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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/Debian__the_Linux_distribution_of_choice_for_LEGO_designers_.html">Debian, the Linux distribution of choice for LEGO designers?</a>
  26       </div>
  27       <div class="date">
  28         11th May 2013
  29       </div>
  30       <div class="body">
  31         <P>In January,
  32 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/New_IRC_channel_for_LEGO_designers_using_Debian.html">I
  33 announced a</a> new <a href="irc://irc.debian.org/%23debian-lego">IRC
  34 channel #debian-lego</a>, for those of us in the Debian and Linux
  35 community interested in <a href="http://www.lego.com/">LEGO</a>, the
  36 marvellous construction system from Denmark.  We also created
  37 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/LegoDesigners">a wiki page</a> to have
  38 a place to take notes and write down our plans and hopes.  And several
  39 people showed up to help.  I was very happy to see the effect of my
  40 call.  Since the small start, we have a debtags tag
  41 <a href="http://debtags.debian.net/search/bytag?wl=hardware::hobby:lego">hardware::hobby:lego</a>
  42 tag for LEGO related packages, and now count 10 packages related to
  43 LEGO and <a href="http://mindstorms.lego.com/">Mindstorms</a>:</p>
  44
  45 <p><table>
  46 <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>
  47 <tr><td><a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/leocad">leocad</a></td><td>virtual brick CAD software</td></tr>
  48 <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>
  49 <tr><td><a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/lnpd">lnpd</a></td><td>daemon for LNP communication with BrickOS</td></tr>
  50 <tr><td><a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/nbc">nbc</a></td><td>compiler for LEGO Mindstorms NXT bricks</td></tr>
  51 <tr><td><a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/nqc">nqc</a></td><td>Not Quite C compiler for LEGO Mindstorms RCX</td></tr>
  52 <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>
  53 <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>
  54 <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>
  55 <tr><td><a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/t2n">t2n</a></td><td>simple command-line tool for Lego NXT</td></tr>
  56 </table></p>
  57
  58 <p>Some of these are available in Wheezy, and all but one are
  59 currently available in Jessie/testing.  leocad is so far only
  60 available in experimental.</p>
  61
  62 <p>If you care about LEGO in Debian, please join us on IRC and help
  63 adding the rest of the great free software tools available on Linux
  64 for LEGO designers.</p>
  65
  66       </div>
  67       <div class="tags">
  68
  69
  70         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>.
  71
  72
  73       </div>
  74     </div>
  75     <div class="padding"></div>
  76
  77     <div class="entry">
  78       <div class="title">
  79         <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>
  80       </div>
  81       <div class="date">
  82          5th May 2013
  83       </div>
  84       <div class="body">
  85         <p>When I woke up this morning, I was very happy to see that the
  86 <a href="http://www.debian.org/News/2013/20130504">release announcement
  87 for Debian Wheezy</a> was waiting in my mail box.  This is a great
  88 Debian release, and I expect to move my machines at home over to it fairly
  89 soon.</p>
  90
  91 <p>The new debian release contain heaps of new stuff, and one program
  92 in particular make me very happy to see included.  The
  93 <a href="http://scratch.mit.edu/">Scratch</a> program, made famous by
  94 the <a href="http://www.code.org/">Teach kids code</a> movement, is
  95 included for the first time.  Alongside similar programs like
  96 <a href="http://edu.kde.org/kturtle/">kturtle</a> and
  97 <a href="http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Activities/Turtle_Art">turtleart</a>,
  98 it allow for visual programming where syntax errors can not happen,
  99 and a friendly programming environment for learning to control the
 100 computer.  Scratch will also be included in the next release of Debian
 101 Edu.</a>
 102
 103 <p>And now that Wheezy is wrapped up, we can wrap up the next Debian
 104 Edu/Skolelinux release too.  The
 105 <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-edu/2013/04/msg00132.html">first
 106 alpha release</a> went out last week, and the next should soon
 107 follow.<p>
 108
 109       </div>
 110       <div class="tags">
 111
 112
 113         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>.
 114
 115
 116       </div>
 117     </div>
 118     <div class="padding"></div>
 119
 120     <div class="entry">
 121       <div class="title">
 122         <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>
 123       </div>
 124       <div class="date">
 125          3rd April 2013
 126       </div>
 127       <div class="body">
 128         <p>Today the <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/isenkram">Isenkram
 129 package</a> finally made it into the archive, after lingering in NEW
 130 for many months.  I uploaded it to the Debian experimental suite
 131 2013-01-27, and today it was accepted into the archive.</p>
 132
 133 <p>Isenkram is a system for suggesting to users what packages to
 134 install to work with a pluggable hardware device.  The suggestion pop
 135 up when the device is plugged in.  For example if a Lego Mindstorm NXT
 136 is inserted, it will suggest to install the program needed to program
 137 the NXT controller.  Give it a go, and report bugs and suggestions to
 138 BTS. :)</p>
 139
 140       </div>
 141       <div class="tags">
 142
 143
 144         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>.
 145
 146
 147       </div>
 148     </div>
 149     <div class="padding"></div>
 150
 151     <div class="entry">
 152       <div class="title">
 153         <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>
 154       </div>
 155       <div class="date">
 156          2nd February 2013
 157       </div>
 158       <div class="body">
 159         <p>My
 160 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_backport_bitcoin_qt_version_0_7_2_2_to_Debian_Squeeze.html">last
 161 bitcoin related blog post</a> mentioned that the new
 162 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/bitcoin">bitcoin package</a> for
 163 Debian was waiting in NEW.  It was accepted by the Debian ftp-masters
 164 2013-01-19, and have been available in unstable since then.  It was
 165 automatically copied to Ubuntu, and is available in their Raring
 166 version too.</p>
 167
 168 <p>But there is a strange problem with the build that block this new
 169 version from being available on the i386 and kfreebsd-i386
 170 architectures.  For some strange reason, the autobuilders in Debian
 171 for these architectures fail to run the test suite on these
 172 architectures (<a href="http://bugs.debian.org/672524">BTS #672524</a>).
 173 We are so far unable to reproduce it when building it manually, and
 174 no-one have been able to propose a fix.  If you got an idea what is
 175 failing, please let us know via the BTS.</p>
 176
 177 <p>One feature that is annoying me with of the bitcoin client, because
 178 I often run low on disk space, is the fact that the client will exit
 179 if it run short on space (<a href="http://bugs.debian.org/696715">BTS
 180 #696715</a>).  So make sure you have enough disk space when you run
 181 it. :)</p>
 182
 183 <p>As usual, if you use bitcoin and want to show your support of my
 184 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
 185 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b&label=PetterReinholdtsenBlog">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
 186
 187       </div>
 188       <div class="tags">
 189
 190
 191         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>.
 192
 193
 194       </div>
 195     </div>
 196     <div class="padding"></div>
 197
 198     <div class="entry">
 199       <div class="title">
 200         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Welcome_to_the_world__Isenkram_.html">Welcome to the world, Isenkram!</a>
 201       </div>
 202       <div class="date">
 203         22nd January 2013
 204       </div>
 205       <div class="body">
 206         <p>Yesterday, I
 207 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/First_prototype_ready_making_hardware_easier_to_use_in_Debian.html">asked
 208 for testers</a> for my prototype for making Debian better at handling
 209 pluggable hardware devices, which I
 210 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lets_make_hardware_dongles_easier_to_use_in_Debian.html">set
 211 out to create</a> earlier this month.  Several valuable testers showed
 212 up, and caused me to really want to to open up the development to more
 213 people.  But before I did this, I want to come up with a sensible name
 214 for this project.  Today I finally decided on a new name, and I have
 215 renamed the project from hw-support-handler to this new name.  In the
 216 process, I moved the source to git and made it available as a
 217 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/gitweb/?p=collab-maint/isenkram.git">collab-maint</a>
 218 repository in Debian.  The new name?  It is <strong>Isenkram</strong>.
 219 To fetch and build the latest version of the source, use</p>
 220
 221 <pre>
 222 git clone http://anonscm.debian.org/git/collab-maint/isenkram.git
 223 cd isenkram && git-buildpackage -us -uc
 224 </pre>
 225
 226 <p>I have not yet adjusted all files to use the new name yet.  If you
 227 want to hack on the source or improve the package, please go ahead.
 228 But please talk to me first on IRC or via email before you do major
 229 changes, to make sure we do not step on each others toes. :)</p>
 230
 231 <p>If you wonder what 'isenkram' is, it is a Norwegian word for iron
 232 stuff, typically meaning tools, nails, screws, etc.  Typical hardware
 233 stuff, in other words.  I've been told it is the Norwegian variant of
 234 the German word eisenkram, for those that are familiar with that
 235 word.</p>
 236
 237 <p><strong>Update 2013-01-26</strong>: Added -us -us to build
 238 instructions, to avoid confusing people with an error from the signing
 239 process.</p>
 240
 241 <p><strong>Update 2013-01-27</strong>: Switch to HTTP URL for the git
 242 clone argument to avoid the need for authentication.</p>
 243
 244       </div>
 245       <div class="tags">
 246
 247
 248         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>.
 249
 250
 251       </div>
 252     </div>
 253     <div class="padding"></div>
 254
 255     <div class="entry">
 256       <div class="title">
 257         <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>
 258       </div>
 259       <div class="date">
 260         21st January 2013
 261       </div>
 262       <div class="body">
 263         <p>Early this month I set out to try to
 264 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lets_make_hardware_dongles_easier_to_use_in_Debian.html">improve
 265 the Debian support for pluggable hardware devices</a>.  Now my
 266 prototype is working, and it is ready for a larger audience.  To test
 267 it, fetch the
 268 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/">source
 269 from the Debian Edu subversion repository</a>, build and install the
 270 package.  You might have to log out and in again activate the
 271 autostart script.</p>
 272
 273 <p>The design is simple:</p>
 274
 275 <ul>
 276
 277 <li>Add desktop entry in /usr/share/autostart/ causing a program
 278 hw-support-handlerd to start when the user log in.</li>
 279
 280 <li>This program listen for kernel events about new hardware (directly
 281 from the kernel like udev does), not using HAL dbus events as I
 282 initially did.</li>
 283
 284 <li>When new hardware is inserted, look up the hardware modalias in
 285 the APT database, a database
 286 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/modaliases?view=markup">available
 287 via HTTP</a> and a database available as part of the package.</li>
 288
 289 <li>If a package is mapped to the hardware in question, the package
 290 isn't installed yet and this is the first time the hardware was
 291 plugged in, show a desktop notification suggesting to install the
 292 package or packages.</li>
 293
 294 <li>If the user click on the 'install package now' button, ask
 295 aptdaemon via the PackageKit API to install the requrired package.</li>
 296
 297 <li>aptdaemon ask for root password or sudo password, and install the
 298 package while showing progress information in a window.</li>
 299
 300 </ul>
 301
 302 <p>I still need to come up with a better name for the system.  Here
 303 are some screen shots showing the prototype in action.  First the
 304 notification, then the password request, and finally the request to
 305 approve all the dependencies.  Sorry for the Norwegian Bokmål GUI.</p>
 306
 307 <p><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-01-21-hw-support-1-notification.png">
 308 <br><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-01-21-hw-support-2-password.png">
 309 <br><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-01-21-hw-support-3-dependencies.png">
 310 <br><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-01-21-hw-support-4-installing.png">
 311 <br><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-01-21-hw-support-5-installing-details.png" width="70%"></p>
 312
 313 <p>The prototype still need to be improved with longer timeouts, but
 314 is already useful.  The database of hardware to package mappings also
 315 need more work.  It is currently compatible with the Ubuntu way of
 316 storing such information in the package control file, but could be
 317 changed to use other formats instead or in addition to the current
 318 method.  I've dropped the use of discover for this mapping, as the
 319 modalias approach is more flexible and easier to use on Linux as long
 320 as the Linux kernel expose its modalias strings directly.</p>
 321
 322 <p><strong>Update 2013-01-21 16:50</strong>: Due to popular demand,
 323 here is the command required to check out and build the source: Use
 324 '<tt>svn checkout
 325 svn://svn.debian.org/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/; cd
 326 hw-support-handler; debuild</tt>'.  If you lack debuild, install the
 327 devscripts package.</p>
 328
 329 <p><strong>Update 2013-01-23 12:00</strong>: The project is now
 330 renamed to Isenkram and the source moved from the Debian Edu
 331 subversion repository to a Debian collab-maint git repository.  See
 332 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Welcome_to_the_world__Isenkram_.html">build
 333 instructions</a> for details.</p>
 334
 335       </div>
 336       <div class="tags">
 337
 338
 339         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>.
 340
 341
 342       </div>
 343     </div>
 344     <div class="padding"></div>
 345
 346     <div class="entry">
 347       <div class="title">
 348         <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>
 349       </div>
 350       <div class="date">
 351         19th January 2013
 352       </div>
 353       <div class="body">
 354         <p>This Christmas my trusty old laptop died.  It died quietly and
 355 suddenly in bed.  With a quiet whimper, it went completely quiet and
 356 black.  The power button was no longer able to turn it on.  It was a
 357 IBM Thinkpad X41, and the best laptop I ever had.  Better than both
 358 Thinkpads X30, X31, X40, X60, X61 and X61S.  Far better than the
 359 Compaq I had before that.  Now I need to find a replacement.  To keep
 360 going during Christmas, I moved the one year old SSD disk to my old
 361 X40 where it fitted (only one I had left that could use it), but it is
 362 not a durable solution.
 363
 364 <p>My laptop needs are fairly modest.  This is my wishlist from when I
 365 got a new one more than 10 years ago.  It still holds true.:)</p>
 366
 367 <ul>
 368
 369 <li>Lightweight (around 1 kg) and small volume (preferably smaller
 370   than A4).</li>
 371 <li>Robust, it will be in my backpack every day.</li>
 372 <li>Three button mouse and a mouse pin instead of touch pad.</li>
 373 <li>Long battery life time.  Preferable a week.</li>
 374 <li>Internal WIFI network card.</li>
 375 <li>Internal Twisted Pair network card.</li>
 376 <li>Some USB slots (2-3 is plenty)</li>
 377 <li>Good keyboard - similar to the Thinkpad.</li>
 378 <li>Video resolution at least 1024x768, with size around 12" (A4 paper
 379 size).</li>
 380 <li>Hardware supported by Debian Stable, ie the default kernel and
 381   X.org packages.</li>
 382 <li>Quiet, preferably fan free (or at least not using the fan most of
 383   the time).
 384
 385 </ul>
 386
 387 <p>You will notice that there are no RAM and CPU requirements in the
 388 list.  The reason is simply that the specifications on laptops the
 389 last 10-15 years have been sufficient for my needs, and I have to look
 390 at other features to choose my laptop.  But are there still made as
 391 robust laptops as my X41?  The Thinkpad X60/X61 proved to be less
 392 robust, and Thinkpads seem to be heading in the wrong direction since
 393 Lenovo took over.  But I've been told that X220 and X1 Carbon might
 394 still be useful.</p>
 395
 396 <p>Perhaps I should rethink my needs, and look for a pad with an
 397 external keyboard?  I'll have to check the
 398 <a href="http://www.linux-laptop.net/">Linux Laptops site</a> for
 399 well-supported laptops, or perhaps just buy one preinstalled from one
 400 of the vendors listed on the <a href="http://linuxpreloaded.com/">Linux
 401 Pre-loaded site</a>.</p>
 402
 403       </div>
 404       <div class="tags">
 405
 406
 407         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>.
 408
 409
 410       </div>
 411     </div>
 412     <div class="padding"></div>
 413
 414     <div class="entry">
 415       <div class="title">
 416         <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>
 417       </div>
 418       <div class="date">
 419         18th January 2013
 420       </div>
 421       <div class="body">
 422         <p>Some times I try to figure out which Iceweasel browser plugin to
 423 install to get support for a given MIME type.  Thanks to
 424 <a href="https://wiki.ubuntu.com/MozillaTeam/Plugins">specifications
 425 done by Ubuntu</a> and Mozilla, it is possible to do this in Debian.
 426 Unfortunately, not very many packages provide the needed meta
 427 information, Anyway, here is a small script to look up all browser
 428 plugin packages announcing ther MIME support using this specification:</p>
 429
 430 <pre>
 431 #!/usr/bin/python
 432 import sys
 433 import apt
 434 def pkgs_handling_mimetype(mimetype):
 435     cache = apt.Cache()
 436     cache.open(None)
 437     thepkgs = []
 438     for pkg in cache:
 439         version = pkg.candidate
 440         if version is None:
 441             version = pkg.installed
 442         if version is None:
 443             continue
 444         record = version.record
 445         if not record.has_key('Npp-MimeType'):
 446             continue
 447         mime_types = record['Npp-MimeType'].split(',')
 448         for t in mime_types:
 449             t = t.rstrip().strip()
 450             if t == mimetype:
 451                 thepkgs.append(pkg.name)
 452     return thepkgs
 453 mimetype = "audio/ogg"
 454 if 1 < len(sys.argv):
 455     mimetype = sys.argv[1]
 456 print "Browser plugin packages supporting %s:" % mimetype
 457 for pkg in pkgs_handling_mimetype(mimetype):
 458     print "  %s" %pkg
 459 </pre>
 460
 461 <p>It can be used like this to look up a given MIME type:</p>
 462
 463 <pre>
 464 % ./apt-find-browserplug-for-mimetype
 465 Browser plugin packages supporting audio/ogg:
 466   gecko-mediaplayer
 467 % ./apt-find-browserplug-for-mimetype application/x-shockwave-flash
 468 Browser plugin packages supporting application/x-shockwave-flash:
 469   browser-plugin-gnash
 470 %
 471 </pre>
 472
 473 <p>In Ubuntu this mechanism is combined with support in the browser
 474 itself to query for plugins and propose to install the needed
 475 packages.  It would be great if Debian supported such feature too.  Is
 476 anyone working on adding it?</p>
 477
 478 <p><strong>Update 2013-01-18 14:20</strong>: The Debian BTS
 479 request for icweasel support for this feature is
 480 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/484010">#484010</a> from 2008 (and
 481 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/698426">#698426</a> from today).  Lack
 482 of manpower and wish for a different design is the reason thus feature
 483 is not yet in iceweasel from Debian.</p>
 484
 485       </div>
 486       <div class="tags">
 487
 488
 489         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>.
 490
 491
 492       </div>
 493     </div>
 494     <div class="padding"></div>
 495
 496     <div class="entry">
 497       <div class="title">
 498         <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>
 499       </div>
 500       <div class="date">
 501         16th January 2013
 502       </div>
 503       <div class="body">
 504         <p>The <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/AppStreamDebianProposal">DEP-11
 505 proposal to add AppStream information to the Debian archive</a>, is a
 506 proposal to make it possible for a Desktop application to propose to
 507 the user some package to install to gain support for a given MIME
 508 type, font, library etc. that is currently missing.  With such
 509 mechanism in place, it would be possible for the desktop to
 510 automatically propose and install leocad if some LDraw file is
 511 downloaded by the browser.</p>
 512
 513 <p>To get some idea about the current content of the archive, I decided
 514 to write a simple program to extract all .desktop files from the
 515 Debian archive and look up the claimed MIME support there.  The result
 516 can be found on the
 517 <a href="http://ftp.skolelinux.org/pub/AppStreamTest">Skolelinux FTP
 518 site</a>.  Using the collected information, it become possible to
 519 answer the question in the title.  Here are the 20 most supported MIME
 520 types in Debian stable (Squeeze), testing (Wheezy) and unstable (Sid).
 521 The complete list is available from the link above.</p>
 522
 523 <p><strong>Debian Stable:</strong></p>
 524
 525 <pre>
 526   count MIME type
 527   ----- -----------------------
 528      32 text/plain
 529      30 audio/mpeg
 530      29 image/png
 531      28 image/jpeg
 532      27 application/ogg
 533      26 audio/x-mp3
 534      25 image/tiff
 535      25 image/gif
 536      22 image/bmp
 537      22 audio/x-wav
 538      20 audio/x-flac
 539      19 audio/x-mpegurl
 540      18 video/x-ms-asf
 541      18 audio/x-musepack
 542      18 audio/x-mpeg
 543      18 application/x-ogg
 544      17 video/mpeg
 545      17 audio/x-scpls
 546      17 audio/ogg
 547      16 video/x-ms-wmv
 548 </pre>
 549
 550 <p><strong>Debian Testing:</strong></p>
 551
 552 <pre>
 553   count MIME type
 554   ----- -----------------------
 555      33 text/plain
 556      32 image/png
 557      32 image/jpeg
 558      29 audio/mpeg
 559      27 image/gif
 560      26 image/tiff
 561      26 application/ogg
 562      25 audio/x-mp3
 563      22 image/bmp
 564      21 audio/x-wav
 565      19 audio/x-mpegurl
 566      19 audio/x-mpeg
 567      18 video/mpeg
 568      18 audio/x-scpls
 569      18 audio/x-flac
 570      18 application/x-ogg
 571      17 video/x-ms-asf
 572      17 text/html
 573      17 audio/x-musepack
 574      16 image/x-xbitmap
 575 </pre>
 576
 577 <p><strong>Debian Unstable:</strong></p>
 578
 579 <pre>
 580   count MIME type
 581   ----- -----------------------
 582      31 text/plain
 583      31 image/png
 584      31 image/jpeg
 585      29 audio/mpeg
 586      28 application/ogg
 587      27 image/gif
 588      26 image/tiff
 589      26 audio/x-mp3
 590      23 audio/x-wav
 591      22 image/bmp
 592      21 audio/x-flac
 593      20 audio/x-mpegurl
 594      19 audio/x-mpeg
 595      18 video/x-ms-asf
 596      18 video/mpeg
 597      18 audio/x-scpls
 598      18 application/x-ogg
 599      17 audio/x-musepack
 600      16 video/x-ms-wmv
 601      16 video/x-msvideo
 602 </pre>
 603
 604 <p>I am told that PackageKit can provide an API to access the kind of
 605 information mentioned in DEP-11.  I have not yet had time to look at
 606 it, but hope the PackageKit people in Debian are on top of these
 607 issues.</p>
 608
 609 <p><strong>Update 2013-01-16 13:35</strong>: Updated numbers after
 610 discovering a typo in my script.</p>
 611
 612       </div>
 613       <div class="tags">
 614
 615
 616         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>.
 617
 618
 619       </div>
 620     </div>
 621     <div class="padding"></div>
 622
 623     <div class="entry">
 624       <div class="title">
 625         <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>
 626       </div>
 627       <div class="date">
 628         15th January 2013
 629       </div>
 630       <div class="body">
 631         <p>Yesterday, I wrote about the
 632 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Modalias_strings___a_practical_way_to_map__stuff__to_hardware.html">modalias
 633 values provided by the Linux kernel</a> following my hope for
 634 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lets_make_hardware_dongles_easier_to_use_in_Debian.html">better
 635 dongle support in Debian</a>.  Using this knowledge, I have tested how
 636 modalias values attached to package names can be used to map packages
 637 to hardware.  This allow the system to look up and suggest relevant
 638 packages when I plug in some new hardware into my machine, and replace
 639 discover and discover-data as the database used to map hardware to
 640 packages.</p>
 641
 642 <p>I create a modaliases file with entries like the following,
 643 containing package name, kernel module name (if relevant, otherwise
 644 the package name) and globs matching the relevant hardware
 645 modalias.</p>
 646
 647 <p><blockquote>
 648 Package: package-name
 649 <br>Modaliases: module(modaliasglob, modaliasglob, modaliasglob)</p>
 650 </blockquote></p>
 651
 652 <p>It is fairly trivial to write code to find the relevant packages
 653 for a given modalias value using this file.</p>
 654
 655 <p>An entry like this would suggest the video and picture application
 656 cheese for many USB web cameras (interface bus class 0E01):</p>
 657
 658 <p><blockquote>
 659 Package: cheese
 660 <br>Modaliases: cheese(usb:v*p*d*dc*dsc*dp*ic0Eisc01ip*)</p>
 661 </blockquote></p>
 662
 663 <p>An entry like this would suggest the pcmciautils package when a
 664 CardBus bridge (bus class 0607) PCI device is present:</p>
 665
 666 <p><blockquote>
 667 Package: pcmciautils
 668 <br>Modaliases: pcmciautils(pci:v*d*sv*sd*bc06sc07i*)
 669 </blockquote></p>
 670
 671 <p>An entry like this would suggest the package colorhug-client when
 672 plugging in a ColorHug with USB IDs 04D8:F8DA:</p>
 673
 674 <p><blockquote>
 675 Package: colorhug-client
 676 <br>Modaliases: colorhug-client(usb:v04D8pF8DAd*)</p>
 677 </blockquote></p>
 678
 679 <p>I believe the format is compatible with the format of the Packages
 680 file in the Debian archive.  Ubuntu already uses their Packages file
 681 to store their mappings from packages to hardware.</p>
 682
 683 <p>By adding a XB-Modaliases: header in debian/control, any .deb can
 684 announce the hardware it support in a way my prototype understand.
 685 This allow those publishing packages in an APT source outside the
 686 Debian archive as well as those backporting packages to make sure the
 687 hardware mapping are included in the package meta information.  I've
 688 tested such header in the pymissile package, and its modalias mapping
 689 is working as it should with my prototype.  It even made it to Ubuntu
 690 Raring.</p>
 691
 692 <p>To test if it was possible to look up supported hardware using only
 693 the shell tools available in the Debian installer, I wrote a shell
 694 implementation of the lookup code.  The idea is to create files for
 695 each modalias and let the shell do the matching.  Please check out and
 696 try the
 697 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/hw-support-lookup?view=co">hw-support-lookup</a>
 698 shell script.  It run without any extra dependencies and fetch the
 699 hardware mappings from the Debian archive and the subversion
 700 repository where I currently work on my prototype.</p>
 701
 702 <p>When I use it on a machine with a yubikey inserted, it suggest to
 703 install yubikey-personalization:</p>
 704
 705 <p><blockquote>
 706 % ./hw-support-lookup
 707 <br>yubikey-personalization
 708 <br>%
 709 </blockquote></p>
 710
 711 <p>When I run it on my Thinkpad X40 with a PCMCIA/CardBus slot, it
 712 propose to install the pcmciautils package:</p>
 713
 714 <p><blockquote>
 715 % ./hw-support-lookup
 716 <br>pcmciautils
 717 <br>%
 718 </blockquote></p>
 719
 720 <p>If you know of any hardware-package mapping that should be added to
 721 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/modaliases?view=co">my
 722 database</a>, please tell me about it.</p>
 723
 724 <p>It could be possible to generate several of the mappings between
 725 packages and hardware.  One source would be to look at packages with
 726 kernel modules, ie packages with *.ko files in /lib/modules/, and
 727 extract their modalias information.  Another would be to look at
 728 packages with udev rules, ie packages with files in
 729 /lib/udev/rules.d/, and extract their vendor/model information to
 730 generate a modalias matching rule.  I have not tested any of these to
 731 see if it work.</p>
 732
 733 <p>If you want to help implementing a system to let us propose what
 734 packages to install when new hardware is plugged into a Debian
 735 machine, please send me an email or talk to me on
 736 <a href="irc://irc.debian.org/%23debian-devel">#debian-devel</a>.</p>
 737
 738       </div>
 739       <div class="tags">
 740
 741
 742         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>.
 743
 744
 745       </div>
 746     </div>
 747     <div class="padding"></div>
 748
 749     <div class="entry">
 750       <div class="title">
 751         <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>
 752       </div>
 753       <div class="date">
 754         14th January 2013
 755       </div>
 756       <div class="body">
 757         <p>While looking into how to look up Debian packages based on hardware
 758 information, to find the packages that support a given piece of
 759 hardware, I refreshed my memory regarding modalias values, and decided
 760 to document the details.  Here are my findings so far, also available
 761 in
 762 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/">the
 763 Debian Edu subversion repository</a>:
 764
 765 <p><strong>Modalias decoded</strong></p>
 766
 767 <p>This document try to explain what the different types of modalias
 768 values stands for.  It is in part based on information from
 769 &lt;URL: <a href="https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Modalias">https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Modalias</a> &gt;,
 770 &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;,
 771 &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
 772 &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;.
 773
 774 <p>The modalias entries for a given Linux machine can be found using
 775 this shell script:</p>
 776
 777 <pre>
 778 find /sys -name modalias -print0 | xargs -0 cat | sort -u
 779 </pre>
 780
 781 <p>The supported modalias globs for a given kernel module can be found
 782 using modinfo:</p>
 783
 784 <pre>
 785 % /sbin/modinfo psmouse | grep alias:
 786 alias:          serio:ty05pr*id*ex*
 787 alias:          serio:ty01pr*id*ex*
 788 %
 789 </pre>
 790
 791 <p><strong>PCI subtype</strong></p>
 792
 793 <p>A typical PCI entry can look like this.  This is an Intel Host
 794 Bridge memory controller:</p>
 795
 796 <p><blockquote>
 797 pci:v00008086d00002770sv00001028sd000001ADbc06sc00i00
 798 </blockquote></p>
 799
 800 <p>This represent these values:</p>
 801
 802 <pre>
 803  v   00008086  (vendor)
 804  d   00002770  (device)
 805  sv  00001028  (subvendor)
 806  sd  000001AD  (subdevice)
 807  bc  06        (bus class)
 808  sc  00        (bus subclass)
 809  i   00        (interface)
 810 </pre>
 811
 812 <p>The vendor/device values are the same values outputted from 'lspci
 813 -n' as 8086:2770.  The bus class/subclass is also shown by lspci as
 814 0600.  The 0600 class is a host bridge.  Other useful bus values are
 815 0300 (VGA compatible card) and 0200 (Ethernet controller).</p>
 816
 817 <p>Not sure how to figure out the interface value, nor what it
 818 means.</p>
 819
 820 <p><strong>USB subtype</strong></p>
 821
 822 <p>Some typical USB entries can look like this.  This is an internal
 823 USB hub in a laptop:</p>
 824
 825 <p><blockquote>
 826 usb:v1D6Bp0001d0206dc09dsc00dp00ic09isc00ip00
 827 </blockquote></p>
 828
 829 <p>Here is the values included in this alias:</p>
 830
 831 <pre>
 832  v    1D6B  (device vendor)
 833  p    0001  (device product)
 834  d    0206  (bcddevice)
 835  dc     09  (device class)
 836  dsc    00  (device subclass)
 837  dp     00  (device protocol)
 838  ic     09  (interface class)
 839  isc    00  (interface subclass)
 840  ip     00  (interface protocol)
 841 </pre>
 842
 843 <p>The 0900 device class/subclass means hub.  Some times the relevant
 844 class is in the interface class section.  For a simple USB web camera,
 845 these alias entries show up:</p>
 846
 847 <p><blockquote>
 848 usb:v0AC8p3420d5000dcEFdsc02dp01ic01isc01ip00
 849 <br>usb:v0AC8p3420d5000dcEFdsc02dp01ic01isc02ip00
 850 <br>usb:v0AC8p3420d5000dcEFdsc02dp01ic0Eisc01ip00
 851 <br>usb:v0AC8p3420d5000dcEFdsc02dp01ic0Eisc02ip00
 852 </blockquote></p>
 853
 854 <p>Interface class 0E01 is video control, 0E02 is video streaming (aka
 855 camera), 0101 is audio control device and 0102 is audio streaming (aka
 856 microphone).  Thus this is a camera with microphone included.</p>
 857
 858 <p><strong>ACPI subtype</strong></p>
 859
 860 <p>The ACPI type is used for several non-PCI/USB stuff.  This is an IR
 861 receiver in a Thinkpad X40:</p>
 862
 863 <p><blockquote>
 864 acpi:IBM0071:PNP0511:
 865 </blockquote></p>
 866
 867 <p>The values between the colons are IDs.</p>
 868
 869 <p><strong>DMI subtype</strong></p>
 870
 871 <p>The DMI table contain lots of information about the computer case
 872 and model.  This is an entry for a IBM Thinkpad X40, fetched from
 873 /sys/devices/virtual/dmi/id/modalias:</p>
 874
 875 <p><blockquote>
 876 dmi:bvnIBM:bvr1UETB6WW(1.66):bd06/15/2005:svnIBM:pn2371H4G:pvrThinkPadX40:rvnIBM:rn2371H4G:rvrNotAvailable:cvnIBM:ct10:cvrNotAvailable:
 877 </blockquote></p>
 878
 879 <p>The values present are</p>
 880
 881 <pre>
 882  bvn  IBM            (BIOS vendor)
 883  bvr  1UETB6WW(1.66) (BIOS version)
 884  bd   06/15/2005     (BIOS date)
 885  svn  IBM            (system vendor)
 886  pn   2371H4G        (product name)
 887  pvr  ThinkPadX40    (product version)
 888  rvn  IBM            (board vendor)
 889  rn   2371H4G        (board name)
 890  rvr  NotAvailable   (board version)
 891  cvn  IBM            (chassis vendor)
 892  ct   10             (chassis type)
 893  cvr  NotAvailable   (chassis version)
 894 </pre>
 895
 896 <p>The chassis type 10 is Notebook.  Other interesting values can be
 897 found in the dmidecode source:</p>
 898
 899 <pre>
 900   3 Desktop
 901   4 Low Profile Desktop
 902   5 Pizza Box
 903   6 Mini Tower
 904   7 Tower
 905   8 Portable
 906   9 Laptop
 907  10 Notebook
 908  11 Hand Held
 909  12 Docking Station
 910  13 All In One
 911  14 Sub Notebook
 912  15 Space-saving
 913  16 Lunch Box
 914  17 Main Server Chassis
 915  18 Expansion Chassis
 916  19 Sub Chassis
 917  20 Bus Expansion Chassis
 918  21 Peripheral Chassis
 919  22 RAID Chassis
 920  23 Rack Mount Chassis
 921  24 Sealed-case PC
 922  25 Multi-system
 923  26 CompactPCI
 924  27 AdvancedTCA
 925  28 Blade
 926  29 Blade Enclosing
 927 </pre>
 928
 929 <p>The chassis type values are not always accurately set in the DMI
 930 table.  For example my home server is a tower, but the DMI modalias
 931 claim it is a desktop.</p>
 932
 933 <p><strong>SerIO subtype</strong></p>
 934
 935 <p>This type is used for PS/2 mouse plugs.  One example is from my
 936 test machine:</p>
 937
 938 <p><blockquote>
 939 serio:ty01pr00id00ex00
 940 </blockquote></p>
 941
 942 <p>The values present are</p>
 943
 944 <pre>
 945   ty  01  (type)
 946   pr  00  (prototype)
 947   id  00  (id)
 948   ex  00  (extra)
 949 </pre>
 950
 951 <p>This type is supported by the psmouse driver.  I am not sure what
 952 the valid values are.</p>
 953
 954 <p><strong>Other subtypes</strong></p>
 955
 956 <p>There are heaps of other modalias subtypes according to
 957 file2alias.c.  There is the rest of the list from that source: amba,
 958 ap, bcma, ccw, css, eisa, hid, i2c, ieee1394, input, ipack, isapnp,
 959 mdio, of, parisc, pcmcia, platform, scsi, sdio, spi, ssb, vio, virtio,
 960 vmbus, x86cpu and zorro.  I did not spend time documenting all of
 961 these, as they do not seem relevant for my intended use with mapping
 962 hardware to packages when new stuff is inserted during run time.</p>
 963
 964 <p><strong>Looking up kernel modules using modalias values</strong></p>
 965
 966 <p>To check which kernel modules provide support for a given modalias,
 967 one can use the following shell script:</p>
 968
 969 <pre>
 970   for id in $(find /sys -name modalias -print0 | xargs -0 cat | sort -u); do \
 971     echo "$id" ; \
 972     /sbin/modprobe --show-depends "$id"|sed 's/^/  /' ; \
 973   done
 974 </pre>
 975
 976 <p>The output can look like this (only the first few entries as the
 977 list is very long on my test machine):</p>
 978
 979 <pre>
 980   acpi:ACPI0003:
 981     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/drivers/acpi/ac.ko
 982   acpi:device:
 983   FATAL: Module acpi:device: not found.
 984   acpi:IBM0068:
 985     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/drivers/char/nvram.ko
 986     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/drivers/leds/led-class.ko
 987     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/net/rfkill/rfkill.ko
 988     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/drivers/platform/x86/thinkpad_acpi.ko
 989   acpi:IBM0071:PNP0511:
 990     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/lib/crc-ccitt.ko
 991     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/net/irda/irda.ko
 992     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/drivers/net/irda/nsc-ircc.ko
 993   [...]
 994 </pre>
 995
 996 <p>If you want to help implementing a system to let us propose what
 997 packages to install when new hardware is plugged into a Debian
 998 machine, please send me an email or talk to me on
 999 <a href="irc://irc.debian.org/%23debian-devel">#debian-devel</a>.</p>
1000
1001 <p><strong>Update 2013-01-15:</strong> Rewrite "cat $(find ...)" to
1002 "find ... -print0 | xargs -0 cat" to make sure it handle directories
1003 in /sys/ with space in them.</p>
1004
1005       </div>
1006       <div class="tags">
1007
1008
1009         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>.
1010
1011
1012       </div>
1013     </div>
1014     <div class="padding"></div>
1015
1016     <div class="entry">
1017       <div class="title">
1018         <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>
1019       </div>
1020       <div class="date">
1021         10th January 2013
1022       </div>
1023       <div class="body">
1024         <p>As part of my investigation on how to improve the support in Debian
1025 for hardware dongles, I dug up my old Mark and Spencer USB Rocket
1026 Launcher and updated the Debian package
1027 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/pymissile">pymissile</a> to make
1028 sure udev will fix the device permissions when it is plugged in.  I
1029 also added a "Modaliases" header to test it in the Debian archive and
1030 hopefully make the package be proposed by jockey in Ubuntu when a user
1031 plug in his rocket launcher.  In the process I moved the source to a
1032 git repository under collab-maint, to make it easier for any DD to
1033 contribute.  <a href="http://code.google.com/p/pymissile/">Upstream</a>
1034 is not very active, but the software still work for me even after five
1035 years of relative silence.  The new git repository is not listed in
1036 the uploaded package yet, because I want to test the other changes a
1037 bit more before I upload the new version.  If you want to check out
1038 the new version with a .desktop file included, visit the
1039 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/gitweb/?p=collab-maint/pymissile.git">gitweb
1040 view</a> or use "<tt>git clone
1041 git://anonscm.debian.org/collab-maint/pymissile.git</tt>".</p>
1042
1043       </div>
1044       <div class="tags">
1045
1046
1047         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>.
1048
1049
1050       </div>
1051     </div>
1052     <div class="padding"></div>
1053
1054     <div class="entry">
1055       <div class="title">
1056         <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>
1057       </div>
1058       <div class="date">
1059          9th January 2013
1060       </div>
1061       <div class="body">
1062         <p>One thing that annoys me with Debian and Linux distributions in
1063 general, is that there is a great package management system with the
1064 ability to automatically install software packages by downloading them
1065 from the distribution mirrors, but no way to get it to automatically
1066 install the packages I need to use the hardware I plug into my
1067 machine.  Even if the package to use it is easily available from the
1068 Linux distribution.  When I plug in a LEGO Mindstorms NXT, it could
1069 suggest to automatically install the python-nxt, nbc and t2n packages
1070 I need to talk to it.  When I plug in a Yubikey, it could propose the
1071 yubikey-personalization package.  The information required to do this
1072 is available, but no-one have pulled all the pieces together.</p>
1073
1074 <p>Some years ago, I proposed to
1075 <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2010/05/msg01206.html">use
1076 the discover subsystem to implement this</a>.  The idea is fairly
1077 simple:
1078
1079 <ul>
1080
1081 <li>Add a desktop entry in /usr/share/autostart/ pointing to a program
1082   starting when a user log in.</li>
1083
1084 <li>Set this program up to listen for kernel events emitted when new
1085   hardware is inserted into the computer.</li>
1086
1087 <li>When new hardware is inserted, look up the hardware ID in a
1088   database mapping to packages, and take note of any non-installed
1089   packages.</li>
1090
1091 <li>Show a message to the user proposing to install the discovered
1092   package, and make it easy to install it.</li>
1093
1094 </ul>
1095
1096 <p>I am not sure what the best way to implement this is, but my
1097 initial idea was to use dbus events to discover new hardware, the
1098 discover database to find packages and
1099 <a href="http://www.packagekit.org/">PackageKit</a> to install
1100 packages.</p>
1101
1102 <p>Yesterday, I found time to try to implement this idea, and the
1103 draft package is now checked into
1104 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/">the
1105 Debian Edu subversion repository</a>.  In the process, I updated the
1106 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/d/discover-data.html">discover-data</a>
1107 package to map the USB ids of LEGO Mindstorms and Yubikey devices to
1108 the relevant packages in Debian, and uploaded a new version
1109 2.2013.01.09 to unstable.  I also discovered that the current
1110 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/d/discover.html">discover</a>
1111 package in Debian no longer discovered any USB devices, because
1112 /proc/bus/usb/devices is no longer present.  I ported it to use
1113 libusb as a fall back option to get it working.  The fixed package
1114 version 2.1.2-6 is now in experimental (didn't upload it to unstable
1115 because of the freeze).</p>
1116
1117 <p>With this prototype in place, I can insert my Yubikey, and get this
1118 desktop notification to show up (only once, the first time it is
1119 inserted):</p>
1120
1121 <p align="center"><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-01-09-hw-autoinstall.png"></p>
1122
1123 <p>For this prototype to be really useful, some way to automatically
1124 install the proposed packages by pressing the "Please install
1125 program(s)" button should to be implemented.</p>
1126
1127 <p>If this idea seem useful to you, and you want to help make it
1128 happen, please help me update the discover-data database with mappings
1129 from hardware to Debian packages.  Check if 'discover-pkginstall -l'
1130 list the package you would like to have installed when a given
1131 hardware device is inserted into your computer, and report bugs using
1132 reportbug if it isn't.  Or, if you know of a better way to provide
1133 such mapping, please let me know.</p>
1134
1135 <p>This prototype need more work, and there are several questions that
1136 should be considered before it is ready for production use.  Is dbus
1137 the correct way to detect new hardware?  At the moment I look for HAL
1138 dbus events on the system bus, because that is the events I could see
1139 on my Debian Squeeze KDE desktop.  Are there better events to use?
1140 How should the user be notified?  Is the desktop notification
1141 mechanism the best option, or should the background daemon raise a
1142 popup instead?  How should packages be installed?  When should they
1143 not be installed?</p>
1144
1145 <p>If you want to help getting such feature implemented in Debian,
1146 please send me an email. :)</p>
1147
1148       </div>
1149       <div class="tags">
1150
1151
1152         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>.
1153
1154
1155       </div>
1156     </div>
1157     <div class="padding"></div>
1158
1159     <div class="entry">
1160       <div class="title">
1161         <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>
1162       </div>
1163       <div class="date">
1164          2nd January 2013
1165       </div>
1166       <div class="body">
1167         <p>During Christmas, I have worked a bit on the Debian support for
1168 <a href="http://mindstorms.lego.com/en-us/Default.aspx">LEGO Mindstorm
1169 NXT</a>.  My son and I have played a bit with my NXT set, and I
1170 discovered I had to build all the tools myself because none were
1171 already in Debian Squeeze.  If Debian support for LEGO is something
1172 you care about, please join me on the IRC channel
1173 <a href="irc://irc.debian.org/%23debian-lego">#debian-lego</a> (server
1174 irc.debian.org).  There is a lot that could be done to improve the
1175 Debian support for LEGO designers.  For example both CAD software
1176 and Mindstorm compilers are missing. :)</p>
1177
1178 <p>Update 2012-01-03: A
1179 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/LegoDesigners">project page</a>
1180 including links to Lego related packages is now available.</p>
1181
1182       </div>
1183       <div class="tags">
1184
1185
1186         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>.
1187
1188
1189       </div>
1190     </div>
1191     <div class="padding"></div>
1192
1193     <div class="entry">
1194       <div class="title">
1195         <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>
1196       </div>
1197       <div class="date">
1198         25th December 2012
1199       </div>
1200       <div class="body">
1201         <p>Let me start by wishing you all marry Christmas and a happy new
1202 year!  I hope next year will prove to be a good year.</p>
1203
1204 <p><a href="http://www.bitcoin.org/">Bitcoin</a>, the digital
1205 decentralised "currency" that allow people to transfer bitcoins
1206 between each other with minimal overhead, is a very interesting
1207 experiment.  And as I wrote a few days ago, the bitcoin situation in
1208 <a href="http://www.debian.org/">Debian</a> is about to improve a bit.
1209 The <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/bitcoin">new debian source
1210 package</a> (version 0.7.2-2) was uploaded yesterday, and is waiting
1211 in <a href="http://ftp-master.debian.org/new.html">the NEW queue</A>
1212 for one of the ftpmasters to approve the new bitcoin-qt package
1213 name.</p>
1214
1215 <p>And thanks to the great work of Jonas and the rest of the bitcoin
1216 team in Debian, you can easily test the package in Debian Squeeze
1217 using the following steps to get a set of working packages:</p>
1218
1219 <blockquote><pre>
1220 git clone git://git.debian.org/git/collab-maint/bitcoin
1221 cd bitcoin
1222 DEB_MAINTAINER_MODE=1 DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS=noupnp fakeroot debian/rules clean
1223 DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS=noupnp git-buildpackage --git-ignore-new
1224 </pre></blockquote>
1225
1226 <p>You might have to install some build dependencies as well.  The
1227 list of commands should give you two packages, bitcoind and
1228 bitcoin-qt, ready for use in a Squeeze environment.  Note that the
1229 client will download the complete set of bitcoin "blocks", which need
1230 around 5.6 GiB of data on my machine at the moment.  Make sure your
1231 ~/.bitcoin/ directory have lots of spare room if you want to download
1232 all the blocks.  The client will warn if the disk is getting full, so
1233 there is not really a problem if you got too little room, but you will
1234 not be able to get all the features out of the client.</p>
1235
1236 <p>As usual, if you use bitcoin and want to show your support of my
1237 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
1238 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b&label=PetterReinholdtsenBlog">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
1239
1240       </div>
1241       <div class="tags">
1242
1243
1244         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>.
1245
1246
1247       </div>
1248     </div>
1249     <div class="padding"></div>
1250
1251     <div class="entry">
1252       <div class="title">
1253         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/A_word_on_bitcoin_support_in_Debian.html">A word on bitcoin support in Debian</a>
1254       </div>
1255       <div class="date">
1256         21st December 2012
1257       </div>
1258       <div class="body">
1259         <p>It has been a while since I wrote about
1260 <a href="http://www.bitcoin.org/">bitcoin</a>, the decentralised
1261 peer-to-peer based crypto-currency, and the reason is simply that I
1262 have been busy elsewhere.  But two days ago, I started looking at the
1263 state of <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/bitcoin">bitcoin in
1264 Debian</a> again to try to recover my old bitcoin wallet.  The package
1265 is now maintained by a
1266 <a href="https://alioth.debian.org/projects/pkg-bitcoin/">team of
1267 people</a>, and the grunt work had already been done by this team.  We
1268 owe a huge thank you to all these team members. :)
1269 But I was sad to discover that the bitcoin client is missing in
1270 Wheezy.  It is only available in Sid (and an outdated client from
1271 backports).  The client had several RC bugs registered in BTS blocking
1272 it from entering testing.  To try to help the team and improve the
1273 situation, I spent some time providing patches and triaging the bug
1274 reports.  I also had a look at the bitcoin package available from Matt
1275 Corallo in a
1276 <a href="https://launchpad.net/~bitcoin/+archive/bitcoin">PPA for
1277 Ubuntu</a>, and moved the useful pieces from that version into the
1278 Debian package.</p>
1279
1280 <p>After checking with the main package maintainer Jonas Smedegaard on
1281 IRC, I pushed several patches into the collab-maint git repository to
1282 improve the package.  It now contains fixes for the RC issues (not from
1283 me, but fixed by Scott Howard), build rules for a Qt GUI client
1284 package, konqueror support for the bitcoin: URI and bash completion
1285 setup.  As I work on Debian Squeeze, I also created
1286 <a href="http://lists.alioth.debian.org/pipermail/pkg-bitcoin-devel/Week-of-Mon-20121217/000041.html">a
1287 patch to backport</a> the latest version.  Jonas is going to look at
1288 it and try to integrate it into the git repository before uploading a
1289 new version to unstable.
1290
1291 <p>I would very much like bitcoin to succeed, to get rid of the
1292 centralized control currently exercised in the monetary system.  I
1293 find it completely unacceptable that the USA government is collecting
1294 transaction data for almost all international money transfers (most are done in USD and transaction logs shipped to the spooks), and
1295 that the major credit card companies can block legal money
1296 transactions to Wikileaks.  But for bitcoin to succeed, more people
1297 need to use bitcoins, and more people need to accept bitcoins when
1298 they sell products and services.  Improving the bitcoin support in
1299 Debian is a small step in the right direction, but not enough.
1300 Unfortunately the user experience when browsing the web and wanting to
1301 pay with bitcoin is still not very good.  The bitcoin: URI is a step
1302 in the right direction, but need to work in most or every browser in
1303 use.  Also the bitcoin-qt client is too heavy to fire up to do a
1304 quick transaction.  I believe there are other clients available, but
1305 have not tested them.</p>
1306
1307 <p>My
1308 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Now_accepting_bitcoins___anonymous_and_distributed_p2p_crypto_money.html">experiment
1309 with bitcoins</a> showed that at least some of my readers use bitcoin.
1310 I received 20.15 BTC so far on the address I provided in my blog two
1311 years ago, as can be
1312 <a href="http://blockexplorer.com/address/15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">seen
1313 on the blockexplorer service</a>.  Thank you everyone for your
1314 donation.  The blockexplorer service demonstrates quite well that
1315 bitcoin is not quite anonymous and untracked. :) I wonder if the
1316 number of users have gone up since then.  If you use bitcoin and want
1317 to show your support of my activity, please send Bitcoin donations to
1318 the same address as last time,
1319 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b&label=PetterReinholdtsenBlog">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
1320
1321       </div>
1322       <div class="tags">
1323
1324
1325         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>.
1326
1327
1328       </div>
1329     </div>
1330     <div class="padding"></div>
1331
1332     <div class="entry">
1333       <div class="title">
1334         <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>
1335       </div>
1336       <div class="date">
1337          7th September 2012
1338       </div>
1339       <div class="body">
1340         <p>As I
1341 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Song_book_for_Computer_Scientists.html">mentioned
1342 this summer</a>, I have created a Computer Science song book a few
1343 years ago, and today I finally found time to create a public
1344 <a href="https://gitorious.org/pere-cs-songbook/pere-cs-songbook">Gitorious
1345 repository for the project</a>.</p>
1346
1347 <p>If you want to help out, please clone the source and submit patches
1348 to the HTML version.  To generate the PDF and PostScript version,
1349 please use prince XML, or let me know about a useful free software
1350 processor capable of creating a good looking PDF from the HTML.</p>
1351
1352 <p>Want to sing?  You can still find the song book in HTML, PDF and
1353 PostScript formats at
1354 <a href="http://www.hungry.com/~pere/cs-songbook/">Petter's Computer
1355 Science Songbook</a>.</p>
1356
1357       </div>
1358       <div class="tags">
1359
1360
1361         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>.
1362
1363
1364       </div>
1365     </div>
1366     <div class="padding"></div>
1367
1368     <div class="entry">
1369       <div class="title">
1370         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Gratulerer_med_19__rsdagen__Debian_.html">Gratulerer med 19-årsdagen, Debian!</a>
1371       </div>
1372       <div class="date">
1373         16th August 2012
1374       </div>
1375       <div class="body">
1376         <p>I dag fyller
1377 <a href="http://www.debian.org/News/2012/20120813">Debian-prosjektet 19
1378 år</a>.  Jeg har fulgt det de siste 12 årene, og er veldig glad for å kunne
1379 si gratulerer med dagen, Debian!</p>
1380
1381       </div>
1382       <div class="tags">
1383
1384
1385         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>.
1386
1387
1388       </div>
1389     </div>
1390     <div class="padding"></div>
1391
1392     <div class="entry">
1393       <div class="title">
1394         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Song_book_for_Computer_Scientists.html">Song book for Computer Scientists</a>
1395       </div>
1396       <div class="date">
1397         24th June 2012
1398       </div>
1399       <div class="body">
1400         <p>Many years ago, while studying Computer Science at the
1401 <a href="http://www.uit.no/">University of Tromsø</a>, I started
1402 collecting computer related songs for use at parties.  The original
1403 version was written in LaTeX, but a few years ago I got help from
1404 Håkon W. Lie, one of the inventors of W3C CSS, to convert it to HTML
1405 while keeping the ability to create a nice book in PDF format.  I have
1406 not had time to maintain the book for a while now, and guess I should
1407 put it up on some public version control repository where others can
1408 help me extend and update the book.  If anyone is volunteering to help
1409 me with this, send me an email.  Also let me know if there are songs
1410 missing in my book.</p>
1411
1412 <p>I have not mentioned the book on my blog so far, and it occured to
1413 me today that I really should let all my readers share the joys of
1414 singing out load about programming, computers and computer networks.
1415 Especially now that <a href="http://debconf12.debconf.org/">Debconf
1416 12</a> is about to start (and I am not going).  Want to sing?  Check
1417 out <a href="http://www.hungry.com/~pere/cs-songbook/">Petter's
1418 Computer Science Songbook</a>.
1419
1420       </div>
1421       <div class="tags">
1422
1423
1424         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>.
1425
1426
1427       </div>
1428     </div>
1429     <div class="padding"></div>
1430
1431     <div class="entry">
1432       <div class="title">
1433         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Automatically_upgrading_server_firmware_on_Dell_PowerEdge.html">Automatically upgrading server firmware on Dell PowerEdge</a>
1434       </div>
1435       <div class="date">
1436         21st November 2011
1437       </div>
1438       <div class="body">
1439         <p>At work we have heaps of servers.  I believe the total count is
1440 around 1000 at the moment.  To be able to get help from the vendors
1441 when something go wrong, we want to keep the firmware on the servers
1442 up to date.  If the firmware isn't the latest and greatest, the
1443 vendors typically refuse to start debugging any problems until the
1444 firmware is upgraded.  So before every reboot, we want to upgrade the
1445 firmware, and we would really like everyone handling servers at the
1446 university to do this themselves when they plan to reboot a machine.
1447 For that to happen we at the unix server admin group need to provide
1448 the tools to do so.</p>
1449
1450 <p>To make firmware upgrading easier, I am working on a script to
1451 fetch and install the latest firmware for the servers we got.  Most of
1452 our hardware are from Dell and HP, so I have focused on these servers
1453 so far.  This blog post is about the Dell part.</P>
1454
1455 <p>On the Dell FTP site I was lucky enough to find
1456 <a href="ftp://ftp.us.dell.com/catalog/Catalog.xml.gz">an XML file</a>
1457 with firmware information for all 11th generation servers, listing
1458 which firmware should be used on a given model and where on the FTP
1459 site I can find it.  Using a simple perl XML parser I can then
1460 download the shell scripts Dell provides to do firmware upgrades from
1461 within Linux and reboot when all the firmware is primed and ready to
1462 be activated on the first reboot.</p>
1463
1464 <p>This is the Dell related fragment of the perl code I am working on.
1465 Are there anyone working on similar tools for firmware upgrading all
1466 servers at a site?  Please get in touch and lets share resources.</p>
1467
1468 <p><pre>
1469 #!/usr/bin/perl
1470 use strict;
1471 use warnings;
1472 use File::Temp qw(tempdir);
1473 BEGIN {
1474     # Install needed RHEL packages if missing
1475     my %rhelmodules = (
1476         'XML::Simple' => 'perl-XML-Simple',
1477         );
1478     for my $module (keys %rhelmodules) {
1479         eval "use $module;";
1480         if ($@) {
1481             my $pkg = $rhelmodules{$module};
1482             system("yum install -y $pkg");
1483             eval "use $module;";
1484         }
1485     }
1486 }
1487 my $errorsto = 'pere@hungry.com';
1488
1489 upgrade_dell();
1490
1491 exit 0;
1492
1493 sub run_firmware_script {
1494     my ($opts, $script) = @_;
1495     unless ($script) {
1496         print STDERR "fail: missing script name\n";
1497         exit 1
1498     }
1499     print STDERR "Running $script\n\n";
1500
1501     if (0 == system("sh $script $opts")) { # FIXME correct exit code handling
1502         print STDERR "success: firmware script ran succcessfully\n";
1503     } else {
1504         print STDERR "fail: firmware script returned error\n";
1505     }
1506 }
1507
1508 sub run_firmware_scripts {
1509     my ($opts, @dirs) = @_;
1510     # Run firmware packages
1511     for my $dir (@dirs) {
1512         print STDERR "info: Running scripts in $dir\n";
1513         opendir(my $dh, $dir) or die "Unable to open directory $dir: $!";
1514         while (my $s = readdir $dh) {
1515             next if $s =~ m/^\.\.?/;
1516             run_firmware_script($opts, "$dir/$s");
1517         }
1518         closedir $dh;
1519     }
1520 }
1521
1522 sub download {
1523     my $url = shift;
1524     print STDERR "info: Downloading $url\n";
1525     system("wget --quiet \"$url\"");
1526 }
1527
1528 sub upgrade_dell {
1529     my @dirs;
1530     my $product = `dmidecode -s system-product-name`;
1531     chomp $product;
1532
1533     if ($product =~ m/PowerEdge/) {
1534
1535         # on RHEL, these pacakges are needed by the firwmare upgrade scripts
1536         system('yum install -y compat-libstdc++-33.i686 libstdc++.i686 libxml2.i686 procmail');
1537
1538         my $tmpdir = tempdir(
1539             CLEANUP => 1
1540             );
1541         chdir($tmpdir);
1542         fetch_dell_fw('catalog/Catalog.xml.gz');
1543         system('gunzip Catalog.xml.gz');
1544         my @paths = fetch_dell_fw_list('Catalog.xml');
1545         # -q is quiet, disabling interactivity and reducing console output
1546         my $fwopts = "-q";
1547         if (@paths) {
1548             for my $url (@paths) {
1549                 fetch_dell_fw($url);
1550             }
1551             run_firmware_scripts($fwopts, $tmpdir);
1552         } else {
1553             print STDERR "error: Unsupported Dell model '$product'.\n";
1554             print STDERR "error: Please report to $errorsto.\n";
1555         }
1556         chdir('/');
1557     } else {
1558         print STDERR "error: Unsupported Dell model '$product'.\n";
1559         print STDERR "error: Please report to $errorsto.\n";
1560     }
1561 }
1562
1563 sub fetch_dell_fw {
1564     my $path = shift;
1565     my $url = "ftp://ftp.us.dell.com/$path";
1566     download($url);
1567 }
1568
1569 # Using ftp://ftp.us.dell.com/catalog/Catalog.xml.gz, figure out which
1570 # firmware packages to download from Dell.  Only work for Linux
1571 # machines and 11th generation Dell servers.
1572 sub fetch_dell_fw_list {
1573     my $filename = shift;
1574
1575     my $product = `dmidecode -s system-product-name`;
1576     chomp $product;
1577     my ($mybrand, $mymodel) = split(/\s+/, $product);
1578
1579     print STDERR "Finding firmware bundles for $mybrand $mymodel\n";
1580
1581     my $xml = XMLin($filename);
1582     my @paths;
1583     for my $bundle (@{$xml->{SoftwareBundle}}) {
1584         my $brand = $bundle->{TargetSystems}->{Brand}->{Display}->{content};
1585         my $model = $bundle->{TargetSystems}->{Brand}->{Model}->{Display}->{content};
1586         my $oscode;
1587         if ("ARRAY" eq ref $bundle->{TargetOSes}->{OperatingSystem}) {
1588             $oscode = $bundle->{TargetOSes}->{OperatingSystem}[0]->{osCode};
1589         } else {
1590             $oscode = $bundle->{TargetOSes}->{OperatingSystem}->{osCode};
1591         }
1592         if ($mybrand eq $brand && $mymodel eq $model && "LIN" eq $oscode)
1593         {
1594             @paths = map { $_->{path} } @{$bundle->{Contents}->{Package}};
1595         }
1596     }
1597     for my $component (@{$xml->{SoftwareComponent}}) {
1598         my $componenttype = $component->{ComponentType}->{value};
1599
1600         # Drop application packages, only firmware and BIOS
1601         next if 'APAC' eq $componenttype;
1602
1603         my $cpath = $component->{path};
1604         for my $path (@paths) {
1605             if ($cpath =~ m%/$path$%) {
1606                 push(@paths, $cpath);
1607             }
1608         }
1609     }
1610     return @paths;
1611 }
1612 </pre>
1613
1614 <p>The code is only tested on RedHat Enterprise Linux, but I suspect
1615 it could work on other platforms with some tweaking.  Anyone know a
1616 index like Catalog.xml is available from HP for HP servers?  At the
1617 moment I maintain a similar list manually and it is quickly getting
1618 outdated.</p>
1619
1620       </div>
1621       <div class="tags">
1622
1623
1624         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>.
1625
1626
1627       </div>
1628     </div>
1629     <div class="padding"></div>
1630
1631     <div class="entry">
1632       <div class="title">
1633         <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>
1634       </div>
1635       <div class="date">
1636          4th August 2011
1637       </div>
1638       <div class="body">
1639         <p>Wouter Verhelst have some
1640 <a href="http://grep.be/blog/en/retorts/pere_kubuntu_boot">interesting
1641 comments and opinions</a> on my blog post on
1642 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/What_should_start_from__etc_rcS_d__in_Debian____almost_nothing.html">the
1643 need to clean up /etc/rcS.d/ in Debian</a> and my blog post about
1644 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/What_is_missing_in_the_Debian_desktop__or_why_my_parents_use_Kubuntu.html">the
1645 default KDE desktop in Debian</a>.  I only have time to address one
1646 small piece of his comment now, and though it best to address the
1647 misunderstanding he bring forward:</p>
1648
1649 <p><blockquote>
1650 Currently, a system admin has four options: [...] boot to a
1651 single-user system (by adding 'single' to the kernel command line;
1652 this runs rcS and rc1 scripts)
1653 </blockquote></p>
1654
1655 <p>This make me believe Wouter believe booting into single user mode
1656 and booting into runlevel 1 is the same.  I am not surprised he
1657 believe this, because it would make sense and is a quite sensible
1658 thing to believe.  But because the boot in Debian is slightly broken,
1659 runlevel 1 do not work properly and it isn't the same as single user
1660 mode.  I'll try to explain what is actually happing, but it is a bit
1661 hard to explain.</p>
1662
1663 <p>Single user mode is defined like this in /etc/inittab:
1664 "<tt>~~:S:wait:/sbin/sulogin</tt>".  This means the only thing that is
1665 executed in single user mode is sulogin.  Single user mode is a boot
1666 state "between" the runlevels, and when booting into single user mode,
1667 only the scripts in /etc/rcS.d/ are executed before the init process
1668 enters the single user state.  When switching to runlevel 1, the state
1669 is in fact not ending in runlevel 1, but it passes through runlevel 1
1670 and end up in the single user mode (see /etc/rc1.d/S03single, which
1671 runs "init -t1 S" to switch to single user mode at the end of runlevel
1672 1.  It is confusing that the 'S' (single user) init mode is not the
1673 mode enabled by /etc/rcS.d/ (which is more like the initial boot
1674 mode).</p>
1675
1676 <p>This summary might make it clearer.  When booting for the first
1677 time into single user mode, the following commands are executed:
1678 "<tt>/etc/init.d/rc S; /sbin/sulogin</tt>".  When booting into
1679 runlevel 1, the following commands are executed: "<tt>/etc/init.d/rc
1680 S; /etc/init.d/rc 1; /sbin/sulogin</tt>".  A problem show up when
1681 trying to continue after visiting single user mode.  Not all services
1682 are started again as they should, causing the machine to end up in an
1683 unpredicatble state.  This is why Debian admins recommend rebooting
1684 after visiting single user mode.</p>
1685
1686 <p>A similar problem with runlevel 1 is caused by the amount of
1687 scripts executed from /etc/rcS.d/.  When switching from say runlevel 2
1688 to runlevel 1, the services started from /etc/rcS.d/ are not properly
1689 stopped when passing through the scripts in /etc/rc1.d/, and not
1690 started again when switching away from runlevel 1 to the runlevels
1691 2-5.  I believe the problem is best fixed by moving all the scripts
1692 out of /etc/rcS.d/ that are not <strong>required</strong> to get a
1693 functioning single user mode during boot.</p>
1694
1695 <p>I have spent several years investigating the Debian boot system,
1696 and discovered this problem a few years ago.  I suspect it originates
1697 from when sysvinit was introduced into Debian, a long time ago.</p>
1698
1699       </div>
1700       <div class="tags">
1701
1702
1703         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>.
1704
1705
1706       </div>
1707     </div>
1708     <div class="padding"></div>
1709
1710     <div class="entry">
1711       <div class="title">
1712         <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>
1713       </div>
1714       <div class="date">
1715         30th July 2011
1716       </div>
1717       <div class="body">
1718         <p>In the Debian boot system, several packages include scripts that
1719 are started from /etc/rcS.d/.  In fact, there is a bite more of them
1720 than make sense, and this causes a few problems.  What kind of
1721 problems, you might ask.  There are at least two problems.  The first
1722 is that it is not possible to recover a machine after switching to
1723 runlevel 1.  One need to actually reboot to get the machine back to
1724 the expected state.  The other is that single user boot will sometimes
1725 run into problems because some of the subsystems are activated before
1726 the root login is presented, causing problems when trying to recover a
1727 machine from a problem in that subsystem.  A minor additional point is
1728 that moving more scripts out of rcS.d/ and into the other rc#.d/
1729 directories will increase the amount of scripts that can run in
1730 parallel during boot, and thus decrease the boot time.</p>
1731
1732 <p>So, which scripts should start from rcS.d/.  In short, only the
1733 scripts that _have_ to execute before the root login prompt is
1734 presented during a single user boot should go there.  Everything else
1735 should go into the numeric runlevels.  This means things like
1736 lm-sensors, fuse and x11-common should not run from rcS.d, but from
1737 the numeric runlevels.  Today in Debian, there are around 115 init.d
1738 scripts that are started from rcS.d/, and most of them should be moved
1739 out.  Do your package have one of them?  Please help us make single
1740 user and runlevel 1 better by moving it.</p>
1741
1742 <p>Scripts setting up the screen, keyboard, system partitions
1743 etc. should still be started from rcS.d/, but there is for example no
1744 need to have the network enabled before the single user login prompt
1745 is presented.</p>
1746
1747 <p>As always, things are not so easy to fix as they sound.  To keep
1748 Debian systems working while scripts migrate and during upgrades, the
1749 scripts need to be moved from rcS.d/ to rc2.d/ in reverse dependency
1750 order, ie the scripts that nothing in rcS.d/ depend on can be moved,
1751 and the next ones can only be moved when their dependencies have been
1752 moved first.  This migration must be done sequentially while we ensure
1753 that the package system upgrade packages in the right order to keep
1754 the system state correct.  This will require some coordination when it
1755 comes to network related packages, but most of the packages with
1756 scripts that should migrate do not have anything in rcS.d/ depending
1757 on them.  Some packages have already been updated, like the sudo
1758 package, while others are still left to do.  I wish I had time to work
1759 on this myself, but real live constrains make it unlikely that I will
1760 find time to push this forward.</p>
1761
1762       </div>
1763       <div class="tags">
1764
1765
1766         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>.
1767
1768
1769       </div>
1770     </div>
1771     <div class="padding"></div>
1772
1773     <div class="entry">
1774       <div class="title">
1775         <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>
1776       </div>
1777       <div class="date">
1778         29th July 2011
1779       </div>
1780       <div class="body">
1781         <p>While at Debconf11, I have several times during discussions
1782 mentioned the issues I believe should be improved in Debian for its
1783 desktop to be useful for more people.  The use case for this is my
1784 parents, which are currently running Kubuntu which solve the
1785 issues.</p>
1786
1787 <p>I suspect these four missing features are not very hard to
1788 implement.  After all, they are present in Ubuntu, so if we wanted to
1789 do this in Debian we would have a source.</p>
1790
1791 <ol>
1792
1793 <li><strong>Simple GUI based upgrade of packages.</strong> When there
1794 are new packages available for upgrades, a icon in the KDE status bar
1795 indicate this, and clicking on it will activate the simple upgrade
1796 tool to handle it.  I have no problem guiding both of my parents
1797 through the process over the phone.  If a kernel reboot is required,
1798 this too is indicated by the status bars and the upgrade tool.  Last
1799 time I checked, nothing with the same features was working in KDE in
1800 Debian.</li>
1801
1802 <li><strong>Simple handling of missing Firefox browser
1803 plugins.</strong> When the browser encounter a MIME type it do not
1804 currently have a handler for, it will ask the user if the system
1805 should search for a package that would add support for this MIME type,
1806 and if the user say yes, the APT sources will be searched for packages
1807 advertising the MIME type in their control file (visible in the
1808 Packages file in the APT archive).  If one or more packages are found,
1809 it is a simple click of the mouse to add support for the missing mime
1810 type.  If the package require the user to accept some non-free
1811 license, this is explained to the user.  The entire process make it
1812 more clear to the user why something do not work in the browser, and
1813 make the chances higher for the user to blame the web page authors and
1814 not the browser for any missing features.</li>
1815
1816 <li><strong>Simple handling of missing multimedia codec/format
1817 handlers.</strong> When the media players encounter a format or codec
1818 it is not supporting, a dialog pop up asking the user if the system
1819 should search for a package that would add support for it.  This
1820 happen with things like MP3, Windows Media or H.264.  The selection
1821 and installation procedure is very similar to the Firefox browser
1822 plugin handling.  This is as far as I know implemented using a
1823 gstreamer hook.  The end result is that the user easily get access to
1824 the codecs that are present from the APT archives available, while
1825 explaining more on why a given format is unsupported by Ubuntu.</li>
1826
1827 <li><strong>Better browser handling of some MIME types.</strong> When
1828 displaying a text/plain file in my Debian browser, it will propose to
1829 start emacs to show it.  If I remember correctly, when doing the same
1830 in Kunbutu it show the file as a text file in the browser.  At least I
1831 know Opera will show text files within the browser.  I much prefer the
1832 latter behaviour.</li>
1833
1834 </ol>
1835
1836 <p>There are other nice features as well, like the simplified suite
1837 upgrader, but given that I am the one mostly doing the dist-upgrade,
1838 it do not matter much.</p>
1839
1840 <p>I really hope we could get these features in place for the next
1841 Debian release.  It would require the coordinated effort of several
1842 maintainers, but would make the end user experience a lot better.</p>
1843
1844       </div>
1845       <div class="tags">
1846
1847
1848         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/multimedia">multimedia</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/web">web</a>.
1849
1850
1851       </div>
1852     </div>
1853     <div class="padding"></div>
1854
1855     <div class="entry">
1856       <div class="title">
1857         <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>
1858       </div>
1859       <div class="date">
1860         26th July 2011
1861       </div>
1862       <div class="body">
1863         <p>The Norwegian <a href="http://www.fiksgatami.no/">FiksGataMi</A>
1864 site is build on Debian/Squeeze, and this platform was chosen because
1865 I am most familiar with Debian (being a Debian Developer for around 10
1866 years) because it is the latest stable Debian release which should get
1867 security support for a few years.</p>
1868
1869 <p>The web service is written in Perl, and depend on some perl modules
1870 that are missing in Debian at the moment.  It would be great if these
1871 modules were added to the Debian archive, allowing anyone to set up
1872 their own <a href="http://www.fixmystreet.com">FixMyStreet</a> clone
1873 in their own country using only Debian packages.  The list of modules
1874 missing in Debian/Squeeze isn't very long, and I hope the perl group
1875 will find time to package the 12 modules Catalyst::Plugin::SmartURI,
1876 Catalyst::Plugin::Unicode::Encoding, Catalyst::View::TT, Devel::Hide,
1877 Sort::Key, Statistics::Distributions, Template::Plugin::Comma,
1878 Template::Plugin::DateTime::Format, Term::Size::Any, Term::Size::Perl,
1879 URI::SmartURI and Web::Scraper to make the maintenance of FixMyStreet
1880 easier in the future.</p>
1881
1882 <p>Thanks to the great tools in Debian, getting the missing modules
1883 installed on my server was a simple call to 'cpan2deb Module::Name'
1884 and 'dpkg -i' to install the resulting package.  But this leave me
1885 with the responsibility of tracking security problems, which I really
1886 do not have time for.</p>
1887
1888       </div>
1889       <div class="tags">
1890
1891
1892         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>.
1893
1894
1895       </div>
1896     </div>
1897     <div class="padding"></div>
1898
1899     <div class="entry">
1900       <div class="title">
1901         <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>
1902       </div>
1903       <div class="date">
1904          3rd April 2011
1905       </div>
1906       <div class="body">
1907         <p>Here is a small update for my English readers.  Most of my blog
1908 posts have been in Norwegian the last few weeks, so here is a short
1909 update in English.</p>
1910
1911 <p>The kids still keep me too busy to get much free software work
1912 done, but I did manage to organise a project to get a Norwegian port
1913 of the British service
1914 <a href="http://www.fixmystreet.com/">FixMyStreet</a> up and running,
1915 and it has been running for a month now.  The entire project has been
1916 organised by me and two others.  Around Christmas we gathered sponsors
1917 to fund the development work.  In January I drafted a contract with
1918 <a href="http://www.mysociety.org/">mySociety</a> on what to develop,
1919 and in February the development took place.  Most of it involved
1920 converting the source to use GPS coordinates instead of British
1921 easting/northing, and the resulting code should be a lot easier to get
1922 running in any country by now.  The Norwegian
1923 <a href="http://www.fiksgatami.no/">FiksGataMi</a> is using
1924 <a href="http://www.openstreetmap.org/">OpenStreetmap</a> as the map
1925 source and the source for administrative borders in Norway, and
1926 support for this had to be added/fixed.</p>
1927
1928 <p>The Norwegian version went live March 3th, and we spent the weekend
1929 polishing the system before we announced it March 7th.  The system is
1930 running on a KVM instance of Debian/Squeeze, and has seen almost 3000
1931 problem reports in a few weeks.  Soon we hope to announce the Android
1932 and iPhone versions making it even easier to report problems with the
1933 public infrastructure.</p>
1934
1935 <p>Perhaps something to consider for those of you in countries without
1936 such service?</p>
1937
1938       </div>
1939       <div class="tags">
1940
1941
1942         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>.
1943
1944
1945       </div>
1946     </div>
1947     <div class="padding"></div>
1948
1949     <div class="entry">
1950       <div class="title">
1951         <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>
1952       </div>
1953       <div class="date">
1954         28th January 2011
1955       </div>
1956       <div class="body">
1957         <p>The last few days I have looked at ways to track open security
1958 issues here at my work with the University of Oslo.  My idea is that
1959 it should be possible to use the information about security issues
1960 available on the Internet, and check our locally
1961 maintained/distributed software against this information.  It should
1962 allow us to verify that no known security issues are forgotten.  The
1963 CVE database listing vulnerabilities seem like a great central point,
1964 and by using the package lists from Debian mapped to CVEs provided by
1965 the testing security team, I believed it should be possible to figure
1966 out which security holes were present in our free software
1967 collection.</p>
1968
1969 <p>After reading up on the topic, it became obvious that the first
1970 building block is to be able to name software packages in a unique and
1971 consistent way across data sources.  I considered several ways to do
1972 this, for example coming up with my own naming scheme like using URLs
1973 to project home pages or URLs to the Freshmeat entries, or using some
1974 existing naming scheme.  And it seem like I am not the first one to
1975 come across this problem, as MITRE already proposed and implemented a
1976 solution.  Enter the <a href="http://cpe.mitre.org/index.html">Common
1977 Platform Enumeration</a> dictionary, a vocabulary for referring to
1978 software, hardware and other platform components.  The CPE ids are
1979 mapped to CVEs in the <a href="http://web.nvd.nist.gov/">National
1980 Vulnerability Database</a>, allowing me to look up know security
1981 issues for any CPE name.  With this in place, all I need to do is to
1982 locate the CPE id for the software packages we use at the university.
1983 This is fairly trivial (I google for 'cve cpe $package' and check the
1984 NVD entry if a CVE for the package exist).</p>
1985
1986 <p>To give you an example.  The GNU gzip source package have the CPE
1987 name cpe:/a:gnu:gzip.  If the old version 1.3.3 was the package to
1988 check out, one could look up
1989 <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
1990 in NVD</a> and get a list of 6 security holes with public CVE entries.
1991 The most recent one is
1992 <a href="http://web.nvd.nist.gov/view/vuln/detail?vulnId=CVE-2010-0001">CVE-2010-0001</a>,
1993 and at the bottom of the NVD page for this vulnerability the complete
1994 list of affected versions is provided.</p>
1995
1996 <p>The NVD database of CVEs is also available as a XML dump, allowing
1997 for offline processing of issues.  Using this dump, I've written a
1998 small script taking a list of CPEs as input and list all CVEs
1999 affecting the packages represented by these CPEs.  One give it CPEs
2000 with version numbers as specified above and get a list of open
2001 security issues out.</p>
2002
2003 <p>Of course for this approach to be useful, the quality of the NVD
2004 information need to be high.  For that to happen, I believe as many as
2005 possible need to use and contribute to the NVD database.  I notice
2006 RHEL is providing
2007 <a href="https://www.redhat.com/security/data/metrics/rhsamapcpe.txt">a
2008 map from CVE to CPE</a>, indicating that they are using the CPE
2009 information.  I'm not aware of Debian and Ubuntu doing the same.</p>
2010
2011 <p>To get an idea about the quality for free software, I spent some
2012 time making it possible to compare the CVE database from Debian with
2013 the CVE database in NVD.  The result look fairly good, but there are
2014 some inconsistencies in NVD (same software package having several
2015 CPEs), and some inaccuracies (NVD not mentioning buggy packages that
2016 Debian believe are affected by a CVE).  Hope to find time to improve
2017 the quality of NVD, but that require being able to get in touch with
2018 someone maintaining it.  So far my three emails with questions and
2019 corrections have not seen any reply, but I hope contact can be
2020 established soon.</p>
2021
2022 <p>An interesting application for CPEs is cross platform package
2023 mapping.  It would be useful to know which packages in for example
2024 RHEL, OpenSuSe and Mandriva are missing from Debian and Ubuntu, and
2025 this would be trivial if all linux distributions provided CPE entries
2026 for their packages.</p>
2027
2028       </div>
2029       <div class="tags">
2030
2031
2032         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>.
2033
2034
2035       </div>
2036     </div>
2037     <div class="padding"></div>
2038
2039     <div class="entry">
2040       <div class="title">
2041         <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>
2042       </div>
2043       <div class="date">
2044         23rd January 2011
2045       </div>
2046       <div class="body">
2047         <p>In the
2048 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/discover-data">discover-data</a>
2049 package in Debian, there is a script to report useful information
2050 about the running hardware for use when people report missing
2051 information.  One part of this script that I find very useful when
2052 debugging hardware problems, is the part mapping loaded kernel module
2053 to the PCI device it claims.  It allow me to quickly see if the kernel
2054 module I expect is driving the hardware I am struggling with.  To see
2055 the output, make sure discover-data is installed and run
2056 <tt>/usr/share/bug/discover-data 3>&1</tt>.  The relevant output on
2057 one of my machines like this:</p>
2058
2059 <pre>
2060 loaded modules:
2061 10de:03eb i2c_nforce2
2062 10de:03f1 ohci_hcd
2063 10de:03f2 ehci_hcd
2064 10de:03f0 snd_hda_intel
2065 10de:03ec pata_amd
2066 10de:03f6 sata_nv
2067 1022:1103 k8temp
2068 109e:036e bttv
2069 109e:0878 snd_bt87x
2070 11ab:4364 sky2
2071 </pre>
2072
2073 <p>The code in question look like this, slightly modified for
2074 readability and to drop the output to file descriptor 3:</p>
2075
2076 <pre>
2077 if [ -d /sys/bus/pci/devices/ ] ; then
2078     echo loaded pci modules:
2079     (
2080         cd /sys/bus/pci/devices/
2081         for address in * ; do
2082             if [ -d "$address/driver/module" ] ; then
2083                 module=`cd $address/driver/module ; pwd -P | xargs basename`
2084                 if grep -q "^$module " /proc/modules ; then
2085                     address=$(echo $address |sed s/0000://)
2086                     id=`lspci -n -s $address | tail -n 1 | awk '{print $3}'`
2087                     echo "$id $module"
2088                 fi
2089             fi
2090         done
2091     )
2092     echo
2093 fi
2094 </pre>
2095
2096 <p>Similar code could be used to extract USB device module
2097 mappings:</p>
2098
2099 <pre>
2100 if [ -d /sys/bus/usb/devices/ ] ; then
2101     echo loaded usb modules:
2102     (
2103         cd /sys/bus/usb/devices/
2104         for address in * ; do
2105             if [ -d "$address/driver/module" ] ; then
2106                 module=`cd $address/driver/module ; pwd -P | xargs basename`
2107                 if grep -q "^$module " /proc/modules ; then
2108                     address=$(echo $address |sed s/0000://)
2109                     id=$(lsusb -s $address | tail -n 1 | awk '{print $6}')
2110                     if [ "$id" ] ; then
2111                         echo "$id $module"
2112                     fi
2113                 fi
2114             fi
2115         done
2116     )
2117     echo
2118 fi
2119 </pre>
2120
2121 <p>This might perhaps be something to include in other tools as
2122 well.</p>
2123
2124       </div>
2125       <div class="tags">
2126
2127
2128         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>.
2129
2130
2131       </div>
2132     </div>
2133     <div class="padding"></div>
2134
2135     <div class="entry">
2136       <div class="title">
2137         <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>
2138       </div>
2139       <div class="date">
2140         22nd December 2010
2141       </div>
2142       <div class="body">
2143         <p>The last few days I have spent at work here at the <a
2144 href="http://www.uio.no/">University of Oslo</a> testing if the new
2145 batch of computers will work with Linux.  Every year for the last few
2146 years the university have organised shared bid of a few thousand
2147 computers, and this year HP won the bid.  Two different desktops and
2148 five different laptops are on the list this year.  We in the UNIX
2149 group want to know which one of these computers work well with RHEL
2150 and Ubuntu, the two Linux distributions we currently handle at the
2151 university.</p>
2152
2153 <p>My test method is simple, and I share it here to get feedback and
2154 perhaps inspire others to test hardware as well.  To test, I PXE
2155 install the OS version of choice, and log in as my normal user and run
2156 a few applications and plug in selected pieces of hardware.  When
2157 something fail, I make a note about this in the test matrix and move
2158 on.  If I have some spare time I try to report the bug to the OS
2159 vendor, but as I only have the machines for a short time, I rarely
2160 have the time to do this for all the problems I find.</p>
2161
2162 <p>Anyway, to get to the point of this post.  Here is the simple tests
2163 I perform on a new model.</p>
2164
2165 <ul>
2166
2167 <li>Is PXE installation working?  I'm testing with RHEL6, Ubuntu Lucid
2168 and Ubuntu Maverik at the moment.  If I feel like it, I also test with
2169 RHEL5 and Debian Edu/Squeeze.</li>
2170
2171 <li>Is X.org working?  If the graphical login screen show up after
2172 installation, X.org is working.</li>
2173
2174 <li>Is hardware accelerated OpenGL working?  Running glxgears (in
2175 package mesa-utils on Ubuntu) and writing down the frames per second
2176 reported by the program.</li>
2177
2178 <li>Is sound working?  With Gnome and KDE, a sound is played when
2179 logging in, and if I can hear this the test is successful.  If there
2180 are several audio exits on the machine, I try them all and check if
2181 the Gnome/KDE audio mixer can control where to send the sound.  I
2182 normally test this by playing
2183 <a href="http://www.nuug.no/aktiviteter/20101012-chef/ ">a HTML5
2184 video</a> in Firefox/Iceweasel.</li>
2185
2186 <li>Is the USB subsystem working?  I test this by plugging in a USB
2187 memory stick and see if Gnome/KDE notices this.</li>
2188
2189 <li>Is the CD/DVD player working?  I test this by inserting any CD/DVD
2190 I have lying around, and see if Gnome/KDE notices this.</li>
2191
2192 <li>Is any built in camera working?  Test using cheese, and see if a
2193 picture from the v4l device show up.</li>
2194
2195 <li>Is bluetooth working?  Use the Gnome/KDE browsing tool to see if
2196 any bluetooth devices are discovered.  In my office, I normally see a
2197 few.</li>
2198
2199 <li>For laptops, is the SD or Compaq Flash reader working.  I have
2200 memory modules lying around, and stick them in and see if Gnome/KDE
2201 notice this.</li>
2202
2203 <li>For laptops, is suspend/hibernate working?  I'm testing if the
2204 special button work, and if the laptop continue to work after
2205 resume.</li>
2206
2207 <li>For laptops, is the extra buttons working, like audio level,
2208 adjusting background light, switching on/off external video output,
2209 switching on/off wifi, bluetooth, etc?  The set of buttons differ from
2210 laptop to laptop, so I just write down which are working and which are
2211 not.</li>
2212
2213 <li>Some laptops have smart card readers, finger print readers,
2214 acceleration sensors etc.  I rarely test these, as I do not know how
2215 to quickly test if they are working or not, so I only document their
2216 existence.</li>
2217
2218 </ul>
2219
2220 <p>By now I suspect you are really curious what the test results are
2221 for the HP machines I am testing.  I'm not done yet, so I will report
2222 the test results later.  For now I can report that HP 8100 Elite work
2223 fine, and hibernation fail with HP EliteBook 8440p on Ubuntu Lucid,
2224 and audio fail on RHEL6.  Ubuntu Maverik worked with 8440p.  As you
2225 can see, I have most machines left to test.  One interesting
2226 observation is that Ubuntu Lucid has almost twice the frame rate than
2227 RHEL6 with glxgears.  No idea why.</p>
2228
2229       </div>
2230       <div class="tags">
2231
2232
2233         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>.
2234
2235
2236       </div>
2237     </div>
2238     <div class="padding"></div>
2239
2240     <div class="entry">
2241       <div class="title">
2242         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Some_thoughts_on_BitCoins.html">Some thoughts on BitCoins</a>
2243       </div>
2244       <div class="date">
2245         11th December 2010
2246       </div>
2247       <div class="body">
2248         <p>As I continue to explore
2249 <a href="http://www.bitcoin.org/">BitCoin</a>, I've starting to wonder
2250 what properties the system have, and how it will be affected by laws
2251 and regulations here in Norway.  Here are some random notes.</p>
2252
2253 <p>One interesting thing to note is that since the transactions are
2254 verified using a peer to peer network, all details about a transaction
2255 is known to everyone.  This means that if a BitCoin address has been
2256 published like I did with mine in my initial post about BitCoin, it is
2257 possible for everyone to see how many BitCoins have been transfered to
2258 that address.  There is even a web service to look at the details for
2259 all transactions.  There I can see that my address
2260 <a href="http://blockexplorer.com/address/15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a>
2261 have received 16.06 Bitcoin, the
2262 <a href="http://blockexplorer.com/address/1LfdGnGuWkpSJgbQySxxCWhv8MHqvwst3">1LfdGnGuWkpSJgbQySxxCWhv8MHqvwst3</a>
2263 address of Simon Phipps have received 181.97 BitCoin and the address
2264 <a href="http://blockexplorer.com/address/1MCwBbhNGp5hRm5rC1Aims2YFRe2SXPYKt">1MCwBbhNGp5hRm5rC1Aims2YFRe2SXPYKt</A>
2265 of EFF have received 2447.38 BitCoins so far.  Thank you to each and
2266 every one of you that donated bitcoins to support my activity. The
2267 fact that anyone can see how much money was transfered to a given
2268 address make it more obvious why the BitCoin community recommend to
2269 generate and hand out a new address for each transaction.  I'm told
2270 there is no way to track which addresses belong to a given person or
2271 organisation without the person or organisation revealing it
2272 themselves, as Simon, EFF and I have done.</p>
2273
2274 <p>In Norway, and in most other countries, there are laws and
2275 regulations limiting how much money one can transfer across the border
2276 without declaring it.  There are money laundering, tax and accounting
2277 laws and regulations I would expect to apply to the use of BitCoin.
2278 If the Skolelinux foundation
2279 (<a href="http://linuxiskolen.no/slxdebianlabs/donations.html">SLX
2280 Debian Labs</a>) were to accept donations in BitCoin in addition to
2281 normal bank transfers like EFF is doing, how should this be accounted?
2282 Given that it is impossible to know if money can cross the border or
2283 not, should everything or nothing be declared?  What exchange rate
2284 should be used when calculating taxes?  Would receivers have to pay
2285 income tax if the foundation were to pay Skolelinux contributors in
2286 BitCoin?  I have no idea, but it would be interesting to know.</p>
2287
2288 <p>For a currency to be useful and successful, it must be trusted and
2289 accepted by a lot of users.  It must be possible to get easy access to
2290 the currency (as a wage or using currency exchanges), and it must be
2291 easy to spend it.  At the moment BitCoin seem fairly easy to get
2292 access to, but there are very few places to spend it.  I am not really
2293 a regular user of any of the vendor types currently accepting BitCoin,
2294 so I wonder when my kind of shop would start accepting BitCoins.  I
2295 would like to buy electronics, travels and subway tickets, not herbs
2296 and books. :) The currency is young, and this will improve over time
2297 if it become popular, but I suspect regular banks will start to lobby
2298 to get BitCoin declared illegal if it become popular.  I'm sure they
2299 will claim it is helping fund terrorism and money laundering (which
2300 probably would be true, as is any currency in existence), but I
2301 believe the problems should be solved elsewhere and not by blaming
2302 currencies.</p>
2303
2304 <p>The process of creating new BitCoins is called mining, and it is
2305 CPU intensive process that depend on a bit of luck as well (as one is
2306 competing against all the other miners currently spending CPU cycles
2307 to see which one get the next lump of cash).  The "winner" get 50
2308 BitCoin when this happen.  Yesterday I came across the obvious way to
2309 join forces to increase ones changes of getting at least some coins,
2310 by coordinating the work on mining BitCoins across several machines
2311 and people, and sharing the result if one is lucky and get the 50
2312 BitCoins.  Check out
2313 <a href="http://www.bluishcoder.co.nz/bitcoin-pool/">BitCoin Pool</a>
2314 if this sounds interesting.  I have not had time to try to set up a
2315 machine to participate there yet, but have seen that running on ones
2316 own for a few days have not yield any BitCoins througth mining
2317 yet.</p>
2318
2319 <p>Update 2010-12-15: Found an <a
2320 href="http://inertia.posterous.com/reply-to-the-underground-economist-why-bitcoi">interesting
2321 criticism</a> of bitcoin.  Not quite sure how valid it is, but thought
2322 it was interesting to read.  The arguments presented seem to be
2323 equally valid for gold, which was used as a currency for many years.</p>
2324
2325       </div>
2326       <div class="tags">
2327
2328
2329         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>.
2330
2331
2332       </div>
2333     </div>
2334     <div class="padding"></div>
2335
2336     <div class="entry">
2337       <div class="title">
2338         <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>
2339       </div>
2340       <div class="date">
2341         10th December 2010
2342       </div>
2343       <div class="body">
2344         <p>With this weeks lawless
2345 <a href="http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2010/12/06/wikileaks/index.html">governmental
2346 attacks</a> on Wikileak and
2347 <a href="http://www.salon.com/technology/dan_gillmor/2010/12/06/war_on_speech">free
2348 speech</a>, it has become obvious that PayPal, visa and mastercard can
2349 not be trusted to handle money transactions.
2350 A blog post from
2351 <a href="http://webmink.com/2010/12/06/now-accepting-bitcoin/">Simon
2352 Phipps on bitcoin</a> reminded me about a project that a friend of
2353 mine mentioned earlier.  I decided to follow Simon's example, and get
2354 involved with <a href="http://www.bitcoin.org/">BitCoin</a>.  I got
2355 some help from my friend to get it all running, and he even handed me
2356 some bitcoins to get started.  I even donated a few bitcoins to Simon
2357 for helping me remember BitCoin.</p>
2358
2359 <p>So, what is bitcoins, you probably wonder?  It is a digital
2360 crypto-currency, decentralised and handled using peer-to-peer
2361 networks.  It allows anonymous transactions and prohibits central
2362 control over the transactions, making it impossible for governments
2363 and companies alike to block donations and other transactions.  The
2364 source is free software, and while the key dependency wxWidgets 2.9
2365 for the graphical user interface is missing in Debian, the command
2366 line client builds just fine.  Hopefully Jonas
2367 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/578157">will get the package into
2368 Debian</a> soon.</p>
2369
2370 <p>Bitcoins can be converted to other currencies, like USD and EUR.
2371 There are <a href="http://www.bitcoin.org/trade">companies accepting
2372 bitcoins</a> when selling services and goods, and there are even
2373 currency "stock" markets where the exchange rate is decided.  There
2374 are not many users so far, but the concept seems promising.  If you
2375 want to get started and lack a friend with any bitcoins to spare,
2376 you can even get
2377 <a href="https://freebitcoins.appspot.com/">some for free</a> (0.05
2378 bitcoin at the time of writing).  Use
2379 <a href="http://www.bitcoinwatch.com/">BitcoinWatch</a> to keep an eye
2380 on the current exchange rates.</p>
2381
2382 <p>As an experiment, I have decided to set up bitcoind on one of my
2383 machines.  If you want to support my activity, please send Bitcoin
2384 donations to the address
2385 <b>15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</b>.  Thank you!</p>
2386
2387       </div>
2388       <div class="tags">
2389
2390
2391         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>.
2392
2393
2394       </div>
2395     </div>
2396     <div class="padding"></div>
2397
2398     <div class="entry">
2399       <div class="title">
2400         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Why_isn_t_Debian_Edu_using_VLC_.html">Why isn't Debian Edu using VLC?</a>
2401       </div>
2402       <div class="date">
2403         27th November 2010
2404       </div>
2405       <div class="body">
2406         <p>In the latest issue of Linux Journal, the readers choices were
2407 presented, and the winner among the multimedia player were VLC.
2408 Personally, I like VLC, and it is my player of choice when I first try
2409 to play a video file or stream.  Only if VLC fail will I drag out
2410 gmplayer to see if it can do better.  The reason is mostly the failure
2411 model and trust.  When VLC fail, it normally pop up a error message
2412 reporting the problem.  When mplayer fail, it normally segfault or
2413 just hangs.  The latter failure mode drain my trust in the program.<p>
2414
2415 <p>But even if VLC is my player of choice, we have choosen to use
2416 mplayer in <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian
2417 Edu/Skolelinux</a>.  The reason is simple.  We need a good browser
2418 plugin to play web videos seamlessly, and the VLC browser plugin is
2419 not very good.  For example, it lack in-line control buttons, so there
2420 is no way for the user to pause the video.  Also, when I
2421 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/BrowserMultimedia">last
2422 tested the browser plugins</a> available in Debian, the VLC plugin
2423 failed on several video pages where mplayer based plugins worked.  If
2424 the browser plugin for VLC was as good as the gecko-mediaplayer
2425 package (which uses mplayer), we would switch.</P>
2426
2427 <p>While VLC is a good player, its user interface is slightly
2428 annoying.  The most annoying feature is its inconsistent use of
2429 keyboard shortcuts.  When the player is in full screen mode, its
2430 shortcuts are different from when it is playing the video in a window.
2431 For example, space only work as pause when in full screen mode.  I
2432 wish it had consisten shortcuts and that space also would work when in
2433 window mode.  Another nice shortcut in gmplayer is [enter] to restart
2434 the current video.  It is very nice when playing short videos from the
2435 web and want to restart it when new people arrive to have a look at
2436 what is going on.</p>
2437
2438       </div>
2439       <div class="tags">
2440
2441
2442         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>.
2443
2444
2445       </div>
2446     </div>
2447     <div class="padding"></div>
2448
2449     <div class="entry">
2450       <div class="title">
2451         <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>
2452       </div>
2453       <div class="date">
2454         22nd November 2010
2455       </div>
2456       <div class="body">
2457         <p>Michael Biebl suggested to me on IRC, that I changed my automated
2458 upgrade testing of the
2459 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/~pere/debian-upgrade-testing/">Lenny
2460 Gnome and KDE Desktop</a> to do <tt>apt-get autoremove</tt> when using apt-get.
2461 This seem like a very good idea, so I adjusted by test scripts and
2462 can now present the updated result from today:</p>
2463
2464 <p>This is for Gnome:</p>
2465
2466 <p>Installed using apt-get, missing with aptitude</p>
2467
2468 <blockquote><p>
2469   apache2.2-bin
2470   aptdaemon
2471   baobab
2472   binfmt-support
2473   browser-plugin-gnash
2474   cheese-common
2475   cli-common
2476   cups-pk-helper
2477   dmz-cursor-theme
2478   empathy
2479   empathy-common
2480   freedesktop-sound-theme
2481   freeglut3
2482   gconf-defaults-service
2483   gdm-themes
2484   gedit-plugins
2485   geoclue
2486   geoclue-hostip
2487   geoclue-localnet
2488   geoclue-manual
2489   geoclue-yahoo
2490   gnash
2491   gnash-common
2492   gnome
2493   gnome-backgrounds
2494   gnome-cards-data
2495   gnome-codec-install
2496   gnome-core
2497   gnome-desktop-environment
2498   gnome-disk-utility
2499   gnome-screenshot
2500   gnome-search-tool
2501   gnome-session-canberra
2502   gnome-system-log
2503   gnome-themes-extras
2504   gnome-themes-more
2505   gnome-user-share
2506   gstreamer0.10-fluendo-mp3
2507   gstreamer0.10-tools
2508   gtk2-engines
2509   gtk2-engines-pixbuf
2510   gtk2-engines-smooth
2511   hamster-applet
2512   libapache2-mod-dnssd
2513   libapr1
2514   libaprutil1
2515   libaprutil1-dbd-sqlite3
2516   libaprutil1-ldap
2517   libart2.0-cil
2518   libboost-date-time1.42.0
2519   libboost-python1.42.0
2520   libboost-thread1.42.0
2521   libchamplain-0.4-0
2522   libchamplain-gtk-0.4-0
2523   libcheese-gtk18
2524   libclutter-gtk-0.10-0
2525   libcryptui0
2526   libdiscid0
2527   libelf1
2528   libepc-1.0-2
2529   libepc-common
2530   libepc-ui-1.0-2
2531   libfreerdp-plugins-standard
2532   libfreerdp0
2533   libgconf2.0-cil
2534   libgdata-common
2535   libgdata7
2536   libgdu-gtk0
2537   libgee2
2538   libgeoclue0
2539   libgexiv2-0
2540   libgif4
2541   libglade2.0-cil
2542   libglib2.0-cil
2543   libgmime2.4-cil
2544   libgnome-vfs2.0-cil
2545   libgnome2.24-cil
2546   libgnomepanel2.24-cil
2547   libgpod-common
2548   libgpod4
2549   libgtk2.0-cil
2550   libgtkglext1
2551   libgtksourceview2.0-common
2552   libmono-addins-gui0.2-cil
2553   libmono-addins0.2-cil
2554   libmono-cairo2.0-cil
2555   libmono-corlib2.0-cil
2556   libmono-i18n-west2.0-cil
2557   libmono-posix2.0-cil
2558   libmono-security2.0-cil
2559   libmono-sharpzip2.84-cil
2560   libmono-system2.0-cil
2561   libmtp8
2562   libmusicbrainz3-6
2563   libndesk-dbus-glib1.0-cil
2564   libndesk-dbus1.0-cil
2565   libopal3.6.8
2566   libpolkit-gtk-1-0
2567   libpt2.6.7
2568   libpython2.6
2569   librpm1
2570   librpmio1
2571   libsdl1.2debian
2572   libsrtp0
2573   libssh-4
2574   libtelepathy-farsight0
2575   libtelepathy-glib0
2576   libtidy-0.99-0
2577   media-player-info
2578   mesa-utils
2579   mono-2.0-gac
2580   mono-gac
2581   mono-runtime
2582   nautilus-sendto
2583   nautilus-sendto-empathy
2584   p7zip-full
2585   pkg-config
2586   python-aptdaemon
2587   python-aptdaemon-gtk
2588   python-axiom
2589   python-beautifulsoup
2590   python-bugbuddy
2591   python-clientform
2592   python-coherence
2593   python-configobj
2594   python-crypto
2595   python-cupshelpers
2596   python-elementtree
2597   python-epsilon
2598   python-evolution
2599   python-feedparser
2600   python-gdata
2601   python-gdbm
2602   python-gst0.10
2603   python-gtkglext1
2604   python-gtksourceview2
2605   python-httplib2
2606   python-louie
2607   python-mako
2608   python-markupsafe
2609   python-mechanize
2610   python-nevow
2611   python-notify
2612   python-opengl
2613   python-openssl
2614   python-pam
2615   python-pkg-resources
2616   python-pyasn1
2617   python-pysqlite2
2618   python-rdflib
2619   python-serial
2620   python-tagpy
2621   python-twisted-bin
2622   python-twisted-conch
2623   python-twisted-core
2624   python-twisted-web
2625   python-utidylib
2626   python-webkit
2627   python-xdg
2628   python-zope.interface
2629   remmina
2630   remmina-plugin-data
2631   remmina-plugin-rdp
2632   remmina-plugin-vnc
2633   rhythmbox-plugin-cdrecorder
2634   rhythmbox-plugins
2635   rpm-common
2636   rpm2cpio
2637   seahorse-plugins
2638   shotwell
2639   software-center
2640   system-config-printer-udev
2641   telepathy-gabble
2642   telepathy-mission-control-5
2643   telepathy-salut
2644   tomboy
2645   totem
2646   totem-coherence
2647   totem-mozilla
2648   totem-plugins
2649   transmission-common
2650   xdg-user-dirs
2651   xdg-user-dirs-gtk
2652   xserver-xephyr
2653 </p></blockquote>
2654
2655 <p>Installed using apt-get, removed with aptitude</p>
2656
2657 <blockquote><p>
2658   cheese
2659   ekiga
2660   eog
2661   epiphany-extensions
2662   evolution-exchange
2663   fast-user-switch-applet
2664   file-roller
2665   gcalctool
2666   gconf-editor
2667   gdm
2668   gedit
2669   gedit-common
2670   gnome-games
2671   gnome-games-data
2672   gnome-nettool
2673   gnome-system-tools
2674   gnome-themes
2675   gnuchess
2676   gucharmap
2677   guile-1.8-libs
2678   libavahi-ui0
2679   libdmx1
2680   libgalago3
2681   libgtk-vnc-1.0-0
2682   libgtksourceview2.0-0
2683   liblircclient0
2684   libsdl1.2debian-alsa
2685   libspeexdsp1
2686   libsvga1
2687   rhythmbox
2688   seahorse
2689   sound-juicer
2690   system-config-printer
2691   totem-common
2692   transmission-gtk
2693   vinagre
2694   vino
2695 </p></blockquote>
2696
2697 <p>Installed using aptitude, missing with apt-get</p>
2698
2699 <blockquote><p>
2700   gstreamer0.10-gnomevfs
2701 </p></blockquote>
2702
2703 <p>Installed using aptitude, removed with apt-get</p>
2704
2705 <blockquote><p>
2706 [nothing]
2707 </p></blockquote>
2708
2709 <p>This is for KDE:</p>
2710
2711 <p>Installed using apt-get, missing with aptitude</p>
2712
2713 <blockquote><p>
2714   ksmserver
2715 </p></blockquote>
2716
2717 <p>Installed using apt-get, removed with aptitude</p>
2718
2719 <blockquote><p>
2720   kwin
2721   network-manager-kde
2722 </p></blockquote>
2723
2724 <p>Installed using aptitude, missing with apt-get</p>
2725
2726 <blockquote><p>
2727   arts
2728   dolphin
2729   freespacenotifier
2730   google-gadgets-gst
2731   google-gadgets-xul
2732   kappfinder
2733   kcalc
2734   kcharselect
2735   kde-core
2736   kde-plasma-desktop
2737   kde-standard
2738   kde-window-manager
2739   kdeartwork
2740   kdeartwork-emoticons
2741   kdeartwork-style
2742   kdeartwork-theme-icon
2743   kdebase
2744   kdebase-apps
2745   kdebase-workspace
2746   kdebase-workspace-bin
2747   kdebase-workspace-data
2748   kdeeject
2749   kdelibs
2750   kdeplasma-addons
2751   kdeutils
2752   kdewallpapers
2753   kdf
2754   kfloppy
2755   kgpg
2756   khelpcenter4
2757   kinfocenter
2758   konq-plugins-l10n
2759   konqueror-nsplugins
2760   kscreensaver
2761   kscreensaver-xsavers
2762   ktimer
2763   kwrite
2764   libgle3
2765   libkde4-ruby1.8
2766   libkonq5
2767   libkonq5-templates
2768   libnetpbm10
2769   libplasma-ruby
2770   libplasma-ruby1.8
2771   libqt4-ruby1.8
2772   marble-data
2773   marble-plugins
2774   netpbm
2775   nuvola-icon-theme
2776   plasma-dataengines-workspace
2777   plasma-desktop
2778   plasma-desktopthemes-artwork
2779   plasma-runners-addons
2780   plasma-scriptengine-googlegadgets
2781   plasma-scriptengine-python
2782   plasma-scriptengine-qedje
2783   plasma-scriptengine-ruby
2784   plasma-scriptengine-webkit
2785   plasma-scriptengines
2786   plasma-wallpapers-addons
2787   plasma-widget-folderview
2788   plasma-widget-networkmanagement
2789   ruby
2790   sweeper
2791   update-notifier-kde
2792   xscreensaver-data-extra
2793   xscreensaver-gl
2794   xscreensaver-gl-extra
2795   xscreensaver-screensaver-bsod
2796 </p></blockquote>
2797
2798 <p>Installed using aptitude, removed with apt-get</p>
2799
2800 <blockquote><p>
2801   ark
2802   google-gadgets-common
2803   google-gadgets-qt
2804   htdig
2805   kate
2806   kdebase-bin
2807   kdebase-data
2808   kdepasswd
2809   kfind
2810   klipper
2811   konq-plugins
2812   konqueror
2813   ksysguard
2814   ksysguardd
2815   libarchive1
2816   libcln6
2817   libeet1
2818   libeina-svn-06
2819   libggadget-1.0-0b
2820   libggadget-qt-1.0-0b
2821   libgps19
2822   libkdecorations4
2823   libkephal4
2824   libkonq4
2825   libkonqsidebarplugin4a
2826   libkscreensaver5
2827   libksgrd4
2828   libksignalplotter4
2829   libkunitconversion4
2830   libkwineffects1a
2831   libmarblewidget4
2832   libntrack-qt4-1
2833   libntrack0
2834   libplasma-geolocation-interface4
2835   libplasmaclock4a
2836   libplasmagenericshell4
2837   libprocesscore4a
2838   libprocessui4a
2839   libqalculate5
2840   libqedje0a
2841   libqtruby4shared2
2842   libqzion0a
2843   libruby1.8
2844   libscim8c2a
2845   libsmokekdecore4-3
2846   libsmokekdeui4-3
2847   libsmokekfile3
2848   libsmokekhtml3
2849   libsmokekio3
2850   libsmokeknewstuff2-3
2851   libsmokeknewstuff3-3
2852   libsmokekparts3
2853   libsmokektexteditor3
2854   libsmokekutils3
2855   libsmokenepomuk3
2856   libsmokephonon3
2857   libsmokeplasma3
2858   libsmokeqtcore4-3
2859   libsmokeqtdbus4-3
2860   libsmokeqtgui4-3
2861   libsmokeqtnetwork4-3
2862   libsmokeqtopengl4-3
2863   libsmokeqtscript4-3
2864   libsmokeqtsql4-3
2865   libsmokeqtsvg4-3
2866   libsmokeqttest4-3
2867   libsmokeqtuitools4-3
2868   libsmokeqtwebkit4-3
2869   libsmokeqtxml4-3
2870   libsmokesolid3
2871   libsmokesoprano3
2872   libtaskmanager4a
2873   libtidy-0.99-0
2874   libweather-ion4a
2875   libxklavier16
2876   libxxf86misc1
2877   okteta
2878   oxygencursors
2879   plasma-dataengines-addons
2880   plasma-scriptengine-superkaramba
2881   plasma-widget-lancelot
2882   plasma-widgets-addons
2883   plasma-widgets-workspace
2884   polkit-kde-1
2885   ruby1.8
2886   systemsettings
2887   update-notifier-common
2888 </p></blockquote>
2889
2890 <p>Running apt-get autoremove made the results using apt-get and
2891 aptitude a bit more similar, but there are still quite a lott of
2892 differences.  I have no idea what packages should be installed after
2893 the upgrade, but hope those that do can have a look.</p>
2894
2895       </div>
2896       <div class="tags">
2897
2898
2899         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>.
2900
2901
2902       </div>
2903     </div>
2904     <div class="padding"></div>
2905
2906     <div class="entry">
2907       <div class="title">
2908         <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>
2909       </div>
2910       <div class="date">
2911         22nd November 2010
2912       </div>
2913       <div class="body">
2914         <p>Most of the computers in use by the
2915 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu/Skolelinux project</a>
2916 are virtual machines.  And they have been Xen machines running on a
2917 fairly old IBM eserver xseries 345 machine, and we wanted to migrate
2918 them to KVM on a newer Dell PowerEdge 2950 host machine.  This was a
2919 bit harder that it could have been, because we set up the Xen virtual
2920 machines to get the virtual partitions from LVM, which as far as I
2921 know is not supported by KVM.  So to migrate, we had to convert
2922 several LVM logical volumes to partitions on a virtual disk file.</p>
2923
2924 <p>I found
2925 <a href="http://searchnetworking.techtarget.com.au/articles/35011-Six-steps-for-migrating-Xen-virtual-machines-to-KVM">a
2926 nice recipe</a> to do this, and wrote the following script to do the
2927 migration.  It uses qemu-img from the qemu package to make the disk
2928 image, parted to partition it, losetup and kpartx to present the disk
2929 image partions as devices, and dd to copy the data.  I NFS mounted the
2930 new servers storage area on the old server to do the migration.</p>
2931
2932 <pre>
2933 #!/bin/sh
2934
2935 # Based on
2936 # http://searchnetworking.techtarget.com.au/articles/35011-Six-steps-for-migrating-Xen-virtual-machines-to-KVM
2937
2938 set -e
2939 set -x
2940
2941 if [ -z "$1" ] ; then
2942     echo "Usage: $0 &lt;hostname&gt;"
2943     exit 1
2944 else
2945     host="$1"
2946 fi
2947
2948 if [ ! -e /dev/vg_data/$host-disk ] ; then
2949     echo "error: unable to find LVM volume for $host"
2950     exit 1
2951 fi
2952
2953 # Partitions need to be a bit bigger than the LVM LVs.  not sure why.
2954 disksize=$( lvs --units m | grep $host-disk | awk '{sum = sum + $4} END { print int(sum * 1.05) }')
2955 swapsize=$( lvs --units m | grep $host-swap | awk '{sum = sum + $4} END { print int(sum * 1.05) }')
2956 totalsize=$(( ( $disksize + $swapsize ) ))
2957
2958 img=$host.img
2959 #dd if=/dev/zero of=$img bs=1M count=$(( $disksize + $swapsize ))
2960 qemu-img create $img ${totalsize}MMaking room on the Debian Edu/Sqeeze DVD
2961
2962 parted $img mklabel msdos
2963 parted $img mkpart primary linux-swap 0 $disksize
2964 parted $img mkpart primary ext2 $disksize $totalsize
2965 parted $img set 1 boot on
2966
2967 modprobe dm-mod
2968 losetup /dev/loop0 $img
2969 kpartx -a /dev/loop0
2970
2971 dd if=/dev/vg_data/$host-disk of=/dev/mapper/loop0p1 bs=1M
2972 fsck.ext3 -f /dev/mapper/loop0p1 || true
2973 mkswap /dev/mapper/loop0p2
2974
2975 kpartx -d /dev/loop0
2976 losetup -d /dev/loop0
2977 </pre>
2978
2979 <p>The script is perhaps so simple that it is not copyrightable, but
2980 if it is, it is licenced using GPL v2 or later at your discretion.</p>
2981
2982 <p>After doing this, I booted a Debian CD in rescue mode in KVM with
2983 the new disk image attached, installed grub-pc and linux-image-686 and
2984 set up grub to boot from the disk image.  After this, the KVM machines
2985 seem to work just fine.</p>
2986
2987       </div>
2988       <div class="tags">
2989
2990
2991         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>.
2992
2993
2994       </div>
2995     </div>
2996     <div class="padding"></div>
2997
2998     <div class="entry">
2999       <div class="title">
3000         <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>
3001       </div>
3002       <div class="date">
3003         20th November 2010
3004       </div>
3005       <div class="body">
3006         <p>I'm still running upgrade testing of the
3007 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/~pere/debian-upgrade-testing/">Lenny
3008 Gnome and KDE Desktop</a>, but have not had time to spend on reporting the
3009 status.  Here is a short update based on a test I ran 20101118.</p>
3010
3011 <p>I still do not know what a correct migration should look like, so I
3012 report any differences between apt and aptitude and hope someone else
3013 can see if anything should be changed.</p>
3014
3015 <p>This is for Gnome:</p>
3016
3017 <p>Installed using apt-get, missing with aptitude</p>
3018
3019 <blockquote><p>
3020   apache2.2-bin aptdaemon at-spi baobab binfmt-support
3021   browser-plugin-gnash cheese-common cli-common cpp-4.3 cups-pk-helper
3022   dmz-cursor-theme empathy empathy-common finger
3023   freedesktop-sound-theme freeglut3 gconf-defaults-service gdm-themes
3024   gedit-plugins geoclue geoclue-hostip geoclue-localnet geoclue-manual
3025   geoclue-yahoo gnash gnash-common gnome gnome-backgrounds
3026   gnome-cards-data gnome-codec-install gnome-core
3027   gnome-desktop-environment gnome-disk-utility gnome-screenshot
3028   gnome-search-tool gnome-session-canberra gnome-spell
3029   gnome-system-log gnome-themes-extras gnome-themes-more
3030   gnome-user-share gs-common gstreamer0.10-fluendo-mp3
3031   gstreamer0.10-tools gtk2-engines gtk2-engines-pixbuf
3032   gtk2-engines-smooth hal-info hamster-applet libapache2-mod-dnssd
3033   libapr1 libaprutil1 libaprutil1-dbd-sqlite3 libaprutil1-ldap
3034   libart2.0-cil libatspi1.0-0 libboost-date-time1.42.0
3035   libboost-python1.42.0 libboost-thread1.42.0 libchamplain-0.4-0
3036   libchamplain-gtk-0.4-0 libcheese-gtk18 libclutter-gtk-0.10-0
3037   libcryptui0 libcupsys2 libdiscid0 libeel2-data libelf1 libepc-1.0-2
3038   libepc-common libepc-ui-1.0-2 libfreerdp-plugins-standard
3039   libfreerdp0 libgail-common libgconf2.0-cil libgdata-common libgdata7
3040   libgdl-1-common libgdu-gtk0 libgee2 libgeoclue0 libgexiv2-0 libgif4
3041   libglade2.0-cil libglib2.0-cil libgmime2.4-cil libgnome-vfs2.0-cil
3042   libgnome2.24-cil libgnomepanel2.24-cil libgnomeprint2.2-data
3043   libgnomeprintui2.2-common libgnomevfs2-bin libgpod-common libgpod4
3044   libgtk2.0-cil libgtkglext1 libgtksourceview-common
3045   libgtksourceview2.0-common libmono-addins-gui0.2-cil
3046   libmono-addins0.2-cil libmono-cairo2.0-cil libmono-corlib2.0-cil
3047   libmono-i18n-west2.0-cil libmono-posix2.0-cil
3048   libmono-security2.0-cil libmono-sharpzip2.84-cil
3049   libmono-system2.0-cil libmtp8 libmusicbrainz3-6
3050   libndesk-dbus-glib1.0-cil libndesk-dbus1.0-cil libopal3.6.8
3051   libpolkit-gtk-1-0 libpt-1.10.10-plugins-alsa
3052   libpt-1.10.10-plugins-v4l libpt2.6.7 libpython2.6 librpm1 librpmio1
3053   libsdl1.2debian libservlet2.4-java libsrtp0 libssh-4
3054   libtelepathy-farsight0 libtelepathy-glib0 libtidy-0.99-0
3055   libxalan2-java libxerces2-java media-player-info mesa-utils
3056   mono-2.0-gac mono-gac mono-runtime nautilus-sendto
3057   nautilus-sendto-empathy openoffice.org-writer2latex
3058   openssl-blacklist p7zip p7zip-full pkg-config python-4suite-xml
3059   python-aptdaemon python-aptdaemon-gtk python-axiom
3060   python-beautifulsoup python-bugbuddy python-clientform
3061   python-coherence python-configobj python-crypto python-cupshelpers
3062   python-cupsutils python-eggtrayicon python-elementtree
3063   python-epsilon python-evolution python-feedparser python-gdata
3064   python-gdbm python-gst0.10 python-gtkglext1 python-gtkmozembed
3065   python-gtksourceview2 python-httplib2 python-louie python-mako
3066   python-markupsafe python-mechanize python-nevow python-notify
3067   python-opengl python-openssl python-pam python-pkg-resources
3068   python-pyasn1 python-pysqlite2 python-rdflib python-serial
3069   python-tagpy python-twisted-bin python-twisted-conch
3070   python-twisted-core python-twisted-web python-utidylib python-webkit
3071   python-xdg python-zope.interface remmina remmina-plugin-data
3072   remmina-plugin-rdp remmina-plugin-vnc rhythmbox-plugin-cdrecorder
3073   rhythmbox-plugins rpm-common rpm2cpio seahorse-plugins shotwell
3074   software-center svgalibg1 system-config-printer-udev
3075   telepathy-gabble telepathy-mission-control-5 telepathy-salut tomboy
3076   totem totem-coherence totem-mozilla totem-plugins
3077   transmission-common xdg-user-dirs xdg-user-dirs-gtk xserver-xephyr
3078   zip
3079 </p></blockquote>
3080
3081 Installed using apt-get, removed with aptitude
3082
3083 <blockquote><p>
3084   arj bluez-utils cheese dhcdbd djvulibre-desktop ekiga eog
3085   epiphany-extensions epiphany-gecko evolution-exchange
3086   fast-user-switch-applet file-roller gcalctool gconf-editor gdm gedit
3087   gedit-common gnome-app-install gnome-games gnome-games-data
3088   gnome-nettool gnome-system-tools gnome-themes gnome-utils
3089   gnome-vfs-obexftp gnome-volume-manager gnuchess gucharmap
3090   guile-1.8-libs hal libavahi-compat-libdnssd1 libavahi-core5
3091   libavahi-ui0 libbind9-50 libbluetooth2 libcamel1.2-11 libcdio7
3092   libcucul0 libcurl3 libdirectfb-1.0-0 libdmx1 libdvdread3
3093   libedata-cal1.2-6 libedataserver1.2-9 libeel2-2.20 libepc-1.0-1
3094   libepc-ui-1.0-1 libexchange-storage1.2-3 libfaad0 libgadu3
3095   libgalago3 libgd2-noxpm libgda3-3 libgda3-common libggz2 libggzcore9
3096   libggzmod4 libgksu1.2-0 libgksuui1.0-1 libgmyth0 libgnome-desktop-2
3097   libgnome-pilot2 libgnomecups1.0-1 libgnomeprint2.2-0
3098   libgnomeprintui2.2-0 libgpod3 libgraphviz4 libgtk-vnc-1.0-0
3099   libgtkhtml2-0 libgtksourceview1.0-0 libgtksourceview2.0-0
3100   libgucharmap6 libhesiod0 libicu38 libisccc50 libisccfg50 libiw29
3101   libjaxp1.3-java-gcj libkpathsea4 liblircclient0 libltdl3 liblwres50
3102   libmagick++10 libmagick10 libmalaga7 libmozjs1d libmpfr1ldbl libmtp7
3103   libmysqlclient15off libnautilus-burn4 libneon27 libnm-glib0
3104   libnm-util0 libopal-2.2 libosp5 libparted1.8-10 libpisock9
3105   libpisync1 libpoppler-glib3 libpoppler3 libpt-1.10.10 libraw1394-8
3106   libsdl1.2debian-alsa libsensors3 libsexy2 libsmbios2 libsoup2.2-8
3107   libspeexdsp1 libssh2-1 libsuitesparse-3.1.0 libsvga1
3108   libswfdec-0.6-90 libtalloc1 libtotem-plparser10 libtrackerclient0
3109   libvoikko1 libxalan2-java-gcj libxerces2-java-gcj libxklavier12
3110   libxtrap6 libxxf86misc1 libzephyr3 mysql-common rhythmbox seahorse
3111   sound-juicer swfdec-gnome system-config-printer totem-common
3112   totem-gstreamer transmission-gtk vinagre vino w3c-dtd-xhtml wodim
3113 </p></blockquote>
3114
3115 <p>Installed using aptitude, missing with apt-get</p>
3116
3117 <blockquote><p>
3118   gstreamer0.10-gnomevfs
3119 </p></blockquote>
3120
3121 <p>Installed using aptitude, removed with apt-get</p>
3122
3123 <blockquote><p>
3124 [nothing]
3125 </p></blockquote>
3126
3127 <p>This is for KDE:</p>
3128
3129 <p>Installed using apt-get, missing with aptitude</p>
3130
3131 <blockquote><p>
3132   autopoint bomber bovo cantor cantor-backend-kalgebra cpp-4.3 dcoprss
3133   edict espeak espeak-data eyesapplet fifteenapplet finger gettext
3134   ghostscript-x git gnome-audio gnugo granatier gs-common
3135   gstreamer0.10-pulseaudio indi kaddressbook-plugins kalgebra
3136   kalzium-data kanjidic kapman kate-plugins kblocks kbreakout kbstate
3137   kde-icons-mono kdeaccessibility kdeaddons-kfile-plugins
3138   kdeadmin-kfile-plugins kdeartwork-misc kdeartwork-theme-window
3139   kdeedu kdeedu-data kdeedu-kvtml-data kdegames kdegames-card-data
3140   kdegames-mahjongg-data kdegraphics-kfile-plugins kdelirc
3141   kdemultimedia-kfile-plugins kdenetwork-kfile-plugins
3142   kdepim-kfile-plugins kdepim-kio-plugins kdessh kdetoys kdewebdev
3143   kdiamond kdnssd kfilereplace kfourinline kgeography-data kigo
3144   killbots kiriki klettres-data kmoon kmrml knewsticker-scripts
3145   kollision kpf krosspython ksirk ksmserver ksquares kstars-data
3146   ksudoku kubrick kweather libasound2-plugins libboost-python1.42.0
3147   libcfitsio3 libconvert-binhex-perl libcrypt-ssleay-perl libdb4.6++
3148   libdjvulibre-text libdotconf1.0 liberror-perl libespeak1
3149   libfinance-quote-perl libgail-common libgsl0ldbl libhtml-parser-perl
3150   libhtml-tableextract-perl libhtml-tagset-perl libhtml-tree-perl
3151   libio-stringy-perl libkdeedu4 libkdegames5 libkiten4 libkpathsea5
3152   libkrossui4 libmailtools-perl libmime-tools-perl
3153   libnews-nntpclient-perl libopenbabel3 libportaudio2 libpulse-browse0
3154   libservlet2.4-java libspeechd2 libtiff-tools libtimedate-perl
3155   libunistring0 liburi-perl libwww-perl libxalan2-java libxerces2-java
3156   lirc luatex marble networkstatus noatun-plugins
3157   openoffice.org-writer2latex palapeli palapeli-data parley
3158   parley-data poster psutils pulseaudio pulseaudio-esound-compat
3159   pulseaudio-module-x11 pulseaudio-utils quanta-data rocs rsync
3160   speech-dispatcher step svgalibg1 texlive-binaries texlive-luatex
3161   ttf-sazanami-gothic
3162 </p></blockquote>
3163
3164 <p>Installed using apt-get, removed with aptitude</p>
3165
3166 <blockquote><p>
3167   amor artsbuilder atlantik atlantikdesigner blinken bluez-utils cvs
3168   dhcdbd djvulibre-desktop imlib-base imlib11 kalzium kanagram kandy
3169   kasteroids katomic kbackgammon kbattleship kblackbox kbounce kbruch
3170   kcron kdat kdemultimedia-kappfinder-data kdeprint kdict kdvi kedit
3171   keduca kenolaba kfax kfaxview kfouleggs kgeography kghostview
3172   kgoldrunner khangman khexedit kiconedit kig kimagemapeditor
3173   kitchensync kiten kjumpingcube klatin klettres klickety klines
3174   klinkstatus kmag kmahjongg kmailcvt kmenuedit kmid kmilo kmines
3175   kmousetool kmouth kmplot knetwalk kodo kolf kommander konquest kooka
3176   kpager kpat kpdf kpercentage kpilot kpoker kpovmodeler krec
3177   kregexpeditor kreversi ksame ksayit kshisen ksig ksim ksirc ksirtet
3178   ksmiletris ksnake ksokoban kspaceduel kstars ksvg ksysv kteatime
3179   ktip ktnef ktouch ktron kttsd ktuberling kturtle ktux kuickshow
3180   kverbos kview kviewshell kvoctrain kwifimanager kwin kwin4 kwordquiz
3181   kworldclock kxsldbg libakode2 libarts1-akode libarts1-audiofile
3182   libarts1-mpeglib libarts1-xine libavahi-compat-libdnssd1
3183   libavahi-core5 libavc1394-0 libbind9-50 libbluetooth2
3184   libboost-python1.34.1 libcucul0 libcurl3 libcvsservice0
3185   libdirectfb-1.0-0 libdjvulibre21 libdvdread3 libfaad0 libfreebob0
3186   libgd2-noxpm libgraphviz4 libgsmme1c2a libgtkhtml2-0 libicu38
3187   libiec61883-0 libindex0 libisccc50 libisccfg50 libiw29
3188   libjaxp1.3-java-gcj libk3b3 libkcal2b libkcddb1 libkdeedu3
3189   libkdegames1 libkdepim1a libkgantt0 libkleopatra1 libkmime2
3190   libkpathsea4 libkpimexchange1 libkpimidentities1 libkscan1
3191   libksieve0 libktnef1 liblockdev1 libltdl3 liblwres50 libmagick10
3192   libmimelib1c2a libmodplug0c2 libmozjs1d libmpcdec3 libmpfr1ldbl
3193   libneon27 libnm-util0 libopensync0 libpisock9 libpoppler-glib3
3194   libpoppler-qt2 libpoppler3 libraw1394-8 librss1 libsensors3
3195   libsmbios2 libssh2-1 libsuitesparse-3.1.0 libswfdec-0.6-90
3196   libtalloc1 libxalan2-java-gcj libxerces2-java-gcj libxtrap6 lskat
3197   mpeglib network-manager-kde noatun pmount tex-common texlive-base
3198   texlive-common texlive-doc-base texlive-fonts-recommended tidy
3199   ttf-dustin ttf-kochi-gothic ttf-sjfonts
3200 </p></blockquote>
3201
3202 <p>Installed using aptitude, missing with apt-get</p>
3203
3204 <blockquote><p>
3205   dolphin kde-core kde-plasma-desktop kde-standard kde-window-manager
3206   kdeartwork kdebase kdebase-apps kdebase-workspace
3207   kdebase-workspace-bin kdebase-workspace-data kdeutils kscreensaver
3208   kscreensaver-xsavers libgle3 libkonq5 libkonq5-templates libnetpbm10
3209   netpbm plasma-widget-folderview plasma-widget-networkmanagement
3210   xscreensaver-data-extra xscreensaver-gl xscreensaver-gl-extra
3211   xscreensaver-screensaver-bsod
3212 </p></blockquote>
3213
3214 <p>Installed using aptitude, removed with apt-get</p>
3215
3216 <blockquote><p>
3217   kdebase-bin konq-plugins konqueror
3218 </p></blockquote>
3219
3220       </div>
3221       <div class="tags">
3222
3223
3224         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>.
3225
3226
3227       </div>
3228     </div>
3229     <div class="padding"></div>
3230
3231     <div class="entry">
3232       <div class="title">
3233         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Gnash_buildbot_slave_and_Debian_kfreebsd.html">Gnash buildbot slave and Debian kfreebsd</a>
3234       </div>
3235       <div class="date">
3236         20th November 2010
3237       </div>
3238       <div class="body">
3239         <p>Answering
3240 <a href="http://www.listware.net/201011/gnash-dev/67431-gnash-dev-buildbot-looking-for-slaves.html">the
3241 call from the Gnash project</a> for
3242 <a href="http://www.gnashdev.org:8010">buildbot</a> slaves to test the
3243 current source, I have set up a virtual KVM machine on the Debian
3244 Edu/Skolelinux virtualization host to test the git source on
3245 Debian/Squeeze.  I hope this can help the developers in getting new
3246 releases out more often.</p>
3247
3248 <p>As the developers want less main-stream build platforms tested to,
3249 I have considered setting up a <a
3250 href="http://www.debian.org/ports/kfreebsd-gnu/">Debian/kfreebsd</a>
3251 machine as well.  I have also considered using the kfreebsd
3252 architecture in Debian as a file server in NUUG to get access to the 5
3253 TB zfs volume we currently use to store DV video.  Because of this, I
3254 finally got around to do a test installation of Debian/Squeeze with
3255 kfreebsd.  Installation went fairly smooth, thought I noticed some
3256 visual glitches in the cdebconf dialogs (black cursor left on the
3257 screen at random locations).  Have not gotten very far with the
3258 testing.  Noticed cfdisk did not work, but fdisk did so it was not a
3259 fatal problem.  Have to spend some more time on it to see if it is
3260 useful as a file server for NUUG.  Will try to find time to set up a
3261 gnash buildbot slave on the Debian Edu/Skolelinux this weekend.</p>
3262
3263       </div>
3264       <div class="tags">
3265
3266
3267         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>.
3268
3269
3270       </div>
3271     </div>
3272     <div class="padding"></div>
3273
3274     <div class="entry">
3275       <div class="title">
3276         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_in_3D.html">Debian in 3D</a>
3277       </div>
3278       <div class="date">
3279          9th November 2010
3280       </div>
3281       <div class="body">
3282         <p><img src="http://thingiverse-production.s3.amazonaws.com/renders/23/e0/c4/f9/2b/debswagtdose_preview_medium.jpg"></p>
3283
3284 <p>3D printing is just great.  I just came across this Debian logo in
3285 3D linked in from
3286 <a href="http://blog.thingiverse.com/2010/11/09/participatory-branding/">the
3287 thingiverse blog</a>.</p>
3288
3289       </div>
3290       <div class="tags">
3291
3292
3293         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>.
3294
3295
3296       </div>
3297     </div>
3298     <div class="padding"></div>
3299
3300     <div class="entry">
3301       <div class="title">
3302         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Software_updates_2010_10_24.html">Software updates 2010-10-24</a>
3303       </div>
3304       <div class="date">
3305         24th October 2010
3306       </div>
3307       <div class="body">
3308         <p>Some updates.</p>
3309
3310 <p>My <a href="http://pledgebank.com/gnash-avm2">gnash pledge</a> to
3311 raise money for the project is going well.  The lower limit of 10
3312 signers was reached in 24 hours, and so far 13 people have signed it.
3313 More signers and more funding is most welcome, and I am really curious
3314 how far we can get before the time limit of December 24 is reached.
3315 :)</p>
3316
3317 <p>On the #gnash IRC channel on irc.freenode.net, I was just tipped
3318 about what appear to be a great code coverage tool capable of
3319 generating code coverage stats without any changes to the source code.
3320 It is called
3321 <a href="http://simonkagstrom.github.com/kcov/index.html">kcov</a>,
3322 and can be used using <tt>kcov &lt;directory&gt; &lt;binary&gt;</tt>.
3323 It is missing in Debian, but the git source built just fine in Squeeze
3324 after I installed libelf-dev, libdwarf-dev, pkg-config and
3325 libglib2.0-dev.  Failed to build in Lenny, but suspect that is
3326 solvable.  I hope kcov make it into Debian soon.</p>
3327
3328 <p>Finally found time to wrap up the release notes for <a
3329 href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-edu-announce/2010/10/msg00002.html">a
3330 new alpha release of Debian Edu</a>, and just published the second
3331 alpha test release of the Squeeze based Debian Edu /
3332 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Skolelinux</a>
3333 release.  Give it a try if you need a complete linux solution for your
3334 school, including central infrastructure server, workstations, thin
3335 client servers and diskless workstations.  A nice touch added
3336 yesterday is RDP support on the thin client servers, for windows
3337 clients to get a Linux desktop on request.</p>
3338
3339       </div>
3340       <div class="tags">
3341
3342
3343         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>.
3344
3345
3346       </div>
3347     </div>
3348     <div class="padding"></div>
3349
3350     <div class="entry">
3351       <div class="title">
3352         <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>
3353       </div>
3354       <div class="date">
3355          4th September 2010
3356       </div>
3357       <div class="body">
3358         <p>In the <a href="http://popcon.debian.org/unknown/by_vote">Debian
3359 popularity-contest numbers</a>, the adobe-flashplugin package the
3360 second most popular used package that is missing in Debian.  The sixth
3361 most popular is flashplayer-mozilla.  This is a clear indication that
3362 working flash is important for Debian users.  Around 10 percent of the
3363 users submitting data to popcon.debian.org have this package
3364 installed.</p>
3365
3366 <p>In the report written by Lars Risan in August 2008
3367 («<a href="http://wiki.skolelinux.no/Dokumentasjon/Rapporter?action=AttachFile&do=view&target=Skolelinux_i_bruk_rapport_1.0.pdf">Skolelinux
3368 i bruk – Rapport for Hurum kommune, Universitetet i Agder og
3369 stiftelsen SLX Debian Labs</a>»), one of the most important problems
3370 schools experienced with <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian
3371 Edu/Skolelinux</a> was the lack of working Flash.  A lot of educational
3372 web sites require Flash to work, and lacking working Flash support in
3373 the web browser and the problems with installing it was perceived as a
3374 good reason to stay with Windows.</p>
3375
3376 <p>I once saw a funny and sad comment in a web forum, where Linux was
3377 said to be the retarded cousin that did not really understand
3378 everything you told him but could work fairly well.  This was a
3379 comment regarding the problems Linux have with proprietary formats and
3380 non-standard web pages, and is sad because it exposes a fairly common
3381 understanding of whose fault it is if web pages that only work in for
3382 example Internet Explorer 6 fail to work on Firefox, and funny because
3383 it explain very well how annoying it is for users when Linux
3384 distributions do not work with the documents they receive or the web
3385 pages they want to visit.</p>
3386
3387 <p>This is part of the reason why I believe it is important for Debian
3388 and Debian Edu to have a well working Flash implementation in the
3389 distribution, to get at least popular sites as Youtube and Google
3390 Video to working out of the box.  For Squeeze, Debian have the chance
3391 to include the latest version of Gnash that will make this happen, as
3392 the new release 0.8.8 was published a few weeks ago and is resting in
3393 unstable.  The new version work with more sites that version 0.8.7.
3394 The Gnash maintainers have asked for a freeze exception, but the
3395 release team have not had time to reply to it yet.  I hope they agree
3396 with me that Flash is important for the Debian desktop users, and thus
3397 accept the new package into Squeeze.</p>
3398
3399       </div>
3400       <div class="tags">
3401
3402
3403         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>.
3404
3405
3406       </div>
3407     </div>
3408     <div class="padding"></div>
3409
3410     <div class="entry">
3411       <div class="title">
3412         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Circular_package_dependencies_harms_apt_recovery.html">Circular package dependencies harms apt recovery</a>
3413       </div>
3414       <div class="date">
3415         27th July 2010
3416       </div>
3417       <div class="body">
3418         <p>I discovered this while doing
3419 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Automatic_upgrade_testing_from_Lenny_to_Squeeze.html">automated
3420 testing of upgrades from Debian Lenny to Squeeze</a>.  A few packages
3421 in Debian still got circular dependencies, and it is often claimed
3422 that apt and aptitude should be able to handle this just fine, but
3423 some times these dependency loops causes apt to fail.</p>
3424
3425 <p>An example is from todays
3426 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/~pere/debian-upgrade-testing//test-20100727-lenny-squeeze-kde-aptitude.txt">upgrade
3427 of KDE using aptitude</a>.  In it, a bug in kdebase-workspace-data
3428 causes perl-modules to fail to upgrade.  The cause is simple.  If a
3429 package fail to unpack, then only part of packages with the circular
3430 dependency might end up being unpacked when unpacking aborts, and the
3431 ones already unpacked will fail to configure in the recovery phase
3432 because its dependencies are unavailable.</p>
3433
3434 <p>In this log, the problem manifest itself with this error:</p>
3435
3436 <blockquote><pre>
3437 dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of perl-modules:
3438  perl-modules depends on perl (>= 5.10.1-1); however:
3439   Version of perl on system is 5.10.0-19lenny2.
3440 dpkg: error processing perl-modules (--configure):
3441  dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
3442 </pre></blockquote>
3443
3444 <p>The perl/perl-modules circular dependency is already
3445 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/527917">reported as a bug</a>, and will
3446 hopefully be solved as soon as possible, but it is not the only one,
3447 and each one of these loops in the dependency tree can cause similar
3448 failures.  Of course, they only occur when there are bugs in other
3449 packages causing the unpacking to fail, but it is rather nasty when
3450 the failure of one package causes the problem to become worse because
3451 of dependency loops.</p>
3452
3453 <p>Thanks to
3454 <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2010/06/msg00116.html">the
3455 tireless effort by Bill Allombert</a>, the number of circular
3456 dependencies
3457 <a href="http://debian.semistable.com/debgraph.out.html">left in Debian
3458 is dropping</a>, and perhaps it will reach zero one day. :)</p>
3459
3460 <p>Todays testing also exposed a bug in
3461 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/590605">update-notifier</a> and
3462 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/590604">different behaviour</a> between
3463 apt-get and aptitude, the latter possibly caused by some circular
3464 dependency.  Reported both to BTS to try to get someone to look at
3465 it.</p>
3466
3467       </div>
3468       <div class="tags">
3469
3470
3471         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>.
3472
3473
3474       </div>
3475     </div>
3476     <div class="padding"></div>
3477
3478     <div class="entry">
3479       <div class="title">
3480         <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>
3481       </div>
3482       <div class="date">
3483         17th July 2010
3484       </div>
3485       <div class="body">
3486         <p>This is a
3487 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Time_for_new__LDAP_schemas_replacing_RFC_2307_.html">followup</a>
3488 on my
3489 <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
3490 work</a> on
3491 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Combining_PowerDNS_and_ISC_DHCP_LDAP_objects.html">merging
3492 all</a> the computer related LDAP objects in Debian Edu.</p>
3493
3494 <p>As a step to try to see if it possible to merge the DNS and DHCP
3495 LDAP objects, I have had a look at how the packages pdns-backend-ldap
3496 and dhcp3-server-ldap in Debian use the LDAP server.  The two
3497 implementations are quite different in how they use LDAP.</p>
3498
3499 To get this information, I started slapd with debugging enabled and
3500 dumped the debug output to a file to get the LDAP searches performed
3501 on a Debian Edu main-server.  Here is a summary.
3502
3503 <p><strong>powerdns</strong></p>
3504
3505 <a href="http://www.linuxnetworks.de/doc/index.php/PowerDNS_LDAP_Backend">Clues
3506 on how to</a> set up PowerDNS to use a LDAP backend is available on
3507 the web.
3508
3509 <p>PowerDNS have two modes of operation using LDAP as its backend.
3510 One "strict" mode where the forward and reverse DNS lookups are done
3511 using the same LDAP objects, and a "tree" mode where the forward and
3512 reverse entries are in two different subtrees in LDAP with a structure
3513 based on the DNS names, as in tjener.intern and
3514 2.2.0.10.in-addr.arpa.</p>
3515
3516 <p>In tree mode, the server is set up to use a LDAP subtree as its
3517 base, and uses a "base" scoped search for the DNS name by adding
3518 "dc=tjener,dc=intern," to the base with a filter for
3519 "(associateddomain=tjener.intern)" for the forward entry and
3520 "dc=2,dc=2,dc=0,dc=10,dc=in-addr,dc=arpa," with a filter for
3521 "(associateddomain=2.2.0.10.in-addr.arpa)" for the reverse entry.  For
3522 forward entries, it is looking for attributes named dnsttl, arecord,
3523 nsrecord, cnamerecord, soarecord, ptrrecord, hinforecord, mxrecord,
3524 txtrecord, rprecord, afsdbrecord, keyrecord, aaaarecord, locrecord,
3525 srvrecord, naptrrecord, kxrecord, certrecord, dsrecord, sshfprecord,
3526 ipseckeyrecord, rrsigrecord, nsecrecord, dnskeyrecord, dhcidrecord,
3527 spfrecord and modifytimestamp.  For reverse entries it is looking for
3528 the attributes dnsttl, arecord, nsrecord, cnamerecord, soarecord,
3529 ptrrecord, hinforecord, mxrecord, txtrecord, rprecord, aaaarecord,
3530 locrecord, srvrecord, naptrrecord and modifytimestamp.  The equivalent
3531 ldapsearch commands could look like this:</p>
3532
3533 <blockquote><pre>
3534 ldapsearch -h ldap \
3535   -b dc=tjener,dc=intern,ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no \
3536   -s base -x '(associateddomain=tjener.intern)' dNSTTL aRecord nSRecord \
3537   cNAMERecord sOARecord pTRRecord hInfoRecord mXRecord tXTRecord \
3538   rPRecord aFSDBRecord KeyRecord aAAARecord lOCRecord sRVRecord \
3539   nAPTRRecord kXRecord certRecord dSRecord sSHFPRecord iPSecKeyRecord \
3540   rRSIGRecord nSECRecord dNSKeyRecord dHCIDRecord sPFRecord modifyTimestamp
3541
3542 ldapsearch -h ldap \
3543   -b dc=2,dc=2,dc=0,dc=10,dc=in-addr,dc=arpa,ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no \
3544   -s base -x '(associateddomain=2.2.0.10.in-addr.arpa)'
3545   dnsttl, arecord, nsrecord, cnamerecord soarecord ptrrecord \
3546   hinforecord mxrecord txtrecord rprecord aaaarecord locrecord \
3547   srvrecord naptrrecord modifytimestamp
3548 </pre></blockquote>
3549
3550 <p>In Debian Edu/Lenny, the PowerDNS tree mode is used with
3551 ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no as the base, and these are two
3552 example LDAP objects used there.  In addition to these objects, the
3553 parent objects all th way up to ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
3554 also exist.</p>
3555
3556 <blockquote><pre>
3557 dn: dc=tjener,dc=intern,ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
3558 objectclass: top
3559 objectclass: dnsdomain
3560 objectclass: domainrelatedobject
3561 dc: tjener
3562 arecord: 10.0.2.2
3563 associateddomain: tjener.intern
3564
3565 dn: dc=2,dc=2,dc=0,dc=10,dc=in-addr,dc=arpa,ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
3566 objectclass: top
3567 objectclass: dnsdomain2
3568 objectclass: domainrelatedobject
3569 dc: 2
3570 ptrrecord: tjener.intern
3571 associateddomain: 2.2.0.10.in-addr.arpa
3572 </pre></blockquote>
3573
3574 <p>In strict mode, the server behaves differently.  When looking for
3575 forward DNS entries, it is doing a "subtree" scoped search with the
3576 same base as in the tree mode for a object with filter
3577 "(associateddomain=tjener.intern)" and requests the attributes dnsttl,
3578 arecord, nsrecord, cnamerecord, soarecord, ptrrecord, hinforecord,
3579 mxrecord, txtrecord, rprecord, aaaarecord, locrecord, srvrecord,
3580 naptrrecord and modifytimestamp.  For reverse entires it also do a
3581 subtree scoped search but this time the filter is "(arecord=10.0.2.2)"
3582 and the requested attributes are associateddomain, dnsttl and
3583 modifytimestamp.  In short, in strict mode the objects with ptrrecord
3584 go away, and the arecord attribute in the forward object is used
3585 instead.</p>
3586
3587 <p>The forward and reverse searches can be simulated using ldapsearch
3588 like this:</p>
3589
3590 <blockquote><pre>
3591 ldapsearch -h ldap -b ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no -s sub -x \
3592   '(associateddomain=tjener.intern)' dNSTTL aRecord nSRecord \
3593   cNAMERecord sOARecord pTRRecord hInfoRecord mXRecord tXTRecord \
3594   rPRecord aFSDBRecord KeyRecord aAAARecord lOCRecord sRVRecord \
3595   nAPTRRecord kXRecord certRecord dSRecord sSHFPRecord iPSecKeyRecord \
3596   rRSIGRecord nSECRecord dNSKeyRecord dHCIDRecord sPFRecord modifyTimestamp
3597
3598 ldapsearch -h ldap -b ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no -s sub -x \
3599   '(arecord=10.0.2.2)' associateddomain dnsttl modifytimestamp
3600 </pre></blockquote>
3601
3602 <p>In addition to the forward and reverse searches , there is also a
3603 search for SOA records, which behave similar to the forward and
3604 reverse lookups.</p>
3605
3606 <p>A thing to note with the PowerDNS behaviour is that it do not
3607 specify any objectclass names, and instead look for the attributes it
3608 need to generate a DNS reply.  This make it able to work with any
3609 objectclass that provide the needed attributes.</p>
3610
3611 <p>The attributes are normally provided in the cosine (RFC 1274) and
3612 dnsdomain2 schemas.  The latter is used for reverse entries like
3613 ptrrecord and recent DNS additions like aaaarecord and srvrecord.</p>
3614
3615 <p>In Debian Edu, we have created DNS objects using the object classes
3616 dcobject (for dc), dnsdomain or dnsdomain2 (structural, for the DNS
3617 attributes) and domainrelatedobject (for associatedDomain).  The use
3618 of structural object classes make it impossible to combine these
3619 classes with the object classes used by DHCP.</p>
3620
3621 <p>There are other schemas that could be used too, for example the
3622 dnszone structural object class used by Gosa and bind-sdb for the DNS
3623 attributes combined with the domainrelatedobject object class, but in
3624 this case some unused attributes would have to be included as well
3625 (zonename and relativedomainname).</p>
3626
3627 <p>My proposal for Debian Edu would be to switch PowerDNS to strict
3628 mode and not use any of the existing objectclasses (dnsdomain,
3629 dnsdomain2 and dnszone) when one want to combine the DNS information
3630 with DHCP information, and instead create a auxiliary object class
3631 defined something like this (using the attributes defined for
3632 dnsdomain and dnsdomain2 or dnszone):</p>
3633
3634 <blockquote><pre>
3635 objectclass ( some-oid NAME 'dnsDomainAux'
3636     SUP top
3637     AUXILIARY
3638     MAY ( ARecord $ MDRecord $ MXRecord $ NSRecord $ SOARecord $ CNAMERecord $
3639           DNSTTL $ DNSClass $ PTRRecord $ HINFORecord $ MINFORecord $
3640           TXTRecord $ SIGRecord $ KEYRecord $ AAAARecord $ LOCRecord $
3641           NXTRecord $ SRVRecord $ NAPTRRecord $ KXRecord $ CERTRecord $
3642           A6Record $ DNAMERecord
3643     ))
3644 </pre></blockquote>
3645
3646 <p>This will allow any object to become a DNS entry when combined with
3647 the domainrelatedobject object class, and allow any entity to include
3648 all the attributes PowerDNS wants.  I've sent an email to the PowerDNS
3649 developers asking for their view on this schema and if they are
3650 interested in providing such schema with PowerDNS, and I hope my
3651 message will be accepted into their mailing list soon.</p>
3652
3653 <p><strong>ISC dhcp</strong></p>
3654
3655 <p>The DHCP server searches for specific objectclass and requests all
3656 the object attributes, and then uses the attributes it want.  This
3657 make it harder to figure out exactly what attributes are used, but
3658 thanks to the working example in Debian Edu I can at least get an idea
3659 what is needed without having to read the source code.</p>
3660
3661 <p>In the DHCP server configuration, the LDAP base to use and the
3662 search filter to use to locate the correct dhcpServer entity is
3663 stored.  These are the relevant entries from
3664 /etc/dhcp3/dhcpd.conf:</p>
3665
3666 <blockquote><pre>
3667 ldap-base-dn "dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no";
3668 ldap-dhcp-server-cn "dhcp";
3669 </pre></blockquote>
3670
3671 <p>The DHCP server uses this information to nest all the DHCP
3672 configuration it need.  The cn "dhcp" is located using the given LDAP
3673 base and the filter "(&(objectClass=dhcpServer)(cn=dhcp))".  The
3674 search result is this entry:</p>
3675
3676 <blockquote><pre>
3677 dn: cn=dhcp,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
3678 cn: dhcp
3679 objectClass: top
3680 objectClass: dhcpServer
3681 dhcpServiceDN: cn=DHCP Config,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
3682 </pre></blockquote>
3683
3684 <p>The content of the dhcpServiceDN attribute is next used to locate the
3685 subtree with DHCP configuration.  The DHCP configuration subtree base
3686 is located using a base scope search with base "cn=DHCP
3687 Config,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no" and filter
3688 "(&(objectClass=dhcpService)(|(dhcpPrimaryDN=cn=dhcp,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no)(dhcpSecondaryDN=cn=dhcp,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no)))".
3689 The search result is this entry:</p>
3690
3691 <blockquote><pre>
3692 dn: cn=DHCP Config,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
3693 cn: DHCP Config
3694 objectClass: top
3695 objectClass: dhcpService
3696 objectClass: dhcpOptions
3697 dhcpPrimaryDN: cn=dhcp, dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
3698 dhcpStatements: ddns-update-style none
3699 dhcpStatements: authoritative
3700 dhcpOption: smtp-server code 69 = array of ip-address
3701 dhcpOption: www-server code 72 = array of ip-address
3702 dhcpOption: wpad-url code 252 = text
3703 </pre></blockquote>
3704
3705 <p>Next, the entire subtree is processed, one level at the time.  When
3706 all the DHCP configuration is loaded, it is ready to receive requests.
3707 The subtree in Debian Edu contain objects with object classes
3708 top/dhcpService/dhcpOptions, top/dhcpSharedNetwork/dhcpOptions,
3709 top/dhcpSubnet, top/dhcpGroup and top/dhcpHost.  These provide options
3710 and information about netmasks, dynamic range etc.  Leaving out the
3711 details here because it is not relevant for the focus of my
3712 investigation, which is to see if it is possible to merge dns and dhcp
3713 related computer objects.</p>
3714
3715 <p>When a DHCP request come in, LDAP is searched for the MAC address
3716 of the client (00:00:00:00:00:00 in this example), using a subtree
3717 scoped search with "cn=DHCP Config,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no" as
3718 the base and "(&(objectClass=dhcpHost)(dhcpHWAddress=ethernet
3719 00:00:00:00:00:00))" as the filter.  This is what a host object look
3720 like:</p>
3721
3722 <blockquote><pre>
3723 dn: cn=hostname,cn=group1,cn=THINCLIENTS,cn=DHCP Config,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
3724 cn: hostname
3725 objectClass: top
3726 objectClass: dhcpHost
3727 dhcpHWAddress: ethernet 00:00:00:00:00:00
3728 dhcpStatements: fixed-address hostname
3729 </pre></blockquote>
3730
3731 <p>There is less flexiblity in the way LDAP searches are done here.
3732 The object classes need to have fixed names, and the configuration
3733 need to be stored in a fairly specific LDAP structure.  On the
3734 positive side, the invidiual dhcpHost entires can be anywhere without
3735 the DN pointed to by the dhcpServer entries.  The latter should make
3736 it possible to group all host entries in a subtree next to the
3737 configuration entries, and this subtree can also be shared with the
3738 DNS server if the schema proposed above is combined with the dhcpHost
3739 structural object class.
3740
3741 <p><strong>Conclusion</strong></p>
3742
3743 <p>The PowerDNS implementation seem to be very flexible when it come
3744 to which LDAP schemas to use.  While its "tree" mode is rigid when it
3745 come to the the LDAP structure, the "strict" mode is very flexible,
3746 allowing DNS objects to be stored anywhere under the base cn specified
3747 in the configuration.</p>
3748
3749 <p>The DHCP implementation on the other hand is very inflexible, both
3750 regarding which LDAP schemas to use and which LDAP structure to use.
3751 I guess one could implement ones own schema, as long as the
3752 objectclasses and attributes have the names used, but this do not
3753 really help when the DHCP subtree need to have a fairly fixed
3754 structure.</p>
3755
3756 <p>Based on the observed behaviour, I suspect a LDAP structure like
3757 this might work for Debian Edu:</p>
3758
3759 <blockquote><pre>
3760 ou=services
3761   cn=machine-info (dhcpService) - dhcpServiceDN points here
3762     cn=dhcp (dhcpServer)
3763     cn=dhcp-internal (dhcpSharedNetwork/dhcpOptions)
3764       cn=10.0.2.0 (dhcpSubnet)
3765         cn=group1 (dhcpGroup/dhcpOptions)
3766     cn=dhcp-thinclients (dhcpSharedNetwork/dhcpOptions)
3767       cn=192.168.0.0 (dhcpSubnet)
3768         cn=group1 (dhcpGroup/dhcpOptions)
3769     ou=machines - PowerDNS base points here
3770       cn=hostname (dhcpHost/domainrelatedobject/dnsDomainAux)
3771 </pre></blockquote>
3772
3773 <P>This is not tested yet.  If the DHCP server require the dhcpHost
3774 entries to be in the dhcpGroup subtrees, the entries can be stored
3775 there instead of a common machines subtree, and the PowerDNS base
3776 would have to be moved one level up to the machine-info subtree.</p>
3777
3778 <p>The combined object under the machines subtree would look something
3779 like this:</p>
3780
3781 <blockquote><pre>
3782 dn: dc=hostname,ou=machines,cn=machine-info,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
3783 dc: hostname
3784 objectClass: top
3785 objectClass: dhcpHost
3786 objectclass: domainrelatedobject
3787 objectclass: dnsDomainAux
3788 associateddomain: hostname.intern
3789 arecord: 10.11.12.13
3790 dhcpHWAddress: ethernet 00:00:00:00:00:00
3791 dhcpStatements: fixed-address hostname.intern
3792 </pre></blockquote>
3793
3794 </p>One could even add the LTSP configuration associated with a given
3795 machine, as long as the required attributes are available in a
3796 auxiliary object class.</p>
3797
3798       </div>
3799       <div class="tags">
3800
3801
3802         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>.
3803
3804
3805       </div>
3806     </div>
3807     <div class="padding"></div>
3808
3809     <div class="entry">
3810       <div class="title">
3811         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Combining_PowerDNS_and_ISC_DHCP_LDAP_objects.html">Combining PowerDNS and ISC DHCP LDAP objects</a>
3812       </div>
3813       <div class="date">
3814         14th July 2010
3815       </div>
3816       <div class="body">
3817         <p>For a while now, I have wanted to find a way to change the DNS and
3818 DHCP services in Debian Edu to use the same LDAP objects for a given
3819 computer, to avoid the possibility of having a inconsistent state for
3820 a computer in LDAP (as in DHCP but no DNS entry or the other way
3821 around) and make it easier to add computers to LDAP.</p>
3822
3823 <p>I've looked at how powerdns and dhcpd is using LDAP, and using this
3824 information finally found a solution that seem to work.</p>
3825
3826 <p>The old setup required three LDAP objects for a given computer.
3827 One forward DNS entry, one reverse DNS entry and one DHCP entry.  If
3828 we switch powerdns to use its strict LDAP method (ldap-method=strict
3829 in pdns-debian-edu.conf), the forward and reverse DNS entries are
3830 merged into one while making it impossible to transfer the reverse map
3831 to a slave DNS server.</p>
3832
3833 <p>If we also replace the object class used to get the DNS related
3834 attributes to one allowing these attributes to be combined with the
3835 dhcphost object class, we can merge the DNS and DHCP entries into one.
3836 I've written such object class in the dnsdomainaux.schema file (need
3837 proper OIDs, but that is a minor issue), and tested the setup.  It
3838 seem to work.</p>
3839
3840 <p>With this test setup in place, we can get away with one LDAP object
3841 for both DNS and DHCP, and even the LTSP configuration I suggested in
3842 an earlier email.  The combined LDAP object will look something like
3843 this:</p>
3844
3845 <blockquote><pre>
3846   dn: cn=hostname,cn=group1,cn=THINCLIENTS,cn=DHCP Config,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
3847   cn: hostname
3848   objectClass: dhcphost
3849   objectclass: domainrelatedobject
3850   objectclass: dnsdomainaux
3851   associateddomain: hostname.intern
3852   arecord: 10.11.12.13
3853   dhcphwaddress: ethernet 00:00:00:00:00:00
3854   dhcpstatements: fixed-address hostname
3855   ldapconfigsound: Y
3856 </pre></blockquote>
3857
3858 <p>The DNS server uses the associateddomain and arecord entries, while
3859 the DHCP server uses the dhcphwaddress and dhcpstatements entries
3860 before asking DNS to resolve the fixed-adddress.  LTSP will use
3861 dhcphwaddress or associateddomain and the ldapconfig* attributes.</p>
3862
3863 <p>I am not yet sure if I can get the DHCP server to look for its
3864 dhcphost in a different location, to allow us to put the objects
3865 outside the "DHCP Config" subtree, but hope to figure out a way to do
3866 that.  If I can't figure out a way to do that, we can still get rid of
3867 the hosts subtree and move all its content into the DHCP Config tree
3868 (which probably should be renamed to be more related to the new
3869 content.  I suspect cn=dnsdhcp,ou=services or something like that
3870 might be a good place to put it.</p>
3871
3872 <p>If you want to help out with implementing this for Debian Edu,
3873 please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.</p>
3874
3875       </div>
3876       <div class="tags">
3877
3878
3879         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>.
3880
3881
3882       </div>
3883     </div>
3884     <div class="padding"></div>
3885
3886     <div class="entry">
3887       <div class="title">
3888         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Idea_for_storing_LTSP_configuration_in_LDAP.html">Idea for storing LTSP configuration in LDAP</a>
3889       </div>
3890       <div class="date">
3891         11th July 2010
3892       </div>
3893       <div class="body">
3894         <p>Vagrant mentioned on IRC today that ltsp_config now support
3895 sourcing files from /usr/share/ltsp/ltsp_config.d/ on the thin
3896 clients, and that this can be used to fetch configuration from LDAP if
3897 Debian Edu choose to store configuration there.</p>
3898
3899 <p>Armed with this information, I got inspired and wrote a test module
3900 to get configuration from LDAP.  The idea is to look up the MAC
3901 address of the client in LDAP, and look for attributes on the form
3902 ltspconfigsetting=value, and use this to export SETTING=value to the
3903 LTSP clients.</p>
3904
3905 <p>The goal is to be able to store the LTSP configuration attributes
3906 in a "computer" LDAP object used by both DNS and DHCP, and thus
3907 allowing us to store all information about a computer in one place.</p>
3908
3909 <p>This is a untested draft implementation, and I welcome feedback on
3910 this approach.  A real LDAP schema for the ltspClientAux objectclass
3911 need to be written.  Comments, suggestions, etc?</p>
3912
3913 <blockquote><pre>
3914 # Store in /opt/ltsp/$arch/usr/share/ltsp/ltsp_config.d/ldap-config
3915 #
3916 # Fetch LTSP client settings from LDAP based on MAC address
3917 #
3918 # Uses ethernet address as stored in the dhcpHost objectclass using
3919 # the dhcpHWAddress attribute or ethernet address stored in the
3920 # ieee802Device objectclass with the macAddress attribute.
3921 #
3922 # This module is written to be schema agnostic, and only depend on the
3923 # existence of attribute names.
3924 #
3925 # The LTSP configuration variables are saved directly using a
3926 # ltspConfig prefix and uppercasing the rest of the attribute name.
3927 # To set the SERVER variable, set the ltspConfigServer attribute.
3928 #
3929 # Some LDAP schema should be created with all the relevant
3930 # configuration settings.  Something like this should work:
3931 #
3932 # objectclass ( 1.1.2.2 NAME 'ltspClientAux'
3933 #     SUP top
3934 #     AUXILIARY
3935 #     MAY ( ltspConfigServer $ ltsConfigSound $ ... )
3936
3937 LDAPSERVER=$(debian-edu-ldapserver)
3938 if [ "$LDAPSERVER" ] ; then
3939     LDAPBASE=$(debian-edu-ldapserver -b)
3940     for MAC in $(LANG=C ifconfig |grep -i hwaddr| awk '{print $5}'|sort -u) ; do
3941         filter="(|(dhcpHWAddress=ethernet $MAC)(macAddress=$MAC))"
3942         ldapsearch -h "$LDAPSERVER" -b "$LDAPBASE" -v -x "$filter" | \
3943             grep '^ltspConfig' | while read attr value ; do
3944             # Remove prefix and convert to upper case
3945             attr=$(echo $attr | sed 's/^ltspConfig//i' | tr a-z A-Z)
3946             # bass value on to clients
3947             eval "$attr=$value; export $attr"
3948         done
3949     done
3950 fi
3951 </pre></blockquote>
3952
3953 <p>I'm not sure this shell construction will work, because I suspect
3954 the while block might end up in a subshell causing the variables set
3955 there to not show up in ltsp-config, but if that is the case I am sure
3956 the code can be restructured to make sure the variables are passed on.
3957 I expect that can be solved with some testing. :)</p>
3958
3959 <p>If you want to help out with implementing this for Debian Edu,
3960 please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.</p>
3961
3962 <p>Update 2010-07-17: I am aware of another effort to store LTSP
3963 configuration in LDAP that was created around year 2000 by
3964 <a href="http://www.pcxperience.com/thinclient/documentation/ldap.html">PC
3965 Xperience, Inc., 2000</a>.  I found its
3966 <a href="http://people.redhat.com/alikins/ltsp/ldap/">files</a> on a
3967 personal home page over at redhat.com.</p>
3968
3969       </div>
3970       <div class="tags">
3971
3972
3973         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>.
3974
3975
3976       </div>
3977     </div>
3978     <div class="padding"></div>
3979
3980     <div class="entry">
3981       <div class="title">
3982         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/jXplorer__a_very_nice_LDAP_GUI.html">jXplorer, a very nice LDAP GUI</a>
3983       </div>
3984       <div class="date">
3985          9th July 2010
3986       </div>
3987       <div class="body">
3988         <p>Since
3989 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/LUMA__a_very_nice_LDAP_GUI.html">my
3990 last post</a> about available LDAP tools in Debian, I was told about a
3991 LDAP GUI that is even better than luma.  The java application
3992 <a href="http://jxplorer.org/">jXplorer</a> is claimed to be capable of
3993 moving LDAP objects and subtrees using drag-and-drop, and can
3994 authenticate using Kerberos.  I have only tested the Kerberos
3995 authentication, but do not have a LDAP setup allowing me to rewrite
3996 LDAP with my test user yet.  It is
3997 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/j/jxplorer.html">available in
3998 Debian</a> testing and unstable at the moment.  The only problem I
3999 have with it is how it handle errors.  If something go wrong, its
4000 non-intuitive behaviour require me to go through some query work list
4001 and remove the failing query.  Nothing big, but very annoying.</p>
4002
4003       </div>
4004       <div class="tags">
4005
4006
4007         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>.
4008
4009
4010       </div>
4011     </div>
4012     <div class="padding"></div>
4013
4014     <div class="entry">
4015       <div class="title">
4016         <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>
4017       </div>
4018       <div class="date">
4019          3rd July 2010
4020       </div>
4021       <div class="body">
4022         <p>Here is a short update on my <a
4023 href="http://people.skolelinux.org/~pere/debian-upgrade-testing/">my
4024 Debian Lenny->Squeeze upgrade testing</a>.  Here is a summary of the
4025 difference for Gnome when it is upgraded by apt-get and aptitude.  I'm
4026 not reporting the status for KDE, because the upgrade crashes when
4027 aptitude try because of missing conflicts
4028 (<a href="http://bugs.debian.org/584861">#584861</a> and
4029 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/585716">#585716</a>).</p>
4030
4031 <p>At the end of the upgrade test script, dpkg -l is executed to get a
4032 complete list of the installed packages.  Based on this I see these
4033 differences when I did a test run today.  As usual, I do not really
4034 know what the correct set of packages would be, but thought it best to
4035 publish the difference.</p>
4036
4037 <p>Installed using apt-get, missing with aptitude</p>
4038
4039 <blockquote><p>
4040   at-spi cpp-4.3 finger gnome-spell gstreamer0.10-gnomevfs
4041   libatspi1.0-0 libcupsys2 libeel2-data libgail-common libgdl-1-common
4042   libgnomeprint2.2-data libgnomeprintui2.2-common libgnomevfs2-bin
4043   libgtksourceview-common libpt-1.10.10-plugins-alsa
4044   libpt-1.10.10-plugins-v4l libservlet2.4-java libxalan2-java
4045   libxerces2-java openoffice.org-writer2latex openssl-blacklist p7zip
4046   python-4suite-xml python-eggtrayicon python-gtkhtml2
4047   python-gtkmozembed svgalibg1 xserver-xephyr zip
4048 </p></blockquote>
4049
4050 <p>Installed using apt-get, removed with aptitude</p>
4051
4052 <blockquote><p>
4053   bluez-utils dhcdbd djvulibre-desktop epiphany-gecko
4054   gnome-app-install gnome-mount gnome-vfs-obexftp gnome-volume-manager
4055   libao2 libavahi-compat-libdnssd1 libavahi-core5 libbind9-50
4056   libbluetooth2 libcamel1.2-11 libcdio7 libcucul0 libcurl3
4057   libdirectfb-1.0-0 libdvdread3 libedata-cal1.2-6 libedataserver1.2-9
4058   libeel2-2.20 libepc-1.0-1 libepc-ui-1.0-1 libexchange-storage1.2-3
4059   libfaad0 libgd2-noxpm libgda3-3 libgda3-common libggz2 libggzcore9
4060   libggzmod4 libgksu1.2-0 libgksuui1.0-1 libgmyth0 libgnome-desktop-2
4061   libgnome-pilot2 libgnomecups1.0-1 libgnomeprint2.2-0
4062   libgnomeprintui2.2-0 libgpod3 libgraphviz4 libgtkhtml2-0
4063   libgtksourceview1.0-0 libgucharmap6 libhesiod0 libicu38 libisccc50
4064   libisccfg50 libiw29 libkpathsea4 libltdl3 liblwres50 libmagick++10
4065   libmagick10 libmalaga7 libmtp7 libmysqlclient15off libnautilus-burn4
4066   libneon27 libnm-glib0 libnm-util0 libopal-2.2 libosp5
4067   libparted1.8-10 libpisock9 libpisync1 libpoppler-glib3 libpoppler3
4068   libpt-1.10.10 libraw1394-8 libsensors3 libsmbios2 libsoup2.2-8
4069   libssh2-1 libsuitesparse-3.1.0 libswfdec-0.6-90 libtalloc1
4070   libtotem-plparser10 libtrackerclient0 libvoikko1 libxalan2-java-gcj
4071   libxerces2-java-gcj libxklavier12 libxtrap6 libxxf86misc1 libzephyr3
4072   mysql-common swfdec-gnome totem-gstreamer wodim
4073 </p></blockquote>
4074
4075 <p>Installed using aptitude, missing with apt-get</p>
4076
4077 <blockquote><p>
4078   gnome gnome-desktop-environment hamster-applet python-gnomeapplet
4079   python-gnomekeyring python-wnck rhythmbox-plugins xorg
4080   xserver-xorg-input-all xserver-xorg-input-evdev
4081   xserver-xorg-input-kbd xserver-xorg-input-mouse
4082   xserver-xorg-input-synaptics xserver-xorg-video-all
4083   xserver-xorg-video-apm xserver-xorg-video-ark xserver-xorg-video-ati
4084   xserver-xorg-video-chips xserver-xorg-video-cirrus
4085   xserver-xorg-video-dummy xserver-xorg-video-fbdev
4086   xserver-xorg-video-glint xserver-xorg-video-i128
4087   xserver-xorg-video-i740 xserver-xorg-video-mach64
4088   xserver-xorg-video-mga xserver-xorg-video-neomagic
4089   xserver-xorg-video-nouveau xserver-xorg-video-nv
4090   xserver-xorg-video-r128 xserver-xorg-video-radeon
4091   xserver-xorg-video-radeonhd xserver-xorg-video-rendition
4092   xserver-xorg-video-s3 xserver-xorg-video-s3virge
4093   xserver-xorg-video-savage xserver-xorg-video-siliconmotion
4094   xserver-xorg-video-sis xserver-xorg-video-sisusb
4095   xserver-xorg-video-tdfx xserver-xorg-video-tga
4096   xserver-xorg-video-trident xserver-xorg-video-tseng
4097   xserver-xorg-video-vesa xserver-xorg-video-vmware
4098   xserver-xorg-video-voodoo
4099 </p></blockquote>
4100
4101 <p>Installed using aptitude, removed with apt-get</p>
4102
4103 <blockquote><p>
4104   deskbar-applet xserver-xorg xserver-xorg-core
4105   xserver-xorg-input-wacom xserver-xorg-video-intel
4106   xserver-xorg-video-openchrome
4107 </p></blockquote>
4108
4109 <p>I was told on IRC that the xorg-xserver package was
4110 <a href="http://git.debian.org/?p=pkg-xorg/xserver/xorg-server.git;a=commit;h=9c8080d06c457932d3bfec021c69ac000aa60120">changed
4111 in git</a> today to try to get apt-get to not remove xorg completely.
4112 No idea when it hits Squeeze, but when it does I hope it will reduce
4113 the difference somewhat.
4114
4115       </div>
4116       <div class="tags">
4117
4118
4119         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>.
4120
4121
4122       </div>
4123     </div>
4124     <div class="padding"></div>
4125
4126     <div class="entry">
4127       <div class="title">
4128         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/LUMA__a_very_nice_LDAP_GUI.html">LUMA, a very nice LDAP GUI</a>
4129       </div>
4130       <div class="date">
4131         28th June 2010
4132       </div>
4133       <div class="body">
4134         <p>The last few days I have been looking into the status of the LDAP
4135 directory in Debian Edu, and in the process I started to miss a GUI
4136 tool to browse the LDAP tree.  The only one I was able to find in
4137 Debian/Squeeze and Lenny is
4138 <a href="http://luma.sourceforge.net/">LUMA</a>, which has proved to
4139 be a great tool to get a overview of the current LDAP directory
4140 populated by default in Skolelinux.  Thanks to it, I have been able to
4141 find empty and obsolete subtrees, misplaced objects and duplicate
4142 objects.  It will be installed by default in Debian/Squeeze.  If you
4143 are working with LDAP, give it a go. :)</p>
4144
4145 <p>I did notice one problem with it I have not had time to report to
4146 the BTS yet.  There is no .desktop file in the package, so the tool do
4147 not show up in the Gnome and KDE menus, but only deep down in in the
4148 Debian submenu in KDE.  I hope that can be fixed before Squeeze is
4149 released.</p>
4150
4151 <p>I have not yet been able to get it to modify the tree yet.  I would
4152 like to move objects and remove subtrees directly in the GUI, but have
4153 not found a way to do that with LUMA yet.  So in the mean time, I use
4154 <a href="http://www.lichteblau.com/ldapvi/">ldapvi</a> for that.</p>
4155
4156 <p>If you have tips on other GUI tools for LDAP that might be useful
4157 in Debian Edu, please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.</p>
4158
4159 <p>Update 2010-06-29: Ross Reedstrom tipped us about the
4160 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/g/gq.html">gq</a> package as a
4161 useful GUI alternative.  It seem like a good tool, but is unmaintained
4162 in Debian and got a RC bug keeping it out of Squeeze.  Unless that
4163 changes, it will not be an option for Debian Edu based on Squeeze.</p>
4164
4165       </div>
4166       <div class="tags">
4167
4168
4169         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>.
4170
4171
4172       </div>
4173     </div>
4174     <div class="padding"></div>
4175
4176     <div class="entry">
4177       <div class="title">
4178         <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>
4179       </div>
4180       <div class="date">
4181         24th June 2010
4182       </div>
4183       <div class="body">
4184         <p>A while back, I
4185 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Time_for_new__LDAP_schemas_replacing_RFC_2307_.html">complained
4186 about the fact</a> that it is not possible with the provided schemas
4187 for storing DNS and DHCP information in LDAP to combine the two sets
4188 of information into one LDAP object representing a computer.</p>
4189
4190 <p>In the mean time, I discovered that a simple fix would be to make
4191 the dhcpHost object class auxiliary, to allow it to be combined with
4192 the dNSDomain object class, and thus forming one object for one
4193 computer when storing both DHCP and DNS information in LDAP.</p>
4194
4195 <p>If I understand this correctly, it is not safe to do this change
4196 without also changing the assigned number for the object class, and I
4197 do not know enough about LDAP schema design to do that properly for
4198 Debian Edu.</p>
4199
4200 <p>Anyway, for future reference, this is how I believe we could change
4201 the
4202 <a href="http://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-ietf-dhc-ldap-schema-00">DHCP
4203 schema</a> to solve at least part of the problem with the LDAP schemas
4204 available today from IETF.</p>
4205
4206 <pre>
4207 --- dhcp.schema    (revision 65192)
4208 +++ dhcp.schema    (working copy)
4209 @@ -376,7 +376,7 @@
4210  objectclass ( 2.16.840.1.113719.1.203.6.6
4211         NAME 'dhcpHost'
4212         DESC 'This represents information about a particular client'
4213 -       SUP top
4214 +       SUP top AUXILIARY
4215         MUST cn
4216         MAY  (dhcpLeaseDN $ dhcpHWAddress $ dhcpOptionsDN $ dhcpStatements $ dhcpComments $ dhcpOption)
4217         X-NDS_CONTAINMENT ('dhcpService' 'dhcpSubnet' 'dhcpGroup') )
4218 </pre>
4219
4220 <p>I very much welcome clues on how to do this properly for Debian
4221 Edu/Squeeze.  We provide the DHCP schema in our debian-edu-config
4222 package, and should thus be free to rewrite it as we see fit.</p>
4223
4224 <p>If you want to help out with implementing this for Debian Edu,
4225 please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.</p>
4226
4227       </div>
4228       <div class="tags">
4229
4230
4231         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>.
4232
4233
4234       </div>
4235     </div>
4236     <div class="padding"></div>
4237
4238     <div class="entry">
4239       <div class="title">
4240         <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>
4241       </div>
4242       <div class="date">
4243         16th June 2010
4244       </div>
4245       <div class="body">
4246         <p>A few times I have had the need to simulate the way tasksel
4247 installs packages during the normal debian-installer run.  Until now,
4248 I have ended up letting tasksel do the work, with the annoying problem
4249 of not getting any feedback at all when something fails (like a
4250 conffile question from dpkg or a download that fails), using code like
4251 this:
4252
4253 <blockquote><pre>
4254 export DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive
4255 tasksel --new-install
4256 </pre></blockquote>
4257
4258 This would invoke tasksel, let its automatic task selection pick the
4259 tasks to install, and continue to install the requested tasks without
4260 any output what so ever.
4261
4262 Recently I revisited this problem while working on the automatic
4263 package upgrade testing, because tasksel would some times hang without
4264 any useful feedback, and I want to see what is going on when it
4265 happen.  Then it occured to me, I can parse the output from tasksel
4266 when asked to run in test mode, and use that aptitude command line
4267 printed by tasksel then to simulate the tasksel run.  I ended up using
4268 code like this:
4269
4270 <blockquote><pre>
4271 export DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive
4272 cmd="$(in_target tasksel -t --new-install | sed 's/debconf-apt-progress -- //')"
4273 $cmd
4274 </pre></blockquote>
4275
4276 <p>The content of $cmd is typically something like "<tt>aptitude -q
4277 --without-recommends -o APT::Install-Recommends=no -y install
4278 ~t^desktop$ ~t^gnome-desktop$ ~t^laptop$ ~pstandard ~prequired
4279 ~pimportant</tt>", which will install the gnome desktop task, the
4280 laptop task and all packages with priority standard , required and
4281 important, just like tasksel would have done it during
4282 installation.</p>
4283
4284 <p>A better approach is probably to extend tasksel to be able to
4285 install packages without using debconf-apt-progress, for use cases
4286 like this.</p>
4287
4288       </div>
4289       <div class="tags">
4290
4291
4292         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>.
4293
4294
4295       </div>
4296     </div>
4297     <div class="padding"></div>
4298
4299     <div class="entry">
4300       <div class="title">
4301         <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>
4302       </div>
4303       <div class="date">
4304         13th June 2010
4305       </div>
4306       <div class="body">
4307         <p>My
4308 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Automatic_upgrade_testing_from_Lenny_to_Squeeze.html">testing
4309 of Debian upgrades</a> from Lenny to Squeeze continues, and I've
4310 finally made the upgrade logs available from
4311 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/debian-upgrade-testing/">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/debian-upgrade-testing/</a>.
4312 I am now testing dist-upgrade of Gnome and KDE in a chroot using both
4313 apt and aptitude, and found their differences interesting.  This time
4314 I will only focus on their removal plans.</p>
4315
4316 <p>After installing a Gnome desktop and the laptop task, apt-get wants
4317 to remove 72 packages when dist-upgrading from Lenny to Squeeze.  The
4318 surprising part is that it want to remove xorg and all
4319 xserver-xorg-video* drivers.  Clearly not a good choice, but I am not
4320 sure why.  When asking aptitude to do the same, it want to remove 129
4321 packages, but most of them are library packages I suspect are no
4322 longer needed.  Both of them want to remove bluetooth packages, which
4323 I do not know.  Perhaps these bluetooth packages are obsolete?</p>
4324
4325 <p>For KDE, apt-get want to remove 82 packages, among them kdebase
4326 which seem like a bad idea and xorg the same way as with Gnome. Asking
4327 aptitude for the same, it wants to remove 192 packages, none which are
4328 too surprising.</p>
4329
4330 <p>I guess the removal of xorg during upgrades should be investigated
4331 and avoided, and perhaps others as well.  Here are the complete list
4332 of planned removals.  The complete logs is available from the URL
4333 above.  Note if you want to repeat these tests, that the upgrade test
4334 for kde+apt-get hung in the tasksel setup because of dpkg asking
4335 conffile questions.  No idea why.  I worked around it by using
4336 '<tt>echo >> /proc/<em>pidofdpkg</em>/fd/0</tt>' to tell dpkg to
4337 continue.</p>
4338
4339 <p><b>apt-get gnome 72</b>
4340 <br>bluez-gnome cupsddk-drivers deskbar-applet gnome
4341   gnome-desktop-environment gnome-network-admin gtkhtml3.14
4342   iceweasel-gnome-support libavcodec51 libdatrie0 libgdl-1-0
4343   libgnomekbd2 libgnomekbdui2 libmetacity0 libslab0 libxcb-xlib0
4344   nautilus-cd-burner python-gnome2-desktop python-gnome2-extras
4345   serpentine swfdec-mozilla update-manager xorg xserver-xorg
4346   xserver-xorg-core xserver-xorg-input-all xserver-xorg-input-evdev
4347   xserver-xorg-input-kbd xserver-xorg-input-mouse
4348   xserver-xorg-input-synaptics xserver-xorg-input-wacom
4349   xserver-xorg-video-all xserver-xorg-video-apm xserver-xorg-video-ark
4350   xserver-xorg-video-ati xserver-xorg-video-chips
4351   xserver-xorg-video-cirrus xserver-xorg-video-cyrix
4352   xserver-xorg-video-dummy xserver-xorg-video-fbdev
4353   xserver-xorg-video-glint xserver-xorg-video-i128
4354   xserver-xorg-video-i740 xserver-xorg-video-imstt
4355   xserver-xorg-video-intel xserver-xorg-video-mach64
4356   xserver-xorg-video-mga xserver-xorg-video-neomagic
4357   xserver-xorg-video-nsc xserver-xorg-video-nv
4358   xserver-xorg-video-openchrome xserver-xorg-video-r128
4359   xserver-xorg-video-radeon xserver-xorg-video-radeonhd
4360   xserver-xorg-video-rendition xserver-xorg-video-s3
4361   xserver-xorg-video-s3virge xserver-xorg-video-savage
4362   xserver-xorg-video-siliconmotion xserver-xorg-video-sis
4363   xserver-xorg-video-sisusb xserver-xorg-video-tdfx
4364   xserver-xorg-video-tga xserver-xorg-video-trident
4365   xserver-xorg-video-tseng xserver-xorg-video-v4l
4366   xserver-xorg-video-vesa xserver-xorg-video-vga
4367   xserver-xorg-video-vmware xserver-xorg-video-voodoo xulrunner-1.9
4368   xulrunner-1.9-gnome-support</p>
4369
4370 <p><b>aptitude gnome 129</b>
4371
4372 <br>bluez-gnome bluez-utils cpp-4.3 cupsddk-drivers dhcdbd
4373   djvulibre-desktop finger gnome-app-install gnome-mount
4374   gnome-network-admin gnome-spell gnome-vfs-obexftp
4375   gnome-volume-manager gstreamer0.10-gnomevfs gtkhtml3.14 libao2
4376   libavahi-compat-libdnssd1 libavahi-core5 libavcodec51 libbluetooth2
4377   libcamel1.2-11 libcdio7 libcucul0 libcupsys2 libcurl3 libdatrie0
4378   libdirectfb-1.0-0 libdvdread3 libedataserver1.2-9 libeel2-2.20
4379   libeel2-data libepc-1.0-1 libepc-ui-1.0-1 libfaad0 libgail-common
4380   libgd2-noxpm libgda3-3 libgda3-common libgdl-1-0 libgdl-1-common
4381   libggz2 libggzcore9 libggzmod4 libgksu1.2-0 libgksuui1.0-1 libgmyth0
4382   libgnomecups1.0-1 libgnomekbd2 libgnomekbdui2 libgnomeprint2.2-0
4383   libgnomeprint2.2-data libgnomeprintui2.2-0 libgnomeprintui2.2-common
4384   libgnomevfs2-bin libgpod3 libgraphviz4 libgtkhtml2-0
4385   libgtksourceview-common libgtksourceview1.0-0 libgucharmap6
4386   libhesiod0 libicu38 libiw29 libkpathsea4 libltdl3 libmagick++10
4387   libmagick10 libmalaga7 libmetacity0 libmtp7 libmysqlclient15off
4388   libnautilus-burn4 libneon27 libnm-glib0 libnm-util0 libopal-2.2
4389   libosp5 libparted1.8-10 libpoppler-glib3 libpoppler3 libpt-1.10.10
4390   libpt-1.10.10-plugins-alsa libpt-1.10.10-plugins-v4l libraw1394-8
4391   libsensors3 libslab0 libsmbios2 libsoup2.2-8 libssh2-1
4392   libsuitesparse-3.1.0 libswfdec-0.6-90 libtalloc1 libtotem-plparser10
4393   libtrackerclient0 libxalan2-java libxalan2-java-gcj libxcb-xlib0
4394   libxerces2-java libxerces2-java-gcj libxklavier12 libxtrap6
4395   libxxf86misc1 libzephyr3 mysql-common nautilus-cd-burner
4396   openoffice.org-writer2latex openssl-blacklist p7zip
4397   python-4suite-xml python-eggtrayicon python-gnome2-desktop
4398   python-gnome2-extras python-gtkhtml2 python-gtkmozembed
4399   python-numeric python-sexy serpentine svgalibg1 swfdec-gnome
4400   swfdec-mozilla totem-gstreamer update-manager wodim
4401   xserver-xorg-video-cyrix xserver-xorg-video-imstt
4402   xserver-xorg-video-nsc xserver-xorg-video-v4l xserver-xorg-video-vga
4403   zip</p>
4404
4405 <p><b>apt-get kde 82</b>
4406
4407 <br>cupsddk-drivers karm kaudiocreator kcoloredit kcontrol kde kde-core
4408   kdeaddons kdeartwork kdebase kdebase-bin kdebase-bin-kde3
4409   kdebase-kio-plugins kdesktop kdeutils khelpcenter kicker
4410   kicker-applets knewsticker kolourpaint konq-plugins konqueror korn
4411   kpersonalizer kscreensaver ksplash libavcodec51 libdatrie0 libkiten1
4412   libxcb-xlib0 quanta superkaramba texlive-base-bin xorg xserver-xorg
4413   xserver-xorg-core xserver-xorg-input-all xserver-xorg-input-evdev
4414   xserver-xorg-input-kbd xserver-xorg-input-mouse
4415   xserver-xorg-input-synaptics xserver-xorg-input-wacom
4416   xserver-xorg-video-all xserver-xorg-video-apm xserver-xorg-video-ark
4417   xserver-xorg-video-ati xserver-xorg-video-chips
4418   xserver-xorg-video-cirrus xserver-xorg-video-cyrix
4419   xserver-xorg-video-dummy xserver-xorg-video-fbdev
4420   xserver-xorg-video-glint xserver-xorg-video-i128
4421   xserver-xorg-video-i740 xserver-xorg-video-imstt
4422   xserver-xorg-video-intel xserver-xorg-video-mach64
4423   xserver-xorg-video-mga xserver-xorg-video-neomagic
4424   xserver-xorg-video-nsc xserver-xorg-video-nv
4425   xserver-xorg-video-openchrome xserver-xorg-video-r128
4426   xserver-xorg-video-radeon xserver-xorg-video-radeonhd
4427   xserver-xorg-video-rendition xserver-xorg-video-s3
4428   xserver-xorg-video-s3virge xserver-xorg-video-savage
4429   xserver-xorg-video-siliconmotion xserver-xorg-video-sis
4430   xserver-xorg-video-sisusb xserver-xorg-video-tdfx
4431   xserver-xorg-video-tga xserver-xorg-video-trident
4432   xserver-xorg-video-tseng xserver-xorg-video-v4l
4433   xserver-xorg-video-vesa xserver-xorg-video-vga
4434   xserver-xorg-video-vmware xserver-xorg-video-voodoo xulrunner-1.9</p>
4435
4436 <p><b>aptitude kde 192</b>
4437 <br>bluez-utils cpp-4.3 cupsddk-drivers cvs dcoprss dhcdbd
4438   djvulibre-desktop dosfstools eyesapplet fifteenapplet finger gettext
4439   ghostscript-x imlib-base imlib11 indi kandy karm kasteroids
4440   kaudiocreator kbackgammon kbstate kcoloredit kcontrol kcron kdat
4441   kdeadmin-kfile-plugins kdeartwork-misc kdeartwork-theme-window
4442   kdebase-bin-kde3 kdebase-kio-plugins kdeedu-data
4443   kdegraphics-kfile-plugins kdelirc kdemultimedia-kappfinder-data
4444   kdemultimedia-kfile-plugins kdenetwork-kfile-plugins
4445   kdepim-kfile-plugins kdepim-kio-plugins kdeprint kdesktop kdessh
4446   kdict kdnssd kdvi kedit keduca kenolaba kfax kfaxview kfouleggs
4447   kghostview khelpcenter khexedit kiconedit kitchensync klatin
4448   klickety kmailcvt kmenuedit kmid kmilo kmoon kmrml kodo kolourpaint
4449   kooka korn kpager kpdf kpercentage kpf kpilot kpoker kpovmodeler
4450   krec kregexpeditor ksayit ksim ksirc ksirtet ksmiletris ksmserver
4451   ksnake ksokoban ksplash ksvg ksysv ktip ktnef kuickshow kverbos
4452   kview kviewshell kvoctrain kwifimanager kwin kwin4 kworldclock
4453   kxsldbg libakode2 libao2 libarts1-akode libarts1-audiofile
4454   libarts1-mpeglib libarts1-xine libavahi-compat-libdnssd1
4455   libavahi-core5 libavc1394-0 libavcodec51 libbluetooth2
4456   libboost-python1.34.1 libcucul0 libcurl3 libcvsservice0 libdatrie0
4457   libdirectfb-1.0-0 libdjvulibre21 libdvdread3 libfaad0 libfreebob0
4458   libgail-common libgd2-noxpm libgraphviz4 libgsmme1c2a libgtkhtml2-0
4459   libicu38 libiec61883-0 libindex0 libiw29 libk3b3 libkcal2b libkcddb1
4460   libkdeedu3 libkdepim1a libkgantt0 libkiten1 libkleopatra1 libkmime2
4461   libkpathsea4 libkpimexchange1 libkpimidentities1 libkscan1
4462   libksieve0 libktnef1 liblockdev1 libltdl3 libmagick10 libmimelib1c2a
4463   libmozjs1d libmpcdec3 libneon27 libnm-util0 libopensync0 libpisock9
4464   libpoppler-glib3 libpoppler-qt2 libpoppler3 libraw1394-8 libsmbios2
4465   libssh2-1 libsuitesparse-3.1.0 libtalloc1 libtiff-tools
4466   libxalan2-java libxalan2-java-gcj libxcb-xlib0 libxerces2-java
4467   libxerces2-java-gcj libxtrap6 mpeglib networkstatus
4468   openoffice.org-writer2latex pmount poster psutils quanta quanta-data
4469   superkaramba svgalibg1 tex-common texlive-base texlive-base-bin
4470   texlive-common texlive-doc-base texlive-fonts-recommended
4471   xserver-xorg-video-cyrix xserver-xorg-video-imstt
4472   xserver-xorg-video-nsc xserver-xorg-video-v4l xserver-xorg-video-vga
4473   xulrunner-1.9</p>
4474
4475
4476       </div>
4477       <div class="tags">
4478
4479
4480         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>.
4481
4482
4483       </div>
4484     </div>
4485     <div class="padding"></div>
4486
4487     <div class="entry">
4488       <div class="title">
4489         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Automatic_upgrade_testing_from_Lenny_to_Squeeze.html">Automatic upgrade testing from Lenny to Squeeze</a>
4490       </div>
4491       <div class="date">
4492         11th June 2010
4493       </div>
4494       <div class="body">
4495         <p>The last few days I have done some upgrade testing in Debian, to
4496 see if the upgrade from Lenny to Squeeze will go smoothly.  A few bugs
4497 have been discovered and reported in the process
4498 (<a href="http://bugs.debian.org/585410">#585410</a> in nagios3-cgi,
4499 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/584879">#584879</a> already fixed in
4500 enscript and <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/584861">#584861</a> in
4501 kdebase-workspace-data), and to get a more regular testing going on, I
4502 am working on a script to automate the test.</p>
4503
4504 <p>The idea is to create a Lenny chroot and use tasksel to install a
4505 Gnome or KDE desktop installation inside the chroot before upgrading
4506 it.  To ensure no services are started in the chroot, a policy-rc.d
4507 script is inserted.  To make sure tasksel believe it is to install a
4508 desktop on a laptop, the tasksel tests are replaced in the chroot
4509 (only acceptable because this is a throw-away chroot).</p>
4510
4511 <p>A naive upgrade from Lenny to Squeeze using aptitude dist-upgrade
4512 currently always fail because udev refuses to upgrade with the kernel
4513 in Lenny, so to avoid that problem the file /etc/udev/kernel-upgrade
4514 is created.  The bug report
4515 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/566000">#566000</a> make me suspect
4516 this problem do not trigger in a chroot, but I touch the file anyway
4517 to make sure the upgrade go well.  Testing on virtual and real
4518 hardware have failed me because of udev so far, and creating this file
4519 do the trick in such settings anyway.  This is a
4520 <a href="http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/debian-26/failed-dist-upgrade-due-to-udev-config_sysfs_deprecated-nonsense-804130/">known
4521 issue</a> and the current udev behaviour is intended by the udev
4522 maintainer because he lack the resources to rewrite udev to keep
4523 working with old kernels or something like that.  I really wish the
4524 udev upstream would keep udev backwards compatible, to avoid such
4525 upgrade problem, but given that they fail to do so, I guess
4526 documenting the way out of this mess is the best option we got for
4527 Debian Squeeze.</p>
4528
4529 <p>Anyway, back to the task at hand, testing upgrades.  This test
4530 script, which I call <tt>upgrade-test</tt> for now, is doing the
4531 trick:</p>
4532
4533 <blockquote><pre>
4534 #!/bin/sh
4535 set -ex
4536
4537 if [ "$1" ] ; then
4538     desktop=$1
4539 else
4540     desktop=gnome
4541 fi
4542
4543 from=lenny
4544 to=squeeze
4545
4546 exec &lt; /dev/null
4547 unset LANG
4548 mirror=http://ftp.skolelinux.org/debian
4549 tmpdir=chroot-$from-upgrade-$to-$desktop
4550 fuser -mv .
4551 debootstrap $from $tmpdir $mirror
4552 chroot $tmpdir aptitude update
4553 cat > $tmpdir/usr/sbin/policy-rc.d &lt;&lt;EOF
4554 #!/bin/sh
4555 exit 101
4556 EOF
4557 chmod a+rx $tmpdir/usr/sbin/policy-rc.d
4558 exit_cleanup() {
4559     umount $tmpdir/proc
4560 }
4561 mount -t proc proc $tmpdir/proc
4562 # Make sure proc is unmounted also on failure
4563 trap exit_cleanup EXIT INT
4564
4565 chroot $tmpdir aptitude -y install debconf-utils
4566
4567 # Make sure tasksel autoselection trigger.  It need the test scripts
4568 # to return the correct answers.
4569 echo tasksel tasksel/desktop multiselect $desktop | \
4570     chroot $tmpdir debconf-set-selections
4571
4572 # Include the desktop and laptop task
4573 for test in desktop laptop ; do
4574     echo > $tmpdir/usr/lib/tasksel/tests/$test &lt;&lt;EOF
4575 #!/bin/sh
4576 exit 2
4577 EOF
4578     chmod a+rx $tmpdir/usr/lib/tasksel/tests/$test
4579 done
4580
4581 DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive
4582 DEBIAN_PRIORITY=critical
4583 export DEBIAN_FRONTEND DEBIAN_PRIORITY
4584 chroot $tmpdir tasksel --new-install
4585
4586 echo deb $mirror $to main > $tmpdir/etc/apt/sources.list
4587 chroot $tmpdir aptitude update
4588 touch $tmpdir/etc/udev/kernel-upgrade
4589 chroot $tmpdir aptitude -y dist-upgrade
4590 fuser -mv
4591 </pre></blockquote>
4592
4593 <p>I suspect it would be useful to test upgrades with both apt-get and
4594 with aptitude, but I have not had time to look at how they behave
4595 differently so far.  I hope to get a cron job running to do the test
4596 regularly and post the result on the web.  The Gnome upgrade currently
4597 work, while the KDE upgrade fail because of the bug in
4598 kdebase-workspace-data</p>
4599
4600 <p>I am not quite sure what kind of extract from the huge upgrade logs
4601 (KDE 167 KiB, Gnome 516 KiB) it make sense to include in this blog
4602 post, so I will refrain from trying.  I can report that for Gnome,
4603 aptitude report 760 packages upgraded, 448 newly installed, 129 to
4604 remove and 1 not upgraded and 1024MB need to be downloaded while for
4605 KDE the same numbers are 702 packages upgraded, 507 newly installed,
4606 193 to remove and 0 not upgraded and 1117MB need to be downloaded</p>
4607
4608 <p>I am very happy to notice that the Gnome desktop + laptop upgrade
4609 is able to migrate to dependency based boot sequencing and parallel
4610 booting without a hitch.  Was unsure if there were still bugs with
4611 packages failing to clean up their obsolete init.d script during
4612 upgrades, and no such problem seem to affect the Gnome desktop+laptop
4613 packages.</p>
4614
4615       </div>
4616       <div class="tags">
4617
4618
4619         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>.
4620
4621
4622       </div>
4623     </div>
4624     <div class="padding"></div>
4625
4626     <div class="entry">
4627       <div class="title">
4628         <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>
4629       </div>
4630       <div class="date">
4631          6th June 2010
4632       </div>
4633       <div class="body">
4634         <p>If Debian is to migrate to upstart on Linux, I expect some init.d
4635 scripts to migrate (some of) their operations to upstart job while
4636 keeping the init.d for hurd and kfreebsd.  The packages with such
4637 needs will need a way to get their init.d scripts to behave
4638 differently when used with sysvinit and with upstart.  Because of
4639 this, I had a look at the environment variables set when a init.d
4640 script is running under upstart, and when it is not.</p>
4641
4642 <p>With upstart, I notice these environment variables are set when a
4643 script is started from rcS.d/ (ignoring some irrelevant ones like
4644 COLUMNS):</p>
4645
4646 <blockquote><pre>
4647 DEFAULT_RUNLEVEL=2
4648 previous=N
4649 PREVLEVEL=
4650 RUNLEVEL=
4651 runlevel=S
4652 UPSTART_EVENTS=startup
4653 UPSTART_INSTANCE=
4654 UPSTART_JOB=rc-sysinit
4655 </pre></blockquote>
4656
4657 <p>With sysvinit, these environment variables are set for the same
4658 script.</p>
4659
4660 <blockquote><pre>
4661 INIT_VERSION=sysvinit-2.88
4662 previous=N
4663 PREVLEVEL=N
4664 RUNLEVEL=S
4665 runlevel=S
4666 </pre></blockquote>
4667
4668 <p>The RUNLEVEL and PREVLEVEL environment variables passed on from
4669 sysvinit are not set by upstart.  Not sure if it is intentional or not
4670 to not be compatible with sysvinit in this regard.</p>
4671
4672 <p>For scripts needing to behave differently when upstart is used,
4673 looking for the UPSTART_JOB environment variable seem to be a good
4674 choice.</p>
4675
4676       </div>
4677       <div class="tags">
4678
4679
4680         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>.
4681
4682
4683       </div>
4684     </div>
4685     <div class="padding"></div>
4686
4687     <div class="entry">
4688       <div class="title">
4689         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/A_manual_for_standards_wars___.html">A manual for standards wars...</a>
4690       </div>
4691       <div class="date">
4692          6th June 2010
4693       </div>
4694       <div class="body">
4695         <p>Via the
4696 <a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/robweir/antic-atom/~3/QzU4RgoAGMg/weekly-links-10.html">blog
4697 of Rob Weir</a> I came across the very interesting essay named
4698 <a href="http://faculty.haas.berkeley.edu/shapiro/wars.pdf">The Art of
4699 Standards Wars</a> (PDF 25 pages).  I recommend it for everyone
4700 following the standards wars of today.</p>
4701
4702       </div>
4703       <div class="tags">
4704
4705
4706         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>.
4707
4708
4709       </div>
4710     </div>
4711     <div class="padding"></div>
4712
4713     <div class="entry">
4714       <div class="title">
4715         <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>
4716       </div>
4717       <div class="date">
4718          3rd June 2010
4719       </div>
4720       <div class="body">
4721         <p>When using sitesummary at a site to track machines, it is possible
4722 to get a list of the machine types in use thanks to the DMI
4723 information extracted from each machine.  The script to do so is
4724 included in the sitesummary package, and here is example output from
4725 the Skolelinux build servers:</p>
4726
4727 <blockquote><pre>
4728 maintainer:~# /usr/lib/sitesummary/hardware-model-summary
4729   vendor                    count
4730   Dell Computer Corporation     1
4731     PowerEdge 1750              1
4732   IBM                           1
4733     eserver xSeries 345 -[8670M1X]-     1
4734   Intel                         2
4735   [no-dmi-info]                 3
4736 maintainer:~#
4737 </pre></blockquote>
4738
4739 <p>The quality of the report depend on the quality of the DMI tables
4740 provided in each machine.  Here there are Intel machines without model
4741 information listed with Intel as vendor and no model, and virtual Xen
4742 machines listed as [no-dmi-info].  One can add -l as a command line
4743 option to list the individual machines.</p>
4744
4745 <p>A larger list is
4746 <a href="http://narvikskolen.no/sitesummary/">available from the the
4747 city of Narvik</a>, which uses Skolelinux on all their shools and also
4748 provide the basic sitesummary report publicly.  In their report there
4749 are ~1400 machines. I know they use both Ubuntu and Skolelinux on
4750 their machines, and as sitesummary is available in both distributions,
4751 it is trivial to get all of them to report to the same central
4752 collector.</p>
4753
4754       </div>
4755       <div class="tags">
4756
4757
4758         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>.
4759
4760
4761       </div>
4762     </div>
4763     <div class="padding"></div>
4764
4765     <div class="entry">
4766       <div class="title">
4767         <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>
4768       </div>
4769       <div class="date">
4770          1st June 2010
4771       </div>
4772       <div class="body">
4773         <p>It is strange to watch how a bug in Debian causing KDM to fail to
4774 start at boot when an NVidia video card is used is handled.  The
4775 problem seem to be that the nvidia X.org driver uses a long time to
4776 initialize, and this duration is longer than kdm is configured to
4777 wait.</p>
4778
4779 <p>I came across two bugs related to this issue,
4780 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/583312">#583312</a> initially filed
4781 against initscripts and passed on to nvidia-glx when it became obvious
4782 that the nvidia drivers were involved, and
4783 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/524751">#524751</a> initially filed against
4784 kdm and passed on to src:nvidia-graphics-drivers for unknown reasons.</p>
4785
4786 <p>To me, it seem that no-one is interested in actually solving the
4787 problem nvidia video card owners experience and make sure the Debian
4788 distribution work out of the box for these users.  The nvidia driver
4789 maintainers expect kdm to be set up to wait longer, while kdm expect
4790 the nvidia driver maintainers to fix the driver to start faster, and
4791 while they wait for each other I guess the users end up switching to a
4792 distribution that work for them.  I have no idea what the solution is,
4793 but I am pretty sure that waiting for each other is not it.</p>
4794
4795 <p>I wonder why we end up handling bugs this way.</p>
4796
4797       </div>
4798       <div class="tags">
4799
4800
4801         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>.
4802
4803
4804       </div>
4805     </div>
4806     <div class="padding"></div>
4807
4808     <div class="entry">
4809       <div class="title">
4810         <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>
4811       </div>
4812       <div class="date">
4813         27th May 2010
4814       </div>
4815       <div class="body">
4816         <p>A few days ago, parallel booting was enabled in Debian/testing.
4817 The feature seem to hold up pretty well, but three fairly serious
4818 issues are known and should be solved:
4819
4820 <p><ul>
4821
4822 <li>The wicd package seen to
4823 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/508289">break NFS mounting</a> and
4824 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/581586">network setup</a> when
4825 parallel booting is enabled.  No idea why, but the wicd maintainer
4826 seem to be on the case.</li>
4827
4828 <li>The nvidia X driver seem to
4829 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/583312">have a race condition</a>
4830 triggered more easily when parallel booting is in effect.  The
4831 maintainer is on the case.</li>
4832
4833 <li>The sysv-rc package fail to properly enable dependency based boot
4834 sequencing (the shutdown is broken) when old file-rc users
4835 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/575080">try to switch back</a> to
4836 sysv-rc.  One way to solve it would be for file-rc to create
4837 /etc/init.d/.legacy-bootordering, and another is to try to make
4838 sysv-rc more robust.  Will investigate some more and probably upload a
4839 workaround in sysv-rc to help those trying to move from file-rc to
4840 sysv-rc get a working shutdown.</li>
4841
4842 </ul></p>
4843
4844 <p>All in all not many surprising issues, and all of them seem
4845 solvable before Squeeze is released.  In addition to these there are
4846 some packages with bugs in their dependencies and run level settings,
4847 which I expect will be fixed in a reasonable time span.</p>
4848
4849 <p>If you report any problems with dependencies in init.d scripts to
4850 the BTS, please usertag the report to get it to show up at
4851 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/pkgreport.cgi?users=initscripts-ng-devel@lists.alioth.debian.org">the
4852 list of usertagged bugs related to this</a>.</p>
4853
4854 <p>Update: Correct bug number to file-rc issue.</p>
4855
4856       </div>
4857       <div class="tags">
4858
4859
4860         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>.
4861
4862
4863       </div>
4864     </div>
4865     <div class="padding"></div>
4866
4867     <div class="entry">
4868       <div class="title">
4869         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/More_flexible_firmware_handling_in_debian_installer.html">More flexible firmware handling in debian-installer</a>
4870       </div>
4871       <div class="date">
4872         22nd May 2010
4873       </div>
4874       <div class="body">
4875         <p>After a long break from debian-installer development, I finally
4876 found time today to return to the project.  Having to spend less time
4877 working dependency based boot in debian, as it is almost complete now,
4878 definitely helped freeing some time.</p>
4879
4880 <p>A while back, I ran into a problem while working on Debian Edu.  We
4881 include some firmware packages on the Debian Edu CDs, those needed to
4882 get disk and network controllers working.  Without having these
4883 firmware packages available during installation, it is impossible to
4884 install Debian Edu on the given machine, and because our target group
4885 are non-technical people, asking them to provide firmware packages on
4886 an external medium is a support pain.  Initially, I expected it to be
4887 enough to include the firmware packages on the CD to get
4888 debian-installer to find and use them.  This proved to be wrong.
4889 Next, I hoped it was enough to symlink the relevant firmware packages
4890 to some useful location on the CD (tried /cdrom/ and
4891 /cdrom/firmware/).  This also proved to not work, and at this point I
4892 found time to look at the debian-installer code to figure out what was
4893 going to work.</p>
4894
4895 <p>The firmware loading code is in the hw-detect package, and a closer
4896 look revealed that it would only look for firmware packages outside
4897 the installation media, so the CD was never checked for firmware
4898 packages.  It would only check USB sticks, floppies and other
4899 "external" media devices.  Today I changed it to also look in the
4900 /cdrom/firmware/ directory on the mounted CD or DVD, which should
4901 solve the problem I ran into with Debian edu.  I also changed it to
4902 look in /firmware/, to make sure the installer also find firmware
4903 provided in the initrd when booting the installer via PXE, to allow us
4904 to provide the same feature in the PXE setup included in Debian
4905 Edu.</p>
4906
4907 <p>To make sure firmware deb packages with a license questions are not
4908 activated without asking if the license is accepted, I extended
4909 hw-detect to look for preinst scripts in the firmware packages, and
4910 run these before activating the firmware during installation.  The
4911 license question is asked using debconf in the preinst, so this should
4912 solve the issue for the firmware packages I have looked at so far.</p>
4913
4914 <p>If you want to discuss the details of these features, please
4915 contact us on debian-boot@lists.debian.org.</p>
4916
4917       </div>
4918       <div class="tags">
4919
4920
4921         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>.
4922
4923
4924       </div>
4925     </div>
4926     <div class="padding"></div>
4927
4928     <div class="entry">
4929       <div class="title">
4930         <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>
4931       </div>
4932       <div class="date">
4933         14th May 2010
4934       </div>
4935       <div class="body">
4936         <p>Since this evening, parallel booting is the default in
4937 Debian/unstable for machines using dependency based boot sequencing.
4938 Apparently the testing of concurrent booting has been wider than
4939 expected, if I am to believe the
4940 <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2010/05/msg00122.html">input
4941 on debian-devel@</a>, and I concluded a few days ago to move forward
4942 with the feature this weekend, to give us some time to detect any
4943 remaining problems before Squeeze is frozen.  If serious problems are
4944 detected, it is simple to change the default back to sequential boot.
4945 The upload of the new sysvinit package also activate a new upstream
4946 version.</p>
4947
4948 More information about
4949 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/LSBInitScripts/DependencyBasedBoot">dependency
4950 based boot sequencing</a> is available from the Debian wiki.  It is
4951 currently possible to disable parallel booting when one run into
4952 problems caused by it, by adding this line to /etc/default/rcS:</p>
4953
4954 <blockquote><pre>
4955 CONCURRENCY=none
4956 </pre></blockquote>
4957
4958 <p>If you report any problems with dependencies in init.d scripts to
4959 the BTS, please usertag the report to get it to show up at
4960 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/pkgreport.cgi?users=initscripts-ng-devel@lists.alioth.debian.org">the
4961 list of usertagged bugs related to this</a>.</p>
4962
4963       </div>
4964       <div class="tags">
4965
4966
4967         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>.
4968
4969
4970       </div>
4971     </div>
4972     <div class="padding"></div>
4973
4974     <div class="entry">
4975       <div class="title">
4976         <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>
4977       </div>
4978       <div class="date">
4979         14th May 2010
4980       </div>
4981       <div class="body">
4982         <p>In the recent Debian Edu versions, the
4983 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/HowTo/SiteSummary">sitesummary
4984 system</a> is used to keep track of the machines in the school
4985 network.  Each machine will automatically report its status to the
4986 central server after boot and once per night.  The network setup is
4987 also reported, and using this information it is possible to get the
4988 MAC address of all network interfaces in the machines.  This is useful
4989 to update the DHCP configuration.</p>
4990
4991 <p>To give some idea how to use sitesummary, here is a one-liner to
4992 ist all MAC addresses of all machines reporting to sitesummary.  Run
4993 this on the collector host:</p>
4994
4995 <blockquote><pre>
4996 perl -MSiteSummary -e 'for_all_hosts(sub { print join(" ", get_macaddresses(shift)), "\n"; });'
4997 </pre></blockquote>
4998
4999 <p>This will list all MAC addresses assosiated with all machine, one
5000 line per machine and with space between the MAC addresses.</p>
5001
5002 <p>To allow system administrators easier job at adding static DHCP
5003 addresses for hosts, it would be possible to extend this to fetch
5004 machine information from sitesummary and update the DHCP and DNS
5005 tables in LDAP using this information.  Such tool is unfortunately not
5006 written yet.</p>
5007
5008       </div>
5009       <div class="tags">
5010
5011
5012         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>.
5013
5014
5015       </div>
5016     </div>
5017     <div class="padding"></div>
5018
5019     <div class="entry">
5020       <div class="title">
5021         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/systemd__an_interesting_alternative_to_upstart.html">systemd, an interesting alternative to upstart</a>
5022       </div>
5023       <div class="date">
5024         13th May 2010
5025       </div>
5026       <div class="body">
5027         <p>The last few days a new boot system called
5028 <a href="http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/systemd">systemd</a>
5029 has been
5030 <a href="http://0pointer.de/blog/projects/systemd.html">introduced</a>
5031
5032 to the free software world.  I have not yet had time to play around
5033 with it, but it seem to be a very interesting alternative to
5034 <a href="http://upstart.ubuntu.com/">upstart</a>, and might prove to be
5035 a good alternative for Debian when we are able to switch to an event
5036 based boot system.  Tollef is
5037 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/580814">in the process</a> of getting
5038 systemd into Debian, and I look forward to seeing how well it work.  I
5039 like the fact that systemd handles init.d scripts with dependency
5040 information natively, allowing them to run in parallel where upstart
5041 at the moment do not.</p>
5042
5043 <p>Unfortunately do systemd have the same problem as upstart regarding
5044 platform support.  It only work on recent Linux kernels, and also need
5045 some new kernel features enabled to function properly.  This means
5046 kFreeBSD and Hurd ports of Debian will need a port or a different boot
5047 system.  Not sure how that will be handled if systemd proves to be the
5048 way forward.</p>
5049
5050 <p>In the mean time, based on the
5051 <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2010/05/msg00122.html">input
5052 on debian-devel@</a> regarding parallel booting in Debian, I have
5053 decided to enable full parallel booting as the default in Debian as
5054 soon as possible (probably this weekend or early next week), to see if
5055 there are any remaining serious bugs in the init.d dependencies.  A
5056 new version of the sysvinit package implementing this change is
5057 already in experimental.  If all go well, Squeeze will be released
5058 with parallel booting enabled by default.</p>
5059
5060       </div>
5061       <div class="tags">
5062
5063
5064         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>.
5065
5066
5067       </div>
5068     </div>
5069     <div class="padding"></div>
5070
5071     <div class="entry">
5072       <div class="title">
5073         <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>
5074       </div>
5075       <div class="date">
5076          6th May 2010
5077       </div>
5078       <div class="body">
5079         <p>These days, the init.d script dependencies in Squeeze are quite
5080 complete, so complete that it is actually possible to run all the
5081 init.d scripts in parallell based on these dependencies.  If you want
5082 to test your Squeeze system, make sure
5083 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/LSBInitScripts/DependencyBasedBoot">dependency
5084 based boot sequencing</a> is enabled, and add this line to
5085 /etc/default/rcS:</p>
5086
5087 <blockquote><pre>
5088 CONCURRENCY=makefile
5089 </pre></blockquote>
5090
5091 <p>That is it.  It will cause sysv-rc to use the startpar tool to run
5092 scripts in parallel using the dependency information stored in
5093 /etc/init.d/.depend.boot, /etc/init.d/.depend.start and
5094 /etc/init.d/.depend.stop to order the scripts.  Startpar is configured
5095 to try to start the kdm and gdm scripts as early as possible, and will
5096 start the facilities required by kdm or gdm as early as possible to
5097 make this happen.</p>
5098
5099 <p>Give it a try, and see if you like the result.  If some services
5100 fail to start properly, it is most likely because they have incomplete
5101 init.d script dependencies in their startup script (or some of their
5102 dependent scripts have incomplete dependencies).  Report bugs and get
5103 the package maintainers to fix it. :)</p>
5104
5105 <p>Running scripts in parallel could be the default in Debian when we
5106 manage to get the init.d script dependencies complete and correct.  I
5107 expect we will get there in Squeeze+1, if we get manage to test and
5108 fix the remaining issues.</p>
5109
5110 <p>If you report any problems with dependencies in init.d scripts to
5111 the BTS, please usertag the report to get it to show up at
5112 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/pkgreport.cgi?users=initscripts-ng-devel@lists.alioth.debian.org">the
5113 list of usertagged bugs related to this</a>.</p>
5114
5115       </div>
5116       <div class="tags">
5117
5118
5119         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>.
5120
5121
5122       </div>
5123     </div>
5124     <div class="padding"></div>
5125
5126     <div class="entry">
5127       <div class="title">
5128         <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>
5129       </div>
5130       <div class="date">
5131         27th July 2009
5132       </div>
5133       <div class="body">
5134         <p>Since this evening, with the upload of sysvinit version 2.87dsf-2,
5135 and the upload of insserv version 1.12.0-10 yesterday, Debian unstable
5136 have been migrated to using dependency based boot sequencing.  This
5137 conclude work me and others have been doing for the last three days.
5138 It feels great to see this finally part of the default Debian
5139 installation.  Now we just need to weed out the last few problems that
5140 are bound to show up, to get everything ready for Squeeze.</p>
5141
5142 <p>The next step is migrating /sbin/init from sysvinit to upstart, and
5143 fixing the more fundamental problem of handing the event based
5144 non-predictable kernel in the early boot.</p>
5145
5146       </div>
5147       <div class="tags">
5148
5149
5150         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>.
5151
5152
5153       </div>
5154     </div>
5155     <div class="padding"></div>
5156
5157     <div class="entry">
5158       <div class="title">
5159         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Taking_over_sysvinit_development.html">Taking over sysvinit development</a>
5160       </div>
5161       <div class="date">
5162         22nd July 2009
5163       </div>
5164       <div class="body">
5165         <p>After several years of frustration with the lack of activity from
5166 the existing sysvinit upstream developer, I decided a few weeks ago to
5167 take over the package and become the new upstream.  The number of
5168 patches to track for the Debian package was becoming a burden, and the
5169 lack of synchronization between the distribution made it hard to keep
5170 the package up to date.</p>
5171
5172 <p>On the new sysvinit team is the SuSe maintainer Dr. Werner Fink,
5173 and my Debian co-maintainer Kel Modderman.  About 10 days ago, I made
5174 a new upstream tarball with version number 2.87dsf (for Debian, SuSe
5175 and Fedora), based on the patches currently in use in these
5176 distributions.  We Debian maintainers plan to move to this tarball as
5177 the new upstream as soon as we find time to do the merge.  Since the
5178 new tarball was created, we agreed with Werner at SuSe to make a new
5179 upstream project at <a href="http://savannah.nongnu.org/">Savannah</a>, and continue
5180 development there.  The project is registered and currently waiting
5181 for approval by the Savannah administrators, and as soon as it is
5182 approved, we will import the old versions from svn and continue
5183 working on the future release.</p>
5184
5185 <p>It is a bit ironic that this is done now, when some of the involved
5186 distributions are moving to upstart as a syvinit replacement.</p>
5187
5188       </div>
5189       <div class="tags">
5190
5191
5192         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>.
5193
5194
5195       </div>
5196     </div>
5197     <div class="padding"></div>
5198
5199     <div class="entry">
5200       <div class="title">
5201         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_boots_quicker_and_quicker.html">Debian boots quicker and quicker</a>
5202       </div>
5203       <div class="date">
5204         24th June 2009
5205       </div>
5206       <div class="body">
5207         <p>I spent Monday and tuesday this week in London with a lot of the
5208 people involved in the boot system on Debian and Ubuntu, to see if we
5209 could find more ways to speed up the boot system.  This was an Ubuntu
5210 funded
5211 <a href="https://wiki.ubuntu.com/FoundationsTeam/BootPerformance/DebianUbuntuSprint">developer
5212 gathering</a>. It was quite productive.  We also discussed the future
5213 of boot systems, and ways to handle the increasing number of boot
5214 issues introduced by the Linux kernel becoming more and more
5215 asynchronous and event base.  The Ubuntu approach using udev and
5216 upstart might be a good way forward.  Time will show.</p>
5217
5218 <p>Anyway, there are a few ways at the moment to speed up the boot
5219 process in Debian.  All of these should be applied to get a quick
5220 boot:</p>
5221
5222 <ul>
5223
5224 <li>Use dash as /bin/sh.</li>
5225
5226 <li>Disable the init.d/hwclock*.sh scripts and make sure the hardware
5227    clock is in UTC.</li>
5228
5229 <li>Install and activate the insserv package to enable
5230    <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/LSBInitScripts/DependencyBasedBoot">dependency
5231    based boot sequencing</a>, and enable concurrent booting.</li>
5232
5233 </ul>
5234
5235 These points are based on the Google summer of code work done by
5236 <a href="http://initscripts-ng.alioth.debian.org/soc2006-bootsystem/">Carlos
5237 Villegas</a>.
5238
5239 <p>Support for makefile-style concurrency during boot was uploaded to
5240 unstable yesterday.  When we tested it, we were able to cut 6 seconds
5241 from the boot sequence.  It depend on very correct dependency
5242 declaration in all init.d scripts, so I expect us to find edge cases
5243 where the dependences in some scripts are slightly wrong when we start
5244 using this.</p>
5245
5246 <p>On our IRC channel for this effort, #pkg-sysvinit, a new idea was
5247 introduced by Raphael Geissert today, one that could affect the
5248 startup speed as well.  Instead of starting some scripts concurrently
5249 from rcS.d/ and another set of scripts from rc2.d/, it would be
5250 possible to run a of them in the same process.  A quick way to test
5251 this would be to enable insserv and run 'mv /etc/rc2.d/S* /etc/rcS.d/;
5252 insserv'.  Will need to test if that work. :)</p>
5253
5254       </div>
5255       <div class="tags">
5256
5257
5258         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>.
5259
5260
5261       </div>
5262     </div>
5263     <div class="padding"></div>
5264
5265     <div class="entry">
5266       <div class="title">
5267         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/BSAs_p_stander_om_piratkopiering_m_ter_motstand.html">BSAs påstander om piratkopiering møter motstand</a>
5268       </div>
5269       <div class="date">
5270         17th May 2009
5271       </div>
5272       <div class="body">
5273         <p>Hvert år de siste årene har BSA, lobbyfronten til de store
5274 programvareselskapene som Microsoft og Apple, publisert en rapport der
5275 de gjetter på hvor mye piratkopiering påfører i tapte inntekter i
5276 ulike land rundt om i verden.  Resultatene er tendensiøse.  For noen
5277 dager siden kom
5278 <a href="http://global.bsa.org/globalpiracy2008/studies/globalpiracy2008.pdf">siste
5279 rapport</a>, og det er flere kritiske kommentarer publisert de siste
5280 dagene.  Et spesielt interessant kommentar fra Sverige,
5281 <a href="http://www.idg.se/2.1085/1.229795/bsa-hoftade-sverigesiffror">BSA
5282 höftade Sverigesiffror</a>, oppsummeres slik:</p>
5283
5284 <blockquote>
5285 I sin senaste rapport slår BSA fast att 25 procent av all mjukvara i
5286 Sverige är piratkopierad. Det utan att ha pratat med ett enda svenskt
5287 företag. "Man bör nog kanske inte se de här siffrorna som helt
5288 exakta", säger BSAs Sverigechef John Hugosson.
5289 </blockquote>
5290
5291 <p>Mon tro om de er like metodiske når de gjetter på andelen piratkopiering i Norge?  To andre kommentarer er <a
5292 href="http://www.vnunet.com/vnunet/comment/2242134/bsa-piracy-figures-shot-reality">BSA
5293 piracy figures need a shot of reality</a> og <a
5294 href="http://www.michaelgeist.ca/content/view/3958/125/">Does The WIPO
5295 Copyright Treaty Work?</a></p>
5296
5297 <p>Fant lenkene via <a
5298 href="http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/05/17/1632242">oppslag
5299 på Slashdot</a>.</p>
5300
5301       </div>
5302       <div class="tags">
5303
5304
5305         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>.
5306
5307
5308       </div>
5309     </div>
5310     <div class="padding"></div>
5311
5312     <div class="entry">
5313       <div class="title">
5314         <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>
5315       </div>
5316       <div class="date">
5317          7th May 2009
5318       </div>
5319       <div class="body">
5320         <p>Kom over
5321 <a href="http://news.cnet.com/8301-13505_3-10216873-16.html">interessante
5322 tall</a> fra IDG om utviklingen av linuxservermarkedet.  Fikk meg til
5323 å tenke på antall tjenermaskiner ved Universitetet i Oslo der jeg
5324 jobber til daglig.  En rask opptelling forteller meg at vi har 490
5325 (61%) fysiske unix-tjener (mest linux men også noen solaris) og 196
5326 (25%) windowstjenere, samt 112 (14%) virtuelle unix-tjenere.  Med den
5327 bakgrunnskunnskapen kan jeg godt tro at IDG er inne på noe.</p>
5328
5329       </div>
5330       <div class="tags">
5331
5332
5333         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>.
5334
5335
5336       </div>
5337     </div>
5338     <div class="padding"></div>
5339
5340     <div class="entry">
5341       <div class="title">
5342         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Kryptert_harddisk___naturligvis.html">Kryptert harddisk - naturligvis</a>
5343       </div>
5344       <div class="date">
5345          2nd May 2009
5346       </div>
5347       <div class="body">
5348         <p><a href="http://www.dagensit.no/trender/article1658676.ece">Dagens
5349 IT melder</a> at Intel hevder at det er dyrt å miste en datamaskin,
5350 når en tar tap av arbeidstid, fortrolige dokumenter,
5351 personopplysninger og alt annet det innebærer.  Det er ingen tvil om
5352 at det er en kostbar affære å miste sin datamaskin, og det er årsaken
5353 til at jeg har kryptert harddisken på både kontormaskinen og min
5354 bærbare.  Begge inneholder personopplysninger jeg ikke ønsker skal
5355 komme på avveie, den første informasjon relatert til jobben min ved
5356 Universitetet i Oslo, og den andre relatert til blant annet
5357 foreningsarbeide.  Kryptering av diskene gjør at det er lite
5358 sannsynlig at dophoder som kan finne på å rappe maskinene får noe ut
5359 av dem.  Maskinene låses automatisk etter noen minutter uten bruk,
5360 og en reboot vil gjøre at de ber om passord før de vil starte opp.
5361 Jeg bruker Debian på begge maskinene, og installasjonssystemet der
5362 gjør det trivielt å sette opp krypterte disker.  Jeg har LVM på toppen
5363 av krypterte partisjoner, slik at alt av datapartisjoner er kryptert.
5364 Jeg anbefaler alle å kryptere diskene på sine bærbare.  Kostnaden når
5365 det er gjort slik jeg gjør det er minimale, og gevinstene er
5366 betydelige.  En bør dog passe på passordet.  Hvis det går tapt, må
5367 maskinen reinstalleres og alt er tapt.</p>
5368
5369 <p>Krypteringen vil ikke stoppe kompetente angripere som f.eks. kjøler
5370 ned minnebrikkene før maskinen rebootes med programvare for å hente ut
5371 krypteringsnøklene.  Kostnaden med å forsvare seg mot slike angripere
5372 er for min del høyere enn gevinsten.  Jeg tror oddsene for at
5373 f.eks. etteretningsorganisasjoner har glede av å titte på mine
5374 maskiner er minimale, og ulempene jeg ville oppnå ved å forsøke å
5375 gjøre det vanskeligere for angripere med kompetanse og ressurser er
5376 betydelige.</p>
5377
5378       </div>
5379       <div class="tags">
5380
5381
5382         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>.
5383
5384
5385       </div>
5386     </div>
5387     <div class="padding"></div>
5388
5389     <div class="entry">
5390       <div class="title">
5391         <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>
5392       </div>
5393       <div class="date">
5394          2nd May 2009
5395       </div>
5396       <div class="body">
5397         <p>There are two software projects that have had huge influence on the
5398 quality of free software, and I wanted to mention both in case someone
5399 do not yet know them.</p>
5400
5401 <p>The first one is <a href="http://valgrind.org/">valgrind</a>, a
5402 tool to detect and expose errors in the memory handling of programs.
5403 It is easy to use, all one need to do is to run 'valgrind program',
5404 and it will report any problems on stdout.  It is even better if the
5405 program include debug information.  With debug information, it is able
5406 to report the source file name and line number where the problem
5407 occurs.  It can report things like 'reading past memory block in file
5408 X line N, the memory block was allocated in file Y, line M', and
5409 'using uninitialised value in control logic'.  This tool has made it
5410 trivial to investigate reproducible crash bugs in programs, and have
5411 reduced the number of this kind of bugs in free software a lot.
5412
5413 <p>The second one is
5414 <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coverity">Coverity</a> which is
5415 a source code checker.  It is able to process the source of a program
5416 and find problems in the logic without running the program.  It
5417 started out as the Stanford Checker and became well known when it was
5418 used to find bugs in the Linux kernel.  It is now a commercial tool
5419 and the company behind it is running
5420 <a href="http://www.scan.coverity.com/">a community service</a> for the
5421 free software community, where a lot of free software projects get
5422 their source checked for free.  Several thousand defects have been
5423 found and fixed so far.  It can find errors like 'lock L taken in file
5424 X line N is never released if exiting in line M', or 'the code in file
5425 Y lines O to P can never be executed'.  The projects included in the
5426 community service project have managed to get rid of a lot of
5427 reliability problems thanks to Coverity.</p>
5428
5429 <p>I believe tools like this, that are able to automatically find
5430 errors in the source, are vital to improve the quality of software and
5431 make sure we can get rid of the crashing and failing software we are
5432 surrounded by today.</p>
5433
5434       </div>
5435       <div class="tags">
5436
5437
5438         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>.
5439
5440
5441       </div>
5442     </div>
5443     <div class="padding"></div>
5444
5445     <div class="entry">
5446       <div class="title">
5447         <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>
5448       </div>
5449       <div class="date">
5450         28th April 2009
5451       </div>
5452       <div class="body">
5453         <p>Julien Blache
5454 <a href="http://blog.technologeek.org/2009/04/12/214">claim that no
5455 patch is better than a useless patch</a>.  I completely disagree, as a
5456 patch allow one to discuss a concrete and proposed solution, and also
5457 prove that the issue at hand is important enough for someone to spent
5458 time on fixing it.  No patch do not provide any of these positive
5459 properties.</p>
5460
5461       </div>
5462       <div class="tags">
5463
5464
5465         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>.
5466
5467
5468       </div>
5469     </div>
5470     <div class="padding"></div>
5471
5472     <div class="entry">
5473       <div class="title">
5474         <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>
5475       </div>
5476       <div class="date">
5477         30th March 2009
5478       </div>
5479       <div class="body">
5480         <p>Where I work at the University of Oslo, one decision stand out as a
5481 very good one to form a long lived computer infrastructure.  It is the
5482 simple one, lost by many in todays computer industry: Standardize on
5483 open network protocols and open exchange/storage formats, not applications.
5484 Applications come and go, while protocols and files tend to stay, and
5485 thus one want to make it easy to change application and vendor, while
5486 avoiding conversion costs and locking users to a specific platform or
5487 application.</p>
5488
5489 <p>This approach make it possible to replace the client applications
5490 independently of the server applications.  One can even allow users to
5491 use several different applications as long as they handle the selected
5492 protocol and format.  In the normal case, only one client application
5493 is recommended and users only get help if they choose to use this
5494 application, but those that want to deviate from the easy path are not
5495 blocked from doing so.</p>
5496
5497 <p>It also allow us to replace the server side without forcing the
5498 users to replace their applications, and thus allow us to select the
5499 best server implementation at any moment, when scale and resouce
5500 requirements change.</p>
5501
5502 <p>I strongly recommend standardizing - on open network protocols and
5503 open formats, but I would never recommend standardizing on a single
5504 application that do not use open network protocol or open formats.</p>
5505
5506       </div>
5507       <div class="tags">
5508
5509
5510         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>.
5511
5512
5513       </div>
5514     </div>
5515     <div class="padding"></div>
5516
5517     <div class="entry">
5518       <div class="title">
5519         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Returning_from_Skolelinux_developer_gathering.html">Returning from Skolelinux developer gathering</a>
5520       </div>
5521       <div class="date">
5522         29th March 2009
5523       </div>
5524       <div class="body">
5525         <p>I'm sitting on the train going home from this weekends Debian
5526 Edu/Skolelinux development gathering.  I got a bit done tuning the
5527 desktop, and looked into the dynamic service location protocol
5528 implementation avahi.  It look like it could be useful for us.  Almost
5529 30 people participated, and I believe it was a great environment to
5530 get to know the Skolelinux system.  Walter Bender, involved in the
5531 development of the Sugar educational platform, presented his stuff and
5532 also helped me improve my OLPC installation.  He also showed me that
5533 his Turtle Art application can be used in standalone mode, and we
5534 agreed that I would help getting it packaged for Debian.  As a
5535 standalone application it would be great for Debian Edu.  We also
5536 tried to get the video conferencing working with two OLPCs, but that
5537 proved to be too hard for us.  The application seem to need more work
5538 before it is ready for me.  I look forward to getting home and relax
5539 now. :)</p>
5540
5541       </div>
5542       <div class="tags">
5543
5544
5545         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>.
5546
5547
5548       </div>
5549     </div>
5550     <div class="padding"></div>
5551
5552     <div class="entry">
5553       <div class="title">
5554         <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>
5555       </div>
5556       <div class="date">
5557         29th March 2009
5558       </div>
5559       <div class="body">
5560         <p>The state of standardized LDAP schemas on Linux is far from
5561 optimal.  There is RFC 2307 documenting one way to store NIS maps in
5562 LDAP, and a modified version of this normally called RFC 2307bis, with
5563 some modifications to be compatible with Active Directory.  The RFC
5564 specification handle the content of a lot of system databases, but do
5565 not handle DNS zones and DHCP configuration.</p>
5566
5567 <p>In <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu/Skolelinux</a>,
5568 we would like to store information about users, SMB clients/hosts,
5569 filegroups, netgroups (users and hosts), DHCP and DNS configuration,
5570 and LTSP configuration in LDAP.  These objects have a lot in common,
5571 but with the current LDAP schemas it is not possible to have one
5572 object per entity.  For example, one need to have at least three LDAP
5573 objects for a given computer, one with the SMB related stuff, one with
5574 DNS information and another with DHCP information.  The schemas
5575 provided for DNS and DHCP are impossible to combine into one LDAP
5576 object.  In addition, it is impossible to implement quick queries for
5577 netgroup membership, because of the way NIS triples are implemented.
5578 It just do not scale.  I believe it is time for a few RFC
5579 specifications to cleam up this mess.</p>
5580
5581 <p>I would like to have one LDAP object representing each computer in
5582 the network, and this object can then keep the SMB (ie host key), DHCP
5583 (mac address/name) and DNS (name/IP address) settings in one place.
5584 It need to be efficently stored to make sure it scale well.</p>
5585
5586 <p>I would also like to have a quick way to map from a user or
5587 computer and to the net group this user or computer is a member.</p>
5588
5589 <p>Active Directory have done a better job than unix heads like myself
5590 in this regard, and the unix side need to catch up.  Time to start a
5591 new IETF work group?</p>
5592
5593       </div>
5594       <div class="tags">
5595
5596
5597         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>.
5598
5599
5600       </div>
5601     </div>
5602     <div class="padding"></div>
5603
5604     <div class="entry">
5605       <div class="title">
5606         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Endelig_er_Debian_Lenny_gitt_ut.html">Endelig er Debian Lenny gitt ut</a>
5607       </div>
5608       <div class="date">
5609         15th February 2009
5610       </div>
5611       <div class="body">
5612         <p>Endelig er <a href="http://www.debian.org/">Debian</a>
5613 <a href="http://www.debian.org/News/2009/20090214">Lenny</a> gitt ut.
5614 Et langt steg videre for Debian-prosjektet, og en rekke nye
5615 programpakker blir nå tilgjengelig for de av oss som bruker den
5616 stabile utgaven av Debian.  Neste steg er nå å få
5617 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Skolelinux</a> /
5618 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/">Debian Edu</a> ferdig
5619 oppdatert for den nye utgaven, slik at en oppdatert versjon kan
5620 slippes løs på skolene.  Takk til alle debian-utviklerne som har
5621 gjort dette mulig.  Endelig er f.eks. fungerende avhengighetsstyrt
5622 bootsekvens tilgjengelig i stabil utgave, vha pakken
5623 <tt>insserv</tt>.</p>
5624
5625       </div>
5626       <div class="tags">
5627
5628
5629         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>.
5630
5631
5632       </div>
5633     </div>
5634     <div class="padding"></div>
5635
5636     <div class="entry">
5637       <div class="title">
5638         <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>
5639       </div>
5640       <div class="date">
5641          7th December 2008
5642       </div>
5643       <div class="body">
5644         <p>This weekend we had a small developer gathering for Debian Edu in
5645 Oslo.  Most of Saturday was used for the general assemly for the
5646 member organization, but the rest of the weekend I used to tune the
5647 LTSP installation.  LTSP now work out of the box on the 10-network.
5648 Acer Aspire One proved to be a very nice thin client, with both
5649 screen, mouse and keybard in a small box.  Was working on getting the
5650 diskless workstation setup configured out of the box, but did not
5651 finish it before the weekend was up.</p>
5652
5653 <p>Did not find time to look at the 4 VGA cards in one box we got from
5654 the Brazilian group, so that will have to wait for the next
5655 development gathering.  Would love to have the Debian Edu installer
5656 automatically detect and configure a multiseat setup when it find one
5657 of these cards.</p>
5658
5659       </div>
5660       <div class="tags">
5661
5662
5663         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>.
5664
5665
5666       </div>
5667     </div>
5668     <div class="padding"></div>
5669
5670     <div class="entry">
5671       <div class="title">
5672         <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>
5673       </div>
5674       <div class="date">
5675         25th November 2008
5676       </div>
5677       <div class="body">
5678         <p>Recently I have spent some time evaluating the multimedia browser
5679 plugins available in Debian Lenny, to see which one we should use by
5680 default in Debian Edu.  We need an embedded video playing plugin with
5681 control buttons to pause or stop the video, and capable of streaming
5682 all the multimedia content available on the web.  The test results and
5683 notes are available on
5684 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/BrowserMultimedia">the
5685 Debian wiki</a>.  I was surprised how few of the plugins are able to
5686 fill this need.  My personal video player favorite, VLC, has a really
5687 bad plugin which fail on a lot of the test pages.  A lot of the MIME
5688 types I would expect to work with any free software player (like
5689 video/ogg), just do not work.  And simple formats like the
5690 audio/x-mplegurl format (m3u playlists), just isn't supported by the
5691 totem and vlc plugins.  I hope the situation will improve soon.  No
5692 wonder sites use the proprietary Adobe flash to play video.</p>
5693
5694 <p>For Lenny, we seem to end up with the mplayer plugin.  It seem to
5695 be the only one fitting our needs. :/</p>
5696
5697       </div>
5698       <div class="tags">
5699
5700
5701         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>.
5702
5703
5704       </div>
5705     </div>
5706     <div class="padding"></div>
5707
5708     <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>
5709     <div id="sidebar">
5710
5711
5712
5713 <h2>Archive</h2>
5714 <ul>
5715
5716 <li>2013
5717 <ul>
5718
5719 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/01/">January (11)</a></li>
5720
5721 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/02/">February (9)</a></li>
5722
5723 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/03/">March (9)</a></li>
5724
5725 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/04/">April (6)</a></li>
5726
5727 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/05/">May (5)</a></li>
5728
5729 </ul></li>
5730
5731 <li>2012
5732 <ul>
5733
5734 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/01/">January (7)</a></li>
5735
5736 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/02/">February (10)</a></li>
5737
5738 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/03/">March (17)</a></li>
5739
5740 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/04/">April (12)</a></li>
5741
5742 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/05/">May (12)</a></li>
5743
5744 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/06/">June (20)</a></li>
5745
5746 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/07/">July (17)</a></li>
5747
5748 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/08/">August (6)</a></li>
5749
5750 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/09/">September (9)</a></li>
5751
5752 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/10/">October (17)</a></li>
5753
5754 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/11/">November (10)</a></li>
5755
5756 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/12/">December (7)</a></li>
5757
5758 </ul></li>
5759
5760 <li>2011
5761 <ul>
5762
5763 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/01/">January (16)</a></li>
5764
5765 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/02/">February (6)</a></li>
5766
5767 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/03/">March (6)</a></li>
5768
5769 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/04/">April (7)</a></li>
5770
5771 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/05/">May (3)</a></li>
5772
5773 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/06/">June (2)</a></li>
5774
5775 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/07/">July (7)</a></li>
5776
5777 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/08/">August (6)</a></li>
5778
5779 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/09/">September (4)</a></li>
5780
5781 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/10/">October (2)</a></li>
5782
5783 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/11/">November (3)</a></li>
5784
5785 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/12/">December (1)</a></li>
5786
5787 </ul></li>
5788
5789 <li>2010
5790 <ul>
5791
5792 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/01/">January (2)</a></li>
5793
5794 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/02/">February (1)</a></li>
5795
5796 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/03/">March (3)</a></li>
5797
5798 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/04/">April (3)</a></li>
5799
5800 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/05/">May (9)</a></li>
5801
5802 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/06/">June (14)</a></li>
5803
5804 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/07/">July (12)</a></li>
5805
5806 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/08/">August (13)</a></li>
5807
5808 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/09/">September (7)</a></li>
5809
5810 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/10/">October (9)</a></li>
5811
5812 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/11/">November (13)</a></li>
5813
5814 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/12/">December (12)</a></li>
5815
5816 </ul></li>
5817
5818 <li>2009
5819 <ul>
5820
5821 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/01/">January (8)</a></li>
5822
5823 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/02/">February (8)</a></li>
5824
5825 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/03/">March (12)</a></li>
5826
5827 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/04/">April (10)</a></li>
5828
5829 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/05/">May (9)</a></li>
5830
5831 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/06/">June (3)</a></li>
5832
5833 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/07/">July (4)</a></li>
5834
5835 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/08/">August (3)</a></li>
5836
5837 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/09/">September (1)</a></li>
5838
5839 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/10/">October (2)</a></li>
5840
5841 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/11/">November (3)</a></li>
5842
5843 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/12/">December (3)</a></li>
5844
5845 </ul></li>
5846
5847 <li>2008
5848 <ul>
5849
5850 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2008/11/">November (5)</a></li>
5851
5852 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2008/12/">December (7)</a></li>
5853
5854 </ul></li>
5855
5856 </ul>
5857
5858
5859
5860 <h2>Tags</h2>
5861 <ul>
5862
5863  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/3d-printer">3d-printer (13)</a></li>
5864
5865  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/amiga">amiga (1)</a></li>
5866
5867  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/aros">aros (1)</a></li>
5868
5869  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bankid">bankid (4)</a></li>
5870
5871  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bitcoin">bitcoin (7)</a></li>
5872
5873  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bootsystem">bootsystem (12)</a></li>
5874
5875  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bsa">bsa (2)</a></li>
5876
5877  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian (73)</a></li>
5878
5879  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu (126)</a></li>
5880
5881  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/digistan">digistan (10)</a></li>
5882
5883  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/docbook">docbook (9)</a></li>
5884
5885  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/drivstoffpriser">drivstoffpriser (4)</a></li>
5886
5887  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english (191)</a></li>
5888
5889  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/fiksgatami">fiksgatami (21)</a></li>
5890
5891  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/fildeling">fildeling (12)</a></li>
5892
5893  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freeculture">freeculture (11)</a></li>
5894
5895  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/frikanalen">frikanalen (11)</a></li>
5896
5897  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/intervju">intervju (33)</a></li>
5898
5899  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram">isenkram (6)</a></li>
5900
5901  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/kart">kart (18)</a></li>
5902
5903  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ldap">ldap (8)</a></li>
5904
5905  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/lenker">lenker (6)</a></li>
5906
5907  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ltsp">ltsp (1)</a></li>
5908
5909  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/multimedia">multimedia (25)</a></li>
5910
5911  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/norsk">norsk (232)</a></li>
5912
5913  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug (152)</a></li>
5914
5915  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/offentlig innsyn">offentlig innsyn (8)</a></li>
5916
5917  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/open311">open311 (2)</a></li>
5918
5919  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/opphavsrett">opphavsrett (44)</a></li>
5920
5921  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/personvern">personvern (65)</a></li>
5922
5923  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/raid">raid (1)</a></li>
5924
5925  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/reprap">reprap (11)</a></li>
5926
5927  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/rfid">rfid (2)</a></li>
5928
5929  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/robot">robot (7)</a></li>
5930
5931  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/rss">rss (1)</a></li>
5932
5933  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ruter">ruter (4)</a></li>
5934
5935  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/scraperwiki">scraperwiki (2)</a></li>
5936
5937  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet (29)</a></li>
5938
5939  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sitesummary">sitesummary (4)</a></li>
5940
5941  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/skepsis">skepsis (4)</a></li>
5942
5943  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/standard">standard (42)</a></li>
5944
5945  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/stavekontroll">stavekontroll (3)</a></li>
5946
5947  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/stortinget">stortinget (7)</a></li>
5948
5949  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance (15)</a></li>
5950
5951  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sysadmin">sysadmin (1)</a></li>
5952
5953  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/valg">valg (7)</a></li>
5954
5955  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/video">video (38)</a></li>
5956
5957  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/vitenskap">vitenskap (4)</a></li>
5958
5959  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/web">web (26)</a></li>
5960
5961 </ul>
5962
5963
5964     </div>
5965     <p style="text-align: right">
5966  Created by <a href="http://steve.org.uk/Software/chronicle">Chronicle v4.6</a>
5967 </p>
5968
5969   </body>
5970 </html>