr1 libaprutil1 libaprutil1-dbd-sqlite3 libaprutil1-ldap
11281   libart2.0-cil libatspi1.0-0 libboost-date-time1.42.0
11282   libboost-python1.42.0 libboost-thread1.42.0 libchamplain-0.4-0
11283   libchamplain-gtk-0.4-0 libcheese-gtk18 libclutter-gtk-0.10-0
11284   libcryptui0 libcupsys2 libdiscid0 libeel2-data libelf1 libepc-1.0-2
11285   libepc-common libepc-ui-1.0-2 libfreerdp-plugins-standard
11286   libfreerdp0 libgail-common libgconf2.0-cil libgdata-common libgdata7
11287   libgdl-1-common libgdu-gtk0 libgee2 libgeoclue0 libgexiv2-0 libgif4
11288   libglade2.0-cil libglib2.0-cil libgmime2.4-cil libgnome-vfs2.0-cil
11289   libgnome2.24-cil libgnomepanel2.24-cil libgnomeprint2.2-data
11290   libgnomeprintui2.2-common libgnomevfs2-bin libgpod-common libgpod4
11291   libgtk2.0-cil libgtkglext1 libgtksourceview-common
11292   libgtksourceview2.0-common libmono-addins-gui0.2-cil
11293   libmono-addins0.2-cil libmono-cairo2.0-cil libmono-corlib2.0-cil
11294   libmono-i18n-west2.0-cil libmono-posix2.0-cil
11295   libmono-security2.0-cil libmono-sharpzip2.84-cil
11296   libmono-system2.0-cil libmtp8 libmusicbrainz3-6
11297   libndesk-dbus-glib1.0-cil libndesk-dbus1.0-cil libopal3.6.8
11298   libpolkit-gtk-1-0 libpt-1.10.10-plugins-alsa
11299   libpt-1.10.10-plugins-v4l libpt2.6.7 libpython2.6 librpm1 librpmio1
11300   libsdl1.2debian libservlet2.4-java libsrtp0 libssh-4
11301   libtelepathy-farsight0 libtelepathy-glib0 libtidy-0.99-0
11302   libxalan2-java libxerces2-java media-player-info mesa-utils
11303   mono-2.0-gac mono-gac mono-runtime nautilus-sendto
11304   nautilus-sendto-empathy openoffice.org-writer2latex
11305   openssl-blacklist p7zip p7zip-full pkg-config python-4suite-xml
11306   python-aptdaemon python-aptdaemon-gtk python-axiom
11307   python-beautifulsoup python-bugbuddy python-clientform
11308   python-coherence python-configobj python-crypto python-cupshelpers
11309   python-cupsutils python-eggtrayicon python-elementtree
11310   python-epsilon python-evolution python-feedparser python-gdata
11311   python-gdbm python-gst0.10 python-gtkglext1 python-gtkmozembed
11312   python-gtksourceview2 python-httplib2 python-louie python-mako
11313   python-markupsafe python-mechanize python-nevow python-notify
11314   python-opengl python-openssl python-pam python-pkg-resources
11315   python-pyasn1 python-pysqlite2 python-rdflib python-serial
11316   python-tagpy python-twisted-bin python-twisted-conch
11317   python-twisted-core python-twisted-web python-utidylib python-webkit
11318   python-xdg python-zope.interface remmina remmina-plugin-data
11319   remmina-plugin-rdp remmina-plugin-vnc rhythmbox-plugin-cdrecorder
11320   rhythmbox-plugins rpm-common rpm2cpio seahorse-plugins shotwell
11321   software-center svgalibg1 system-config-printer-udev
11322   telepathy-gabble telepathy-mission-control-5 telepathy-salut tomboy
11323   totem totem-coherence totem-mozilla totem-plugins
11324   transmission-common xdg-user-dirs xdg-user-dirs-gtk xserver-xephyr
11325   zip
11326 </p></blockquote>
11327
11328 Installed using apt-get, removed with aptitude
11329
11330 <blockquote><p>
11331   arj bluez-utils cheese dhcdbd djvulibre-desktop ekiga eog
11332   epiphany-extensions epiphany-gecko evolution-exchange
11333   fast-user-switch-applet file-roller gcalctool gconf-editor gdm gedit
11334   gedit-common gnome-app-install gnome-games gnome-games-data
11335   gnome-nettool gnome-system-tools gnome-themes gnome-utils
11336   gnome-vfs-obexftp gnome-volume-manager gnuchess gucharmap
11337   guile-1.8-libs hal libavahi-compat-libdnssd1 libavahi-core5
11338   libavahi-ui0 libbind9-50 libbluetooth2 libcamel1.2-11 libcdio7
11339   libcucul0 libcurl3 libdirectfb-1.0-0 libdmx1 libdvdread3
11340   libedata-cal1.2-6 libedataserver1.2-9 libeel2-2.20 libepc-1.0-1
11341   libepc-ui-1.0-1 libexchange-storage1.2-3 libfaad0 libgadu3
11342   libgalago3 libgd2-noxpm libgda3-3 libgda3-common libggz2 libggzcore9
11343   libggzmod4 libgksu1.2-0 libgksuui1.0-1 libgmyth0 libgnome-desktop-2
11344   libgnome-pilot2 libgnomecups1.0-1 libgnomeprint2.2-0
11345   libgnomeprintui2.2-0 libgpod3 libgraphviz4 libgtk-vnc-1.0-0
11346   libgtkhtml2-0 libgtksourceview1.0-0 libgtksourceview2.0-0
11347   libgucharmap6 libhesiod0 libicu38 libisccc50 libisccfg50 libiw29
11348   libjaxp1.3-java-gcj libkpathsea4 liblircclient0 libltdl3 liblwres50
11349   libmagick++10 libmagick10 libmalaga7 libmozjs1d libmpfr1ldbl libmtp7
11350   libmysqlclient15off libnautilus-burn4 libneon27 libnm-glib0
11351   libnm-util0 libopal-2.2 libosp5 libparted1.8-10 libpisock9
11352   libpisync1 libpoppler-glib3 libpoppler3 libpt-1.10.10 libraw1394-8
11353   libsdl1.2debian-alsa libsensors3 libsexy2 libsmbios2 libsoup2.2-8
11354   libspeexdsp1 libssh2-1 libsuitesparse-3.1.0 libsvga1
11355   libswfdec-0.6-90 libtalloc1 libtotem-plparser10 libtrackerclient0
11356   libvoikko1 libxalan2-java-gcj libxerces2-java-gcj libxklavier12
11357   libxtrap6 libxxf86misc1 libzephyr3 mysql-common rhythmbox seahorse
11358   sound-juicer swfdec-gnome system-config-printer totem-common
11359   totem-gstreamer transmission-gtk vinagre vino w3c-dtd-xhtml wodim
11360 </p></blockquote>
11361
11362 <p>Installed using aptitude, missing with apt-get</p>
11363
11364 <blockquote><p>
11365   gstreamer0.10-gnomevfs
11366 </p></blockquote>
11367
11368 <p>Installed using aptitude, removed with apt-get</p>
11369
11370 <blockquote><p>
11371 [nothing]
11372 </p></blockquote>
11373
11374 <p>This is for KDE:</p>
11375
11376 <p>Installed using apt-get, missing with aptitude</p>
11377
11378 <blockquote><p>
11379   autopoint bomber bovo cantor cantor-backend-kalgebra cpp-4.3 dcoprss
11380   edict espeak espeak-data eyesapplet fifteenapplet finger gettext
11381   ghostscript-x git gnome-audio gnugo granatier gs-common
11382   gstreamer0.10-pulseaudio indi kaddressbook-plugins kalgebra
11383   kalzium-data kanjidic kapman kate-plugins kblocks kbreakout kbstate
11384   kde-icons-mono kdeaccessibility kdeaddons-kfile-plugins
11385   kdeadmin-kfile-plugins kdeartwork-misc kdeartwork-theme-window
11386   kdeedu kdeedu-data kdeedu-kvtml-data kdegames kdegames-card-data
11387   kdegames-mahjongg-data kdegraphics-kfile-plugins kdelirc
11388   kdemultimedia-kfile-plugins kdenetwork-kfile-plugins
11389   kdepim-kfile-plugins kdepim-kio-plugins kdessh kdetoys kdewebdev
11390   kdiamond kdnssd kfilereplace kfourinline kgeography-data kigo
11391   killbots kiriki klettres-data kmoon kmrml knewsticker-scripts
11392   kollision kpf krosspython ksirk ksmserver ksquares kstars-data
11393   ksudoku kubrick kweather libasound2-plugins libboost-python1.42.0
11394   libcfitsio3 libconvert-binhex-perl libcrypt-ssleay-perl libdb4.6++
11395   libdjvulibre-text libdotconf1.0 liberror-perl libespeak1
11396   libfinance-quote-perl libgail-common libgsl0ldbl libhtml-parser-perl
11397   libhtml-tableextract-perl libhtml-tagset-perl libhtml-tree-perl
11398   libio-stringy-perl libkdeedu4 libkdegames5 libkiten4 libkpathsea5
11399   libkrossui4 libmailtools-perl libmime-tools-perl
11400   libnews-nntpclient-perl libopenbabel3 libportaudio2 libpulse-browse0
11401   libservlet2.4-java libspeechd2 libtiff-tools libtimedate-perl
11402   libunistring0 liburi-perl libwww-perl libxalan2-java libxerces2-java
11403   lirc luatex marble networkstatus noatun-plugins
11404   openoffice.org-writer2latex palapeli palapeli-data parley
11405   parley-data poster psutils pulseaudio pulseaudio-esound-compat
11406   pulseaudio-module-x11 pulseaudio-utils quanta-data rocs rsync
11407   speech-dispatcher step svgalibg1 texlive-binaries texlive-luatex
11408   ttf-sazanami-gothic
11409 </p></blockquote>
11410
11411 <p>Installed using apt-get, removed with aptitude</p>
11412
11413 <blockquote><p>
11414   amor artsbuilder atlantik atlantikdesigner blinken bluez-utils cvs
11415   dhcdbd djvulibre-desktop imlib-base imlib11 kalzium kanagram kandy
11416   kasteroids katomic kbackgammon kbattleship kblackbox kbounce kbruch
11417   kcron kdat kdemultimedia-kappfinder-data kdeprint kdict kdvi kedit
11418   keduca kenolaba kfax kfaxview kfouleggs kgeography kghostview
11419   kgoldrunner khangman khexedit kiconedit kig kimagemapeditor
11420   kitchensync kiten kjumpingcube klatin klettres klickety klines
11421   klinkstatus kmag kmahjongg kmailcvt kmenuedit kmid kmilo kmines
11422   kmousetool kmouth kmplot knetwalk kodo kolf kommander konquest kooka
11423   kpager kpat kpdf kpercentage kpilot kpoker kpovmodeler krec
11424   kregexpeditor kreversi ksame ksayit kshisen ksig ksim ksirc ksirtet
11425   ksmiletris ksnake ksokoban kspaceduel kstars ksvg ksysv kteatime
11426   ktip ktnef ktouch ktron kttsd ktuberling kturtle ktux kuickshow
11427   kverbos kview kviewshell kvoctrain kwifimanager kwin kwin4 kwordquiz
11428   kworldclock kxsldbg libakode2 libarts1-akode libarts1-audiofile
11429   libarts1-mpeglib libarts1-xine libavahi-compat-libdnssd1
11430   libavahi-core5 libavc1394-0 libbind9-50 libbluetooth2
11431   libboost-python1.34.1 libcucul0 libcurl3 libcvsservice0
11432   libdirectfb-1.0-0 libdjvulibre21 libdvdread3 libfaad0 libfreebob0
11433   libgd2-noxpm libgraphviz4 libgsmme1c2a libgtkhtml2-0 libicu38
11434   libiec61883-0 libindex0 libisccc50 libisccfg50 libiw29
11435   libjaxp1.3-java-gcj libk3b3 libkcal2b libkcddb1 libkdeedu3
11436   libkdegames1 libkdepim1a libkgantt0 libkleopatra1 libkmime2
11437   libkpathsea4 libkpimexchange1 libkpimidentities1 libkscan1
11438   libksieve0 libktnef1 liblockdev1 libltdl3 liblwres50 libmagick10
11439   libmimelib1c2a libmodplug0c2 libmozjs1d libmpcdec3 libmpfr1ldbl
11440   libneon27 libnm-util0 libopensync0 libpisock9 libpoppler-glib3
11441   libpoppler-qt2 libpoppler3 libraw1394-8 librss1 libsensors3
11442   libsmbios2 libssh2-1 libsuitesparse-3.1.0 libswfdec-0.6-90
11443   libtalloc1 libxalan2-java-gcj libxerces2-java-gcj libxtrap6 lskat
11444   mpeglib network-manager-kde noatun pmount tex-common texlive-base
11445   texlive-common texlive-doc-base texlive-fonts-recommended tidy
11446   ttf-dustin ttf-kochi-gothic ttf-sjfonts
11447 </p></blockquote>
11448
11449 <p>Installed using aptitude, missing with apt-get</p>
11450
11451 <blockquote><p>
11452   dolphin kde-core kde-plasma-desktop kde-standard kde-window-manager
11453   kdeartwork kdebase kdebase-apps kdebase-workspace
11454   kdebase-workspace-bin kdebase-workspace-data kdeutils kscreensaver
11455   kscreensaver-xsavers libgle3 libkonq5 libkonq5-templates libnetpbm10
11456   netpbm plasma-widget-folderview plasma-widget-networkmanagement
11457   xscreensaver-data-extra xscreensaver-gl xscreensaver-gl-extra
11458   xscreensaver-screensaver-bsod
11459 </p></blockquote>
11460
11461 <p>Installed using aptitude, removed with apt-get</p>
11462
11463 <blockquote><p>
11464   kdebase-bin konq-plugins konqueror
11465 </p></blockquote>
11466
11467       </div>
11468       <div class="tags">
11469
11470
11471         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
11472
11473
11474       </div>
11475     </div>
11476     <div class="padding"></div>
11477
11478     <div class="entry">
11479       <div class="title">
11480         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Gnash_buildbot_slave_and_Debian_kfreebsd.html">Gnash buildbot slave and Debian kfreebsd</a>
11481       </div>
11482       <div class="date">
11483         20th November 2010
11484       </div>
11485       <div class="body">
11486         <p>Answering
11487 <a href="http://www.listware.net/201011/gnash-dev/67431-gnash-dev-buildbot-looking-for-slaves.html">the
11488 call from the Gnash project</a> for
11489 <a href="http://www.gnashdev.org:8010">buildbot</a> slaves to test the
11490 current source, I have set up a virtual KVM machine on the Debian
11491 Edu/Skolelinux virtualization host to test the git source on
11492 Debian/Squeeze.  I hope this can help the developers in getting new
11493 releases out more often.</p>
11494
11495 <p>As the developers want less main-stream build platforms tested to,
11496 I have considered setting up a <a
11497 href="http://www.debian.org/ports/kfreebsd-gnu/">Debian/kfreebsd</a>
11498 machine as well.  I have also considered using the kfreebsd
11499 architecture in Debian as a file server in NUUG to get access to the 5
11500 TB zfs volume we currently use to store DV video.  Because of this, I
11501 finally got around to do a test installation of Debian/Squeeze with
11502 kfreebsd.  Installation went fairly smooth, thought I noticed some
11503 visual glitches in the cdebconf dialogs (black cursor left on the
11504 screen at random locations).  Have not gotten very far with the
11505 testing.  Noticed cfdisk did not work, but fdisk did so it was not a
11506 fatal problem.  Have to spend some more time on it to see if it is
11507 useful as a file server for NUUG.  Will try to find time to set up a
11508 gnash buildbot slave on the Debian Edu/Skolelinux this weekend.</p>
11509
11510       </div>
11511       <div class="tags">
11512
11513
11514         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
11515
11516
11517       </div>
11518     </div>
11519     <div class="padding"></div>
11520
11521     <div class="entry">
11522       <div class="title">
11523         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_in_3D.html">Debian in 3D</a>
11524       </div>
11525       <div class="date">
11526          9th November 2010
11527       </div>
11528       <div class="body">
11529         <p><img src="http://thingiverse-production.s3.amazonaws.com/renders/23/e0/c4/f9/2b/debswagtdose_preview_medium.jpg"></p>
11530
11531 <p>3D printing is just great.  I just came across this Debian logo in
11532 3D linked in from
11533 <a href="http://blog.thingiverse.com/2010/11/09/participatory-branding/">the
11534 thingiverse blog</a>.</p>
11535
11536       </div>
11537       <div class="tags">
11538
11539
11540         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/3d-printer">3d-printer</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
11541
11542
11543       </div>
11544     </div>
11545     <div class="padding"></div>
11546
11547     <div class="entry">
11548       <div class="title">
11549         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Software_updates_2010_10_24.html">Software updates 2010-10-24</a>
11550       </div>
11551       <div class="date">
11552         24th October 2010
11553       </div>
11554       <div class="body">
11555         <p>Some updates.</p>
11556
11557 <p>My <a href="http://pledgebank.com/gnash-avm2">gnash pledge</a> to
11558 raise money for the project is going well.  The lower limit of 10
11559 signers was reached in 24 hours, and so far 13 people have signed it.
11560 More signers and more funding is most welcome, and I am really curious
11561 how far we can get before the time limit of December 24 is reached.
11562 :)</p>
11563
11564 <p>On the #gnash IRC channel on irc.freenode.net, I was just tipped
11565 about what appear to be a great code coverage tool capable of
11566 generating code coverage stats without any changes to the source code.
11567 It is called
11568 <a href="http://simonkagstrom.github.com/kcov/index.html">kcov</a>,
11569 and can be used using <tt>kcov &lt;directory&gt; &lt;binary&gt;</tt>.
11570 It is missing in Debian, but the git source built just fine in Squeeze
11571 after I installed libelf-dev, libdwarf-dev, pkg-config and
11572 libglib2.0-dev.  Failed to build in Lenny, but suspect that is
11573 solvable.  I hope kcov make it into Debian soon.</p>
11574
11575 <p>Finally found time to wrap up the release notes for <a
11576 href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-edu-announce/2010/10/msg00002.html">a
11577 new alpha release of Debian Edu</a>, and just published the second
11578 alpha test release of the Squeeze based Debian Edu /
11579 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Skolelinux</a>
11580 release.  Give it a try if you need a complete linux solution for your
11581 school, including central infrastructure server, workstations, thin
11582 client servers and diskless workstations.  A nice touch added
11583 yesterday is RDP support on the thin client servers, for windows
11584 clients to get a Linux desktop on request.</p>
11585
11586       </div>
11587       <div class="tags">
11588
11589
11590         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/multimedia">multimedia</a>.
11591
11592
11593       </div>
11594     </div>
11595     <div class="padding"></div>
11596
11597     <div class="entry">
11598       <div class="title">
11599         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Some_notes_on_Flash_in_Debian_and_Debian_Edu.html">Some notes on Flash in Debian and Debian Edu</a>
11600       </div>
11601       <div class="date">
11602          4th September 2010
11603       </div>
11604       <div class="body">
11605         <p>In the <a href="http://popcon.debian.org/unknown/by_vote">Debian
11606 popularity-contest numbers</a>, the adobe-flashplugin package the
11607 second most popular used package that is missing in Debian.  The sixth
11608 most popular is flashplayer-mozilla.  This is a clear indication that
11609 working flash is important for Debian users.  Around 10 percent of the
11610 users submitting data to popcon.debian.org have this package
11611 installed.</p>
11612
11613 <p>In the report written by Lars Risan in August 2008
11614 («<a href="http://wiki.skolelinux.no/Dokumentasjon/Rapporter?action=AttachFile&do=view&target=Skolelinux_i_bruk_rapport_1.0.pdf">Skolelinux
11615 i bruk – Rapport for Hurum kommune, Universitetet i Agder og
11616 stiftelsen SLX Debian Labs</a>»), one of the most important problems
11617 schools experienced with <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian
11618 Edu/Skolelinux</a> was the lack of working Flash.  A lot of educational
11619 web sites require Flash to work, and lacking working Flash support in
11620 the web browser and the problems with installing it was perceived as a
11621 good reason to stay with Windows.</p>
11622
11623 <p>I once saw a funny and sad comment in a web forum, where Linux was
11624 said to be the retarded cousin that did not really understand
11625 everything you told him but could work fairly well.  This was a
11626 comment regarding the problems Linux have with proprietary formats and
11627 non-standard web pages, and is sad because it exposes a fairly common
11628 understanding of whose fault it is if web pages that only work in for
11629 example Internet Explorer 6 fail to work on Firefox, and funny because
11630 it explain very well how annoying it is for users when Linux
11631 distributions do not work with the documents they receive or the web
11632 pages they want to visit.</p>
11633
11634 <p>This is part of the reason why I believe it is important for Debian
11635 and Debian Edu to have a well working Flash implementation in the
11636 distribution, to get at least popular sites as Youtube and Google
11637 Video to working out of the box.  For Squeeze, Debian have the chance
11638 to include the latest version of Gnash that will make this happen, as
11639 the new release 0.8.8 was published a few weeks ago and is resting in
11640 unstable.  The new version work with more sites that version 0.8.7.
11641 The Gnash maintainers have asked for a freeze exception, but the
11642 release team have not had time to reply to it yet.  I hope they agree
11643 with me that Flash is important for the Debian desktop users, and thus
11644 accept the new package into Squeeze.</p>
11645
11646       </div>
11647       <div class="tags">
11648
11649
11650         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/multimedia">multimedia</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/video">video</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/web">web</a>.
11651
11652
11653       </div>
11654     </div>
11655     <div class="padding"></div>
11656
11657     <div class="entry">
11658       <div class="title">
11659         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Circular_package_dependencies_harms_apt_recovery.html">Circular package dependencies harms apt recovery</a>
11660       </div>
11661       <div class="date">
11662         27th July 2010
11663       </div>
11664       <div class="body">
11665         <p>I discovered this while doing
11666 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Automatic_upgrade_testing_from_Lenny_to_Squeeze.html">automated
11667 testing of upgrades from Debian Lenny to Squeeze</a>.  A few packages
11668 in Debian still got circular dependencies, and it is often claimed
11669 that apt and aptitude should be able to handle this just fine, but
11670 some times these dependency loops causes apt to fail.</p>
11671
11672 <p>An example is from todays
11673 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/~pere/debian-upgrade-testing//test-20100727-lenny-squeeze-kde-aptitude.txt">upgrade
11674 of KDE using aptitude</a>.  In it, a bug in kdebase-workspace-data
11675 causes perl-modules to fail to upgrade.  The cause is simple.  If a
11676 package fail to unpack, then only part of packages with the circular
11677 dependency might end up being unpacked when unpacking aborts, and the
11678 ones already unpacked will fail to configure in the recovery phase
11679 because its dependencies are unavailable.</p>
11680
11681 <p>In this log, the problem manifest itself with this error:</p>
11682
11683 <blockquote><pre>
11684 dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of perl-modules:
11685  perl-modules depends on perl (>= 5.10.1-1); however:
11686   Version of perl on system is 5.10.0-19lenny2.
11687 dpkg: error processing perl-modules (--configure):
11688  dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
11689 </pre></blockquote>
11690
11691 <p>The perl/perl-modules circular dependency is already
11692 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/527917">reported as a bug</a>, and will
11693 hopefully be solved as soon as possible, but it is not the only one,
11694 and each one of these loops in the dependency tree can cause similar
11695 failures.  Of course, they only occur when there are bugs in other
11696 packages causing the unpacking to fail, but it is rather nasty when
11697 the failure of one package causes the problem to become worse because
11698 of dependency loops.</p>
11699
11700 <p>Thanks to
11701 <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2010/06/msg00116.html">the
11702 tireless effort by Bill Allombert</a>, the number of circular
11703 dependencies
11704 <a href="http://debian.semistable.com/debgraph.out.html">left in Debian
11705 is dropping</a>, and perhaps it will reach zero one day. :)</p>
11706
11707 <p>Todays testing also exposed a bug in
11708 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/590605">update-notifier</a> and
11709 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/590604">different behaviour</a> between
11710 apt-get and aptitude, the latter possibly caused by some circular
11711 dependency.  Reported both to BTS to try to get someone to look at
11712 it.</p>
11713
11714       </div>
11715       <div class="tags">
11716
11717
11718         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
11719
11720
11721       </div>
11722     </div>
11723     <div class="padding"></div>
11724
11725     <div class="entry">
11726       <div class="title">
11727         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/What_are_they_searching_for___PowerDNS_and_ISC_DHCP_in_LDAP.html">What are they searching for - PowerDNS and ISC DHCP in LDAP</a>
11728       </div>
11729       <div class="date">
11730         17th July 2010
11731       </div>
11732       <div class="body">
11733         <p>This is a
11734 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Time_for_new__LDAP_schemas_replacing_RFC_2307_.html">followup</a>
11735 on my
11736 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Idea_for_a_change_to_LDAP_schemas_allowing_DNS_and_DHCP_info_to_be_combined_into_one_object.html">previous
11737 work</a> on
11738 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Combining_PowerDNS_and_ISC_DHCP_LDAP_objects.html">merging
11739 all</a> the computer related LDAP objects in Debian Edu.</p>
11740
11741 <p>As a step to try to see if it possible to merge the DNS and DHCP
11742 LDAP objects, I have had a look at how the packages pdns-backend-ldap
11743 and dhcp3-server-ldap in Debian use the LDAP server.  The two
11744 implementations are quite different in how they use LDAP.</p>
11745
11746 To get this information, I started slapd with debugging enabled and
11747 dumped the debug output to a file to get the LDAP searches performed
11748 on a Debian Edu main-server.  Here is a summary.
11749
11750 <p><strong>powerdns</strong></p>
11751
11752 <a href="http://www.linuxnetworks.de/doc/index.php/PowerDNS_LDAP_Backend">Clues
11753 on how to</a> set up PowerDNS to use a LDAP backend is available on
11754 the web.
11755
11756 <p>PowerDNS have two modes of operation using LDAP as its backend.
11757 One "strict" mode where the forward and reverse DNS lookups are done
11758 using the same LDAP objects, and a "tree" mode where the forward and
11759 reverse entries are in two different subtrees in LDAP with a structure
11760 based on the DNS names, as in tjener.intern and
11761 2.2.0.10.in-addr.arpa.</p>
11762
11763 <p>In tree mode, the server is set up to use a LDAP subtree as its
11764 base, and uses a "base" scoped search for the DNS name by adding
11765 "dc=tjener,dc=intern," to the base with a filter for
11766 "(associateddomain=tjener.intern)" for the forward entry and
11767 "dc=2,dc=2,dc=0,dc=10,dc=in-addr,dc=arpa," with a filter for
11768 "(associateddomain=2.2.0.10.in-addr.arpa)" for the reverse entry.  For
11769 forward entries, it is looking for attributes named dnsttl, arecord,
11770 nsrecord, cnamerecord, soarecord, ptrrecord, hinforecord, mxrecord,
11771 txtrecord, rprecord, afsdbrecord, keyrecord, aaaarecord, locrecord,
11772 srvrecord, naptrrecord, kxrecord, certrecord, dsrecord, sshfprecord,
11773 ipseckeyrecord, rrsigrecord, nsecrecord, dnskeyrecord, dhcidrecord,
11774 spfrecord and modifytimestamp.  For reverse entries it is looking for
11775 the attributes dnsttl, arecord, nsrecord, cnamerecord, soarecord,
11776 ptrrecord, hinforecord, mxrecord, txtrecord, rprecord, aaaarecord,
11777 locrecord, srvrecord, naptrrecord and modifytimestamp.  The equivalent
11778 ldapsearch commands could look like this:</p>
11779
11780 <blockquote><pre>
11781 ldapsearch -h ldap \
11782   -b dc=tjener,dc=intern,ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no \
11783   -s base -x '(associateddomain=tjener.intern)' dNSTTL aRecord nSRecord \
11784   cNAMERecord sOARecord pTRRecord hInfoRecord mXRecord tXTRecord \
11785   rPRecord aFSDBRecord KeyRecord aAAARecord lOCRecord sRVRecord \
11786   nAPTRRecord kXRecord certRecord dSRecord sSHFPRecord iPSecKeyRecord \
11787   rRSIGRecord nSECRecord dNSKeyRecord dHCIDRecord sPFRecord modifyTimestamp
11788
11789 ldapsearch -h ldap \
11790   -b dc=2,dc=2,dc=0,dc=10,dc=in-addr,dc=arpa,ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no \
11791   -s base -x '(associateddomain=2.2.0.10.in-addr.arpa)'
11792   dnsttl, arecord, nsrecord, cnamerecord soarecord ptrrecord \
11793   hinforecord mxrecord txtrecord rprecord aaaarecord locrecord \
11794   srvrecord naptrrecord modifytimestamp
11795 </pre></blockquote>
11796
11797 <p>In Debian Edu/Lenny, the PowerDNS tree mode is used with
11798 ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no as the base, and these are two
11799 example LDAP objects used there.  In addition to these objects, the
11800 parent objects all th way up to ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
11801 also exist.</p>
11802
11803 <blockquote><pre>
11804 dn: dc=tjener,dc=intern,ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
11805 objectclass: top
11806 objectclass: dnsdomain
11807 objectclass: domainrelatedobject
11808 dc: tjener
11809 arecord: 10.0.2.2
11810 associateddomain: tjener.intern
11811
11812 dn: dc=2,dc=2,dc=0,dc=10,dc=in-addr,dc=arpa,ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
11813 objectclass: top
11814 objectclass: dnsdomain2
11815 objectclass: domainrelatedobject
11816 dc: 2
11817 ptrrecord: tjener.intern
11818 associateddomain: 2.2.0.10.in-addr.arpa
11819 </pre></blockquote>
11820
11821 <p>In strict mode, the server behaves differently.  When looking for
11822 forward DNS entries, it is doing a "subtree" scoped search with the
11823 same base as in the tree mode for a object with filter
11824 "(associateddomain=tjener.intern)" and requests the attributes dnsttl,
11825 arecord, nsrecord, cnamerecord, soarecord, ptrrecord, hinforecord,
11826 mxrecord, txtrecord, rprecord, aaaarecord, locrecord, srvrecord,
11827 naptrrecord and modifytimestamp.  For reverse entires it also do a
11828 subtree scoped search but this time the filter is "(arecord=10.0.2.2)"
11829 and the requested attributes are associateddomain, dnsttl and
11830 modifytimestamp.  In short, in strict mode the objects with ptrrecord
11831 go away, and the arecord attribute in the forward object is used
11832 instead.</p>
11833
11834 <p>The forward and reverse searches can be simulated using ldapsearch
11835 like this:</p>
11836
11837 <blockquote><pre>
11838 ldapsearch -h ldap -b ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no -s sub -x \
11839   '(associateddomain=tjener.intern)' dNSTTL aRecord nSRecord \
11840   cNAMERecord sOARecord pTRRecord hInfoRecord mXRecord tXTRecord \
11841   rPRecord aFSDBRecord KeyRecord aAAARecord lOCRecord sRVRecord \
11842   nAPTRRecord kXRecord certRecord dSRecord sSHFPRecord iPSecKeyRecord \
11843   rRSIGRecord nSECRecord dNSKeyRecord dHCIDRecord sPFRecord modifyTimestamp
11844
11845 ldapsearch -h ldap -b ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no -s sub -x \
11846   '(arecord=10.0.2.2)' associateddomain dnsttl modifytimestamp
11847 </pre></blockquote>
11848
11849 <p>In addition to the forward and reverse searches , there is also a
11850 search for SOA records, which behave similar to the forward and
11851 reverse lookups.</p>
11852
11853 <p>A thing to note with the PowerDNS behaviour is that it do not
11854 specify any objectclass names, and instead look for the attributes it
11855 need to generate a DNS reply.  This make it able to work with any
11856 objectclass that provide the needed attributes.</p>
11857
11858 <p>The attributes are normally provided in the cosine (RFC 1274) and
11859 dnsdomain2 schemas.  The latter is used for reverse entries like
11860 ptrrecord and recent DNS additions like aaaarecord and srvrecord.</p>
11861
11862 <p>In Debian Edu, we have created DNS objects using the object classes
11863 dcobject (for dc), dnsdomain or dnsdomain2 (structural, for the DNS
11864 attributes) and domainrelatedobject (for associatedDomain).  The use
11865 of structural object classes make it impossible to combine these
11866 classes with the object classes used by DHCP.</p>
11867
11868 <p>There are other schemas that could be used too, for example the
11869 dnszone structural object class used by Gosa and bind-sdb for the DNS
11870 attributes combined with the domainrelatedobject object class, but in
11871 this case some unused attributes would have to be included as well
11872 (zonename and relativedomainname).</p>
11873
11874 <p>My proposal for Debian Edu would be to switch PowerDNS to strict
11875 mode and not use any of the existing objectclasses (dnsdomain,
11876 dnsdomain2 and dnszone) when one want to combine the DNS information
11877 with DHCP information, and instead create a auxiliary object class
11878 defined something like this (using the attributes defined for
11879 dnsdomain and dnsdomain2 or dnszone):</p>
11880
11881 <blockquote><pre>
11882 objectclass ( some-oid NAME 'dnsDomainAux'
11883     SUP top
11884     AUXILIARY
11885     MAY ( ARecord $ MDRecord $ MXRecord $ NSRecord $ SOARecord $ CNAMERecord $
11886           DNSTTL $ DNSClass $ PTRRecord $ HINFORecord $ MINFORecord $
11887           TXTRecord $ SIGRecord $ KEYRecord $ AAAARecord $ LOCRecord $
11888           NXTRecord $ SRVRecord $ NAPTRRecord $ KXRecord $ CERTRecord $
11889           A6Record $ DNAMERecord
11890     ))
11891 </pre></blockquote>
11892
11893 <p>This will allow any object to become a DNS entry when combined with
11894 the domainrelatedobject object class, and allow any entity to include
11895 all the attributes PowerDNS wants.  I've sent an email to the PowerDNS
11896 developers asking for their view on this schema and if they are
11897 interested in providing such schema with PowerDNS, and I hope my
11898 message will be accepted into their mailing list soon.</p>
11899
11900 <p><strong>ISC dhcp</strong></p>
11901
11902 <p>The DHCP server searches for specific objectclass and requests all
11903 the object attributes, and then uses the attributes it want.  This
11904 make it harder to figure out exactly what attributes are used, but
11905 thanks to the working example in Debian Edu I can at least get an idea
11906 what is needed without having to read the source code.</p>
11907
11908 <p>In the DHCP server configuration, the LDAP base to use and the
11909 search filter to use to locate the correct dhcpServer entity is
11910 stored.  These are the relevant entries from
11911 /etc/dhcp3/dhcpd.conf:</p>
11912
11913 <blockquote><pre>
11914 ldap-base-dn "dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no";
11915 ldap-dhcp-server-cn "dhcp";
11916 </pre></blockquote>
11917
11918 <p>The DHCP server uses this information to nest all the DHCP
11919 configuration it need.  The cn "dhcp" is located using the given LDAP
11920 base and the filter "(&(objectClass=dhcpServer)(cn=dhcp))".  The
11921 search result is this entry:</p>
11922
11923 <blockquote><pre>
11924 dn: cn=dhcp,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
11925 cn: dhcp
11926 objectClass: top
11927 objectClass: dhcpServer
11928 dhcpServiceDN: cn=DHCP Config,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
11929 </pre></blockquote>
11930
11931 <p>The content of the dhcpServiceDN attribute is next used to locate the
11932 subtree with DHCP configuration.  The DHCP configuration subtree base
11933 is located using a base scope search with base "cn=DHCP
11934 Config,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no" and filter
11935 "(&(objectClass=dhcpService)(|(dhcpPrimaryDN=cn=dhcp,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no)(dhcpSecondaryDN=cn=dhcp,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no)))".
11936 The search result is this entry:</p>
11937
11938 <blockquote><pre>
11939 dn: cn=DHCP Config,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
11940 cn: DHCP Config
11941 objectClass: top
11942 objectClass: dhcpService
11943 objectClass: dhcpOptions
11944 dhcpPrimaryDN: cn=dhcp, dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
11945 dhcpStatements: ddns-update-style none
11946 dhcpStatements: authoritative
11947 dhcpOption: smtp-server code 69 = array of ip-address
11948 dhcpOption: www-server code 72 = array of ip-address
11949 dhcpOption: wpad-url code 252 = text
11950 </pre></blockquote>
11951
11952 <p>Next, the entire subtree is processed, one level at the time.  When
11953 all the DHCP configuration is loaded, it is ready to receive requests.
11954 The subtree in Debian Edu contain objects with object classes
11955 top/dhcpService/dhcpOptions, top/dhcpSharedNetwork/dhcpOptions,
11956 top/dhcpSubnet, top/dhcpGroup and top/dhcpHost.  These provide options
11957 and information about netmasks, dynamic range etc.  Leaving out the
11958 details here because it is not relevant for the focus of my
11959 investigation, which is to see if it is possible to merge dns and dhcp
11960 related computer objects.</p>
11961
11962 <p>When a DHCP request come in, LDAP is searched for the MAC address
11963 of the client (00:00:00:00:00:00 in this example), using a subtree
11964 scoped search with "cn=DHCP Config,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no" as
11965 the base and "(&(objectClass=dhcpHost)(dhcpHWAddress=ethernet
11966 00:00:00:00:00:00))" as the filter.  This is what a host object look
11967 like:</p>
11968
11969 <blockquote><pre>
11970 dn: cn=hostname,cn=group1,cn=THINCLIENTS,cn=DHCP Config,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
11971 cn: hostname
11972 objectClass: top
11973 objectClass: dhcpHost
11974 dhcpHWAddress: ethernet 00:00:00:00:00:00
11975 dhcpStatements: fixed-address hostname
11976 </pre></blockquote>
11977
11978 <p>There is less flexiblity in the way LDAP searches are done here.
11979 The object classes need to have fixed names, and the configuration
11980 need to be stored in a fairly specific LDAP structure.  On the
11981 positive side, the invidiual dhcpHost entires can be anywhere without
11982 the DN pointed to by the dhcpServer entries.  The latter should make
11983 it possible to group all host entries in a subtree next to the
11984 configuration entries, and this subtree can also be shared with the
11985 DNS server if the schema proposed above is combined with the dhcpHost
11986 structural object class.
11987
11988 <p><strong>Conclusion</strong></p>
11989
11990 <p>The PowerDNS implementation seem to be very flexible when it come
11991 to which LDAP schemas to use.  While its "tree" mode is rigid when it
11992 come to the the LDAP structure, the "strict" mode is very flexible,
11993 allowing DNS objects to be stored anywhere under the base cn specified
11994 in the configuration.</p>
11995
11996 <p>The DHCP implementation on the other hand is very inflexible, both
11997 regarding which LDAP schemas to use and which LDAP structure to use.
11998 I guess one could implement ones own schema, as long as the
11999 objectclasses and attributes have the names used, but this do not
12000 really help when the DHCP subtree need to have a fairly fixed
12001 structure.</p>
12002
12003 <p>Based on the observed behaviour, I suspect a LDAP structure like
12004 this might work for Debian Edu:</p>
12005
12006 <blockquote><pre>
12007 ou=services
12008   cn=machine-info (dhcpService) - dhcpServiceDN points here
12009     cn=dhcp (dhcpServer)
12010     cn=dhcp-internal (dhcpSharedNetwork/dhcpOptions)
12011       cn=10.0.2.0 (dhcpSubnet)
12012         cn=group1 (dhcpGroup/dhcpOptions)
12013     cn=dhcp-thinclients (dhcpSharedNetwork/dhcpOptions)
12014       cn=192.168.0.0 (dhcpSubnet)
12015         cn=group1 (dhcpGroup/dhcpOptions)
12016     ou=machines - PowerDNS base points here
12017       cn=hostname (dhcpHost/domainrelatedobject/dnsDomainAux)
12018 </pre></blockquote>
12019
12020 <P>This is not tested yet.  If the DHCP server require the dhcpHost
12021 entries to be in the dhcpGroup subtrees, the entries can be stored
12022 there instead of a common machines subtree, and the PowerDNS base
12023 would have to be moved one level up to the machine-info subtree.</p>
12024
12025 <p>The combined object under the machines subtree would look something
12026 like this:</p>
12027
12028 <blockquote><pre>
12029 dn: dc=hostname,ou=machines,cn=machine-info,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
12030 dc: hostname
12031 objectClass: top
12032 objectClass: dhcpHost
12033 objectclass: domainrelatedobject
12034 objectclass: dnsDomainAux
12035 associateddomain: hostname.intern
12036 arecord: 10.11.12.13
12037 dhcpHWAddress: ethernet 00:00:00:00:00:00
12038 dhcpStatements: fixed-address hostname.intern
12039 </pre></blockquote>
12040
12041 </p>One could even add the LTSP configuration associated with a given
12042 machine, as long as the required attributes are available in a
12043 auxiliary object class.</p>
12044
12045       </div>
12046       <div class="tags">
12047
12048
12049         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ldap">ldap</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
12050
12051
12052       </div>
12053     </div>
12054     <div class="padding"></div>
12055
12056     <div class="entry">
12057       <div class="title">
12058         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Combining_PowerDNS_and_ISC_DHCP_LDAP_objects.html">Combining PowerDNS and ISC DHCP LDAP objects</a>
12059       </div>
12060       <div class="date">
12061         14th July 2010
12062       </div>
12063       <div class="body">
12064         <p>For a while now, I have wanted to find a way to change the DNS and
12065 DHCP services in Debian Edu to use the same LDAP objects for a given
12066 computer, to avoid the possibility of having a inconsistent state for
12067 a computer in LDAP (as in DHCP but no DNS entry or the other way
12068 around) and make it easier to add computers to LDAP.</p>
12069
12070 <p>I've looked at how powerdns and dhcpd is using LDAP, and using this
12071 information finally found a solution that seem to work.</p>
12072
12073 <p>The old setup required three LDAP objects for a given computer.
12074 One forward DNS entry, one reverse DNS entry and one DHCP entry.  If
12075 we switch powerdns to use its strict LDAP method (ldap-method=strict
12076 in pdns-debian-edu.conf), the forward and reverse DNS entries are
12077 merged into one while making it impossible to transfer the reverse map
12078 to a slave DNS server.</p>
12079
12080 <p>If we also replace the object class used to get the DNS related
12081 attributes to one allowing these attributes to be combined with the
12082 dhcphost object class, we can merge the DNS and DHCP entries into one.
12083 I've written such object class in the dnsdomainaux.schema file (need
12084 proper OIDs, but that is a minor issue), and tested the setup.  It
12085 seem to work.</p>
12086
12087 <p>With this test setup in place, we can get away with one LDAP object
12088 for both DNS and DHCP, and even the LTSP configuration I suggested in
12089 an earlier email.  The combined LDAP object will look something like
12090 this:</p>
12091
12092 <blockquote><pre>
12093   dn: cn=hostname,cn=group1,cn=THINCLIENTS,cn=DHCP Config,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
12094   cn: hostname
12095   objectClass: dhcphost
12096   objectclass: domainrelatedobject
12097   objectclass: dnsdomainaux
12098   associateddomain: hostname.intern
12099   arecord: 10.11.12.13
12100   dhcphwaddress: ethernet 00:00:00:00:00:00
12101   dhcpstatements: fixed-address hostname
12102   ldapconfigsound: Y
12103 </pre></blockquote>
12104
12105 <p>The DNS server uses the associateddomain and arecord entries, while
12106 the DHCP server uses the dhcphwaddress and dhcpstatements entries
12107 before asking DNS to resolve the fixed-adddress.  LTSP will use
12108 dhcphwaddress or associateddomain and the ldapconfig* attributes.</p>
12109
12110 <p>I am not yet sure if I can get the DHCP server to look for its
12111 dhcphost in a different location, to allow us to put the objects
12112 outside the "DHCP Config" subtree, but hope to figure out a way to do
12113 that.  If I can't figure out a way to do that, we can still get rid of
12114 the hosts subtree and move all its content into the DHCP Config tree
12115 (which probably should be renamed to be more related to the new
12116 content.  I suspect cn=dnsdhcp,ou=services or something like that
12117 might be a good place to put it.</p>
12118
12119 <p>If you want to help out with implementing this for Debian Edu,
12120 please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.</p>
12121
12122       </div>
12123       <div class="tags">
12124
12125
12126         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ldap">ldap</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
12127
12128
12129       </div>
12130     </div>
12131     <div class="padding"></div>
12132
12133     <div class="entry">
12134       <div class="title">
12135         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Idea_for_storing_LTSP_configuration_in_LDAP.html">Idea for storing LTSP configuration in LDAP</a>
12136       </div>
12137       <div class="date">
12138         11th July 2010
12139       </div>
12140       <div class="body">
12141         <p>Vagrant mentioned on IRC today that ltsp_config now support
12142 sourcing files from /usr/share/ltsp/ltsp_config.d/ on the thin
12143 clients, and that this can be used to fetch configuration from LDAP if
12144 Debian Edu choose to store configuration there.</p>
12145
12146 <p>Armed with this information, I got inspired and wrote a test module
12147 to get configuration from LDAP.  The idea is to look up the MAC
12148 address of the client in LDAP, and look for attributes on the form
12149 ltspconfigsetting=value, and use this to export SETTING=value to the
12150 LTSP clients.</p>
12151
12152 <p>The goal is to be able to store the LTSP configuration attributes
12153 in a "computer" LDAP object used by both DNS and DHCP, and thus
12154 allowing us to store all information about a computer in one place.</p>
12155
12156 <p>This is a untested draft implementation, and I welcome feedback on
12157 this approach.  A real LDAP schema for the ltspClientAux objectclass
12158 need to be written.  Comments, suggestions, etc?</p>
12159
12160 <blockquote><pre>
12161 # Store in /opt/ltsp/$arch/usr/share/ltsp/ltsp_config.d/ldap-config
12162 #
12163 # Fetch LTSP client settings from LDAP based on MAC address
12164 #
12165 # Uses ethernet address as stored in the dhcpHost objectclass using
12166 # the dhcpHWAddress attribute or ethernet address stored in the
12167 # ieee802Device objectclass with the macAddress attribute.
12168 #
12169 # This module is written to be schema agnostic, and only depend on the
12170 # existence of attribute names.
12171 #
12172 # The LTSP configuration variables are saved directly using a
12173 # ltspConfig prefix and uppercasing the rest of the attribute name.
12174 # To set the SERVER variable, set the ltspConfigServer attribute.
12175 #
12176 # Some LDAP schema should be created with all the relevant
12177 # configuration settings.  Something like this should work:
12178 #
12179 # objectclass ( 1.1.2.2 NAME 'ltspClientAux'
12180 #     SUP top
12181 #     AUXILIARY
12182 #     MAY ( ltspConfigServer $ ltsConfigSound $ ... )
12183
12184 LDAPSERVER=$(debian-edu-ldapserver)
12185 if [ "$LDAPSERVER" ] ; then
12186     LDAPBASE=$(debian-edu-ldapserver -b)
12187     for MAC in $(LANG=C ifconfig |grep -i hwaddr| awk '{print $5}'|sort -u) ; do
12188         filter="(|(dhcpHWAddress=ethernet $MAC)(macAddress=$MAC))"
12189         ldapsearch -h "$LDAPSERVER" -b "$LDAPBASE" -v -x "$filter" | \
12190             grep '^ltspConfig' | while read attr value ; do
12191             # Remove prefix and convert to upper case
12192             attr=$(echo $attr | sed 's/^ltspConfig//i' | tr a-z A-Z)
12193             # bass value on to clients
12194             eval "$attr=$value; export $attr"
12195         done
12196     done
12197 fi
12198 </pre></blockquote>
12199
12200 <p>I'm not sure this shell construction will work, because I suspect
12201 the while block might end up in a subshell causing the variables set
12202 there to not show up in ltsp-config, but if that is the case I am sure
12203 the code can be restructured to make sure the variables are passed on.
12204 I expect that can be solved with some testing. :)</p>
12205
12206 <p>If you want to help out with implementing this for Debian Edu,
12207 please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.</p>
12208
12209 <p>Update 2010-07-17: I am aware of another effort to store LTSP
12210 configuration in LDAP that was created around year 2000 by
12211 <a href="http://www.pcxperience.com/thinclient/documentation/ldap.html">PC
12212 Xperience, Inc., 2000</a>.  I found its
12213 <a href="http://people.redhat.com/alikins/ltsp/ldap/">files</a> on a
12214 personal home page over at redhat.com.</p>
12215
12216       </div>
12217       <div class="tags">
12218
12219
12220         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ldap">ldap</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
12221
12222
12223       </div>
12224     </div>
12225     <div class="padding"></div>
12226
12227     <div class="entry">
12228       <div class="title">
12229         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/jXplorer__a_very_nice_LDAP_GUI.html">jXplorer, a very nice LDAP GUI</a>
12230       </div>
12231       <div class="date">
12232          9th July 2010
12233       </div>
12234       <div class="body">
12235         <p>Since
12236 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/LUMA__a_very_nice_LDAP_GUI.html">my
12237 last post</a> about available LDAP tools in Debian, I was told about a
12238 LDAP GUI that is even better than luma.  The java application
12239 <a href="http://jxplorer.org/">jXplorer</a> is claimed to be capable of
12240 moving LDAP objects and subtrees using drag-and-drop, and can
12241 authenticate using Kerberos.  I have only tested the Kerberos
12242 authentication, but do not have a LDAP setup allowing me to rewrite
12243 LDAP with my test user yet.  It is
12244 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/j/jxplorer.html">available in
12245 Debian</a> testing and unstable at the moment.  The only problem I
12246 have with it is how it handle errors.  If something go wrong, its
12247 non-intuitive behaviour require me to go through some query work list
12248 and remove the failing query.  Nothing big, but very annoying.</p>
12249
12250       </div>
12251       <div class="tags">
12252
12253
12254         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ldap">ldap</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
12255
12256
12257       </div>
12258     </div>
12259     <div class="padding"></div>
12260
12261     <div class="entry">
12262       <div class="title">
12263         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lenny__Squeeze_upgrades__apt_vs_aptitude_with_the_Gnome_desktop.html">Lenny->Squeeze upgrades, apt vs aptitude with the Gnome desktop</a>
12264       </div>
12265       <div class="date">
12266          3rd July 2010
12267       </div>
12268       <div class="body">
12269         <p>Here is a short update on my <a
12270 href="http://people.skolelinux.org/~pere/debian-upgrade-testing/">my
12271 Debian Lenny->Squeeze upgrade testing</a>.  Here is a summary of the
12272 difference for Gnome when it is upgraded by apt-get and aptitude.  I'm
12273 not reporting the status for KDE, because the upgrade crashes when
12274 aptitude try because of missing conflicts
12275 (<a href="http://bugs.debian.org/584861">#584861</a> and
12276 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/585716">#585716</a>).</p>
12277
12278 <p>At the end of the upgrade test script, dpkg -l is executed to get a
12279 complete list of the installed packages.  Based on this I see these
12280 differences when I did a test run today.  As usual, I do not really
12281 know what the correct set of packages would be, but thought it best to
12282 publish the difference.</p>
12283
12284 <p>Installed using apt-get, missing with aptitude</p>
12285
12286 <blockquote><p>
12287   at-spi cpp-4.3 finger gnome-spell gstreamer0.10-gnomevfs
12288   libatspi1.0-0 libcupsys2 libeel2-data libgail-common libgdl-1-common
12289   libgnomeprint2.2-data libgnomeprintui2.2-common libgnomevfs2-bin
12290   libgtksourceview-common libpt-1.10.10-plugins-alsa
12291   libpt-1.10.10-plugins-v4l libservlet2.4-java libxalan2-java
12292   libxerces2-java openoffice.org-writer2latex openssl-blacklist p7zip
12293   python-4suite-xml python-eggtrayicon python-gtkhtml2
12294   python-gtkmozembed svgalibg1 xserver-xephyr zip
12295 </p></blockquote>
12296
12297 <p>Installed using apt-get, removed with aptitude</p>
12298
12299 <blockquote><p>
12300   bluez-utils dhcdbd djvulibre-desktop epiphany-gecko
12301   gnome-app-install gnome-mount gnome-vfs-obexftp gnome-volume-manager
12302   libao2 libavahi-compat-libdnssd1 libavahi-core5 libbind9-50
12303   libbluetooth2 libcamel1.2-11 libcdio7 libcucul0 libcurl3
12304   libdirectfb-1.0-0 libdvdread3 libedata-cal1.2-6 libedataserver1.2-9
12305   libeel2-2.20 libepc-1.0-1 libepc-ui-1.0-1 libexchange-storage1.2-3
12306   libfaad0 libgd2-noxpm libgda3-3 libgda3-common libggz2 libggzcore9
12307   libggzmod4 libgksu1.2-0 libgksuui1.0-1 libgmyth0 libgnome-desktop-2
12308   libgnome-pilot2 libgnomecups1.0-1 libgnomeprint2.2-0
12309   libgnomeprintui2.2-0 libgpod3 libgraphviz4 libgtkhtml2-0
12310   libgtksourceview1.0-0 libgucharmap6 libhesiod0 libicu38 libisccc50
12311   libisccfg50 libiw29 libkpathsea4 libltdl3 liblwres50 libmagick++10
12312   libmagick10 libmalaga7 libmtp7 libmysqlclient15off libnautilus-burn4
12313   libneon27 libnm-glib0 libnm-util0 libopal-2.2 libosp5
12314   libparted1.8-10 libpisock9 libpisync1 libpoppler-glib3 libpoppler3
12315   libpt-1.10.10 libraw1394-8 libsensors3 libsmbios2 libsoup2.2-8
12316   libssh2-1 libsuitesparse-3.1.0 libswfdec-0.6-90 libtalloc1
12317   libtotem-plparser10 libtrackerclient0 libvoikko1 libxalan2-java-gcj
12318   libxerces2-java-gcj libxklavier12 libxtrap6 libxxf86misc1 libzephyr3
12319   mysql-common swfdec-gnome totem-gstreamer wodim
12320 </p></blockquote>
12321
12322 <p>Installed using aptitude, missing with apt-get</p>
12323
12324 <blockquote><p>
12325   gnome gnome-desktop-environment hamster-applet python-gnomeapplet
12326   python-gnomekeyring python-wnck rhythmbox-plugins xorg
12327   xserver-xorg-input-all xserver-xorg-input-evdev
12328   xserver-xorg-input-kbd xserver-xorg-input-mouse
12329   xserver-xorg-input-synaptics xserver-xorg-video-all
12330   xserver-xorg-video-apm xserver-xorg-video-ark xserver-xorg-video-ati
12331   xserver-xorg-video-chips xserver-xorg-video-cirrus
12332   xserver-xorg-video-dummy xserver-xorg-video-fbdev
12333   xserver-xorg-video-glint xserver-xorg-video-i128
12334   xserver-xorg-video-i740 xserver-xorg-video-mach64
12335   xserver-xorg-video-mga xserver-xorg-video-neomagic
12336   xserver-xorg-video-nouveau xserver-xorg-video-nv
12337   xserver-xorg-video-r128 xserver-xorg-video-radeon
12338   xserver-xorg-video-radeonhd xserver-xorg-video-rendition
12339   xserver-xorg-video-s3 xserver-xorg-video-s3virge
12340   xserver-xorg-video-savage xserver-xorg-video-siliconmotion
12341   xserver-xorg-video-sis xserver-xorg-video-sisusb
12342   xserver-xorg-video-tdfx xserver-xorg-video-tga
12343   xserver-xorg-video-trident xserver-xorg-video-tseng
12344   xserver-xorg-video-vesa xserver-xorg-video-vmware
12345   xserver-xorg-video-voodoo
12346 </p></blockquote>
12347
12348 <p>Installed using aptitude, removed with apt-get</p>
12349
12350 <blockquote><p>
12351   deskbar-applet xserver-xorg xserver-xorg-core
12352   xserver-xorg-input-wacom xserver-xorg-video-intel
12353   xserver-xorg-video-openchrome
12354 </p></blockquote>
12355
12356 <p>I was told on IRC that the xorg-xserver package was
12357 <a href="http://git.debian.org/?p=pkg-xorg/xserver/xorg-server.git;a=commit;h=9c8080d06c457932d3bfec021c69ac000aa60120">changed
12358 in git</a> today to try to get apt-get to not remove xorg completely.
12359 No idea when it hits Squeeze, but when it does I hope it will reduce
12360 the difference somewhat.
12361
12362       </div>
12363       <div class="tags">
12364
12365
12366         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
12367
12368
12369       </div>
12370     </div>
12371     <div class="padding"></div>
12372
12373     <div class="entry">
12374       <div class="title">
12375         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/LUMA__a_very_nice_LDAP_GUI.html">LUMA, a very nice LDAP GUI</a>
12376       </div>
12377       <div class="date">
12378         28th June 2010
12379       </div>
12380       <div class="body">
12381         <p>The last few days I have been looking into the status of the LDAP
12382 directory in Debian Edu, and in the process I started to miss a GUI
12383 tool to browse the LDAP tree.  The only one I was able to find in
12384 Debian/Squeeze and Lenny is
12385 <a href="http://luma.sourceforge.net/">LUMA</a>, which has proved to
12386 be a great tool to get a overview of the current LDAP directory
12387 populated by default in Skolelinux.  Thanks to it, I have been able to
12388 find empty and obsolete subtrees, misplaced objects and duplicate
12389 objects.  It will be installed by default in Debian/Squeeze.  If you
12390 are working with LDAP, give it a go. :)</p>
12391
12392 <p>I did notice one problem with it I have not had time to report to
12393 the BTS yet.  There is no .desktop file in the package, so the tool do
12394 not show up in the Gnome and KDE menus, but only deep down in in the
12395 Debian submenu in KDE.  I hope that can be fixed before Squeeze is
12396 released.</p>
12397
12398 <p>I have not yet been able to get it to modify the tree yet.  I would
12399 like to move objects and remove subtrees directly in the GUI, but have
12400 not found a way to do that with LUMA yet.  So in the mean time, I use
12401 <a href="http://www.lichteblau.com/ldapvi/">ldapvi</a> for that.</p>
12402
12403 <p>If you have tips on other GUI tools for LDAP that might be useful
12404 in Debian Edu, please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.</p>
12405
12406 <p>Update 2010-06-29: Ross Reedstrom tipped us about the
12407 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/g/gq.html">gq</a> package as a
12408 useful GUI alternative.  It seem like a good tool, but is unmaintained
12409 in Debian and got a RC bug keeping it out of Squeeze.  Unless that
12410 changes, it will not be an option for Debian Edu based on Squeeze.</p>
12411
12412       </div>
12413       <div class="tags">
12414
12415
12416         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ldap">ldap</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
12417
12418
12419       </div>
12420     </div>
12421     <div class="padding"></div>
12422
12423     <div class="entry">
12424       <div class="title">
12425         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Idea_for_a_change_to_LDAP_schemas_allowing_DNS_and_DHCP_info_to_be_combined_into_one_object.html">Idea for a change to LDAP schemas allowing DNS and DHCP info to be combined into one object</a>
12426       </div>
12427       <div class="date">
12428         24th June 2010
12429       </div>
12430       <div class="body">
12431         <p>A while back, I
12432 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Time_for_new__LDAP_schemas_replacing_RFC_2307_.html">complained
12433 about the fact</a> that it is not possible with the provided schemas
12434 for storing DNS and DHCP information in LDAP to combine the two sets
12435 of information into one LDAP object representing a computer.</p>
12436
12437 <p>In the mean time, I discovered that a simple fix would be to make
12438 the dhcpHost object class auxiliary, to allow it to be combined with
12439 the dNSDomain object class, and thus forming one object for one
12440 computer when storing both DHCP and DNS information in LDAP.</p>
12441
12442 <p>If I understand this correctly, it is not safe to do this change
12443 without also changing the assigned number for the object class, and I
12444 do not know enough about LDAP schema design to do that properly for
12445 Debian Edu.</p>
12446
12447 <p>Anyway, for future reference, this is how I believe we could change
12448 the
12449 <a href="http://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-ietf-dhc-ldap-schema-00">DHCP
12450 schema</a> to solve at least part of the problem with the LDAP schemas
12451 available today from IETF.</p>
12452
12453 <pre>
12454 --- dhcp.schema    (revision 65192)
12455 +++ dhcp.schema    (working copy)
12456 @@ -376,7 +376,7 @@
12457  objectclass ( 2.16.840.1.113719.1.203.6.6
12458         NAME 'dhcpHost'
12459         DESC 'This represents information about a particular client'
12460 -       SUP top
12461 +       SUP top AUXILIARY
12462         MUST cn
12463         MAY  (dhcpLeaseDN $ dhcpHWAddress $ dhcpOptionsDN $ dhcpStatements $ dhcpComments $ dhcpOption)
12464         X-NDS_CONTAINMENT ('dhcpService' 'dhcpSubnet' 'dhcpGroup') )
12465 </pre>
12466
12467 <p>I very much welcome clues on how to do this properly for Debian
12468 Edu/Squeeze.  We provide the DHCP schema in our debian-edu-config
12469 package, and should thus be free to rewrite it as we see fit.</p>
12470
12471 <p>If you want to help out with implementing this for Debian Edu,
12472 please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.</p>
12473
12474       </div>
12475       <div class="tags">
12476
12477
12478         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ldap">ldap</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
12479
12480
12481       </div>
12482     </div>
12483     <div class="padding"></div>
12484
12485     <div class="entry">
12486       <div class="title">
12487         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Calling_tasksel_like_the_installer__while_still_getting_useful_output.html">Calling tasksel like the installer, while still getting useful output</a>
12488       </div>
12489       <div class="date">
12490         16th June 2010
12491       </div>
12492       <div class="body">
12493         <p>A few times I have had the need to simulate the way tasksel
12494 installs packages during the normal debian-installer run.  Until now,
12495 I have ended up letting tasksel do the work, with the annoying problem
12496 of not getting any feedback at all when something fails (like a
12497 conffile question from dpkg or a download that fails), using code like
12498 this:
12499
12500 <blockquote><pre>
12501 export DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive
12502 tasksel --new-install
12503 </pre></blockquote>
12504
12505 This would invoke tasksel, let its automatic task selection pick the
12506 tasks to install, and continue to install the requested tasks without
12507 any output what so ever.
12508
12509 Recently I revisited this problem while working on the automatic
12510 package upgrade testing, because tasksel would some times hang without
12511 any useful feedback, and I want to see what is going on when it
12512 happen.  Then it occured to me, I can parse the output from tasksel
12513 when asked to run in test mode, and use that aptitude command line
12514 printed by tasksel then to simulate the tasksel run.  I ended up using
12515 code like this:
12516
12517 <blockquote><pre>
12518 export DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive
12519 cmd="$(in_target tasksel -t --new-install | sed 's/debconf-apt-progress -- //')"
12520 $cmd
12521 </pre></blockquote>
12522
12523 <p>The content of $cmd is typically something like "<tt>aptitude -q
12524 --without-recommends -o APT::Install-Recommends=no -y install
12525 ~t^desktop$ ~t^gnome-desktop$ ~t^laptop$ ~pstandard ~prequired
12526 ~pimportant</tt>", which will install the gnome desktop task, the
12527 laptop task and all packages with priority standard , required and
12528 important, just like tasksel would have done it during
12529 installation.</p>
12530
12531 <p>A better approach is probably to extend tasksel to be able to
12532 install packages without using debconf-apt-progress, for use cases
12533 like this.</p>
12534
12535       </div>
12536       <div class="tags">
12537
12538
12539         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
12540
12541
12542       </div>
12543     </div>
12544     <div class="padding"></div>
12545
12546     <div class="entry">
12547       <div class="title">
12548         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lenny__Squeeze_upgrades__removals_by_apt_and_aptitude.html">Lenny->Squeeze upgrades, removals by apt and aptitude</a>
12549       </div>
12550       <div class="date">
12551         13th June 2010
12552       </div>
12553       <div class="body">
12554         <p>My
12555 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Automatic_upgrade_testing_from_Lenny_to_Squeeze.html">testing
12556 of Debian upgrades</a> from Lenny to Squeeze continues, and I've
12557 finally made the upgrade logs available from
12558 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/debian-upgrade-testing/">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/debian-upgrade-testing/</a>.
12559 I am now testing dist-upgrade of Gnome and KDE in a chroot using both
12560 apt and aptitude, and found their differences interesting.  This time
12561 I will only focus on their removal plans.</p>
12562
12563 <p>After installing a Gnome desktop and the laptop task, apt-get wants
12564 to remove 72 packages when dist-upgrading from Lenny to Squeeze.  The
12565 surprising part is that it want to remove xorg and all
12566 xserver-xorg-video* drivers.  Clearly not a good choice, but I am not
12567 sure why.  When asking aptitude to do the same, it want to remove 129
12568 packages, but most of them are library packages I suspect are no
12569 longer needed.  Both of them want to remove bluetooth packages, which
12570 I do not know.  Perhaps these bluetooth packages are obsolete?</p>
12571
12572 <p>For KDE, apt-get want to remove 82 packages, among them kdebase
12573 which seem like a bad idea and xorg the same way as with Gnome. Asking
12574 aptitude for the same, it wants to remove 192 packages, none which are
12575 too surprising.</p>
12576
12577 <p>I guess the removal of xorg during upgrades should be investigated
12578 and avoided, and perhaps others as well.  Here are the complete list
12579 of planned removals.  The complete logs is available from the URL
12580 above.  Note if you want to repeat these tests, that the upgrade test
12581 for kde+apt-get hung in the tasksel setup because of dpkg asking
12582 conffile questions.  No idea why.  I worked around it by using
12583 '<tt>echo >> /proc/<em>pidofdpkg</em>/fd/0</tt>' to tell dpkg to
12584 continue.</p>
12585
12586 <p><b>apt-get gnome 72</b>
12587 <br>bluez-gnome cupsddk-drivers deskbar-applet gnome
12588   gnome-desktop-environment gnome-network-admin gtkhtml3.14
12589   iceweasel-gnome-support libavcodec51 libdatrie0 libgdl-1-0
12590   libgnomekbd2 libgnomekbdui2 libmetacity0 libslab0 libxcb-xlib0
12591   nautilus-cd-burner python-gnome2-desktop python-gnome2-extras
12592   serpentine swfdec-mozilla update-manager xorg xserver-xorg
12593   xserver-xorg-core xserver-xorg-input-all xserver-xorg-input-evdev
12594   xserver-xorg-input-kbd xserver-xorg-input-mouse
12595   xserver-xorg-input-synaptics xserver-xorg-input-wacom
12596   xserver-xorg-video-all xserver-xorg-video-apm xserver-xorg-video-ark
12597   xserver-xorg-video-ati xserver-xorg-video-chips
12598   xserver-xorg-video-cirrus xserver-xorg-video-cyrix
12599   xserver-xorg-video-dummy xserver-xorg-video-fbdev
12600   xserver-xorg-video-glint xserver-xorg-video-i128
12601   xserver-xorg-video-i740 xserver-xorg-video-imstt
12602   xserver-xorg-video-intel xserver-xorg-video-mach64
12603   xserver-xorg-video-mga xserver-xorg-video-neomagic
12604   xserver-xorg-video-nsc xserver-xorg-video-nv
12605   xserver-xorg-video-openchrome xserver-xorg-video-r128
12606   xserver-xorg-video-radeon xserver-xorg-video-radeonhd
12607   xserver-xorg-video-rendition xserver-xorg-video-s3
12608   xserver-xorg-video-s3virge xserver-xorg-video-savage
12609   xserver-xorg-video-siliconmotion xserver-xorg-video-sis
12610   xserver-xorg-video-sisusb xserver-xorg-video-tdfx
12611   xserver-xorg-video-tga xserver-xorg-video-trident
12612   xserver-xorg-video-tseng xserver-xorg-video-v4l
12613   xserver-xorg-video-vesa xserver-xorg-video-vga
12614   xserver-xorg-video-vmware xserver-xorg-video-voodoo xulrunner-1.9
12615   xulrunner-1.9-gnome-support</p>
12616
12617 <p><b>aptitude gnome 129</b>
12618
12619 <br>bluez-gnome bluez-utils cpp-4.3 cupsddk-drivers dhcdbd
12620   djvulibre-desktop finger gnome-app-install gnome-mount
12621   gnome-network-admin gnome-spell gnome-vfs-obexftp
12622   gnome-volume-manager gstreamer0.10-gnomevfs gtkhtml3.14 libao2
12623   libavahi-compat-libdnssd1 libavahi-core5 libavcodec51 libbluetooth2
12624   libcamel1.2-11 libcdio7 libcucul0 libcupsys2 libcurl3 libdatrie0
12625   libdirectfb-1.0-0 libdvdread3 libedataserver1.2-9 libeel2-2.20
12626   libeel2-data libepc-1.0-1 libepc-ui-1.0-1 libfaad0 libgail-common
12627   libgd2-noxpm libgda3-3 libgda3-common libgdl-1-0 libgdl-1-common
12628   libggz2 libggzcore9 libggzmod4 libgksu1.2-0 libgksuui1.0-1 libgmyth0
12629   libgnomecups1.0-1 libgnomekbd2 libgnomekbdui2 libgnomeprint2.2-0
12630   libgnomeprint2.2-data libgnomeprintui2.2-0 libgnomeprintui2.2-common
12631   libgnomevfs2-bin libgpod3 libgraphviz4 libgtkhtml2-0
12632   libgtksourceview-common libgtksourceview1.0-0 libgucharmap6
12633   libhesiod0 libicu38 libiw29 libkpathsea4 libltdl3 libmagick++10
12634   libmagick10 libmalaga7 libmetacity0 libmtp7 libmysqlclient15off
12635   libnautilus-burn4 libneon27 libnm-glib0 libnm-util0 libopal-2.2
12636   libosp5 libparted1.8-10 libpoppler-glib3 libpoppler3 libpt-1.10.10
12637   libpt-1.10.10-plugins-alsa libpt-1.10.10-plugins-v4l libraw1394-8
12638   libsensors3 libslab0 libsmbios2 libsoup2.2-8 libssh2-1
12639   libsuitesparse-3.1.0 libswfdec-0.6-90 libtalloc1 libtotem-plparser10
12640   libtrackerclient0 libxalan2-java libxalan2-java-gcj libxcb-xlib0
12641   libxerces2-java libxerces2-java-gcj libxklavier12 libxtrap6
12642   libxxf86misc1 libzephyr3 mysql-common nautilus-cd-burner
12643   openoffice.org-writer2latex openssl-blacklist p7zip
12644   python-4suite-xml python-eggtrayicon python-gnome2-desktop
12645   python-gnome2-extras python-gtkhtml2 python-gtkmozembed
12646   python-numeric python-sexy serpentine svgalibg1 swfdec-gnome
12647   swfdec-mozilla totem-gstreamer update-manager wodim
12648   xserver-xorg-video-cyrix xserver-xorg-video-imstt
12649   xserver-xorg-video-nsc xserver-xorg-video-v4l xserver-xorg-video-vga
12650   zip</p>
12651
12652 <p><b>apt-get kde 82</b>
12653
12654 <br>cupsddk-drivers karm kaudiocreator kcoloredit kcontrol kde kde-core
12655   kdeaddons kdeartwork kdebase kdebase-bin kdebase-bin-kde3
12656   kdebase-kio-plugins kdesktop kdeutils khelpcenter kicker
12657   kicker-applets knewsticker kolourpaint konq-plugins konqueror korn
12658   kpersonalizer kscreensaver ksplash libavcodec51 libdatrie0 libkiten1
12659   libxcb-xlib0 quanta superkaramba texlive-base-bin xorg xserver-xorg
12660   xserver-xorg-core xserver-xorg-input-all xserver-xorg-input-evdev
12661   xserver-xorg-input-kbd xserver-xorg-input-mouse
12662   xserver-xorg-input-synaptics xserver-xorg-input-wacom
12663   xserver-xorg-video-all xserver-xorg-video-apm xserver-xorg-video-ark
12664   xserver-xorg-video-ati xserver-xorg-video-chips
12665   xserver-xorg-video-cirrus xserver-xorg-video-cyrix
12666   xserver-xorg-video-dummy xserver-xorg-video-fbdev
12667   xserver-xorg-video-glint xserver-xorg-video-i128
12668   xserver-xorg-video-i740 xserver-xorg-video-imstt
12669   xserver-xorg-video-intel xserver-xorg-video-mach64
12670   xserver-xorg-video-mga xserver-xorg-video-neomagic
12671   xserver-xorg-video-nsc xserver-xorg-video-nv
12672   xserver-xorg-video-openchrome xserver-xorg-video-r128
12673   xserver-xorg-video-radeon xserver-xorg-video-radeonhd
12674   xserver-xorg-video-rendition xserver-xorg-video-s3
12675   xserver-xorg-video-s3virge xserver-xorg-video-savage
12676   xserver-xorg-video-siliconmotion xserver-xorg-video-sis
12677   xserver-xorg-video-sisusb xserver-xorg-video-tdfx
12678   xserver-xorg-video-tga xserver-xorg-video-trident
12679   xserver-xorg-video-tseng xserver-xorg-video-v4l
12680   xserver-xorg-video-vesa xserver-xorg-video-vga
12681   xserver-xorg-video-vmware xserver-xorg-video-voodoo xulrunner-1.9</p>
12682
12683 <p><b>aptitude kde 192</b>
12684 <br>bluez-utils cpp-4.3 cupsddk-drivers cvs dcoprss dhcdbd
12685   djvulibre-desktop dosfstools eyesapplet fifteenapplet finger gettext
12686   ghostscript-x imlib-base imlib11 indi kandy karm kasteroids
12687   kaudiocreator kbackgammon kbstate kcoloredit kcontrol kcron kdat
12688   kdeadmin-kfile-plugins kdeartwork-misc kdeartwork-theme-window
12689   kdebase-bin-kde3 kdebase-kio-plugins kdeedu-data
12690   kdegraphics-kfile-plugins kdelirc kdemultimedia-kappfinder-data
12691   kdemultimedia-kfile-plugins kdenetwork-kfile-plugins
12692   kdepim-kfile-plugins kdepim-kio-plugins kdeprint kdesktop kdessh
12693   kdict kdnssd kdvi kedit keduca kenolaba kfax kfaxview kfouleggs
12694   kghostview khelpcenter khexedit kiconedit kitchensync klatin
12695   klickety kmailcvt kmenuedit kmid kmilo kmoon kmrml kodo kolourpaint
12696   kooka korn kpager kpdf kpercentage kpf kpilot kpoker kpovmodeler
12697   krec kregexpeditor ksayit ksim ksirc ksirtet ksmiletris ksmserver
12698   ksnake ksokoban ksplash ksvg ksysv ktip ktnef kuickshow kverbos
12699   kview kviewshell kvoctrain kwifimanager kwin kwin4 kworldclock
12700   kxsldbg libakode2 libao2 libarts1-akode libarts1-audiofile
12701   libarts1-mpeglib libarts1-xine libavahi-compat-libdnssd1
12702   libavahi-core5 libavc1394-0 libavcodec51 libbluetooth2
12703   libboost-python1.34.1 libcucul0 libcurl3 libcvsservice0 libdatrie0
12704   libdirectfb-1.0-0 libdjvulibre21 libdvdread3 libfaad0 libfreebob0
12705   libgail-common libgd2-noxpm libgraphviz4 libgsmme1c2a libgtkhtml2-0
12706   libicu38 libiec61883-0 libindex0 libiw29 libk3b3 libkcal2b libkcddb1
12707   libkdeedu3 libkdepim1a libkgantt0 libkiten1 libkleopatra1 libkmime2
12708   libkpathsea4 libkpimexchange1 libkpimidentities1 libkscan1
12709   libksieve0 libktnef1 liblockdev1 libltdl3 libmagick10 libmimelib1c2a
12710   libmozjs1d libmpcdec3 libneon27 libnm-util0 libopensync0 libpisock9
12711   libpoppler-glib3 libpoppler-qt2 libpoppler3 libraw1394-8 libsmbios2
12712   libssh2-1 libsuitesparse-3.1.0 libtalloc1 libtiff-tools
12713   libxalan2-java libxalan2-java-gcj libxcb-xlib0 libxerces2-java
12714   libxerces2-java-gcj libxtrap6 mpeglib networkstatus
12715   openoffice.org-writer2latex pmount poster psutils quanta quanta-data
12716   superkaramba svgalibg1 tex-common texlive-base texlive-base-bin
12717   texlive-common texlive-doc-base texlive-fonts-recommended
12718   xserver-xorg-video-cyrix xserver-xorg-video-imstt
12719   xserver-xorg-video-nsc xserver-xorg-video-v4l xserver-xorg-video-vga
12720   xulrunner-1.9</p>
12721
12722
12723       </div>
12724       <div class="tags">
12725
12726
12727         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
12728
12729
12730       </div>
12731     </div>
12732     <div class="padding"></div>
12733
12734     <div class="entry">
12735       <div class="title">
12736         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Automatic_upgrade_testing_from_Lenny_to_Squeeze.html">Automatic upgrade testing from Lenny to Squeeze</a>
12737       </div>
12738       <div class="date">
12739         11th June 2010
12740       </div>
12741       <div class="body">
12742         <p>The last few days I have done some upgrade testing in Debian, to
12743 see if the upgrade from Lenny to Squeeze will go smoothly.  A few bugs
12744 have been discovered and reported in the process
12745 (<a href="http://bugs.debian.org/585410">#585410</a> in nagios3-cgi,
12746 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/584879">#584879</a> already fixed in
12747 enscript and <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/584861">#584861</a> in
12748 kdebase-workspace-data), and to get a more regular testing going on, I
12749 am working on a script to automate the test.</p>
12750
12751 <p>The idea is to create a Lenny chroot and use tasksel to install a
12752 Gnome or KDE desktop installation inside the chroot before upgrading
12753 it.  To ensure no services are started in the chroot, a policy-rc.d
12754 script is inserted.  To make sure tasksel believe it is to install a
12755 desktop on a laptop, the tasksel tests are replaced in the chroot
12756 (only acceptable because this is a throw-away chroot).</p>
12757
12758 <p>A naive upgrade from Lenny to Squeeze using aptitude dist-upgrade
12759 currently always fail because udev refuses to upgrade with the kernel
12760 in Lenny, so to avoid that problem the file /etc/udev/kernel-upgrade
12761 is created.  The bug report
12762 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/566000">#566000</a> make me suspect
12763 this problem do not trigger in a chroot, but I touch the file anyway
12764 to make sure the upgrade go well.  Testing on virtual and real
12765 hardware have failed me because of udev so far, and creating this file
12766 do the trick in such settings anyway.  This is a
12767 <a href="http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/debian-26/failed-dist-upgrade-due-to-udev-config_sysfs_deprecated-nonsense-804130/">known
12768 issue</a> and the current udev behaviour is intended by the udev
12769 maintainer because he lack the resources to rewrite udev to keep
12770 working with old kernels or something like that.  I really wish the
12771 udev upstream would keep udev backwards compatible, to avoid such
12772 upgrade problem, but given that they fail to do so, I guess
12773 documenting the way out of this mess is the best option we got for
12774 Debian Squeeze.</p>
12775
12776 <p>Anyway, back to the task at hand, testing upgrades.  This test
12777 script, which I call <tt>upgrade-test</tt> for now, is doing the
12778 trick:</p>
12779
12780 <blockquote><pre>
12781 #!/bin/sh
12782 set -ex
12783
12784 if [ "$1" ] ; then
12785     desktop=$1
12786 else
12787     desktop=gnome
12788 fi
12789
12790 from=lenny
12791 to=squeeze
12792
12793 exec &lt; /dev/null
12794 unset LANG
12795 mirror=http://ftp.skolelinux.org/debian
12796 tmpdir=chroot-$from-upgrade-$to-$desktop
12797 fuser -mv .
12798 debootstrap $from $tmpdir $mirror
12799 chroot $tmpdir aptitude update
12800 cat > $tmpdir/usr/sbin/policy-rc.d &lt;&lt;EOF
12801 #!/bin/sh
12802 exit 101
12803 EOF
12804 chmod a+rx $tmpdir/usr/sbin/policy-rc.d
12805 exit_cleanup() {
12806     umount $tmpdir/proc
12807 }
12808 mount -t proc proc $tmpdir/proc
12809 # Make sure proc is unmounted also on failure
12810 trap exit_cleanup EXIT INT
12811
12812 chroot $tmpdir aptitude -y install debconf-utils
12813
12814 # Make sure tasksel autoselection trigger.  It need the test scripts
12815 # to return the correct answers.
12816 echo tasksel tasksel/desktop multiselect $desktop | \
12817     chroot $tmpdir debconf-set-selections
12818
12819 # Include the desktop and laptop task
12820 for test in desktop laptop ; do
12821     echo > $tmpdir/usr/lib/tasksel/tests/$test &lt;&lt;EOF
12822 #!/bin/sh
12823 exit 2
12824 EOF
12825     chmod a+rx $tmpdir/usr/lib/tasksel/tests/$test
12826 done
12827
12828 DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive
12829 DEBIAN_PRIORITY=critical
12830 export DEBIAN_FRONTEND DEBIAN_PRIORITY
12831 chroot $tmpdir tasksel --new-install
12832
12833 echo deb $mirror $to main > $tmpdir/etc/apt/sources.list
12834 chroot $tmpdir aptitude update
12835 touch $tmpdir/etc/udev/kernel-upgrade
12836 chroot $tmpdir aptitude -y dist-upgrade
12837 fuser -mv
12838 </pre></blockquote>
12839
12840 <p>I suspect it would be useful to test upgrades with both apt-get and
12841 with aptitude, but I have not had time to look at how they behave
12842 differently so far.  I hope to get a cron job running to do the test
12843 regularly and post the result on the web.  The Gnome upgrade currently
12844 work, while the KDE upgrade fail because of the bug in
12845 kdebase-workspace-data</p>
12846
12847 <p>I am not quite sure what kind of extract from the huge upgrade logs
12848 (KDE 167 KiB, Gnome 516 KiB) it make sense to include in this blog
12849 post, so I will refrain from trying.  I can report that for Gnome,
12850 aptitude report 760 packages upgraded, 448 newly installed, 129 to
12851 remove and 1 not upgraded and 1024MB need to be downloaded while for
12852 KDE the same numbers are 702 packages upgraded, 507 newly installed,
12853 193 to remove and 0 not upgraded and 1117MB need to be downloaded</p>
12854
12855 <p>I am very happy to notice that the Gnome desktop + laptop upgrade
12856 is able to migrate to dependency based boot sequencing and parallel
12857 booting without a hitch.  Was unsure if there were still bugs with
12858 packages failing to clean up their obsolete init.d script during
12859 upgrades, and no such problem seem to affect the Gnome desktop+laptop
12860 packages.</p>
12861
12862       </div>
12863       <div class="tags">
12864
12865
12866         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bootsystem">bootsystem</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
12867
12868
12869       </div>
12870     </div>
12871     <div class="padding"></div>
12872
12873     <div class="entry">
12874       <div class="title">
12875         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Upstart_or_sysvinit___as_init_d_scripts_see_it.html">Upstart or sysvinit - as init.d scripts see it</a>
12876       </div>
12877       <div class="date">
12878          6th June 2010
12879       </div>
12880       <div class="body">
12881         <p>If Debian is to migrate to upstart on Linux, I expect some init.d
12882 scripts to migrate (some of) their operations to upstart job while
12883 keeping the init.d for hurd and kfreebsd.  The packages with such
12884 needs will need a way to get their init.d scripts to behave
12885 differently when used with sysvinit and with upstart.  Because of
12886 this, I had a look at the environment variables set when a init.d
12887 script is running under upstart, and when it is not.</p>
12888
12889 <p>With upstart, I notice these environment variables are set when a
12890 script is started from rcS.d/ (ignoring some irrelevant ones like
12891 COLUMNS):</p>
12892
12893 <blockquote><pre>
12894 DEFAULT_RUNLEVEL=2
12895 previous=N
12896 PREVLEVEL=
12897 RUNLEVEL=
12898 runlevel=S
12899 UPSTART_EVENTS=startup
12900 UPSTART_INSTANCE=
12901 UPSTART_JOB=rc-sysinit
12902 </pre></blockquote>
12903
12904 <p>With sysvinit, these environment variables are set for the same
12905 script.</p>
12906
12907 <blockquote><pre>
12908 INIT_VERSION=sysvinit-2.88
12909 previous=N
12910 PREVLEVEL=N
12911 RUNLEVEL=S
12912 runlevel=S
12913 </pre></blockquote>
12914
12915 <p>The RUNLEVEL and PREVLEVEL environment variables passed on from
12916 sysvinit are not set by upstart.  Not sure if it is intentional or not
12917 to not be compatible with sysvinit in this regard.</p>
12918
12919 <p>For scripts needing to behave differently when upstart is used,
12920 looking for the UPSTART_JOB environment variable seem to be a good
12921 choice.</p>
12922
12923       </div>
12924       <div class="tags">
12925
12926
12927         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bootsystem">bootsystem</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
12928
12929
12930       </div>
12931     </div>
12932     <div class="padding"></div>
12933
12934     <div class="entry">
12935       <div class="title">
12936         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/A_manual_for_standards_wars___.html">A manual for standards wars...</a>
12937       </div>
12938       <div class="date">
12939          6th June 2010
12940       </div>
12941       <div class="body">
12942         <p>Via the
12943 <a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/robweir/antic-atom/~3/QzU4RgoAGMg/weekly-links-10.html">blog
12944 of Rob Weir</a> I came across the very interesting essay named
12945 <a href="http://faculty.haas.berkeley.edu/shapiro/wars.pdf">The Art of
12946 Standards Wars</a> (PDF 25 pages).  I recommend it for everyone
12947 following the standards wars of today.</p>
12948
12949       </div>
12950       <div class="tags">
12951
12952
12953         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/standard">standard</a>.
12954
12955
12956       </div>
12957     </div>
12958     <div class="padding"></div>
12959
12960     <div class="entry">
12961       <div class="title">
12962         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Sitesummary_tip__Listing_computer_hardware_models_used_at_site.html">Sitesummary tip: Listing computer hardware models used at site</a>
12963       </div>
12964       <div class="date">
12965          3rd June 2010
12966       </div>
12967       <div class="body">
12968         <p>When using sitesummary at a site to track machines, it is possible
12969 to get a list of the machine types in use thanks to the DMI
12970 information extracted from each machine.  The script to do so is
12971 included in the sitesummary package, and here is example output from
12972 the Skolelinux build servers:</p>
12973
12974 <blockquote><pre>
12975 maintainer:~# /usr/lib/sitesummary/hardware-model-summary
12976   vendor                    count
12977   Dell Computer Corporation     1
12978     PowerEdge 1750              1
12979   IBM                           1
12980     eserver xSeries 345 -[8670M1X]-     1
12981   Intel                         2
12982   [no-dmi-info]                 3
12983 maintainer:~#
12984 </pre></blockquote>
12985
12986 <p>The quality of the report depend on the quality of the DMI tables
12987 provided in each machine.  Here there are Intel machines without model
12988 information listed with Intel as vendor and no model, and virtual Xen
12989 machines listed as [no-dmi-info].  One can add -l as a command line
12990 option to list the individual machines.</p>
12991
12992 <p>A larger list is
12993 <a href="http://narvikskolen.no/sitesummary/">available from the the
12994 city of Narvik</a>, which uses Skolelinux on all their shools and also
12995 provide the basic sitesummary report publicly.  In their report there
12996 are ~1400 machines. I know they use both Ubuntu and Skolelinux on
12997 their machines, and as sitesummary is available in both distributions,
12998 it is trivial to get all of them to report to the same central
12999 collector.</p>
13000
13001       </div>
13002       <div class="tags">
13003
13004
13005         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sitesummary">sitesummary</a>.
13006
13007
13008       </div>
13009     </div>
13010     <div class="padding"></div>
13011
13012     <div class="entry">
13013       <div class="title">
13014         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/KDM_fail_at_boot_with_NVidia_cards___and_no_one_try_to_fix_it_.html">KDM fail at boot with NVidia cards - and no one try to fix it?</a>
13015       </div>
13016       <div class="date">
13017          1st June 2010
13018       </div>
13019       <div class="body">
13020         <p>It is strange to watch how a bug in Debian causing KDM to fail to
13021 start at boot when an NVidia video card is used is handled.  The
13022 problem seem to be that the nvidia X.org driver uses a long time to
13023 initialize, and this duration is longer than kdm is configured to
13024 wait.</p>
13025
13026 <p>I came across two bugs related to this issue,
13027 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/583312">#583312</a> initially filed
13028 against initscripts and passed on to nvidia-glx when it became obvious
13029 that the nvidia drivers were involved, and
13030 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/524751">#524751</a> initially filed against
13031 kdm and passed on to src:nvidia-graphics-drivers for unknown reasons.</p>
13032
13033 <p>To me, it seem that no-one is interested in actually solving the
13034 problem nvidia video card owners experience and make sure the Debian
13035 distribution work out of the box for these users.  The nvidia driver
13036 maintainers expect kdm to be set up to wait longer, while kdm expect
13037 the nvidia driver maintainers to fix the driver to start faster, and
13038 while they wait for each other I guess the users end up switching to a
13039 distribution that work for them.  I have no idea what the solution is,
13040 but I am pretty sure that waiting for each other is not it.</p>
13041
13042 <p>I wonder why we end up handling bugs this way.</p>
13043
13044       </div>
13045       <div class="tags">
13046
13047
13048         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bootsystem">bootsystem</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
13049
13050
13051       </div>
13052     </div>
13053     <div class="padding"></div>
13054
13055     <div class="entry">
13056       <div class="title">
13057         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Parallellized_boot_seem_to_hold_up_well_in_Debian_testing.html">Parallellized boot seem to hold up well in Debian/testing</a>
13058       </div>
13059       <div class="date">
13060         27th May 2010
13061       </div>
13062       <div class="body">
13063         <p>A few days ago, parallel booting was enabled in Debian/testing.
13064 The feature seem to hold up pretty well, but three fairly serious
13065 issues are known and should be solved:
13066
13067 <p><ul>
13068
13069 <li>The wicd package seen to
13070 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/508289">break NFS mounting</a> and
13071 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/581586">network setup</a> when
13072 parallel booting is enabled.  No idea why, but the wicd maintainer
13073 seem to be on the case.</li>
13074
13075 <li>The nvidia X driver seem to
13076 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/583312">have a race condition</a>
13077 triggered more easily when parallel booting is in effect.  The
13078 maintainer is on the case.</li>
13079
13080 <li>The sysv-rc package fail to properly enable dependency based boot
13081 sequencing (the shutdown is broken) when old file-rc users
13082 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/575080">try to switch back</a> to
13083 sysv-rc.  One way to solve it would be for file-rc to create
13084 /etc/init.d/.legacy-bootordering, and another is to try to make
13085 sysv-rc more robust.  Will investigate some more and probably upload a
13086 workaround in sysv-rc to help those trying to move from file-rc to
13087 sysv-rc get a working shutdown.</li>
13088
13089 </ul></p>
13090
13091 <p>All in all not many surprising issues, and all of them seem
13092 solvable before Squeeze is released.  In addition to these there are
13093 some packages with bugs in their dependencies and run level settings,
13094 which I expect will be fixed in a reasonable time span.</p>
13095
13096 <p>If you report any problems with dependencies in init.d scripts to
13097 the BTS, please usertag the report to get it to show up at
13098 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/pkgreport.cgi?users=initscripts-ng-devel@lists.alioth.debian.org">the
13099 list of usertagged bugs related to this</a>.</p>
13100
13101 <p>Update: Correct bug number to file-rc issue.</p>
13102
13103       </div>
13104       <div class="tags">
13105
13106
13107         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bootsystem">bootsystem</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
13108
13109
13110       </div>
13111     </div>
13112     <div class="padding"></div>
13113
13114     <div class="entry">
13115       <div class="title">
13116         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/More_flexible_firmware_handling_in_debian_installer.html">More flexible firmware handling in debian-installer</a>
13117       </div>
13118       <div class="date">
13119         22nd May 2010
13120       </div>
13121       <div class="body">
13122         <p>After a long break from debian-installer development, I finally
13123 found time today to return to the project.  Having to spend less time
13124 working dependency based boot in debian, as it is almost complete now,
13125 definitely helped freeing some time.</p>
13126
13127 <p>A while back, I ran into a problem while working on Debian Edu.  We
13128 include some firmware packages on the Debian Edu CDs, those needed to
13129 get disk and network controllers working.  Without having these
13130 firmware packages available during installation, it is impossible to
13131 install Debian Edu on the given machine, and because our target group
13132 are non-technical people, asking them to provide firmware packages on
13133 an external medium is a support pain.  Initially, I expected it to be
13134 enough to include the firmware packages on the CD to get
13135 debian-installer to find and use them.  This proved to be wrong.
13136 Next, I hoped it was enough to symlink the relevant firmware packages
13137 to some useful location on the CD (tried /cdrom/ and
13138 /cdrom/firmware/).  This also proved to not work, and at this point I
13139 found time to look at the debian-installer code to figure out what was
13140 going to work.</p>
13141
13142 <p>The firmware loading code is in the hw-detect package, and a closer
13143 look revealed that it would only look for firmware packages outside
13144 the installation media, so the CD was never checked for firmware
13145 packages.  It would only check USB sticks, floppies and other
13146 "external" media devices.  Today I changed it to also look in the
13147 /cdrom/firmware/ directory on the mounted CD or DVD, which should
13148 solve the problem I ran into with Debian edu.  I also changed it to
13149 look in /firmware/, to make sure the installer also find firmware
13150 provided in the initrd when booting the installer via PXE, to allow us
13151 to provide the same feature in the PXE setup included in Debian
13152 Edu.</p>
13153
13154 <p>To make sure firmware deb packages with a license questions are not
13155 activated without asking if the license is accepted, I extended
13156 hw-detect to look for preinst scripts in the firmware packages, and
13157 run these before activating the firmware during installation.  The
13158 license question is asked using debconf in the preinst, so this should
13159 solve the issue for the firmware packages I have looked at so far.</p>
13160
13161 <p>If you want to discuss the details of these features, please
13162 contact us on debian-boot@lists.debian.org.</p>
13163
13164       </div>
13165       <div class="tags">
13166
13167
13168         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
13169
13170
13171       </div>
13172     </div>
13173     <div class="padding"></div>
13174
13175     <div class="entry">
13176       <div class="title">
13177         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Parallellized_boot_is_now_the_default_in_Debian_unstable.html">Parallellized boot is now the default in Debian/unstable</a>
13178       </div>
13179       <div class="date">
13180         14th May 2010
13181       </div>
13182       <div class="body">
13183         <p>Since this evening, parallel booting is the default in
13184 Debian/unstable for machines using dependency based boot sequencing.
13185 Apparently the testing of concurrent booting has been wider than
13186 expected, if I am to believe the
13187 <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2010/05/msg00122.html">input
13188 on debian-devel@</a>, and I concluded a few days ago to move forward
13189 with the feature this weekend, to give us some time to detect any
13190 remaining problems before Squeeze is frozen.  If serious problems are
13191 detected, it is simple to change the default back to sequential boot.
13192 The upload of the new sysvinit package also activate a new upstream
13193 version.</p>
13194
13195 More information about
13196 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/LSBInitScripts/DependencyBasedBoot">dependency
13197 based boot sequencing</a> is available from the Debian wiki.  It is
13198 currently possible to disable parallel booting when one run into
13199 problems caused by it, by adding this line to /etc/default/rcS:</p>
13200
13201 <blockquote><pre>
13202 CONCURRENCY=none
13203 </pre></blockquote>
13204
13205 <p>If you report any problems with dependencies in init.d scripts to
13206 the BTS, please usertag the report to get it to show up at
13207 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/pkgreport.cgi?users=initscripts-ng-devel@lists.alioth.debian.org">the
13208 list of usertagged bugs related to this</a>.</p>
13209
13210       </div>
13211       <div class="tags">
13212
13213
13214         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bootsystem">bootsystem</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
13215
13216
13217       </div>
13218     </div>
13219     <div class="padding"></div>
13220
13221     <div class="entry">
13222       <div class="title">
13223         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Sitesummary_tip__Listing_MAC_address_of_all_clients.html">Sitesummary tip: Listing MAC address of all clients</a>
13224       </div>
13225       <div class="date">
13226         14th May 2010
13227       </div>
13228       <div class="body">
13229         <p>In the recent Debian Edu versions, the
13230 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/HowTo/SiteSummary">sitesummary
13231 system</a> is used to keep track of the machines in the school
13232 network.  Each machine will automatically report its status to the
13233 central server after boot and once per night.  The network setup is
13234 also reported, and using this information it is possible to get the
13235 MAC address of all network interfaces in the machines.  This is useful
13236 to update the DHCP configuration.</p>
13237
13238 <p>To give some idea how to use sitesummary, here is a one-liner to
13239 ist all MAC addresses of all machines reporting to sitesummary.  Run
13240 this on the collector host:</p>
13241
13242 <blockquote><pre>
13243 perl -MSiteSummary -e 'for_all_hosts(sub { print join(" ", get_macaddresses(shift)), "\n"; });'
13244 </pre></blockquote>
13245
13246 <p>This will list all MAC addresses assosiated with all machine, one
13247 line per machine and with space between the MAC addresses.</p>
13248
13249 <p>To allow system administrators easier job at adding static DHCP
13250 addresses for hosts, it would be possible to extend this to fetch
13251 machine information from sitesummary and update the DHCP and DNS
13252 tables in LDAP using this information.  Such tool is unfortunately not
13253 written yet.</p>
13254
13255       </div>
13256       <div class="tags">
13257
13258
13259         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sitesummary">sitesummary</a>.
13260
13261
13262       </div>
13263     </div>
13264     <div class="padding"></div>
13265
13266     <div class="entry">
13267       <div class="title">
13268         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/systemd__an_interesting_alternative_to_upstart.html">systemd, an interesting alternative to upstart</a>
13269       </div>
13270       <div class="date">
13271         13th May 2010
13272       </div>
13273       <div class="body">
13274         <p>The last few days a new boot system called
13275 <a href="http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/systemd">systemd</a>
13276 has been
13277 <a href="http://0pointer.de/blog/projects/systemd.html">introduced</a>
13278
13279 to the free software world.  I have not yet had time to play around
13280 with it, but it seem to be a very interesting alternative to
13281 <a href="http://upstart.ubuntu.com/">upstart</a>, and might prove to be
13282 a good alternative for Debian when we are able to switch to an event
13283 based boot system.  Tollef is
13284 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/580814">in the process</a> of getting
13285 systemd into Debian, and I look forward to seeing how well it work.  I
13286 like the fact that systemd handles init.d scripts with dependency
13287 information natively, allowing them to run in parallel where upstart
13288 at the moment do not.</p>
13289
13290 <p>Unfortunately do systemd have the same problem as upstart regarding
13291 platform support.  It only work on recent Linux kernels, and also need
13292 some new kernel features enabled to function properly.  This means
13293 kFreeBSD and Hurd ports of Debian will need a port or a different boot
13294 system.  Not sure how that will be handled if systemd proves to be the
13295 way forward.</p>
13296
13297 <p>In the mean time, based on the
13298 <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2010/05/msg00122.html">input
13299 on debian-devel@</a> regarding parallel booting in Debian, I have
13300 decided to enable full parallel booting as the default in Debian as
13301 soon as possible (probably this weekend or early next week), to see if
13302 there are any remaining serious bugs in the init.d dependencies.  A
13303 new version of the sysvinit package implementing this change is
13304 already in experimental.  If all go well, Squeeze will be released
13305 with parallel booting enabled by default.</p>
13306
13307       </div>
13308       <div class="tags">
13309
13310
13311         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bootsystem">bootsystem</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
13312
13313
13314       </div>
13315     </div>
13316     <div class="padding"></div>
13317
13318     <div class="entry">
13319       <div class="title">
13320         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Parallellizing_the_boot_in_Debian_Squeeze___ready_for_wider_testing.html">Parallellizing the boot in Debian Squeeze - ready for wider testing</a>
13321       </div>
13322       <div class="date">
13323          6th May 2010
13324       </div>
13325       <div class="body">
13326         <p>These days, the init.d script dependencies in Squeeze are quite
13327 complete, so complete that it is actually possible to run all the
13328 init.d scripts in parallell based on these dependencies.  If you want
13329 to test your Squeeze system, make sure
13330 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/LSBInitScripts/DependencyBasedBoot">dependency
13331 based boot sequencing</a> is enabled, and add this line to
13332 /etc/default/rcS:</p>
13333
13334 <blockquote><pre>
13335 CONCURRENCY=makefile
13336 </pre></blockquote>
13337
13338 <p>That is it.  It will cause sysv-rc to use the startpar tool to run
13339 scripts in parallel using the dependency information stored in
13340 /etc/init.d/.depend.boot, /etc/init.d/.depend.start and
13341 /etc/init.d/.depend.stop to order the scripts.  Startpar is configured
13342 to try to start the kdm and gdm scripts as early as possible, and will
13343 start the facilities required by kdm or gdm as early as possible to
13344 make this happen.</p>
13345
13346 <p>Give it a try, and see if you like the result.  If some services
13347 fail to start properly, it is most likely because they have incomplete
13348 init.d script dependencies in their startup script (or some of their
13349 dependent scripts have incomplete dependencies).  Report bugs and get
13350 the package maintainers to fix it. :)</p>
13351
13352 <p>Running scripts in parallel could be the default in Debian when we
13353 manage to get the init.d script dependencies complete and correct.  I
13354 expect we will get there in Squeeze+1, if we get manage to test and
13355 fix the remaining issues.</p>
13356
13357 <p>If you report any problems with dependencies in init.d scripts to
13358 the BTS, please usertag the report to get it to show up at
13359 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/pkgreport.cgi?users=initscripts-ng-devel@lists.alioth.debian.org">the
13360 list of usertagged bugs related to this</a>.</p>
13361
13362       </div>
13363       <div class="tags">
13364
13365
13366         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bootsystem">bootsystem</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
13367
13368
13369       </div>
13370     </div>
13371     <div class="padding"></div>
13372
13373     <div class="entry">
13374       <div class="title">
13375         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_has_switched_to_dependency_based_boot_sequencing.html">Debian has switched to dependency based boot sequencing</a>
13376       </div>
13377       <div class="date">
13378         27th July 2009
13379       </div>
13380       <div class="body">
13381         <p>Since this evening, with the upload of sysvinit version 2.87dsf-2,
13382 and the upload of insserv version 1.12.0-10 yesterday, Debian unstable
13383 have been migrated to using dependency based boot sequencing.  This
13384 conclude work me and others have been doing for the last three days.
13385 It feels great to see this finally part of the default Debian
13386 installation.  Now we just need to weed out the last few problems that
13387 are bound to show up, to get everything ready for Squeeze.</p>
13388
13389 <p>The next step is migrating /sbin/init from sysvinit to upstart, and
13390 fixing the more fundamental problem of handing the event based
13391 non-predictable kernel in the early boot.</p>
13392
13393       </div>
13394       <div class="tags">
13395
13396
13397         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bootsystem">bootsystem</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
13398
13399
13400       </div>
13401     </div>
13402     <div class="padding"></div>
13403
13404     <div class="entry">
13405       <div class="title">
13406         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Taking_over_sysvinit_development.html">Taking over sysvinit development</a>
13407       </div>
13408       <div class="date">
13409         22nd July 2009
13410       </div>
13411       <div class="body">
13412         <p>After several years of frustration with the lack of activity from
13413 the existing sysvinit upstream developer, I decided a few weeks ago to
13414 take over the package and become the new upstream.  The number of
13415 patches to track for the Debian package was becoming a burden, and the
13416 lack of synchronization between the distribution made it hard to keep
13417 the package up to date.</p>
13418
13419 <p>On the new sysvinit team is the SuSe maintainer Dr. Werner Fink,
13420 and my Debian co-maintainer Kel Modderman.  About 10 days ago, I made
13421 a new upstream tarball with version number 2.87dsf (for Debian, SuSe
13422 and Fedora), based on the patches currently in use in these
13423 distributions.  We Debian maintainers plan to move to this tarball as
13424 the new upstream as soon as we find time to do the merge.  Since the
13425 new tarball was created, we agreed with Werner at SuSe to make a new
13426 upstream project at <a href="http://savannah.nongnu.org/">Savannah</a>, and continue
13427 development there.  The project is registered and currently waiting
13428 for approval by the Savannah administrators, and as soon as it is
13429 approved, we will import the old versions from svn and continue
13430 working on the future release.</p>
13431
13432 <p>It is a bit ironic that this is done now, when some of the involved
13433 distributions are moving to upstart as a syvinit replacement.</p>
13434
13435       </div>
13436       <div class="tags">
13437
13438
13439         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bootsystem">bootsystem</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
13440
13441
13442       </div>
13443     </div>
13444     <div class="padding"></div>
13445
13446     <div class="entry">
13447       <div class="title">
13448         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_boots_quicker_and_quicker.html">Debian boots quicker and quicker</a>
13449       </div>
13450       <div class="date">
13451         24th June 2009
13452       </div>
13453       <div class="body">
13454         <p>I spent Monday and tuesday this week in London with a lot of the
13455 people involved in the boot system on Debian and Ubuntu, to see if we
13456 could find more ways to speed up the boot system.  This was an Ubuntu
13457 funded
13458 <a href="https://wiki.ubuntu.com/FoundationsTeam/BootPerformance/DebianUbuntuSprint">developer
13459 gathering</a>. It was quite productive.  We also discussed the future
13460 of boot systems, and ways to handle the increasing number of boot
13461 issues introduced by the Linux kernel becoming more and more
13462 asynchronous and event base.  The Ubuntu approach using udev and
13463 upstart might be a good way forward.  Time will show.</p>
13464
13465 <p>Anyway, there are a few ways at the moment to speed up the boot
13466 process in Debian.  All of these should be applied to get a quick
13467 boot:</p>
13468
13469 <ul>
13470
13471 <li>Use dash as /bin/sh.</li>
13472
13473 <li>Disable the init.d/hwclock*.sh scripts and make sure the hardware
13474    clock is in UTC.</li>
13475
13476 <li>Install and activate the insserv package to enable
13477    <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/LSBInitScripts/DependencyBasedBoot">dependency
13478    based boot sequencing</a>, and enable concurrent booting.</li>
13479
13480 </ul>
13481
13482 These points are based on the Google summer of code work done by
13483 <a href="http://initscripts-ng.alioth.debian.org/soc2006-bootsystem/">Carlos
13484 Villegas</a>.
13485
13486 <p>Support for makefile-style concurrency during boot was uploaded to
13487 unstable yesterday.  When we tested it, we were able to cut 6 seconds
13488 from the boot sequence.  It depend on very correct dependency
13489 declaration in all init.d scripts, so I expect us to find edge cases
13490 where the dependences in some scripts are slightly wrong when we start
13491 using this.</p>
13492
13493 <p>On our IRC channel for this effort, #pkg-sysvinit, a new idea was
13494 introduced by Raphael Geissert today, one that could affect the
13495 startup speed as well.  Instead of starting some scripts concurrently
13496 from rcS.d/ and another set of scripts from rc2.d/, it would be
13497 possible to run a of them in the same process.  A quick way to test
13498 this would be to enable insserv and run 'mv /etc/rc2.d/S* /etc/rcS.d/;
13499 insserv'.  Will need to test if that work. :)</p>
13500
13501       </div>
13502       <div class="tags">
13503
13504
13505         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bootsystem">bootsystem</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
13506
13507
13508       </div>
13509     </div>
13510     <div class="padding"></div>
13511
13512     <div class="entry">
13513       <div class="title">
13514         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/BSAs_p_stander_om_piratkopiering_m_ter_motstand.html">BSAs påstander om piratkopiering møter motstand</a>
13515       </div>
13516       <div class="date">
13517         17th May 2009
13518       </div>
13519       <div class="body">
13520         <p>Hvert år de siste årene har BSA, lobbyfronten til de store
13521 programvareselskapene som Microsoft og Apple, publisert en rapport der
13522 de gjetter på hvor mye piratkopiering påfører i tapte inntekter i
13523 ulike land rundt om i verden.  Resultatene er tendensiøse.  For noen
13524 dager siden kom
13525 <a href="http://global.bsa.org/globalpiracy2008/studies/globalpiracy2008.pdf">siste
13526 rapport</a>, og det er flere kritiske kommentarer publisert de siste
13527 dagene.  Et spesielt interessant kommentar fra Sverige,
13528 <a href="http://www.idg.se/2.1085/1.229795/bsa-hoftade-sverigesiffror">BSA
13529 höftade Sverigesiffror</a>, oppsummeres slik:</p>
13530
13531 <blockquote>
13532 I sin senaste rapport slår BSA fast att 25 procent av all mjukvara i
13533 Sverige är piratkopierad. Det utan att ha pratat med ett enda svenskt
13534 företag. "Man bör nog kanske inte se de här siffrorna som helt
13535 exakta", säger BSAs Sverigechef John Hugosson.
13536 </blockquote>
13537
13538 <p>Mon tro om de er like metodiske når de gjetter på andelen piratkopiering i Norge?  To andre kommentarer er <a
13539 href="http://www.vnunet.com/vnunet/comment/2242134/bsa-piracy-figures-shot-reality">BSA
13540 piracy figures need a shot of reality</a> og <a
13541 href="http://www.michaelgeist.ca/content/view/3958/125/">Does The WIPO
13542 Copyright Treaty Work?</a></p>
13543
13544 <p>Fant lenkene via <a
13545 href="http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/05/17/1632242">oppslag
13546 på Slashdot</a>.</p>
13547
13548       </div>
13549       <div class="tags">
13550
13551
13552         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bsa">bsa</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/fildeling">fildeling</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/norsk">norsk</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/opphavsrett">opphavsrett</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/personvern">personvern</a>.
13553
13554
13555       </div>
13556     </div>
13557     <div class="padding"></div>
13558
13559     <div class="entry">
13560       <div class="title">
13561         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/IDG_mener_linux_i_servermarkedet_vil_vokse_med_21__i_2009.html">IDG mener linux i servermarkedet vil vokse med 21% i 2009</a>
13562       </div>
13563       <div class="date">
13564          7th May 2009
13565       </div>
13566       <div class="body">
13567         <p>Kom over
13568 <a href="http://news.cnet.com/8301-13505_3-10216873-16.html">interessante
13569 tall</a> fra IDG om utviklingen av linuxservermarkedet.  Fikk meg til
13570 å tenke på antall tjenermaskiner ved Universitetet i Oslo der jeg
13571 jobber til daglig.  En rask opptelling forteller meg at vi har 490
13572 (61%) fysiske unix-tjener (mest linux men også noen solaris) og 196
13573 (25%) windowstjenere, samt 112 (14%) virtuelle unix-tjenere.  Med den
13574 bakgrunnskunnskapen kan jeg godt tro at IDG er inne på noe.</p>
13575
13576       </div>
13577       <div class="tags">
13578
13579
13580         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/norsk">norsk</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
13581
13582
13583       </div>
13584     </div>
13585     <div class="padding"></div>
13586
13587     <div class="entry">
13588       <div class="title">
13589         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Kryptert_harddisk___naturligvis.html">Kryptert harddisk - naturligvis</a>
13590       </div>
13591       <div class="date">
13592          2nd May 2009
13593       </div>
13594       <div class="body">
13595         <p><a href="http://www.dagensit.no/trender/article1658676.ece">Dagens
13596 IT melder</a> at Intel hevder at det er dyrt å miste en datamaskin,
13597 når en tar tap av arbeidstid, fortrolige dokumenter,
13598 personopplysninger og alt annet det innebærer.  Det er ingen tvil om
13599 at det er en kostbar affære å miste sin datamaskin, og det er årsaken
13600 til at jeg har kryptert harddisken på både kontormaskinen og min
13601 bærbare.  Begge inneholder personopplysninger jeg ikke ønsker skal
13602 komme på avveie, den første informasjon relatert til jobben min ved
13603 Universitetet i Oslo, og den andre relatert til blant annet
13604 foreningsarbeide.  Kryptering av diskene gjør at det er lite
13605 sannsynlig at dophoder som kan finne på å rappe maskinene får noe ut
13606 av dem.  Maskinene låses automatisk etter noen minutter uten bruk,
13607 og en reboot vil gjøre at de ber om passord før de vil starte opp.
13608 Jeg bruker Debian på begge maskinene, og installasjonssystemet der
13609 gjør det trivielt å sette opp krypterte disker.  Jeg har LVM på toppen
13610 av krypterte partisjoner, slik at alt av datapartisjoner er kryptert.
13611 Jeg anbefaler alle å kryptere diskene på sine bærbare.  Kostnaden når
13612 det er gjort slik jeg gjør det er minimale, og gevinstene er
13613 betydelige.  En bør dog passe på passordet.  Hvis det går tapt, må
13614 maskinen reinstalleres og alt er tapt.</p>
13615
13616 <p>Krypteringen vil ikke stoppe kompetente angripere som f.eks. kjøler
13617 ned minnebrikkene før maskinen rebootes med programvare for å hente ut
13618 krypteringsnøklene.  Kostnaden med å forsvare seg mot slike angripere
13619 er for min del høyere enn gevinsten.  Jeg tror oddsene for at
13620 f.eks. etteretningsorganisasjoner har glede av å titte på mine
13621 maskiner er minimale, og ulempene jeg ville oppnå ved å forsøke å
13622 gjøre det vanskeligere for angripere med kompetanse og ressurser er
13623 betydelige.</p>
13624
13625       </div>
13626       <div class="tags">
13627
13628
13629         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/norsk">norsk</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>.
13630
13631
13632       </div>
13633     </div>
13634     <div class="padding"></div>
13635
13636     <div class="entry">
13637       <div class="title">
13638         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Two_projects_that_have_improved_the_quality_of_free_software_a_lot.html">Two projects that have improved the quality of free software a lot</a>
13639       </div>
13640       <div class="date">
13641          2nd May 2009
13642       </div>
13643       <div class="body">
13644         <p>There are two software projects that have had huge influence on the
13645 quality of free software, and I wanted to mention both in case someone
13646 do not yet know them.</p>
13647
13648 <p>The first one is <a href="http://valgrind.org/">valgrind</a>, a
13649 tool to detect and expose errors in the memory handling of programs.
13650 It is easy to use, all one need to do is to run 'valgrind program',
13651 and it will report any problems on stdout.  It is even better if the
13652 program include debug information.  With debug information, it is able
13653 to report the source file name and line number where the problem
13654 occurs.  It can report things like 'reading past memory block in file
13655 X line N, the memory block was allocated in file Y, line M', and
13656 'using uninitialised value in control logic'.  This tool has made it
13657 trivial to investigate reproducible crash bugs in programs, and have
13658 reduced the number of this kind of bugs in free software a lot.
13659
13660 <p>The second one is
13661 <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coverity">Coverity</a> which is
13662 a source code checker.  It is able to process the source of a program
13663 and find problems in the logic without running the program.  It
13664 started out as the Stanford Checker and became well known when it was
13665 used to find bugs in the Linux kernel.  It is now a commercial tool
13666 and the company behind it is running
13667 <a href="http://www.scan.coverity.com/">a community service</a> for the
13668 free software community, where a lot of free software projects get
13669 their source checked for free.  Several thousand defects have been
13670 found and fixed so far.  It can find errors like 'lock L taken in file
13671 X line N is never released if exiting in line M', or 'the code in file
13672 Y lines O to P can never be executed'.  The projects included in the
13673 community service project have managed to get rid of a lot of
13674 reliability problems thanks to Coverity.</p>
13675
13676 <p>I believe tools like this, that are able to automatically find
13677 errors in the source, are vital to improve the quality of software and
13678 make sure we can get rid of the crashing and failing software we are
13679 surrounded by today.</p>
13680
13681       </div>
13682       <div class="tags">
13683
13684
13685         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
13686
13687
13688       </div>
13689     </div>
13690     <div class="padding"></div>
13691
13692     <div class="entry">
13693       <div class="title">
13694         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/No_patch_is_not_better_than_a_useless_patch.html">No patch is not better than a useless patch</a>
13695       </div>
13696       <div class="date">
13697         28th April 2009
13698       </div>
13699       <div class="body">
13700         <p>Julien Blache
13701 <a href="http://blog.technologeek.org/2009/04/12/214">claim that no
13702 patch is better than a useless patch</a>.  I completely disagree, as a
13703 patch allow one to discuss a concrete and proposed solution, and also
13704 prove that the issue at hand is important enough for someone to spent
13705 time on fixing it.  No patch do not provide any of these positive
13706 properties.</p>
13707
13708       </div>
13709       <div class="tags">
13710
13711
13712         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
13713
13714
13715       </div>
13716     </div>
13717     <div class="padding"></div>
13718
13719     <div class="entry">
13720       <div class="title">
13721         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Standardize_on_protocols_and_formats__not_vendors_and_applications.html">Standardize on protocols and formats, not vendors and applications</a>
13722       </div>
13723       <div class="date">
13724         30th March 2009
13725       </div>
13726       <div class="body">
13727         <p>Where I work at the University of Oslo, one decision stand out as a
13728 very good one to form a long lived computer infrastructure.  It is the
13729 simple one, lost by many in todays computer industry: Standardize on
13730 open network protocols and open exchange/storage formats, not applications.
13731 Applications come and go, while protocols and files tend to stay, and
13732 thus one want to make it easy to change application and vendor, while
13733 avoiding conversion costs and locking users to a specific platform or
13734 application.</p>
13735
13736 <p>This approach make it possible to replace the client applications
13737 independently of the server applications.  One can even allow users to
13738 use several different applications as long as they handle the selected
13739 protocol and format.  In the normal case, only one client application
13740 is recommended and users only get help if they choose to use this
13741 application, but those that want to deviate from the easy path are not
13742 blocked from doing so.</p>
13743
13744 <p>It also allow us to replace the server side without forcing the
13745 users to replace their applications, and thus allow us to select the
13746 best server implementation at any moment, when scale and resouce
13747 requirements change.</p>
13748
13749 <p>I strongly recommend standardizing - on open network protocols and
13750 open formats, but I would never recommend standardizing on a single
13751 application that do not use open network protocol or open formats.</p>
13752
13753       </div>
13754       <div class="tags">
13755
13756
13757         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/standard">standard</a>.
13758
13759
13760       </div>
13761     </div>
13762     <div class="padding"></div>
13763
13764     <div class="entry">
13765       <div class="title">
13766         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Returning_from_Skolelinux_developer_gathering.html">Returning from Skolelinux developer gathering</a>
13767       </div>
13768       <div class="date">
13769         29th March 2009
13770       </div>
13771       <div class="body">
13772         <p>I'm sitting on the train going home from this weekends Debian
13773 Edu/Skolelinux development gathering.  I got a bit done tuning the
13774 desktop, and looked into the dynamic service location protocol
13775 implementation avahi.  It look like it could be useful for us.  Almost
13776 30 people participated, and I believe it was a great environment to
13777 get to know the Skolelinux system.  Walter Bender, involved in the
13778 development of the Sugar educational platform, presented his stuff and
13779 also helped me improve my OLPC installation.  He also showed me that
13780 his Turtle Art application can be used in standalone mode, and we
13781 agreed that I would help getting it packaged for Debian.  As a
13782 standalone application it would be great for Debian Edu.  We also
13783 tried to get the video conferencing working with two OLPCs, but that
13784 proved to be too hard for us.  The application seem to need more work
13785 before it is ready for me.  I look forward to getting home and relax
13786 now. :)</p>
13787
13788       </div>
13789       <div class="tags">
13790
13791
13792         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
13793
13794
13795       </div>
13796     </div>
13797     <div class="padding"></div>
13798
13799     <div class="entry">
13800       <div class="title">
13801         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Time_for_new__LDAP_schemas_replacing_RFC_2307_.html">Time for new  LDAP schemas replacing RFC 2307?</a>
13802       </div>
13803       <div class="date">
13804         29th March 2009
13805       </div>
13806       <div class="body">
13807         <p>The state of standardized LDAP schemas on Linux is far from
13808 optimal.  There is RFC 2307 documenting one way to store NIS maps in
13809 LDAP, and a modified version of this normally called RFC 2307bis, with
13810 some modifications to be compatible with Active Directory.  The RFC
13811 specification handle the content of a lot of system databases, but do
13812 not handle DNS zones and DHCP configuration.</p>
13813
13814 <p>In <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu/Skolelinux</a>,
13815 we would like to store information about users, SMB clients/hosts,
13816 filegroups, netgroups (users and hosts), DHCP and DNS configuration,
13817 and LTSP configuration in LDAP.  These objects have a lot in common,
13818 but with the current LDAP schemas it is not possible to have one
13819 object per entity.  For example, one need to have at least three LDAP
13820 objects for a given computer, one with the SMB related stuff, one with
13821 DNS information and another with DHCP information.  The schemas
13822 provided for DNS and DHCP are impossible to combine into one LDAP
13823 object.  In addition, it is impossible to implement quick queries for
13824 netgroup membership, because of the way NIS triples are implemented.
13825 It just do not scale.  I believe it is time for a few RFC
13826 specifications to cleam up this mess.</p>
13827
13828 <p>I would like to have one LDAP object representing each computer in
13829 the network, and this object can then keep the SMB (ie host key), DHCP
13830 (mac address/name) and DNS (name/IP address) settings in one place.
13831 It need to be efficently stored to make sure it scale well.</p>
13832
13833 <p>I would also like to have a quick way to map from a user or
13834 computer and to the net group this user or computer is a member.</p>
13835
13836 <p>Active Directory have done a better job than unix heads like myself
13837 in this regard, and the unix side need to catch up.  Time to start a
13838 new IETF work group?</p>
13839
13840       </div>
13841       <div class="tags">
13842
13843
13844         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ldap">ldap</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
13845
13846
13847       </div>
13848     </div>
13849     <div class="padding"></div>
13850
13851     <div class="entry">
13852       <div class="title">
13853         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Endelig_er_Debian_Lenny_gitt_ut.html">Endelig er Debian Lenny gitt ut</a>
13854       </div>
13855       <div class="date">
13856         15th February 2009
13857       </div>
13858       <div class="body">
13859         <p>Endelig er <a href="http://www.debian.org/">Debian</a>
13860 <a href="http://www.debian.org/News/2009/20090214">Lenny</a> gitt ut.
13861 Et langt steg videre for Debian-prosjektet, og en rekke nye
13862 programpakker blir nå tilgjengelig for de av oss som bruker den
13863 stabile utgaven av Debian.  Neste steg er nå å få
13864 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Skolelinux</a> /
13865 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/">Debian Edu</a> ferdig
13866 oppdatert for den nye utgaven, slik at en oppdatert versjon kan
13867 slippes løs på skolene.  Takk til alle debian-utviklerne som har
13868 gjort dette mulig.  Endelig er f.eks. fungerende avhengighetsstyrt
13869 bootsekvens tilgjengelig i stabil utgave, vha pakken
13870 <tt>insserv</tt>.</p>
13871
13872       </div>
13873       <div class="tags">
13874
13875
13876         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/norsk">norsk</a>.
13877
13878
13879       </div>
13880     </div>
13881     <div class="padding"></div>
13882
13883     <div class="entry">
13884       <div class="title">
13885         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Devcamp_brought_us_closer_to_the_Lenny_based_Debian_Edu_release.html">Devcamp brought us closer to the Lenny based Debian Edu release</a>
13886       </div>
13887       <div class="date">
13888          7th December 2008
13889       </div>
13890       <div class="body">
13891         <p>This weekend we had a small developer gathering for Debian Edu in
13892 Oslo.  Most of Saturday was used for the general assemly for the
13893 member organization, but the rest of the weekend I used to tune the
13894 LTSP installation.  LTSP now work out of the box on the 10-network.
13895 Acer Aspire One proved to be a very nice thin client, with both
13896 screen, mouse and keybard in a small box.  Was working on getting the
13897 diskless workstation setup configured out of the box, but did not
13898 finish it before the weekend was up.</p>
13899
13900 <p>Did not find time to look at the 4 VGA cards in one box we got from
13901 the Brazilian group, so that will have to wait for the next
13902 development gathering.  Would love to have the Debian Edu installer
13903 automatically detect and configure a multiseat setup when it find one
13904 of these cards.</p>
13905
13906       </div>
13907       <div class="tags">
13908
13909
13910         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ltsp">ltsp</a>.
13911
13912
13913       </div>
13914     </div>
13915     <div class="padding"></div>
13916
13917     <div class="entry">
13918       <div class="title">
13919         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_sorry_state_of_multimedia_browser_plugins_in_Debian.html">The sorry state of multimedia browser plugins in Debian</a>
13920       </div>
13921       <div class="date">
13922         25th November 2008
13923       </div>
13924       <div class="body">
13925         <p>Recently I have spent some time evaluating the multimedia browser
13926 plugins available in Debian Lenny, to see which one we should use by
13927 default in Debian Edu.  We need an embedded video playing plugin with
13928 control buttons to pause or stop the video, and capable of streaming
13929 all the multimedia content available on the web.  The test results and
13930 notes are available on
13931 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/BrowserMultimedia">the
13932 Debian wiki</a>.  I was surprised how few of the plugins are able to
13933 fill this need.  My personal video player favorite, VLC, has a really
13934 bad plugin which fail on a lot of the test pages.  A lot of the MIME
13935 types I would expect to work with any free software player (like
13936 video/ogg), just do not work.  And simple formats like the
13937 audio/x-mplegurl format (m3u playlists), just isn't supported by the
13938 totem and vlc plugins.  I hope the situation will improve soon.  No
13939 wonder sites use the proprietary Adobe flash to play video.</p>
13940
13941 <p>For Lenny, we seem to end up with the mplayer plugin.  It seem to
13942 be the only one fitting our needs. :/</p>
13943
13944       </div>
13945       <div class="tags">
13946
13947
13948         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/multimedia">multimedia</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/web">web</a>.
13949
13950
13951       </div>
13952     </div>
13953     <div class="padding"></div>
13954
13955     <p style="text-align: right;"><a href="debian.rss"><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/xml.gif" alt="RSS Feed" width="36" height="14" /></a></p>
13956     <div id="sidebar">
13957
13958
13959
13960 <h2>Archive</h2>
13961 <ul>
13962
13963 <li>2020
13964 <ul>
13965
13966 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2020/02/">February (2)</a></li>
13967
13968 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2020/03/">March (2)</a></li>
13969
13970 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2020/04/">April (2)</a></li>
13971
13972 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2020/05/">May (2)</a></li>
13973
13974 </ul></li>
13975
13976 <li>2019
13977 <ul>
13978
13979 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2019/01/">January (4)</a></li>
13980
13981 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2019/02/">February (3)</a></li>
13982
13983 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2019/03/">March (3)</a></li>
13984
13985 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2019/05/">May (2)</a></li>
13986
13987 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2019/06/">June (5)</a></li>
13988
13989 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2019/07/">July (2)</a></li>
13990
13991 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2019/08/">August (1)</a></li>
13992
13993 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2019/09/">September (1)</a></li>
13994
13995 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2019/11/">November (1)</a></li>
13996
13997 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2019/12/">December (4)</a></li>
13998
13999 </ul></li>
14000
14001 <li>2018
14002 <ul>
14003
14004 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2018/01/">January (1)</a></li>
14005
14006 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2018/02/">February (5)</a></li>
14007
14008 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2018/03/">March (5)</a></li>
14009
14010 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2018/04/">April (3)</a></li>
14011
14012 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2018/06/">June (2)</a></li>
14013
14014 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2018/07/">July (5)</a></li>
14015
14016 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2018/08/">August (3)</a></li>
14017
14018 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2018/09/">September (3)</a></li>
14019
14020 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2018/10/">October (5)</a></li>
14021
14022 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2018/11/">November (2)</a></li>
14023
14024 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2018/12/">December (4)</a></li>
14025
14026 </ul></li>
14027
14028 <li>2017
14029 <ul>
14030
14031 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2017/01/">January (4)</a></li>
14032
14033 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2017/02/">February (3)</a></li>
14034
14035 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2017/03/">March (5)</a></li>
14036
14037 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2017/04/">April (2)</a></li>
14038
14039 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2017/06/">June (5)</a></li>
14040
14041 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2017/07/">July (1)</a></li>
14042
14043 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2017/08/">August (1)</a></li>
14044
14045 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2017/09/">September (3)</a></li>
14046
14047 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2017/10/">October (5)</a></li>
14048
14049 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2017/11/">November (3)</a></li>
14050
14051 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2017/12/">December (4)</a></li>
14052
14053 </ul></li>
14054
14055 <li>2016
14056 <ul>
14057
14058 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2016/01/">January (3)</a></li>
14059
14060 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2016/02/">February (2)</a></li>
14061
14062 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2016/03/">March (3)</a></li>
14063
14064 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2016/04/">April (8)</a></li>
14065
14066 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2016/05/">May (8)</a></li>
14067
14068 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2016/06/">June (2)</a></li>
14069
14070 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2016/07/">July (2)</a></li>
14071
14072 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2016/08/">August (5)</a></li>
14073
14074 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2016/09/">September (2)</a></li>
14075
14076 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2016/10/">October (3)</a></li>
14077
14078 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2016/11/">November (8)</a></li>
14079
14080 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2016/12/">December (5)</a></li>
14081
14082 </ul></li>
14083
14084 <li>2015
14085 <ul>
14086
14087 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/01/">January (7)</a></li>
14088
14089 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/02/">February (6)</a></li>
14090
14091 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/03/">March (1)</a></li>
14092
14093 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/04/">April (4)</a></li>
14094
14095 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/05/">May (3)</a></li>
14096
14097 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/06/">June (4)</a></li>
14098
14099 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/07/">July (6)</a></li>
14100
14101 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/08/">August (2)</a></li>
14102
14103 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/09/">September (2)</a></li>
14104
14105 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/10/">October (9)</a></li>
14106
14107 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/11/">November (6)</a></li>
14108
14109 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/12/">December (3)</a></li>
14110
14111 </ul></li>
14112
14113 <li>2014
14114 <ul>
14115
14116 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/01/">January (2)</a></li>
14117
14118 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/02/">February (3)</a></li>
14119
14120 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/03/">March (8)</a></li>
14121
14122 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/04/">April (7)</a></li>
14123
14124 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/05/">May (1)</a></li>
14125
14126 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/06/">June (2)</a></li>
14127
14128 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/07/">July (2)</a></li>
14129
14130 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/08/">August (2)</a></li>
14131
14132 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/09/">September (5)</a></li>
14133
14134 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/10/">October (6)</a></li>
14135
14136 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/11/">November (3)</a></li>
14137
14138 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/12/">December (5)</a></li>
14139
14140 </ul></li>
14141
14142 <li>2013
14143 <ul>
14144
14145 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/01/">January (11)</a></li>
14146
14147 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/02/">February (9)</a></li>
14148
14149 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/03/">March (9)</a></li>
14150
14151 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/04/">April (6)</a></li>
14152
14153 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/05/">May (9)</a></li>
14154
14155 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/06/">June (10)</a></li>
14156
14157 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/07/">July (7)</a></li>
14158
14159 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/08/">August (3)</a></li>
14160
14161 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/09/">September (5)</a></li>
14162
14163 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/10/">October (7)</a></li>
14164
14165 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/11/">November (9)</a></li>
14166
14167 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/12/">December (3)</a></li>
14168
14169 </ul></li>
14170
14171 <li>2012
14172 <ul>
14173
14174 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/01/">January (7)</a></li>
14175
14176 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/02/">February (10)</a></li>
14177
14178 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/03/">March (17)</a></li>
14179
14180 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/04/">April (12)</a></li>
14181
14182 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/05/">May (12)</a></li>
14183
14184 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/06/">June (20)</a></li>
14185
14186 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/07/">July (17)</a></li>
14187
14188 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/08/">August (6)</a></li>
14189
14190 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/09/">September (9)</a></li>
14191
14192 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/10/">October (17)</a></li>
14193
14194 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/11/">November (10)</a></li>
14195
14196 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/12/">December (7)</a></li>
14197
14198 </ul></li>
14199
14200 <li>2011
14201 <ul>
14202
14203 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/01/">January (16)</a></li>
14204
14205 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/02/">February (6)</a></li>
14206
14207 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/03/">March (6)</a></li>
14208
14209 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/04/">April (7)</a></li>
14210
14211 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/05/">May (3)</a></li>
14212
14213 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/06/">June (2)</a></li>
14214
14215 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/07/">July (7)</a></li>
14216
14217 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/08/">August (6)</a></li>
14218
14219 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/09/">September (4)</a></li>
14220
14221 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/10/">October (2)</a></li>
14222
14223 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/11/">November (3)</a></li>
14224
14225 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/12/">December (1)</a></li>
14226
14227 </ul></li>
14228
14229 <li>2010
14230 <ul>
14231
14232 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/01/">January (2)</a></li>
14233
14234 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/02/">February (1)</a></li>
14235
14236 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/03/">March (3)</a></li>
14237
14238 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/04/">April (3)</a></li>
14239
14240 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/05/">May (9)</a></li>
14241
14242 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/06/">June (14)</a></li>
14243
14244 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/07/">July (12)</a></li>
14245
14246 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/08/">August (13)</a></li>
14247
14248 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/09/">September (7)</a></li>
14249
14250 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/10/">October (9)</a></li>
14251
14252 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/11/">November (13)</a></li>
14253
14254 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/12/">December (12)</a></li>
14255
14256 </ul></li>
14257
14258 <li>2009
14259 <ul>
14260
14261 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/01/">January (8)</a></li>
14262
14263 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/02/">February (8)</a></li>
14264
14265 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/03/">March (12)</a></li>
14266
14267 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/04/">April (10)</a></li>
14268
14269 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/05/">May (9)</a></li>
14270
14271 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/06/">June (3)</a></li>
14272
14273 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/07/">July (4)</a></li>
14274
14275 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/08/">August (3)</a></li>
14276
14277 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/09/">September (1)</a></li>
14278
14279 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/10/">October (2)</a></li>
14280
14281 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/11/">November (3)</a></li>
14282
14283 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/12/">December (3)</a></li>
14284
14285 </ul></li>
14286
14287 <li>2008
14288 <ul>
14289
14290 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2008/11/">November (5)</a></li>
14291
14292 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2008/12/">December (7)</a></li>
14293
14294 </ul></li>
14295
14296 </ul>
14297
14298
14299
14300 <h2>Tags</h2>
14301 <ul>
14302
14303  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/3d-printer">3d-printer (16)</a></li>
14304
14305  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/amiga">amiga (1)</a></li>
14306
14307  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/aros">aros (1)</a></li>
14308
14309  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bankid">bankid (4)</a></li>
14310
14311  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/betalkontant">betalkontant (8)</a></li>
14312
14313  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bitcoin">bitcoin (11)</a></li>
14314
14315  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bootsystem">bootsystem (17)</a></li>
14316
14317  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bsa">bsa (2)</a></li>
14318
14319  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/chrpath">chrpath (2)</a></li>
14320
14321  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian (170)</a></li>
14322
14323  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu (159)</a></li>
14324
14325  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian-handbook">debian-handbook (4)</a></li>
14326
14327  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/digistan">digistan (11)</a></li>
14328
14329  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/dld">dld (17)</a></li>
14330
14331  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/docbook">docbook (26)</a></li>
14332
14333  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/drivstoffpriser">drivstoffpriser (4)</a></li>
14334
14335  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english (416)</a></li>
14336
14337  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/fiksgatami">fiksgatami (23)</a></li>
14338
14339  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/fildeling">fildeling (14)</a></li>
14340
14341  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freeculture">freeculture (34)</a></li>
14342
14343  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freedombox">freedombox (9)</a></li>
14344
14345  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/frikanalen">frikanalen (20)</a></li>
14346
14347  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/h264">h264 (20)</a></li>
14348
14349  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/intervju">intervju (43)</a></li>
14350
14351  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram">isenkram (16)</a></li>
14352
14353  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/kart">kart (22)</a></li>
14354
14355  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/kodi">kodi (4)</a></li>
14356
14357  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ldap">ldap (9)</a></li>
14358
14359  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/lego">lego (4)</a></li>
14360
14361  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/lenker">lenker (8)</a></li>
14362
14363  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/lsdvd">lsdvd (2)</a></li>
14364
14365  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ltsp">ltsp (1)</a></li>
14366
14367  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/mesh network">mesh network (8)</a></li>
14368
14369  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/multimedia">multimedia (42)</a></li>
14370
14371  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nice free software">nice free software (13)</a></li>
14372
14373  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/noark5">noark5 (22)</a></li>
14374
14375  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/norsk">norsk (313)</a></li>
14376
14377  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug (197)</a></li>
14378
14379  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/offentlig innsyn">offentlig innsyn (38)</a></li>
14380
14381  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/open311">open311 (2)</a></li>
14382
14383  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/opphavsrett">opphavsrett (75)</a></li>
14384
14385  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/personvern">personvern (111)</a></li>
14386
14387  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/raid">raid (2)</a></li>
14388
14389  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/reactos">reactos (1)</a></li>
14390
14391  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/reprap">reprap (11)</a></li>
14392
14393  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/rfid">rfid (3)</a></li>
14394
14395  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/robot">robot (12)</a></li>
14396
14397  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/rss">rss (1)</a></li>
14398
14399  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ruter">ruter (7)</a></li>
14400
14401  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/scraperwiki">scraperwiki (2)</a></li>
14402
14403  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet (57)</a></li>
14404
14405  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sitesummary">sitesummary (4)</a></li>
14406
14407  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/skepsis">skepsis (5)</a></li>
14408
14409  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/standard">standard (70)</a></li>
14410
14411  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/stavekontroll">stavekontroll (7)</a></li>
14412
14413  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/stortinget">stortinget (12)</a></li>
14414
14415  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance (59)</a></li>
14416
14417  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sysadmin">sysadmin (4)</a></li>
14418
14419  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/usenix">usenix (2)</a></li>
14420
14421  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/valg">valg (9)</a></li>
14422
14423  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/verkidetfri">verkidetfri (17)</a></li>
14424
14425  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/video">video (73)</a></li>
14426
14427  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/vitenskap">vitenskap (4)</a></li>
14428
14429  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/web">web (42)</a></li>
14430
14431 </ul>
14432
14433
14434     </div>
14435     <p style="text-align: right">
14436  Created by <a href="http://steve.org.uk/Software/chronicle">Chronicle v4.6</a>
14437 </p>
14438
14439   </body>
14440 </html>