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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/OpenALPR__find_car_license_plates_in_video_streams___nice_free_software.html">OpenALPR, find car license plates in video streams - nice free software</a>
  26       </div>
  27       <div class="date">
  28         23rd December 2015
  29       </div>
  30       <div class="body">
  31         <p>When I was a kid, we used to collect "car numbers", as we used to
  32 call the car license plate numbers in those days.  I would write the
  33 numbers down in my little book and compare notes with the other kids
  34 to see how many region codes we had seen and if we had seen some
  35 exotic or special region codes and numbers.  It was a fun game to pass
  36 time, as we kids have plenty of it.</p>
  37
  38 <p>A few days I came across
  39 <a href="https://github.com/openalpr/openalpr">the OpenALPR
  40 project</a>, a free software project to automatically discover and
  41 report license plates in images and video streams, and provide the
  42 "car numbers" in a machine readable format.  I've been looking for
  43 such system for a while now, because I believe it is a bad idea that the
  44 <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automatic_number_plate_recognition">automatic
  45 number plate recognition</a> tool only is available in the hands of
  46 the powerful, and want it to be available also for the powerless to
  47 even the score when it comes to surveillance and sousveillance.  I
  48 discovered the developer
  49 <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/747509">wanted to get the tool into
  50 Debian</a>, and as I too wanted it to be in Debian, I volunteered to
  51 help him get it into shape to get the package uploaded into the Debian
  52 archive.</p>
  53
  54 <p>Today we finally managed to get the package into shape and uploaded
  55 it into Debian, where it currently
  56 <a href="https://ftp-master.debian.org//new/openalpr_2.2.1-1.html">waits
  57 in the NEW queue</a> for review by the Debian ftpmasters.</p>
  58
  59 <p>I guess you are wondering why on earth such tool would be useful
  60 for the common folks, ie those not running a large government
  61 surveillance system?  Well, I plan to put it in a computer on my bike
  62 and in my car, tracking the cars nearby and allowing me to be notified
  63 when number plates on my watch list are discovered.  Another use case
  64 was suggested by a friend of mine, who wanted to set it up at his home
  65 to open the car port automatically when it discovered the plate on his
  66 car.  When I mentioned it perhaps was a bit foolhardy to allow anyone
  67 capable of placing his license plate number of a piece of cardboard to
  68 open his car port, men replied that it was always unlocked anyway.  I
  69 guess for such use case it make sense.  I am sure there are other use
  70 cases too, for those with imagination and a vision.</p>
  71
  72 <p>If you want to build your own version of the Debian package, check
  73 out the upstream git source and symlink ./distros/debian to ./debian/
  74 before running "debuild" to build the source.  Or wait a bit until the
  75 package show up in unstable.</p>
  76
  77       </div>
  78       <div class="tags">
  79
  80
  81         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nice free software">nice free software</a>.
  82
  83
  84       </div>
  85     </div>
  86     <div class="padding"></div>
  87
  88     <div class="entry">
  89       <div class="title">
  90         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Using_appstream_with_isenkram_to_install_hardware_related_packages_in_Debian.html">Using appstream with isenkram to install hardware related packages in Debian</a>
  91       </div>
  92       <div class="date">
  93         20th December 2015
  94       </div>
  95       <div class="body">
  96         <p>Around three years ago, I created
  97 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/isenkram">the isenkram
  98 system</a> to get a more practical solution in Debian for handing
  99 hardware related packages.  A GUI system in the isenkram package will
 100 present a pop-up dialog when some hardware dongle supported by
 101 relevant packages in Debian is inserted into the machine.  The same
 102 lookup mechanism to detect packages is available as command line
 103 tools in the isenkram-cli package.  In addition to mapping hardware,
 104 it will also map kernel firmware files to packages and make it easy to
 105 install needed firmware packages automatically.  The key for this
 106 system to work is a good way to map hardware to packages, in other
 107 words, allow packages to announce what hardware they will work
 108 with.</p>
 109
 110 <p>I started by providing data files in the isenkram source, and
 111 adding code to download the latest version of these data files at run
 112 time, to ensure every user had the most up to date mapping available.
 113 I also added support for storing the mapping in the Packages file in
 114 the apt repositories, but did not push this approach because while I
 115 was trying to figure out how to best store hardware/package mappings,
 116 <a href="http://www.freedesktop.org/software/appstream/docs/">the
 117 appstream system</a> was announced.  I got in touch and suggested to
 118 add the hardware mapping into that data set to be able to use
 119 appstream as a data source, and this was accepted at least for the
 120 Debian version of appstream.</p>
 121
 122 <p>A few days ago using appstream in Debian for this became possible,
 123 and today I uploaded a new version 0.20 of isenkram adding support for
 124 appstream as a data source for mapping hardware to packages.  The only
 125 package so far using appstream to announce its hardware support is my
 126 pymissile package.  I got help from Matthias Klumpp with figuring out
 127 how do add the required
 128 <a href="https://appstream.debian.org/html/sid/main/metainfo/pymissile.html">metadata
 129 in pymissile</a>.  I added a file debian/pymissile.metainfo.xml with
 130 this content:</p>
 131
 132 <blockquote><pre>
 133 &lt;?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?&gt;
 134 &lt;component&gt;
 135   &lt;id&gt;pymissile&lt;/id&gt;
 136   &lt;metadata_license&gt;MIT&lt;/metadata_license&gt;
 137   &lt;name&gt;pymissile&lt;/name&gt;
 138   &lt;summary&gt;Control original Striker USB Missile Launcher&lt;/summary&gt;
 139   &lt;description&gt;
 140     &lt;p&gt;
 141       Pymissile provides a curses interface to control an original
 142       Marks and Spencer / Striker USB Missile Launcher, as well as a
 143       motion control script to allow a webcamera to control the
 144       launcher.
 145     &lt;/p&gt;
 146   &lt;/description&gt;
 147   &lt;provides&gt;
 148     &lt;modalias&gt;usb:v1130p0202d*&lt;/modalias&gt;
 149   &lt;/provides&gt;
 150 &lt;/component&gt;
 151 </pre></blockquote>
 152
 153 <p>The key for isenkram is the component/provides/modalias value,
 154 which is a glob style match rule for hardware specific strings
 155 (modalias strings) provided by the Linux kernel.  In this case, it
 156 will map to all USB devices with vendor code 1130 and product code
 157 0202.</p>
 158
 159 <p>Note, it is important that the license of all the metadata files
 160 are compatible to have permissions to aggregate them into archive wide
 161 appstream files.  Matthias suggested to use MIT or BSD licenses for
 162 these files.  A challenge is figuring out a good id for the data, as
 163 it is supposed to be globally unique and shared across distributions
 164 (in other words, best to coordinate with upstream what to use).  But
 165 it can be changed later or, so we went with the package name as
 166 upstream for this project is dormant.</p>
 167
 168 <p>To get the metadata file installed in the correct location for the
 169 mirror update scripts to pick it up and include its content the
 170 appstream data source, the file must be installed in the binary
 171 package under /usr/share/appdata/.  I did this by adding the following
 172 line to debian/pymissile.install:</p>
 173
 174 <blockquote><pre>
 175 debian/pymissile.metainfo.xml usr/share/appdata
 176 </pre></blockquote>
 177
 178 <p>With that in place, the command line tool isenkram-lookup will list
 179 all packages useful on the current computer automatically, and the GUI
 180 pop-up handler will propose to install the package not already
 181 installed if a hardware dongle is inserted into the machine in
 182 question.</p>
 183
 184 <p>Details of the modalias field in appstream is available from the
 185 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DEP-11">DEP-11</a> proposal.</p>
 186
 187 <p>To locate the modalias values of all hardware present in a machine,
 188 try running this command on the command line:</p>
 189
 190 <blockquote><pre>
 191 cat $(find /sys/devices/|grep modalias)
 192 </pre></blockquote>
 193
 194 <p>To learn more about the isenkram system, please check out
 195 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram/">my
 196 blog posts tagged isenkram</a>.</p>
 197
 198       </div>
 199       <div class="tags">
 200
 201
 202         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>.
 203
 204
 205       </div>
 206     </div>
 207     <div class="padding"></div>
 208
 209     <div class="entry">
 210       <div class="title">
 211         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_GNU_General_Public_License_is_not_magic_pixie_dust.html">The GNU General Public License is not magic pixie dust</a>
 212       </div>
 213       <div class="date">
 214         30th November 2015
 215       </div>
 216       <div class="body">
 217         <p>A blog post from my fellow Debian developer Paul Wise titled
 218 "<a href="http://bonedaddy.net/pabs3/log/2015/11/27/sfc-supporter/">The
 219 GPL is not magic pixie dust</a>" explain the importance of making sure
 220 the <a href="http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html">GPL</a> is enforced.
 221 I quote the blog post from Paul in full here with his permission:<p>
 222
 223 <blockquote>
 224
 225 <p><a href="https://sfconservancy.org/supporter/"><img src="https://sfconservancy.org/img/supporter-badge.png" width="194" height="90" alt="Become a Software Freedom Conservancy Supporter!" align="right" border="0" /></a></p>
 226
 227 <blockquote>
 228 The GPL is not magic pixie dust. It does not work by itself.<br/>
 229
 230 The first step is to choose a
 231 <a href="https://copyleft.org/">copyleft</a> license for your
 232 code.<br/>
 233
 234 The next step is, when someone fails to follow that copyleft license,
 235 <b>it must be enforced</b><br/>
 236
 237 and its a simple fact of our modern society that such type of
 238 work<br/>
 239
 240 is incredibly expensive to do and incredibly difficult to do.
 241 </blockquote>
 242
 243 <p><small>-- <a href="http://ebb.org/bkuhn/">Bradley Kuhn</a>, in
 244 <a href="http://faif.us/" title="Free as in Freedom">FaiF</a>
 245 <a href="http://faif.us/cast/2015/nov/24/0x57/">episode
 246 0x57</a></small></p>
 247
 248 <p>As the Debian Website
 249 <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/794116">used</a>
 250 <a href="https://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/webwml/webwml/english/intro/free.wml?r1=1.24&amp;r2=1.25">to</a>
 251 imply, public domain and permissively licensed software can lead to
 252 the production of more proprietary software as people discover useful
 253 software, extend it and or incorporate it into their hardware or
 254 software products.  Copyleft licenses such as the GNU GPL were created
 255 to close off this avenue to the production of proprietary software but
 256 such licenses are not enough.  With the ongoing adoption of Free
 257 Software by individuals and groups, inevitably the community's
 258 expectations of license compliance are violated, usually out of
 259 ignorance of the way Free Software works, but not always.  As Karen
 260 and Bradley explained in <a href="http://faif.us/" title="Free as in
 261 Freedom">FaiF</a>
 262 <a href="http://faif.us/cast/2015/nov/24/0x57/">episode 0x57</a>,
 263 copyleft is nothing if no-one is willing and able to stand up in court
 264 to protect it.  The reality of today's world is that legal
 265 representation is expensive, difficult and time consuming.  With
 266 <a href="http://gpl-violations.org/">gpl-violations.org</a> in hiatus
 267 <a href="http://gpl-violations.org/news/20151027-homepage-recovers/">until</a>
 268 some time in 2016, the <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/">Software
 269 Freedom Conservancy</a> (a tax-exempt charity) is the major defender
 270 of the Linux project, Debian and other groups against GPL violations.
 271 In March the SFC supported a
 272 <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/news/2015/mar/05/vmware-lawsuit/">lawsuit
 273 by Christoph Hellwig</a> against VMware for refusing to
 274 <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/linux-compliance/vmware-lawsuit-faq.html">comply
 275 with the GPL</a> in relation to their use of parts of the Linux
 276 kernel.  Since then two of their sponsors pulled corporate funding and
 277 conferences
 278 <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/blog/2015/nov/24/faif-carols-fundraiser/">blocked
 279 or cancelled their talks</a>.  As a result they have decided to rely
 280 less on corporate funding and more on the broad community of
 281 individuals who support Free Software and copyleft.  So the SFC has
 282 <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/news/2015/nov/23/2015fundraiser/">launched</a>
 283 a <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/supporter/">campaign</a> to create
 284 a community of folks who stand up for copyleft and the GPL by
 285 supporting their work on promoting and supporting copyleft and Free
 286 Software.</p>
 287
 288 <p>If you support Free Software,
 289 <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/blog/2015/nov/26/like-what-I-do/">like</a>
 290 what the SFC do, agree with their
 291 <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/linux-compliance/principles.html">compliance
 292 principles</a>, are happy about their
 293 <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/supporter/">successes</a> in 2015,
 294 work on a project that is an SFC
 295 <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/members/current/">member</a> and or
 296 just want to stand up for copyleft, please join
 297 <a href="https://identi.ca/cwebber/image/JQGPA4qbTyyp3-MY8QpvuA">Christopher
 298 Allan Webber</a>,
 299 <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/blog/2015/nov/24/faif-carols-fundraiser/">Carol
 300 Smith</a>,
 301 <a href="http://www.jonobacon.org/2015/11/25/supporting-software-freedom-conservancy/">Jono
 302 Bacon</a>, myself and
 303 <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/sponsors/#supporters">others</a> in
 304 becoming a
 305 <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/supporter/">supporter</a>.  For the
 306 next week your donation will be
 307 <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/news/2015/nov/27/black-friday/">matched</a>
 308 by an anonymous donor.  Please also consider asking your employer to
 309 match your donation or become a sponsor of SFC.  Don't forget to
 310 spread the word about your support for SFC via email, your blog and or
 311 social media accounts.</p>
 312
 313 </blockquote>
 314
 315 <p>I agree with Paul on this topic and just signed up as a Supporter
 316 of Software Freedom Conservancy myself.  Perhaps you should be a
 317 supporter too?</p>
 318
 319       </div>
 320       <div class="tags">
 321
 322
 323         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/opphavsrett">opphavsrett</a>.
 324
 325
 326       </div>
 327     </div>
 328     <div class="padding"></div>
 329
 330     <div class="entry">
 331       <div class="title">
 332         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/PGP_key_transition_statement_for_key_EE4E02F9.html">PGP key transition statement for key EE4E02F9</a>
 333       </div>
 334       <div class="date">
 335         17th November 2015
 336       </div>
 337       <div class="body">
 338         <p>I've needed a new OpenPGP key for a while, but have not had time to
 339 set it up properly.  I wanted to generate it offline and have it
 340 available on <a href="http://shop.kernelconcepts.de/#openpgp">a OpenPGP
 341 smart card</a> for daily use, and learning how to do it and finding
 342 time to sit down with an offline machine almost took forever.  But
 343 finally I've been able to complete the process, and have now moved
 344 from my old GPG key to a new GPG key.  See
 345 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2015-11-17-new-gpg-key-transition.txt">the
 346 full transition statement, signed with both my old and new key</a> for
 347 the details.  This is my new key:</p>
 348
 349 <pre>
 350 pub   3936R/<a href="http://pgp.cs.uu.nl/stats/111D6B29EE4E02F9.html">111D6B29EE4E02F9</a> 2015-11-03 [expires: 2019-11-14]
 351       Key fingerprint = 3AC7 B2E3 ACA5 DF87 78F1  D827 111D 6B29 EE4E 02F9
 352 uid                  Petter Reinholdtsen &lt;pere@hungry.com&gt;
 353 uid                  Petter Reinholdtsen &lt;pere@debian.org&gt;
 354 sub   4096R/87BAFB0E 2015-11-03 [expires: 2019-11-02]
 355 sub   4096R/F91E6DE9 2015-11-03 [expires: 2019-11-02]
 356 sub   4096R/A0439BAB 2015-11-03 [expires: 2019-11-02]
 357 </pre>
 358
 359 <p>The key can be downloaded from the OpenPGP key servers, signed by
 360 my old key.</p>
 361
 362 <p>If you signed my old key
 363 (<a href="http://pgp.cs.uu.nl/stats/DB4CCC4B2A30D729.html">DB4CCC4B2A30D729</a>),
 364 I'd very much appreciate a signature on my new key, details and
 365 instructions in the transition statement. I m happy to reciprocate if
 366 you have a similarly signed transition statement to present.</p>
 367
 368       </div>
 369       <div class="tags">
 370
 371
 372         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>.
 373
 374
 375       </div>
 376     </div>
 377     <div class="padding"></div>
 378
 379     <div class="entry">
 380       <div class="title">
 381         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_life_and_death_of_a_laptop_battery.html">The life and death of a laptop battery</a>
 382       </div>
 383       <div class="date">
 384         24th September 2015
 385       </div>
 386       <div class="body">
 387         <p>When I get a new laptop, the battery life time at the start is OK.
 388 But this do not last.  The last few laptops gave me a feeling that
 389 within a year, the life time is just a fraction of what it used to be,
 390 and it slowly become painful to use the laptop without power connected
 391 all the time.  Because of this, when I got a new Thinkpad X230 laptop
 392 about two years ago, I decided to monitor its battery state to have
 393 more hard facts when the battery started to fail.</p>
 394
 395 <img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2015-09-24-laptop-battery-graph.png"/>
 396
 397 <p>First I tried to find a sensible Debian package to record the
 398 battery status, assuming that this must be a problem already handled
 399 by someone else.  I found
 400 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/battery-stats">battery-stats</a>,
 401 which collects statistics from the battery, but it was completely
 402 broken.  I sent a few suggestions to the maintainer, but decided to
 403 write my own collector as a shell script while I waited for feedback
 404 from him.  Via
 405 <a href="http://www.ifweassume.com/2013/08/the-de-evolution-of-my-laptop-battery.html">a
 406 blog post about the battery development on a MacBook Air</a> I also
 407 discovered
 408 <a href="https://github.com/jradavenport/batlog.git">batlog</a>, not
 409 available in Debian.</p>
 410
 411 <p>I started my collector 2013-07-15, and it has been collecting
 412 battery stats ever since. Now my
 413 /var/log/hjemmenett-battery-status.log file contain around 115,000
 414 measurements, from the time the battery was working great until now,
 415 when it is unable to charge above 7% of original capacity.  My
 416 collector shell script is quite simple and look like this:</p>
 417
 418 <pre>
 419 #!/bin/sh
 420 # Inspired by
 421 # http://www.ifweassume.com/2013/08/the-de-evolution-of-my-laptop-battery.html
 422 # See also
 423 # http://blog.sleeplessbeastie.eu/2013/01/02/debian-how-to-monitor-battery-capacity/
 424 logfile=/var/log/hjemmenett-battery-status.log
 425
 426 files="manufacturer model_name technology serial_number \
 427     energy_full energy_full_design energy_now cycle_count status"
 428
 429 if [ ! -e "$logfile" ] ; then
 430     (
 431         printf "timestamp,"
 432         for f in $files; do
 433             printf "%s," $f
 434         done
 435         echo
 436     ) > "$logfile"
 437 fi
 438
 439 log_battery() {
 440     # Print complete message in one echo call, to avoid race condition
 441     # when several log processes run in parallel.
 442     msg=$(printf "%s," $(date +%s); \
 443         for f in $files; do \
 444             printf "%s," $(cat $f); \
 445         done)
 446     echo "$msg"
 447 }
 448
 449 cd /sys/class/power_supply
 450
 451 for bat in BAT*; do
 452     (cd $bat && log_battery >> "$logfile")
 453 done
 454 </pre>
 455
 456 <p>The script is called when the power management system detect a
 457 change in the power status (power plug in or out), and when going into
 458 and out of hibernation and suspend.  In addition, it collect a value
 459 every 10 minutes.  This make it possible for me know when the battery
 460 is discharging, charging and how the maximum charge change over time.
 461 The code for the Debian package
 462 <a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/battery-status">is now
 463 available on github</a>.</p>
 464
 465 <p>The collected log file look like this:</p>
 466
 467 <pre>
 468 timestamp,manufacturer,model_name,technology,serial_number,energy_full,energy_full_design,energy_now,cycle_count,status,
 469 1376591133,LGC,45N1025,Li-ion,974,62800000,62160000,39050000,0,Discharging,
 470 [...]
 471 1443090528,LGC,45N1025,Li-ion,974,4900000,62160000,4900000,0,Full,
 472 1443090601,LGC,45N1025,Li-ion,974,4900000,62160000,4900000,0,Full,
 473 </pre>
 474
 475 <p>I wrote a small script to create a graph of the charge development
 476 over time.  This graph depicted above show the slow death of my laptop
 477 battery.</p>
 478
 479 <p>But why is this happening?  Why are my laptop batteries always
 480 dying in a year or two, while the batteries of space probes and
 481 satellites keep working year after year.  If we are to believe
 482 <a href="http://batteryuniversity.com/learn/article/how_to_prolong_lithium_based_batteries">Battery
 483 University</a>, the cause is me charging the battery whenever I have a
 484 chance, and the fix is to not charge the Lithium-ion batteries to 100%
 485 all the time, but to stay below 90% of full charge most of the time.
 486 I've been told that the Tesla electric cars
 487 <a href="http://my.teslamotors.com/de_CH/forum/forums/battery-charge-limit">limit
 488 the charge of their batteries to 80%</a>, with the option to charge to
 489 100% when preparing for a longer trip (not that I would want a car
 490 like Tesla where rights to privacy is abandoned, but that is another
 491 story), which I guess is the option we should have for laptops on
 492 Linux too.</p>
 493
 494 <p>Is there a good and generic way with Linux to tell the battery to
 495 stop charging at 80%, unless requested to charge to 100% once in
 496 preparation for a longer trip?  I found
 497 <a href="http://askubuntu.com/questions/34452/how-can-i-limit-battery-charging-to-80-capacity">one
 498 recipe on askubuntu for Ubuntu to limit charging on Thinkpad to
 499 80%</a>, but could not get it to work (kernel module refused to
 500 load).</p>
 501
 502 <p>I wonder why the battery capacity was reported to be more than 100%
 503 at the start.  I also wonder why the "full capacity" increases some
 504 times, and if it is possible to repeat the process to get the battery
 505 back to design capacity.  And I wonder if the discharge and charge
 506 speed change over time, or if this stay the same.  I did not yet try
 507 to write a tool to calculate the derivative values of the battery
 508 level, but suspect some interesting insights might be learned from
 509 those.</p>
 510
 511 <p>Update 2015-09-24: I got a tip to install the packages
 512 acpi-call-dkms and tlp (unfortunately missing in Debian stable)
 513 packages instead of the tp-smapi-dkms package I had tried to use
 514 initially, and use 'tlp setcharge 40 80' to change when charging start
 515 and stop.  I've done so now, but expect my existing battery is toast
 516 and need to be replaced.  The proposal is unfortunately Thinkpad
 517 specific.</p>
 518
 519       </div>
 520       <div class="tags">
 521
 522
 523         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
 524
 525
 526       </div>
 527     </div>
 528     <div class="padding"></div>
 529
 530     <div class="entry">
 531       <div class="title">
 532         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/New_laptop___some_more_clues_and_ideas_based_on_feedback.html">New laptop - some more clues and ideas based on feedback</a>
 533       </div>
 534       <div class="date">
 535          5th July 2015
 536       </div>
 537       <div class="body">
 538         <p>Several people contacted me after my previous blog post about my
 539 need for a new laptop, and provided very useful feedback.  I wish to
 540 thank every one of these.  Several pointed me to the possibility of
 541 fixing my X230, and I am already in the process of getting Lenovo to
 542 do so thanks to the on site, next day support contract covering the
 543 machine.  But the battery is almost useless (I expect to replace it
 544 with a non-official battery) and I do not expect the machine to live
 545 for many more years, so it is time to plan its replacement.  If I did
 546 not have a support contract, it was suggested to find replacement parts
 547 using <a href="http://www.francecrans.com/">FrancEcrans</a>, but it
 548 might present a language barrier as I do not understand French.</p>
 549
 550 <p>One tip I got was to use the
 551 <a href="https://skinflint.co.uk/?cat=nb">Skinflint</a> web service to
 552 compare laptop models.  It seem to have more models available than
 553 prisjakt.no.  Another tip I got from someone I know have similar
 554 keyboard preferences was that the HP EliteBook 840 keyboard is not
 555 very good, and this matches my experience with earlier EliteBook
 556 keyboards I tested.  Because of this, I will not consider it any further.
 557
 558 <p>When I wrote my blog post, I was not aware of Thinkpad X250, the
 559 newest Thinkpad X model.  The keyboard reintroduces mouse buttons
 560 (which is missing from the X240), and is working fairly well with
 561 Debian Sid/Unstable according to
 562 <a href="http://www.corsac.net/X250/">Corsac.net</a>.  The reports I
 563 got on the keyboard quality are not consistent.  Some say the keyboard
 564 is good, others say it is ok, while others say it is not very good.
 565 Those with experience from X41 and and X60 agree that the X250
 566 keyboard is not as good as those trusty old laptops, and suggest I
 567 keep and fix my X230 instead of upgrading, or get a used X230 to
 568 replace it.  I'm also told that the X250 lack leds for caps lock, disk
 569 activity and battery status, which is very convenient on my X230.  I'm
 570 also told that the CPU fan is running very often, making it a bit
 571 noisy.  In any case, the X250 do not work out of the box with Debian
 572 Stable/Jessie, one of my requirements.</p>
 573
 574 <p>I have also gotten a few vendor proposals, one was
 575 <a href="http://pro-star.com">Pro-Star</a>, another was
 576 <a href="http://shop.gluglug.org.uk/product/libreboot-x200/">Libreboot</a>.
 577 The latter look very attractive to me.</p>
 578
 579 <p>Again, thank you all for the very useful feedback.  It help a lot
 580 as I keep looking for a replacement.</p>
 581
 582 <p>Update 2015-07-06: I was recommended to check out the
 583 <a href="">lapstore.de</a> web shop for used laptops.  They got several
 584 different
 585 <a href="http://www.lapstore.de/f.php/shop/lapstore/f/411/lang/x/kw/Lenovo_ThinkPad_X_Serie/">old
 586 thinkpad X models</a>, and provide one year warranty.</p>
 587
 588       </div>
 589       <div class="tags">
 590
 591
 592         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>.
 593
 594
 595       </div>
 596     </div>
 597     <div class="padding"></div>
 598
 599     <div class="entry">
 600       <div class="title">
 601         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Time_to_find_a_new_laptop__as_the_old_one_is_broken_after_only_two_years.html">Time to find a new laptop, as the old one is broken after only two years</a>
 602       </div>
 603       <div class="date">
 604          3rd July 2015
 605       </div>
 606       <div class="body">
 607         <p>My primary work horse laptop is failing, and will need a
 608 replacement soon.  The left 5 cm of the screen on my Thinkpad X230
 609 started flickering yesterday, and I suspect the cause is a broken
 610 cable, as changing the angle of the screen some times get rid of the
 611 flickering.</p>
 612
 613 <p>My requirements have not really changed since I bought it, and is
 614 still as
 615 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Thank_you_Thinkpad_X41__for_your_long_and_trustworthy_service.html">I
 616 described them in 2013</a>.  The last time I bought a laptop, I had
 617 good help from
 618 <a href="http://www.prisjakt.no/category.php?k=353">prisjakt.no</a>
 619 where I could select at least a few of the requirements (mouse pin,
 620 wifi, weight) and go through the rest manually.  Three button mouse
 621 and a good keyboard is not available as an option, and all the three
 622 laptop models proposed today (Thinkpad X240, HP EliteBook 820 G1 and
 623 G2) lack three mouse buttons).  It is also unclear to me how good the
 624 keyboard on the HP EliteBooks are.  I hope Lenovo have not messed up
 625 the keyboard, even if the quality and robustness in the X series have
 626 deteriorated since X41.</p>
 627
 628 <p>I wonder how I can find a sensible laptop when none of the options
 629 seem sensible to me?  Are there better services around to search the
 630 set of available laptops for features?  Please send me an email if you
 631 have suggestions.</p>
 632
 633 <p>Update 2015-07-23: I got a suggestion to check out the FSF
 634 <a href="http://www.fsf.org/resources/hw/endorsement/respects-your-freedom">list
 635 of endorsed hardware</a>, which is useful background information.</p>
 636
 637       </div>
 638       <div class="tags">
 639
 640
 641         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>.
 642
 643
 644       </div>
 645     </div>
 646     <div class="padding"></div>
 647
 648     <div class="entry">
 649       <div class="title">
 650         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_stay_with_sysvinit_in_Debian_Jessie.html">How to stay with sysvinit in Debian Jessie</a>
 651       </div>
 652       <div class="date">
 653         22nd November 2014
 654       </div>
 655       <div class="body">
 656         <p>By now, it is well known that Debian Jessie will not be using
 657 sysvinit as its boot system by default.  But how can one keep using
 658 sysvinit in Jessie?  It is fairly easy, and here are a few recipes,
 659 courtesy of
 660 <a href="http://www.vitavonni.de/blog/201410/2014102101-avoiding-systemd.html">Erich
 661 Schubert</a> and
 662 <a href="http://smcv.pseudorandom.co.uk/2014/still_universal/">Simon
 663 McVittie</a>.
 664
 665 <p>If you already are using Wheezy and want to upgrade to Jessie and
 666 keep sysvinit as your boot system, create a file
 667 <tt>/etc/apt/preferences.d/use-sysvinit</tt> with this content before
 668 you upgrade:</p>
 669
 670 <p><blockquote><pre>
 671 Package: systemd-sysv
 672 Pin: release o=Debian
 673 Pin-Priority: -1
 674 </pre></blockquote><p>
 675
 676 <p>This file content will tell apt and aptitude to not consider
 677 installing systemd-sysv as part of any installation and upgrade
 678 solution when resolving dependencies, and thus tell it to avoid
 679 systemd as a default boot system.  The end result should be that the
 680 upgraded system keep using sysvinit.</p>
 681
 682 <p>If you are installing Jessie for the first time, there is no way to
 683 get sysvinit installed by default (debootstrap used by
 684 debian-installer have no option for this), but one can tell the
 685 installer to switch to sysvinit before the first boot.  Either by
 686 using a kernel argument to the installer, or by adding a line to the
 687 preseed file used.  First, the kernel command line argument:
 688
 689 <p><blockquote><pre>
 690 preseed/late_command="in-target apt-get install --purge -y sysvinit-core"
 691 </pre></blockquote><p>
 692
 693 <p>Next, the line to use in a preseed file:</p>
 694
 695 <p><blockquote><pre>
 696 d-i preseed/late_command string in-target apt-get install -y sysvinit-core
 697 </pre></blockquote><p>
 698
 699 <p>One can of course also do this after the first boot by installing
 700 the sysvinit-core package.</p>
 701
 702 <p>I recommend only using sysvinit if you really need it, as the
 703 sysvinit boot sequence in Debian have several hardware specific bugs
 704 on Linux caused by the fact that it is unpredictable when hardware
 705 devices show up during boot.  But on the other hand, the new default
 706 boot system still have a few rough edges I hope will be fixed before
 707 Jessie is released.</p>
 708
 709 <p>Update 2014-11-26: Inspired by
 710 <ahref="https://www.mirbsd.org/permalinks/wlog-10-tg_e20141125-tg.htm#e20141125-tg_wlog-10-tg">a
 711 blog post by Torsten Glaser</a>, added --purge to the preseed
 712 line.</p>
 713
 714       </div>
 715       <div class="tags">
 716
 717
 718         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>.
 719
 720
 721       </div>
 722     </div>
 723     <div class="padding"></div>
 724
 725     <div class="entry">
 726       <div class="title">
 727         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/A_Debian_package_for_SMTP_via_Tor__aka_SMTorP__using_exim4.html">A Debian package for SMTP via Tor (aka SMTorP) using exim4</a>
 728       </div>
 729       <div class="date">
 730         10th November 2014
 731       </div>
 732       <div class="body">
 733         <p>The right to communicate with your friends and family in private,
 734 without anyone snooping, is a right every citicen have in a liberal
 735 democracy.  But this right is under serious attack these days.</p>
 736
 737 <p>A while back it occurred to me that one way to make the dragnet
 738 surveillance conducted by NSA, GCHQ, FRA and others (and confirmed by
 739 the whisleblower Snowden) more expensive for Internet email,
 740 is to deliver all email using SMTP via Tor.  Such SMTP option would be
 741 a nice addition to the FreedomBox project if we could send email
 742 between FreedomBox machines without leaking metadata about the emails
 743 to the people peeking on the wire.  I
 744 <a href="http://lists.alioth.debian.org/pipermail/freedombox-discuss/2014-October/006493.html">proposed
 745 this on the FreedomBox project mailing list in October</a> and got a
 746 lot of useful feedback and suggestions.  It also became obvious to me
 747 that this was not a novel idea, as the same idea was tested and
 748 documented by Johannes Berg as early as 2006, and both
 749 <a href="https://github.com/pagekite/Mailpile/wiki/SMTorP">the
 750 Mailpile</a> and <a href="http://dee.su/cables">the Cables</a> systems
 751 propose a similar method / protocol to pass emails between users.</p>
 752
 753 <p>To implement such system one need to set up a Tor hidden service
 754 providing the SMTP protocol on port 25, and use email addresses
 755 looking like username@hidden-service-name.onion.  With such addresses
 756 the connections to port 25 on hidden-service-name.onion using Tor will
 757 go to the correct SMTP server.  To do this, one need to configure the
 758 Tor daemon to provide the hidden service and the mail server to accept
 759 emails for this .onion domain.  To learn more about Exim configuration
 760 in Debian and test the design provided by Johannes Berg in his FAQ, I
 761 set out yesterday to create a Debian package for making it trivial to
 762 set up such SMTP over Tor service based on Debian.  Getting it to work
 763 were fairly easy, and
 764 <a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/exim4-smtorp">the
 765 source code for the Debian package</a> is available from github.  I
 766 plan to move it into Debian if further testing prove this to be a
 767 useful approach.</p>
 768
 769 <p>If you want to test this, set up a blank Debian machine without any
 770 mail system installed (or run <tt>apt-get purge exim4-config</tt> to
 771 get rid of exim4).  Install tor, clone the git repository mentioned
 772 above, build the deb and install it on the machine.  Next, run
 773 <tt>/usr/lib/exim4-smtorp/setup-exim-hidden-service</tt> and follow
 774 the instructions to get the service up and running.  Restart tor and
 775 exim when it is done, and test mail delivery using swaks like
 776 this:</p>
 777
 778 <p><blockquote><pre>
 779 torsocks swaks --server dutlqrrmjhtfa3vp.onion \
 780   --to fbx@dutlqrrmjhtfa3vp.onion
 781 </pre></blockquote></p>
 782
 783 <p>This will test the SMTP delivery using tor.  Replace the email
 784 address with your own address to test your server. :)</p>
 785
 786 <p>The setup procedure is still to complex, and I hope it can be made
 787 easier and more automatic.  Especially the tor setup need more work.
 788 Also, the package include a tor-smtp tool written in C, but its task
 789 should probably be rewritten in some script language to make the deb
 790 architecture independent.  It would probably also make the code easier
 791 to review.  The tor-smtp tool currently need to listen on a socket for
 792 exim to talk to it and is started using xinetd.  It would be better if
 793 no daemon and no socket is needed.  I suspect it is possible to get
 794 exim to run a command line tool for delivery instead of talking to a
 795 socket, and hope to figure out how in a future version of this
 796 system.</p>
 797
 798 <p>Until I wipe my test machine, I can be reached using the
 799 <tt>fbx@dutlqrrmjhtfa3vp.onion</tt> mail address, deliverable over
 800 SMTorP. :)</p>
 801
 802       </div>
 803       <div class="tags">
 804
 805
 806         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freedombox">freedombox</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/personvern">personvern</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance</a>.
 807
 808
 809       </div>
 810     </div>
 811     <div class="padding"></div>
 812
 813     <div class="entry">
 814       <div class="title">
 815         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/listadmin__the_quick_way_to_moderate_mailman_lists___nice_free_software.html">listadmin, the quick way to moderate mailman lists - nice free software</a>
 816       </div>
 817       <div class="date">
 818         22nd October 2014
 819       </div>
 820       <div class="body">
 821         <p>If you ever had to moderate a mailman list, like the ones on
 822 alioth.debian.org, you know the web interface is fairly slow to
 823 operate.  First you visit one web page, enter the moderation password
 824 and get a new page shown with a list of all the messages to moderate
 825 and various options for each email address.  This take a while for
 826 every list you moderate, and you need to do it regularly to do a good
 827 job as a list moderator.  But there is a quick alternative,
 828 <a href="http://heim.ifi.uio.no/kjetilho/hacks/#listadmin">the
 829 listadmin program</a>.  It allow you to check lists for new messages
 830 to moderate in a fraction of a second.  Here is a test run on two
 831 lists I recently took over:</p>
 832
 833 <p><blockquote><pre>
 834 % time listadmin xiph
 835 fetching data for pkg-xiph-commits@lists.alioth.debian.org ... nothing in queue
 836 fetching data for pkg-xiph-maint@lists.alioth.debian.org ... nothing in queue
 837
 838 real    0m1.709s
 839 user    0m0.232s
 840 sys     0m0.012s
 841 %
 842 </pre></blockquote></p>
 843
 844 <p>In 1.7 seconds I had checked two mailing lists and confirmed that
 845 there are no message in the moderation queue.  Every morning I
 846 currently moderate 68 mailman lists, and it normally take around two
 847 minutes.  When I took over the two pkg-xiph lists above a few days
 848 ago, there were 400 emails waiting in the moderator queue.  It took me
 849 less than 15 minutes to process them all using the listadmin
 850 program.</p>
 851
 852 <p>If you install
 853 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/listadmin">the listadmin
 854 package</a> from Debian and create a file <tt>~/.listadmin.ini</tt>
 855 with content like this, the moderation task is a breeze:</p>
 856
 857 <p><blockquote><pre>
 858 username username@example.org
 859 spamlevel 23
 860 default discard
 861 discard_if_reason "Posting restricted to members only. Remove us from your mail list."
 862
 863 password secret
 864 adminurl https://{domain}/mailman/admindb/{list}
 865 mailman-list@lists.example.com
 866
 867 password hidden
 868 other-list@otherserver.example.org
 869 </pre></blockquote></p>
 870
 871 <p>There are other options to set as well.  Check the manual page to
 872 learn the details.</p>
 873
 874 <p>If you are forced to moderate lists on a mailman installation where
 875 the SSL certificate is self signed or not properly signed by a
 876 generally accepted signing authority, you can set a environment
 877 variable when calling listadmin to disable SSL verification:</p>
 878
 879 <p><blockquote><pre>
 880 PERL_LWP_SSL_VERIFY_HOSTNAME=0 listadmin
 881 </pre></blockquote></p>
 882
 883 <p>If you want to moderate a subset of the lists you take care of, you
 884 can provide an argument to the listadmin script like I do in the
 885 initial screen dump (the xiph argument).  Using an argument, only
 886 lists matching the argument string will be processed.  This make it
 887 quick to accept messages if you notice the moderation request in your
 888 email.</p>
 889
 890 <p>Without the listadmin program, I would never be the moderator of 68
 891 mailing lists, as I simply do not have time to spend on that if the
 892 process was any slower. The listadmin program have saved me hours of
 893 time I could spend elsewhere over the years.  It truly is nice free
 894 software.</p>
 895
 896 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
 897 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
 898 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b&label=PetterReinholdtsenBlog">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
 899
 900 <p>Update 2014-10-27: Added missing 'username' statement in
 901 configuration example.  Also, I've been told that the
 902 PERL_LWP_SSL_VERIFY_HOSTNAME=0 setting do not work for everyone.  Not
 903 sure why.</p>
 904
 905       </div>
 906       <div class="tags">
 907
 908
 909         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nice free software">nice free software</a>.
 910
 911
 912       </div>
 913     </div>
 914     <div class="padding"></div>
 915
 916     <div class="entry">
 917       <div class="title">
 918         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Jessie__PXE_and_automatic_firmware_installation.html">Debian Jessie, PXE and automatic firmware installation</a>
 919       </div>
 920       <div class="date">
 921         17th October 2014
 922       </div>
 923       <div class="body">
 924         <p>When PXE installing laptops with Debian, I often run into the
 925 problem that the WiFi card require some firmware to work properly.
 926 And it has been a pain to fix this using preseeding in Debian.
 927 Normally something more is needed.  But thanks to
 928 <a href="https://packages.qa.debian.org/i/isenkram.html">my isenkram
 929 package</a> and its recent tasksel extension, it has now become easy
 930 to do this using simple preseeding.</p>
 931
 932 <p>The isenkram-cli package provide tasksel tasks which will install
 933 firmware for the hardware found in the machine (actually, requested by
 934 the kernel modules for the hardware).  (It can also install user space
 935 programs supporting the hardware detected, but that is not the focus
 936 of this story.)</p>
 937
 938 <p>To get this working in the default installation, two preeseding
 939 values are needed.  First, the isenkram-cli package must be installed
 940 into the target chroot (aka the hard drive) before tasksel is executed
 941 in the pkgsel step of the debian-installer system.  This is done by
 942 preseeding the base-installer/includes debconf value to include the
 943 isenkram-cli package.  The package name is next passed to debootstrap
 944 for installation.  With the isenkram-cli package in place, tasksel
 945 will automatically use the isenkram tasks to detect hardware specific
 946 packages for the machine being installed and install them, because
 947 isenkram-cli contain tasksel tasks.</p>
 948
 949 <p>Second, one need to enable the non-free APT repository, because
 950 most firmware unfortunately is non-free.  This is done by preseeding
 951 the apt-mirror-setup step.  This is unfortunate, but for a lot of
 952 hardware it is the only option in Debian.</p>
 953
 954 <p>The end result is two lines needed in your preseeding file to get
 955 firmware installed automatically by the installer:</p>
 956
 957 <p><blockquote><pre>
 958 base-installer base-installer/includes string isenkram-cli
 959 apt-mirror-setup apt-setup/non-free boolean true
 960 </pre></blockquote></p>
 961
 962 <p>The current version of isenkram-cli in testing/jessie will install
 963 both firmware and user space packages when using this method.  It also
 964 do not work well, so use version 0.15 or later.  Installing both
 965 firmware and user space packages might give you a bit more than you
 966 want, so I decided to split the tasksel task in two, one for firmware
 967 and one for user space programs.  The firmware task is enabled by
 968 default, while the one for user space programs is not.  This split is
 969 implemented in the package currently in unstable.</p>
 970
 971 <p>If you decide to give this a go, please let me know (via email) how
 972 this recipe work for you. :)</p>
 973
 974 <p>So, I bet you are wondering, how can this work.  First and
 975 foremost, it work because tasksel is modular, and driven by whatever
 976 files it find in /usr/lib/tasksel/ and /usr/share/tasksel/.  So the
 977 isenkram-cli package place two files for tasksel to find.  First there
 978 is the task description file (/usr/share/tasksel/descs/isenkram.desc):</p>
 979
 980 <p><blockquote><pre>
 981 Task: isenkram-packages
 982 Section: hardware
 983 Description: Hardware specific packages (autodetected by isenkram)
 984  Based on the detected hardware various hardware specific packages are
 985  proposed.
 986 Test-new-install: show show
 987 Relevance: 8
 988 Packages: for-current-hardware
 989
 990 Task: isenkram-firmware
 991 Section: hardware
 992 Description: Hardware specific firmware packages (autodetected by isenkram)
 993  Based on the detected hardware various hardware specific firmware
 994  packages are proposed.
 995 Test-new-install: mark show
 996 Relevance: 8
 997 Packages: for-current-hardware-firmware
 998 </pre></blockquote></p>
 999
1000 <p>The key parts are Test-new-install which indicate how the task
1001 should be handled and the Packages line referencing to a script in
1002 /usr/lib/tasksel/packages/.  The scripts use other scripts to get a
1003 list of packages to install.  The for-current-hardware-firmware script
1004 look like this to list relevant firmware for the machine:
1005
1006 <p><blockquote><pre>
1007 #!/bin/sh
1008 #
1009 PATH=/usr/sbin:$PATH
1010 export PATH
1011 isenkram-autoinstall-firmware -l
1012 </pre></blockquote></p>
1013
1014 <p>With those two pieces in place, the firmware is installed by
1015 tasksel during the normal d-i run. :)</p>
1016
1017 <p>If you want to test what tasksel will install when isenkram-cli is
1018 installed, run <tt>DEBIAN_PRIORITY=critical tasksel --test
1019 --new-install</tt> to get the list of packages that tasksel would
1020 install.</p>
1021
1022 <p><a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/">Debian Edu</a> will be
1023 pilots in testing this feature, as isenkram is used there now to
1024 install firmware, replacing the earlier scripts.</p>
1025
1026       </div>
1027       <div class="tags">
1028
1029
1030         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram">isenkram</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sysadmin">sysadmin</a>.
1031
1032
1033       </div>
1034     </div>
1035     <div class="padding"></div>
1036
1037     <div class="entry">
1038       <div class="title">
1039         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Ubuntu_used_to_show_the_bread_prizes_at_ICA_Storo.html">Ubuntu used to show the bread prizes at ICA Storo</a>
1040       </div>
1041       <div class="date">
1042          4th October 2014
1043       </div>
1044       <div class="body">
1045         <p>Today I came across an unexpected Ubuntu boot screen.  Above the
1046 bread shelf on the ICA shop at Storo in Oslo, the grub menu of Ubuntu
1047 with Linux kernel 3.2.0-23 (ie probably version 12.04 LTS) was stuck
1048 on a screen normally showing the bread types and prizes:</p>
1049
1050 <p align="center"><img width="70%" src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2014-10-04-ubuntu-ica-storo-crop.jpeg"></p>
1051
1052 <p>If it had booted as it was supposed to, I would never had known
1053 about this hidden Linux installation.  It is interesting what
1054 <a href="http://revealingerrors.com/">errors can reveal</a>.</p>
1055
1056       </div>
1057       <div class="tags">
1058
1059
1060         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>.
1061
1062
1063       </div>
1064     </div>
1065     <div class="padding"></div>
1066
1067     <div class="entry">
1068       <div class="title">
1069         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/New_lsdvd_release_version_0_17_is_ready.html">New lsdvd release version 0.17 is ready</a>
1070       </div>
1071       <div class="date">
1072          4th October 2014
1073       </div>
1074       <div class="body">
1075         <p>The <a href="https://sourceforge.net/p/lsdvd/">lsdvd project</a>
1076 got a new set of developers a few weeks ago, after the original
1077 developer decided to step down and pass the project to fresh blood.
1078 This project is now maintained by Petter Reinholdtsen and Steve
1079 Dibb.</p>
1080
1081 <p>I just wrapped up
1082 <a href="https://sourceforge.net/p/lsdvd/mailman/message/32896061/">a
1083 new lsdvd release</a>, available in git or from
1084 <a href="https://sourceforge.net/projects/lsdvd/files/lsdvd/">the
1085 download page</a>.  This is the changelog dated 2014-10-03 for version
1086 0.17.</p>
1087
1088 <ul>
1089
1090  <li>Ignore 'phantom' audio, subtitle tracks</li>
1091  <li>Check for garbage in the program chains, which indicate that a track is
1092    non-existant, to work around additional copy protection</li>
1093  <li>Fix displaying content type for audio tracks, subtitles</li>
1094  <li>Fix pallete display of first entry</li>
1095  <li>Fix include orders</li>
1096  <li>Ignore read errors in titles that would not be displayed anyway</li>
1097  <li>Fix the chapter count</li>
1098  <li>Make sure the array size and the array limit used when initialising
1099    the palette size is the same.</li>
1100  <li>Fix array printing.</li>
1101  <li>Correct subsecond calculations.</li>
1102  <li>Add sector information to the output format.</li>
1103  <li>Clean up code to be closer to ANSI C and compile without warnings
1104    with more GCC compiler warnings.</li>
1105
1106 </ul>
1107
1108 <p>This change bring together patches for lsdvd in use in various
1109 Linux and Unix distributions, as well as patches submitted to the
1110 project the last nine years.  Please check it out. :)</p>
1111
1112       </div>
1113       <div class="tags">
1114
1115
1116         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/lsdvd">lsdvd</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/multimedia">multimedia</a>.
1117
1118
1119       </div>
1120     </div>
1121     <div class="padding"></div>
1122
1123     <div class="entry">
1124       <div class="title">
1125         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_test_Debian_Edu_Jessie_despite_some_fatal_problems_with_the_installer.html">How to test Debian Edu Jessie despite some fatal problems with the installer</a>
1126       </div>
1127       <div class="date">
1128         26th September 2014
1129       </div>
1130       <div class="body">
1131         <p>The <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux
1132 project</a> provide a Linux solution for schools, including a
1133 powerful desktop with education software, a central server providing
1134 web pages, user database, user home directories, central login and PXE
1135 boot of both  clients without disk and the installation to install Debian
1136 Edu on machines with disk (and a few other services perhaps to small
1137 to mention here).  We in the Debian Edu team are currently working on
1138 the Jessie based version, trying to get everything in shape before the
1139 freeze, to avoid having to maintain our own package repository in the
1140 future.  The
1141 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Status/Jessie">current
1142 status</a> can be seen on the Debian wiki, and there is still heaps of
1143 work left.  Some fatal problems block testing, breaking the installer,
1144 but it is possible to work around these to get anyway.  Here is a
1145 recipe on how to get the installation limping along.</p>
1146
1147 <p>First, download the test ISO via
1148 <a href="ftp://ftp.skolelinux.no/cd-edu-testing-nolocal-netinst/debian-edu-amd64-i386-NETINST-1.iso">ftp</a>,
1149 <a href="http://ftp.skolelinux.no/cd-edu-testing-nolocal-netinst/debian-edu-amd64-i386-NETINST-1.iso">http</a>
1150 or rsync (use
1151 ftp.skolelinux.org::cd-edu-testing-nolocal-netinst/debian-edu-amd64-i386-NETINST-1.iso).
1152 The ISO build was broken on Tuesday, so we do not get a new ISO every
1153 12 hours or so, but thankfully the ISO we already got we are able to
1154 install with some tweaking.</p>
1155
1156 <p>When you get to the Debian Edu profile question, go to tty2
1157 (use Alt-Ctrl-F2), run</p>
1158
1159 <p><blockquote><pre>
1160 nano /usr/bin/edu-eatmydata-install
1161 </pre></blockquote></p>
1162
1163 <p>and add 'exit 0' as the second line, disabling the eatmydata
1164 optimization.  Return to the installation, select the profile you want
1165 and continue.  Without this change, exim4-config will fail to install
1166 due to a known bug in eatmydata.</p>
1167
1168 <p>When you get the grub question at the end, answer /dev/sda (or if
1169 this do not work, figure out what your correct value would be.  All my
1170 test machines need /dev/sda, so I have no advice if it do not fit
1171 your need.</p>
1172
1173 <p>If you installed a profile including a graphical desktop, log in as
1174 root after the initial boot from hard drive, and install the
1175 education-desktop-XXX metapackage.  XXX can be kde, gnome, lxde, xfce
1176 or mate.  If you want several desktop options, install more than one
1177 metapackage.  Once this is done, reboot and you should have a working
1178 graphical login screen.  This workaround should no longer be needed
1179 once the education-tasks package version 1.801 enter testing in two
1180 days.</p>
1181
1182 <p>I believe the ISO build will start working on two days when the new
1183 tasksel package enter testing and Steve McIntyre get a chance to
1184 update the debian-cd git repository.  The eatmydata, grub and desktop
1185 issues are already fixed in unstable and testing, and should show up
1186 on the ISO as soon as the ISO build start working again.  Well the
1187 eatmydata optimization is really just disabled.  The proper fix
1188 require an upload by the eatmydata maintainer applying the patch
1189 provided in bug <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/702711">#702711</a>.
1190 The rest have proper fixes in unstable.</p>
1191
1192 <p>I hope this get you going with the installation testing, as we are
1193 quickly running out of time trying to get our Jessie based
1194 installation ready before the distribution freeze in a month.</p>
1195
1196       </div>
1197       <div class="tags">
1198
1199
1200         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>.
1201
1202
1203       </div>
1204     </div>
1205     <div class="padding"></div>
1206
1207     <div class="entry">
1208       <div class="title">
1209         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Suddenly_I_am_the_new_upstream_of_the_lsdvd_command_line_tool.html">Suddenly I am the new upstream of the lsdvd command line tool</a>
1210       </div>
1211       <div class="date">
1212         25th September 2014
1213       </div>
1214       <div class="body">
1215         <p>I use the <a href="https://sourceforge.net/p/lsdvd/">lsdvd tool</a>
1216 to handle my fairly large DVD collection.  It is a nice command line
1217 tool to get details about a DVD, like title, tracks, track length,
1218 etc, in XML, Perl or human readable format.  But lsdvd have not seen
1219 any new development since 2006 and had a few irritating bugs affecting
1220 its use with some DVDs.  Upstream seemed to be dead, and in January I
1221 sent a small probe asking for a version control repository for the
1222 project, without any reply.  But I use it regularly and would like to
1223 get <a href="https://packages.qa.debian.org/lsdvd">an updated version
1224 into Debian</a>.  So two weeks ago I tried harder to get in touch with
1225 the project admin, and after getting a reply from him explaining that
1226 he was no longer interested in the project, I asked if I could take
1227 over.  And yesterday, I became project admin.</p>
1228
1229 <p>I've been in touch with a Gentoo developer and the Debian
1230 maintainer interested in joining forces to maintain the upstream
1231 project, and I hope we can get a new release out fairly quickly,
1232 collecting the patches spread around on the internet into on place.
1233 I've added the relevant Debian patches to the freshly created git
1234 repository, and expect the Gentoo patches to make it too.  If you got
1235 a DVD collection and care about command line tools, check out
1236 <a href="https://sourceforge.net/p/lsdvd/git/ci/master/tree/">the git source</a> and join
1237 <a href="https://sourceforge.net/p/lsdvd/mailman/">the project mailing
1238 list</a>. :)</p>
1239
1240       </div>
1241       <div class="tags">
1242
1243
1244         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/lsdvd">lsdvd</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/multimedia">multimedia</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/Speeding_up_the_Debian_installer_using_eatmydata_and_dpkg_divert.html">Speeding up the Debian installer using eatmydata and dpkg-divert</a>
1254       </div>
1255       <div class="date">
1256         16th September 2014
1257       </div>
1258       <div class="body">
1259         <p>The <a href="https://www.debian.org/">Debian</a> installer could be
1260 a lot quicker.  When we install more than 2000 packages in
1261 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Skolelinux / Debian Edu</a> using
1262 tasksel in the installer, unpacking the binary packages take forever.
1263 A part of the slow I/O issue was discussed in
1264 <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/613428">bug #613428</a> about too
1265 much file system sync-ing done by dpkg, which is the package
1266 responsible for unpacking the binary packages.  Other parts (like code
1267 executed by postinst scripts) might also sync to disk during
1268 installation.  All this sync-ing to disk do not really make sense to
1269 me.  If the machine crash half-way through, I start over, I do not try
1270 to salvage the half installed system.  So the failure sync-ing is
1271 supposed to protect against, hardware or system crash, is not really
1272 relevant while the installer is running.</p>
1273
1274 <p>A few days ago, I thought of a way to get rid of all the file
1275 system sync()-ing in a fairly non-intrusive way, without the need to
1276 change the code in several packages.  The idea is not new, but I have
1277 not heard anyone propose the approach using dpkg-divert before.  It
1278 depend on the small and clever package
1279 <a href="https://packages.qa.debian.org/eatmydata">eatmydata</a>, which
1280 uses LD_PRELOAD to replace the system functions for syncing data to
1281 disk with functions doing nothing, thus allowing programs to live
1282 dangerous while speeding up disk I/O significantly.  Instead of
1283 modifying the implementation of dpkg, apt and tasksel (which are the
1284 packages responsible for selecting, fetching and installing packages),
1285 it occurred to me that we could just divert the programs away, replace
1286 them with a simple shell wrapper calling
1287 "eatmydata&nbsp;$program&nbsp;$@", to get the same effect.
1288 Two days ago I decided to test the idea, and wrapped up a simple
1289 implementation for the Debian Edu udeb.</p>
1290
1291 <p>The effect was stunning.  In my first test it reduced the running
1292 time of the pkgsel step (installing tasks) from 64 to less than 44
1293 minutes (20 minutes shaved off the installation) on an old Dell
1294 Latitude D505 machine.  I am not quite sure what the optimised time
1295 would have been, as I messed up the testing a bit, causing the debconf
1296 priority to get low enough for two questions to pop up during
1297 installation.  As soon as I saw the questions I moved the installation
1298 along, but do not know how long the question were holding up the
1299 installation.  I did some more measurements using Debian Edu Jessie,
1300 and got these results.  The time measured is the time stamp in
1301 /var/log/syslog between the "pkgsel: starting tasksel" and the
1302 "pkgsel: finishing up" lines, if you want to do the same measurement
1303 yourself.  In Debian Edu, the tasksel dialog do not show up, and the
1304 timing thus do not depend on how quickly the user handle the tasksel
1305 dialog.</p>
1306
1307 <p><table>
1308
1309 <tr>
1310 <th>Machine/setup</th>
1311 <th>Original tasksel</th>
1312 <th>Optimised tasksel</th>
1313 <th>Reduction</th>
1314 </tr>
1315
1316 <tr>
1317 <td>Latitude D505 Main+LTSP LXDE</td>
1318 <td>64 min (07:46-08:50)</td>
1319 <td><44 min (11:27-12:11)</td>
1320 <td>>20 min 18%</td>
1321 </tr>
1322
1323 <tr>
1324 <td>Latitude D505 Roaming LXDE</td>
1325 <td>57 min (08:48-09:45)</td>
1326 <td>34 min (07:43-08:17)</td>
1327 <td>23 min 40%</td>
1328 </tr>
1329
1330 <tr>
1331 <td>Latitude D505 Minimal</td>
1332 <td>22 min (10:37-10:59)</td>
1333 <td>11 min (11:16-11:27)</td>
1334 <td>11 min 50%</td>
1335 </tr>
1336
1337 <tr>
1338 <td>Thinkpad X200 Minimal</td>
1339 <td>6 min (08:19-08:25)</td>
1340 <td>4 min (08:04-08:08)</td>
1341 <td>2 min 33%</td>
1342 </tr>
1343
1344 <tr>
1345 <td>Thinkpad X200 Roaming KDE</td>
1346 <td>19 min (09:21-09:40)</td>
1347 <td>15 min (10:25-10:40)</td>
1348 <td>4 min 21%</td>
1349 </tr>
1350
1351 </table></p>
1352
1353 <p>The test is done using a netinst ISO on a USB stick, so some of the
1354 time is spent downloading packages.  The connection to the Internet
1355 was 100Mbit/s during testing, so downloading should not be a
1356 significant factor in the measurement.  Download typically took a few
1357 seconds to a few minutes, depending on the amount of packages being
1358 installed.</p>
1359
1360 <p>The speedup is implemented by using two hooks in
1361 <a href="https://www.debian.org/devel/debian-installer/">Debian
1362 Installer</a>, the pre-pkgsel.d hook to set up the diverts, and the
1363 finish-install.d hook to remove the divert at the end of the
1364 installation.  I picked the pre-pkgsel.d hook instead of the
1365 post-base-installer.d hook because I test using an ISO without the
1366 eatmydata package included, and the post-base-installer.d hook in
1367 Debian Edu can only operate on packages included in the ISO.  The
1368 negative effect of this is that I am unable to activate this
1369 optimization for the kernel installation step in d-i.  If the code is
1370 moved to the post-base-installer.d hook, the speedup would be larger
1371 for the entire installation.</p>
1372
1373 <p>I've implemented this in the
1374 <a href="https://packages.qa.debian.org/debian-edu-install">debian-edu-install</a>
1375 git repository, and plan to provide the optimization as part of the
1376 Debian Edu installation.  If you want to test this yourself, you can
1377 create two files in the installer (or in an udeb).  One shell script
1378 need do go into /usr/lib/pre-pkgsel.d/, with content like this:</p>
1379
1380 <p><blockquote><pre>
1381 #!/bin/sh
1382 set -e
1383 . /usr/share/debconf/confmodule
1384 info() {
1385     logger -t my-pkgsel "info: $*"
1386 }
1387 error() {
1388     logger -t my-pkgsel "error: $*"
1389 }
1390 override_install() {
1391     apt-install eatmydata || true
1392     if [ -x /target/usr/bin/eatmydata ] ; then
1393         for bin in dpkg apt-get aptitude tasksel ; do
1394             file=/usr/bin/$bin
1395             # Test that the file exist and have not been diverted already.
1396             if [ -f /target$file ] ; then
1397                 info "diverting $file using eatmydata"
1398                 printf "#!/bin/sh\neatmydata $bin.distrib \"\$@\"\n" \
1399                     > /target$file.edu
1400                 chmod 755 /target$file.edu
1401                 in-target dpkg-divert --package debian-edu-config \
1402                     --rename --quiet --add $file
1403                 ln -sf ./$bin.edu /target$file
1404             else
1405                 error "unable to divert $file, as it is missing."
1406             fi
1407         done
1408     else
1409         error "unable to find /usr/bin/eatmydata after installing the eatmydata pacage"
1410     fi
1411 }
1412
1413 override_install
1414 </pre></blockquote></p>
1415
1416 <p>To clean up, another shell script should go into
1417 /usr/lib/finish-install.d/ with code like this:
1418
1419 <p><blockquote><pre>
1420 #! /bin/sh -e
1421 . /usr/share/debconf/confmodule
1422 error() {
1423     logger -t my-finish-install "error: $@"
1424 }
1425 remove_install_override() {
1426     for bin in dpkg apt-get aptitude tasksel ; do
1427         file=/usr/bin/$bin
1428         if [ -x /target$file.edu ] ; then
1429             rm /target$file
1430             in-target dpkg-divert --package debian-edu-config \
1431                 --rename --quiet --remove $file
1432             rm /target$file.edu
1433         else
1434             error "Missing divert for $file."
1435         fi
1436     done
1437     sync # Flush file buffers before continuing
1438 }
1439
1440 remove_install_override
1441 </pre></blockquote></p>
1442
1443 <p>In Debian Edu, I placed both code fragments in a separate script
1444 edu-eatmydata-install and call it from the pre-pkgsel.d and
1445 finish-install.d scripts.</p>
1446
1447 <p>By now you might ask if this change should get into the normal
1448 Debian installer too?  I suspect it should, but am not sure the
1449 current debian-installer coordinators find it useful enough.  It also
1450 depend on the side effects of the change.  I'm not aware of any, but I
1451 guess we will see if the change is safe after some more testing.
1452 Perhaps there is some package in Debian depending on sync() and
1453 fsync() having effect?  Perhaps it should go into its own udeb, to
1454 allow those of us wanting to enable it to do so without affecting
1455 everyone.</p>
1456
1457 <p>Update 2014-09-24: Since a few days ago, enabling this optimization
1458 will break installation of all programs using gnutls because of
1459 <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/702711">bug #702711</a>.  An updated
1460 eatmydata package in Debian will solve it.</p>
1461
1462 <p>Update 2014-10-17: The bug mentioned above is fixed in testing and
1463 the optimization work again.  And I have discovered that the
1464 dpkg-divert trick is not really needed and implemented a slightly
1465 simpler approach as part of the debian-edu-install package.  See
1466 tools/edu-eatmydata-install in the source package.</p>
1467
1468 <p>Update 2014-11-11: Unfortunately, a new
1469 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/765738">bug #765738</a> in eatmydata only
1470 triggering on i386 made it into testing, and broke this installation
1471 optimization again.  If <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/768893">unblock
1472 request 768893</a> is accepted, it should be working again.</p>
1473
1474       </div>
1475       <div class="tags">
1476
1477
1478         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>.
1479
1480
1481       </div>
1482     </div>
1483     <div class="padding"></div>
1484
1485     <div class="entry">
1486       <div class="title">
1487         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Good_bye_subkeys_pgp_net__welcome_pool_sks_keyservers_net.html">Good bye subkeys.pgp.net, welcome pool.sks-keyservers.net</a>
1488       </div>
1489       <div class="date">
1490         10th September 2014
1491       </div>
1492       <div class="body">
1493         <p>Yesterday, I had the pleasure of attending a talk with the
1494 <a href="http://www.nuug.no/">Norwegian Unix User Group</a> about
1495 <a href="http://www.nuug.no/aktiviteter/20140909-sks-keyservers/">the
1496 OpenPGP keyserver pool sks-keyservers.net</a>, and was very happy to
1497 learn that there is a large set of publicly available key servers to
1498 use when looking for peoples public key.  So far I have used
1499 subkeys.pgp.net, and some times wwwkeys.nl.pgp.net when the former
1500 were misbehaving, but those days are ended.  The servers I have used
1501 up until yesterday have been slow and some times unavailable.  I hope
1502 those problems are gone now.</p>
1503
1504 <p>Behind the round robin DNS entry of the
1505 <a href="https://sks-keyservers.net/">sks-keyservers.net</a> service
1506 there is a pool of more than 100 keyservers which are checked every
1507 day to ensure they are well connected and up to date.  It must be
1508 better than what I have used so far. :)</p>
1509
1510 <p>Yesterdays speaker told me that the service is the default
1511 keyserver provided by the default configuration in GnuPG, but this do
1512 not seem to be used in Debian.  Perhaps it should?</p>
1513
1514 <p>Anyway, I've updated my ~/.gnupg/options file to now include this
1515 line:</p>
1516
1517 <p><blockquote><pre>
1518 keyserver pool.sks-keyservers.net
1519 </pre></blockquote></p>
1520
1521 <p>With GnuPG version 2 one can also locate the keyserver using SRV
1522 entries in DNS.  Just for fun, I did just that at work, so now every
1523 user of GnuPG at the University of Oslo should find a OpenGPG
1524 keyserver automatically should their need it:</p>
1525
1526 <p><blockquote><pre>
1527 % host -t srv _pgpkey-http._tcp.uio.no
1528 _pgpkey-http._tcp.uio.no has SRV record 0 100 11371 pool.sks-keyservers.net.
1529 %
1530 </pre></blockquote></p>
1531
1532 <p>Now if only
1533 <a href="http://ietfreport.isoc.org/idref/draft-shaw-openpgp-hkp/">the
1534 HKP lookup protocol</a> supported finding signature paths, I would be
1535 very happy.  It can look up a given key or search for a user ID, but I
1536 normally do not want that, but to find a trust path from my key to
1537 another key.  Given a user ID or key ID, I would like to find (and
1538 download) the keys representing a signature path from my key to the
1539 key in question, to be able to get a trust path between the two keys.
1540 This is as far as I can tell not possible today.  Perhaps something
1541 for a future version of the protocol?</p>
1542
1543       </div>
1544       <div class="tags">
1545
1546
1547         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/personvern">personvern</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>.
1548
1549
1550       </div>
1551     </div>
1552     <div class="padding"></div>
1553
1554     <div class="entry">
1555       <div class="title">
1556         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/From_English_wiki_to_translated_PDF_and_epub_via_Docbook.html">From English wiki to translated PDF and epub via Docbook</a>
1557       </div>
1558       <div class="date">
1559         17th June 2014
1560       </div>
1561       <div class="body">
1562         <p>The <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux
1563 project</a> provide an instruction manual for teachers, system
1564 administrators and other users that contain useful tips for setting up
1565 and maintaining a Debian Edu installation.  This text is about how the
1566 text processing of this manual is handled in the project.</p>
1567
1568 <p>One goal of the project is to provide information in the native
1569 language of its users, and for this we need to handle translations.
1570 But we also want to make sure each language contain the same
1571 information, so for this we need a good way to keep the translations
1572 in sync.  And we want it to be easy for our users to improve the
1573 documentation, avoiding the need to learn special formats or tools to
1574 contribute, and the obvious way to do this is to make it possible to
1575 edit the documentation using a web browser.  We also want it to be
1576 easy for translators to keep the translation up to date, and give them
1577 help in figuring out what need to be translated. Here is the list of
1578 tools and the process we have found trying to reach all these
1579 goals.</p>
1580
1581 <p>We maintain the authoritative source of our manual in the
1582 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Documentation/Wheezy/">Debian
1583 wiki</a>, as several wiki pages written in English.  It consist of one
1584 front page with references to the different chapters, several pages
1585 for each chapter, and finally one "collection page" gluing all the
1586 chapters together into one large web page (aka
1587 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Documentation/Wheezy/AllInOne">the
1588 AllInOne page</a>).  The AllInOne page is the one used for further
1589 processing and translations.  Thanks to the fact that the
1590 <a href="http://moinmo.in/">MoinMoin</a> installation on
1591 wiki.debian.org support exporting pages in
1592 <a href="http://www.docbook.org/">the Docbook format</a>, we can fetch
1593 the list of pages to export using the raw version of the AllInOne
1594 page, loop over each of them to generate a Docbook XML version of the
1595 manual.  This process also download images and transform image
1596 references to use the locally downloaded images.  The generated
1597 Docbook XML files are slightly broken, so some post-processing is done
1598 using the <tt>documentation/scripts/get_manual</tt> program, and the
1599 result is a nice Docbook XML file (debian-edu-wheezy-manual.xml) and
1600 a handfull of images.  The XML file can now be used to generate PDF, HTML
1601 and epub versions of the English manual.  This is the basic step of
1602 our process, making PDF (using dblatex), HTML (using xsltproc) and
1603 epub (using dbtoepub) version from Docbook XML, and the resulting files
1604 are placed in the debian-edu-doc-en binary package.</p>
1605
1606 <p>But English documentation is not enough for us.  We want translated
1607 documentation too, and we want to make it easy for translators to
1608 track the English original.  For this we use the
1609 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/p/poxml.html">poxml</a> package,
1610 which allow us to transform the English Docbook XML file into a
1611 translation file (a .pot file), usable with the normal gettext based
1612 translation tools used by those translating free software.  The pot
1613 file is used to create and maintain translation files (several .po
1614 files), which the translations update with the native language
1615 translations of all titles, paragraphs and blocks of text in the
1616 original.  The next step is combining the original English Docbook XML
1617 and the translation file (say debian-edu-wheezy-manual.nb.po), to
1618 create a translated Docbook XML file (in this case
1619 debian-edu-wheezy-manual.nb.xml).  This translated (or partly
1620 translated, if the translation is not complete) Docbook XML file can
1621 then be used like the original to create a PDF, HTML and epub version
1622 of the documentation.</p>
1623
1624 <p>The translators use different tools to edit the .po files.  We
1625 recommend using
1626 <a href="http://www.kde.org/applications/development/lokalize/">lokalize</a>,
1627 while some use emacs and vi, others can use web based editors like
1628 <a href="http://pootle.translatehouse.org/">Poodle</a> or
1629 <a href="https://www.transifex.com/">Transifex</a>.  All we care about
1630 is where the .po file end up, in our git repository.  Updated
1631 translations can either be committed directly to git, or submitted as
1632 <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/src:debian-edu-doc">bug reports
1633 against the debian-edu-doc package</a>.</p>
1634
1635 <p>One challenge is images, which both might need to be translated (if
1636 they show translated user applications), and are needed in different
1637 formats when creating PDF and HTML versions (epub is a HTML version in
1638 this regard).  For this we transform the original PNG images to the
1639 needed density and format during build, and have a way to provide
1640 translated images by storing translated versions in
1641 images/$LANGUAGECODE/.  I am a bit unsure about the details here.  The
1642 package maintainers know more.</p>
1643
1644 <p>If you wonder what the result look like, we provide
1645 <a href="http://maintainer.skolelinux.org/debian-edu-doc/">the content
1646 of the documentation packages on the web</a>.  See for example the
1647 <a href="http://maintainer.skolelinux.org/debian-edu-doc/it/debian-edu-wheezy-manual.pdf">Italian
1648 PDF version</a> or the
1649 <a href="http://maintainer.skolelinux.org/debian-edu-doc/de/debian-edu-wheezy-manual.html">German
1650 HTML version</a>.  We do not yet build the epub version by default,
1651 but perhaps it will be done in the future.</p>
1652
1653 <p>To learn more, check out
1654 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/d/debian-edu-doc.html">the
1655 debian-edu-doc package</a>,
1656 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Documentation/Wheezy/">the
1657 manual on the wiki</a> and
1658 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Documentation/Wheezy/Translations">the
1659 translation instructions</a> in the manual.</p>
1660
1661       </div>
1662       <div class="tags">
1663
1664
1665         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/docbook">docbook</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
1666
1667
1668       </div>
1669     </div>
1670     <div class="padding"></div>
1671
1672     <div class="entry">
1673       <div class="title">
1674         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Install_hardware_dependent_packages_using_tasksel__Isenkram_0_7_.html">Install hardware dependent packages using tasksel (Isenkram 0.7)</a>
1675       </div>
1676       <div class="date">
1677         23rd April 2014
1678       </div>
1679       <div class="body">
1680         <p>It would be nice if it was easier in Debian to get all the hardware
1681 related packages relevant for the computer installed automatically.
1682 So I implemented one, using
1683 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/isenkram">my Isenkram
1684 package</a>.  To use it, install the tasksel and isenkram packages and
1685 run tasksel as user root.  You should be presented with a new option,
1686 "Hardware specific packages (autodetected by isenkram)".  When you
1687 select it, tasksel will install the packages isenkram claim is fit for
1688 the current hardware, hot pluggable or not.<p>
1689
1690 <p>The implementation is in two files, one is the tasksel menu entry
1691 description, and the other is the script used to extract the list of
1692 packages to install.  The first part is in
1693 <tt>/usr/share/tasksel/descs/isenkram.desc</tt> and look like
1694 this:</p>
1695
1696 <p><blockquote><pre>
1697 Task: isenkram
1698 Section: hardware
1699 Description: Hardware specific packages (autodetected by isenkram)
1700  Based on the detected hardware various hardware specific packages are
1701  proposed.
1702 Test-new-install: mark show
1703 Relevance: 8
1704 Packages: for-current-hardware
1705 </pre></blockquote></p>
1706
1707 <p>The second part is in
1708 <tt>/usr/lib/tasksel/packages/for-current-hardware</tt> and look like
1709 this:</p>
1710
1711 <p><blockquote><pre>
1712 #!/bin/sh
1713 #
1714 (
1715     isenkram-lookup
1716     isenkram-autoinstall-firmware -l
1717 ) | sort -u
1718 </pre></blockquote></p>
1719
1720 <p>All in all, a very short and simple implementation making it
1721 trivial to install the hardware dependent package we all may want to
1722 have installed on our machines.  I've not been able to find a way to
1723 get tasksel to tell you exactly which packages it plan to install
1724 before doing the installation.  So if you are curious or careful,
1725 check the output from the isenkram-* command line tools first.</p>
1726
1727 <p>The information about which packages are handling which hardware is
1728 fetched either from the isenkram package itself in
1729 /usr/share/isenkram/, from git.debian.org or from the APT package
1730 database (using the Modaliases header).  The APT package database
1731 parsing have caused a nasty resource leak in the isenkram daemon (bugs
1732 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/719837">#719837</a> and
1733 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/730704">#730704</a>).  The cause is in
1734 the python-apt code (bug
1735 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/745487">#745487</a>), but using a
1736 workaround I was able to get rid of the file descriptor leak and
1737 reduce the memory leak from ~30 MiB per hardware detection down to
1738 around 2 MiB per hardware detection.  It should make the desktop
1739 daemon a lot more useful.  The fix is in version 0.7 uploaded to
1740 unstable today.</p>
1741
1742 <p>I believe the current way of mapping hardware to packages in
1743 Isenkram is is a good draft, but in the future I expect isenkram to
1744 use the AppStream data source for this.  A proposal for getting proper
1745 AppStream support into Debian is floating around as
1746 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DEP-11">DEP-11</a>, and
1747 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/SummerOfCode2014/Projects#SummerOfCode2014.2FProjects.2FAppStreamDEP11Implementation.AppStream.2FDEP-11_for_the_Debian_Archive">GSoC
1748 project</a> will take place this summer to improve the situation.  I
1749 look forward to seeing the result, and welcome patches for isenkram to
1750 start using the information when it is ready.</p>
1751
1752 <p>If you want your package to map to some specific hardware, either
1753 add a "Xb-Modaliases" header to your control file like I did in
1754 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/pymissile">the pymissile
1755 package</a> or submit a bug report with the details to the isenkram
1756 package.  See also
1757 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram/">all my
1758 blog posts tagged isenkram</a> for details on the notation.  I expect
1759 the information will be migrated to AppStream eventually, but for the
1760 moment I got no better place to store it.</p>
1761
1762       </div>
1763       <div class="tags">
1764
1765
1766         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>.
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/FreedomBox_milestone___all_packages_now_in_Debian_Sid.html">FreedomBox milestone - all packages now in Debian Sid</a>
1776       </div>
1777       <div class="date">
1778         15th April 2014
1779       </div>
1780       <div class="body">
1781         <p>The <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/FreedomBox">Freedombox
1782 project</a> is working on providing the software and hardware to make
1783 it easy for non-technical people to host their data and communication
1784 at home, and being able to communicate with their friends and family
1785 encrypted and away from prying eyes.  It is still going strong, and
1786 today a major mile stone was reached.</p>
1787
1788 <p>Today, the last of the packages currently used by the project to
1789 created the system images were accepted into Debian Unstable.  It was
1790 the freedombox-setup package, which is used to configure the images
1791 during build and on the first boot.  Now all one need to get going is
1792 the build code from the freedom-maker git repository and packages from
1793 Debian.  And once the freedombox-setup package enter testing, we can
1794 build everything directly from Debian. :)</p>
1795
1796 <p>Some key packages used by Freedombox are
1797 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/freedombox-setup">freedombox-setup</a>,
1798 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/plinth">plinth</a>,
1799 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/pagekite">pagekite</a>,
1800 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/tor">tor</a>,
1801 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/privoxy">privoxy</a>,
1802 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/owncloud">owncloud</a> and
1803 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/dnsmasq">dnsmasq</a>.  There
1804 are plans to integrate more packages into the setup.  User
1805 documentation is maintained on the Debian wiki.  Please
1806 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/FreedomBox/Manual/Jessie">check out
1807 the manual</a> and help us improve it.</p>
1808
1809 <p>To test for yourself and create boot images with the FreedomBox
1810 setup, run this on a Debian machine using a user with sudo rights to
1811 become root:</p>
1812
1813 <p><pre>
1814 sudo apt-get install git vmdebootstrap mercurial python-docutils \
1815   mktorrent extlinux virtualbox qemu-user-static binfmt-support \
1816   u-boot-tools
1817 git clone http://anonscm.debian.org/git/freedombox/freedom-maker.git \
1818   freedom-maker
1819 make -C freedom-maker dreamplug-image raspberry-image virtualbox-image
1820 </pre></p>
1821
1822 <p>Root access is needed to run debootstrap and mount loopback
1823 devices.  See the README in the freedom-maker git repo for more
1824 details on the build.  If you do not want all three images, trim the
1825 make line.  Note that the virtualbox-image target is not really
1826 virtualbox specific.  It create a x86 image usable in kvm, qemu,
1827 vmware and any other x86 virtual machine environment.  You might need
1828 the version of vmdebootstrap in Jessie to get the build working, as it
1829 include fixes for a race condition with kpartx.</p>
1830
1831 <p>If you instead want to install using a Debian CD and the preseed
1832 method, boot a Debian Wheezy ISO and use this boot argument to load
1833 the preseed values:</p>
1834
1835 <p><pre>
1836 url=<a href="http://www.reinholdtsen.name/freedombox/preseed-jessie.dat">http://www.reinholdtsen.name/freedombox/preseed-jessie.dat</a>
1837 </pre></p>
1838
1839 <p>I have not tested it myself the last few weeks, so I do not know if
1840 it still work.</p>
1841
1842 <p>If you wonder how to help, one task you could look at is using
1843 systemd as the boot system.  It will become the default for Linux in
1844 Jessie, so we need to make sure it is usable on the Freedombox.  I did
1845 a simple test a few weeks ago, and noticed dnsmasq failed to start
1846 during boot when using systemd.  I suspect there are other problems
1847 too. :) To detect problems, there is a test suite included, which can
1848 be run from the plinth web interface.</p>
1849
1850 <p>Give it a go and let us know how it goes on the mailing list, and help
1851 us get the new release published. :) Please join us on
1852 <a href="irc://irc.debian.org:6667/%23freedombox">IRC (#freedombox on
1853 irc.debian.org)</a> and
1854 <a href="http://lists.alioth.debian.org/mailman/listinfo/freedombox-discuss">the
1855 mailing list</a> if you want to help make this vision come true.</p>
1856
1857       </div>
1858       <div class="tags">
1859
1860
1861         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freedombox">freedombox</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/web">web</a>.
1862
1863
1864       </div>
1865     </div>
1866     <div class="padding"></div>
1867
1868     <div class="entry">
1869       <div class="title">
1870         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/S3QL__a_locally_mounted_cloud_file_system___nice_free_software.html">S3QL, a locally mounted cloud file system - nice free software</a>
1871       </div>
1872       <div class="date">
1873          9th April 2014
1874       </div>
1875       <div class="body">
1876         <p>For a while now, I have been looking for a sensible offsite backup
1877 solution for use at home.  My requirements are simple, it must be
1878 cheap and locally encrypted (in other words, I keep the encryption
1879 keys, the storage provider do not have access to my private files).
1880 One idea me and my friends had many years ago, before the cloud
1881 storage providers showed up, was to use Google mail as storage,
1882 writing a Linux block device storing blocks as emails in the mail
1883 service provided by Google, and thus get heaps of free space.  On top
1884 of this one can add encryption, RAID and volume management to have
1885 lots of (fairly slow, I admit that) cheap and encrypted storage.  But
1886 I never found time to implement such system.  But the last few weeks I
1887 have looked at a system called
1888 <a href="https://bitbucket.org/nikratio/s3ql/">S3QL</a>, a locally
1889 mounted network backed file system with the features I need.</p>
1890
1891 <p>S3QL is a fuse file system with a local cache and cloud storage,
1892 handling several different storage providers, any with Amazon S3,
1893 Google Drive or OpenStack API.  There are heaps of such storage
1894 providers.  S3QL can also use a local directory as storage, which
1895 combined with sshfs allow for file storage on any ssh server.  S3QL
1896 include support for encryption, compression, de-duplication, snapshots
1897 and immutable file systems, allowing me to mount the remote storage as
1898 a local mount point, look at and use the files as if they were local,
1899 while the content is stored in the cloud as well.  This allow me to
1900 have a backup that should survive fire.  The file system can not be
1901 shared between several machines at the same time, as only one can
1902 mount it at the time, but any machine with the encryption key and
1903 access to the storage service can mount it if it is unmounted.</p>
1904
1905 <p>It is simple to use.  I'm using it on Debian Wheezy, where the
1906 package is included already.  So to get started, run <tt>apt-get
1907 install s3ql</tt>.  Next, pick a storage provider.  I ended up picking
1908 Greenqloud, after reading their nice recipe on
1909 <a href="https://greenqloud.zendesk.com/entries/44611757-How-To-Use-S3QL-to-mount-a-StorageQloud-bucket-on-Debian-Wheezy">how
1910 to use S3QL with their Amazon S3 service</a>, because I trust the laws
1911 in Iceland more than those in USA when it come to keeping my personal
1912 data safe and private, and thus would rather spend money on a company
1913 in Iceland.  Another nice recipe is available from the article
1914 <a href="http://www.admin-magazine.com/HPC/Articles/HPC-Cloud-Storage">S3QL
1915 Filesystem for HPC Storage</a> by Jeff Layton in the HPC section of
1916 Admin magazine.  When the provider is picked, figure out how to get
1917 the API key needed to connect to the storage API.  With Greencloud,
1918 the key did not show up until I had added payment details to my
1919 account.</p>
1920
1921 <p>Armed with the API access details, it is time to create the file
1922 system.  First, create a new bucket in the cloud.  This bucket is the
1923 file system storage area.  I picked a bucket name reflecting the
1924 machine that was going to store data there, but any name will do.
1925 I'll refer to it as <tt>bucket-name</tt> below.  In addition, one need
1926 the API login and password, and a locally created password.  Store it
1927 all in ~root/.s3ql/authinfo2 like this:
1928
1929 <p><blockquote><pre>
1930 [s3c]
1931 storage-url: s3c://s.greenqloud.com:443/bucket-name
1932 backend-login: API-login
1933 backend-password: API-password
1934 fs-passphrase: local-password
1935 </pre></blockquote></p>
1936
1937 <p>I create my local passphrase using <tt>pwget 50</tt> or similar,
1938 but any sensible way to create a fairly random password should do it.
1939 Armed with these details, it is now time to run mkfs, entering the API
1940 details and password to create it:</p>
1941
1942 <p><blockquote><pre>
1943 # mkdir -m 700 /var/lib/s3ql-cache
1944 # mkfs.s3ql --cachedir /var/lib/s3ql-cache --authfile /root/.s3ql/authinfo2 \
1945   --ssl s3c://s.greenqloud.com:443/bucket-name
1946 Enter backend login:
1947 Enter backend password:
1948 Before using S3QL, make sure to read the user's guide, especially
1949 the 'Important Rules to Avoid Loosing Data' section.
1950 Enter encryption password:
1951 Confirm encryption password:
1952 Generating random encryption key...
1953 Creating metadata tables...
1954 Dumping metadata...
1955 ..objects..
1956 ..blocks..
1957 ..inodes..
1958 ..inode_blocks..
1959 ..symlink_targets..
1960 ..names..
1961 ..contents..
1962 ..ext_attributes..
1963 Compressing and uploading metadata...
1964 Wrote 0.00 MB of compressed metadata.
1965 # </pre></blockquote></p>
1966
1967 <p>The next step is mounting the file system to make the storage available.
1968
1969 <p><blockquote><pre>
1970 # mount.s3ql --cachedir /var/lib/s3ql-cache --authfile /root/.s3ql/authinfo2 \
1971   --ssl --allow-root s3c://s.greenqloud.com:443/bucket-name /s3ql
1972 Using 4 upload threads.
1973 Downloading and decompressing metadata...
1974 Reading metadata...
1975 ..objects..
1976 ..blocks..
1977 ..inodes..
1978 ..inode_blocks..
1979 ..symlink_targets..
1980 ..names..
1981 ..contents..
1982 ..ext_attributes..
1983 Mounting filesystem...
1984 # df -h /s3ql
1985 Filesystem                              Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
1986 s3c://s.greenqloud.com:443/bucket-name  1.0T     0  1.0T   0% /s3ql
1987 #
1988 </pre></blockquote></p>
1989
1990 <p>The file system is now ready for use.  I use rsync to store my
1991 backups in it, and as the metadata used by rsync is downloaded at
1992 mount time, no network traffic (and storage cost) is triggered by
1993 running rsync.  To unmount, one should not use the normal umount
1994 command, as this will not flush the cache to the cloud storage, but
1995 instead running the umount.s3ql command like this:
1996
1997 <p><blockquote><pre>
1998 # umount.s3ql /s3ql
1999 #
2000 </pre></blockquote></p>
2001
2002 <p>There is a fsck command available to check the file system and
2003 correct any problems detected.  This can be used if the local server
2004 crashes while the file system is mounted, to reset the "already
2005 mounted" flag.  This is what it look like when processing a working
2006 file system:</p>
2007
2008 <p><blockquote><pre>
2009 # fsck.s3ql --force --ssl s3c://s.greenqloud.com:443/bucket-name
2010 Using cached metadata.
2011 File system seems clean, checking anyway.
2012 Checking DB integrity...
2013 Creating temporary extra indices...
2014 Checking lost+found...
2015 Checking cached objects...
2016 Checking names (refcounts)...
2017 Checking contents (names)...
2018 Checking contents (inodes)...
2019 Checking contents (parent inodes)...
2020 Checking objects (reference counts)...
2021 Checking objects (backend)...
2022 ..processed 5000 objects so far..
2023 ..processed 10000 objects so far..
2024 ..processed 15000 objects so far..
2025 Checking objects (sizes)...
2026 Checking blocks (referenced objects)...
2027 Checking blocks (refcounts)...
2028 Checking inode-block mapping (blocks)...
2029 Checking inode-block mapping (inodes)...
2030 Checking inodes (refcounts)...
2031 Checking inodes (sizes)...
2032 Checking extended attributes (names)...
2033 Checking extended attributes (inodes)...
2034 Checking symlinks (inodes)...
2035 Checking directory reachability...
2036 Checking unix conventions...
2037 Checking referential integrity...
2038 Dropping temporary indices...
2039 Backing up old metadata...
2040 Dumping metadata...
2041 ..objects..
2042 ..blocks..
2043 ..inodes..
2044 ..inode_blocks..
2045 ..symlink_targets..
2046 ..names..
2047 ..contents..
2048 ..ext_attributes..
2049 Compressing and uploading metadata...
2050 Wrote 0.89 MB of compressed metadata.
2051 #
2052 </pre></blockquote></p>
2053
2054 <p>Thanks to the cache, working on files that fit in the cache is very
2055 quick, about the same speed as local file access.  Uploading large
2056 amount of data is to me limited by the bandwidth out of and into my
2057 house.  Uploading 685 MiB with a 100 MiB cache gave me 305 kiB/s,
2058 which is very close to my upload speed, and downloading the same
2059 Debian installation ISO gave me 610 kiB/s, close to my download speed.
2060 Both were measured using <tt>dd</tt>.  So for me, the bottleneck is my
2061 network, not the file system code.  I do not know what a good cache
2062 size would be, but suspect that the cache should e larger than your
2063 working set.</p>
2064
2065 <p>I mentioned that only one machine can mount the file system at the
2066 time.  If another machine try, it is told that the file system is
2067 busy:</p>
2068
2069 <p><blockquote><pre>
2070 # mount.s3ql --cachedir /var/lib/s3ql-cache --authfile /root/.s3ql/authinfo2 \
2071   --ssl --allow-root s3c://s.greenqloud.com:443/bucket-name /s3ql
2072 Using 8 upload threads.
2073 Backend reports that fs is still mounted elsewhere, aborting.
2074 #
2075 </pre></blockquote></p>
2076
2077 <p>The file content is uploaded when the cache is full, while the
2078 metadata is uploaded once every 24 hour by default.  To ensure the
2079 file system content is flushed to the cloud, one can either umount the
2080 file system, or ask S3QL to flush the cache and metadata using
2081 s3qlctrl:
2082
2083 <p><blockquote><pre>
2084 # s3qlctrl upload-meta /s3ql
2085 # s3qlctrl flushcache /s3ql
2086 #
2087 </pre></blockquote></p>
2088
2089 <p>If you are curious about how much space your data uses in the
2090 cloud, and how much compression and deduplication cut down on the
2091 storage usage, you can use s3qlstat on the mounted file system to get
2092 a report:</p>
2093
2094 <p><blockquote><pre>
2095 # s3qlstat /s3ql
2096 Directory entries:    9141
2097 Inodes:               9143
2098 Data blocks:          8851
2099 Total data size:      22049.38 MB
2100 After de-duplication: 21955.46 MB (99.57% of total)
2101 After compression:    21877.28 MB (99.22% of total, 99.64% of de-duplicated)
2102 Database size:        2.39 MB (uncompressed)
2103 (some values do not take into account not-yet-uploaded dirty blocks in cache)
2104 #
2105 </pre></blockquote></p>
2106
2107 <p>I mentioned earlier that there are several possible suppliers of
2108 storage.  I did not try to locate them all, but am aware of at least
2109 <a href="https://www.greenqloud.com/">Greenqloud</a>,
2110 <a href="http://drive.google.com/">Google Drive</a>,
2111 <a href="http://aws.amazon.com/s3/">Amazon S3 web serivces</a>,
2112 <a href="http://www.rackspace.com/">Rackspace</a> and
2113 <a href="http://crowncloud.net/">Crowncloud</A>.  The latter even
2114 accept payment in Bitcoin.  Pick one that suit your need.  Some of
2115 them provide several GiB of free storage, but the prize models are
2116 quite different and you will have to figure out what suits you
2117 best.</p>
2118
2119 <p>While researching this blog post, I had a look at research papers
2120 and posters discussing the S3QL file system.  There are several, which
2121 told me that the file system is getting a critical check by the
2122 science community and increased my confidence in using it.  One nice
2123 poster is titled
2124 "<a href="http://www.lanl.gov/orgs/adtsc/publications/science_highlights_2013/docs/pg68_69.pdf">An
2125 Innovative Parallel Cloud Storage System using OpenStack’s SwiftObject
2126 Store and Transformative Parallel I/O Approach</a>" by Hsing-Bung
2127 Chen, Benjamin McClelland, David Sherrill, Alfred Torrez, Parks Fields
2128 and Pamela Smith.  Please  have a look.</p>
2129
2130 <p>Given my problems with different file systems earlier, I decided to
2131 check out the mounted S3QL file system to see if it would be usable as
2132 a home directory (in other word, that it provided POSIX semantics when
2133 it come to locking and umask handling etc).  Running
2134 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Testing_if_a_file_system_can_be_used_for_home_directories___.html">my
2135 test code to check file system semantics</a>, I was happy to discover that
2136 no error was found.  So the file system can be used for home
2137 directories, if one chooses to do so.</p>
2138
2139 <p>If you do not want a locally file system, and want something that
2140 work without the Linux fuse file system, I would like to mention the
2141 <a href="http://www.tarsnap.com/">Tarsnap service</a>, which also
2142 provide locally encrypted backup using a command line client.  It have
2143 a nicer access control system, where one can split out read and write
2144 access, allowing some systems to write to the backup and others to
2145 only read from it.</p>
2146
2147 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
2148 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
2149 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b&label=PetterReinholdtsenBlog">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
2150
2151       </div>
2152       <div class="tags">
2153
2154
2155         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nice free software">nice free software</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/personvern">personvern</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>.
2156
2157
2158       </div>
2159     </div>
2160     <div class="padding"></div>
2161
2162     <div class="entry">
2163       <div class="title">
2164         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Freedombox_on_Dreamplug__Raspberry_Pi_and_virtual_x86_machine.html">Freedombox on Dreamplug, Raspberry Pi and virtual x86 machine</a>
2165       </div>
2166       <div class="date">
2167         14th March 2014
2168       </div>
2169       <div class="body">
2170         <p>The <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/FreedomBox">Freedombox
2171 project</a> is working on providing the software and hardware for
2172 making it easy for non-technical people to host their data and
2173 communication at home, and being able to communicate with their
2174 friends and family encrypted and away from prying eyes.  It has been
2175 going on for a while, and is slowly progressing towards a new test
2176 release (0.2).</p>
2177
2178 <p>And what day could be better than the Pi day to announce that the
2179 new version will provide "hard drive" / SD card / USB stick images for
2180 Dreamplug, Raspberry Pi and VirtualBox (or any other virtualization
2181 system), and can also be installed using a Debian installer preseed
2182 file.  The Debian based Freedombox is now based on Debian Jessie,
2183 where most of the needed packages used are already present.  Only one,
2184 the freedombox-setup package, is missing.  To try to build your own
2185 boot image to test the current status, fetch the freedom-maker scripts
2186 and build using
2187 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/vmdebootstrap">vmdebootstrap</a>
2188 with a user with sudo access to become root:
2189
2190 <pre>
2191 git clone http://anonscm.debian.org/git/freedombox/freedom-maker.git \
2192   freedom-maker
2193 sudo apt-get install git vmdebootstrap mercurial python-docutils \
2194   mktorrent extlinux virtualbox qemu-user-static binfmt-support \
2195   u-boot-tools
2196 make -C freedom-maker dreamplug-image raspberry-image virtualbox-image
2197 </pre>
2198
2199 <p>Root access is needed to run debootstrap and mount loopback
2200 devices.  See the README for more details on the build. If you do not
2201 want all three images, trim the make line.  But note that thanks to <a
2202 href="https://bugs.debian.org/741407">a race condition in
2203 vmdebootstrap</a>, the build might fail without the patch to the
2204 kpartx call.</p>
2205
2206 <p>If you instead want to install using a Debian CD and the preseed
2207 method, boot a Debian Wheezy ISO and use this boot argument to load
2208 the preseed values:</p>
2209
2210 <pre>
2211 url=<a href="http://www.reinholdtsen.name/freedombox/preseed-jessie.dat">http://www.reinholdtsen.name/freedombox/preseed-jessie.dat</a>
2212 </pre>
2213
2214 <p>But note that due to <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/740673">a
2215 recently introduced bug in apt in Jessie</a>, the installer will
2216 currently hang while setting up APT sources.  Killing the
2217 '<tt>apt-cdrom ident</tt>' process when it hang a few times during the
2218 installation will get the installation going.  This affect all
2219 installations in Jessie, and I expect it will be fixed soon.</p>
2220
2221 <p>Give it a go and let us know how it goes on the mailing list, and help
2222 us get the new release published. :) Please join us on
2223 <a href="irc://irc.debian.org:6667/%23freedombox">IRC (#freedombox on
2224 irc.debian.org)</a> and
2225 <a href="http://lists.alioth.debian.org/mailman/listinfo/freedombox-discuss">the
2226 mailing list</a> if you want to help make this vision come true.</p>
2227
2228       </div>
2229       <div class="tags">
2230
2231
2232         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freedombox">freedombox</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/web">web</a>.
2233
2234
2235       </div>
2236     </div>
2237     <div class="padding"></div>
2238
2239     <div class="entry">
2240       <div class="title">
2241         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/New_home_and_release_1_0_for_netgroup_and_innetgr__aka_ng_utils_.html">New home and release 1.0 for netgroup and innetgr (aka ng-utils)</a>
2242       </div>
2243       <div class="date">
2244         22nd February 2014
2245       </div>
2246       <div class="body">
2247         <p>Many years ago, I wrote a GPL licensed version of the netgroup and
2248 innetgr tools, because I needed them in
2249 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Skolelinux</a>.  I called the project
2250 ng-utils, and it has served me well.  I placed the project under the
2251 <a href="http://www.hungry.com/">Hungry Programmer</a> umbrella, and it was maintained in our CVS
2252 repository.  But many years ago, the CVS repository was dropped (lost,
2253 not migrated to new hardware, not sure), and the project have lacked a
2254 proper home since then.</p>
2255
2256 <p>Last summer, I had a look at the package and made a new release
2257 fixing a irritating crash bug, but was unable to store the changes in
2258 a proper source control system.  I applied for a project on
2259 <a href="https://alioth.debian.org/">Alioth</a>, but did not have time
2260 to follow up on it.  Until today. :)</p>
2261
2262 <p>After many hours of cleaning and migration, the ng-utils project
2263 now have a new home, and a git repository with the highlight of the
2264 history of the project.  I published all release tarballs and imported
2265 them into the git repository.  As the project is really stable and not
2266 expected to gain new features any time soon, I decided to make a new
2267 release and call it 1.0.  Visit the new project home on
2268 <a href="https://alioth.debian.org/projects/ng-utils/">https://alioth.debian.org/projects/ng-utils/</a>
2269 if you want to check it out.  The new version is also uploaded into
2270 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/n/ng-utils.html">Debian Unstable</a>.</p>
2271
2272       </div>
2273       <div class="tags">
2274
2275
2276         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>.
2277
2278
2279       </div>
2280     </div>
2281     <div class="padding"></div>
2282
2283     <div class="entry">
2284       <div class="title">
2285         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Testing_sysvinit_from_experimental_in_Debian_Hurd.html">Testing sysvinit from experimental in Debian Hurd</a>
2286       </div>
2287       <div class="date">
2288          3rd February 2014
2289       </div>
2290       <div class="body">
2291         <p>A few days ago I decided to try to help the Hurd people to get
2292 their changes into sysvinit, to allow them to use the normal sysvinit
2293 boot system instead of their old one.  This follow up on the
2294 <a href="https://teythoon.cryptobitch.de//categories/gsoc.html">great
2295 Google Summer of Code work</a> done last summer by Justus Winter to
2296 get Debian on Hurd working more like Debian on Linux.  To get started,
2297 I downloaded a prebuilt hard disk image from
2298 <a href="http://ftp.debian-ports.org/debian-cd/hurd-i386/current/debian-hurd.img.tar.gz">http://ftp.debian-ports.org/debian-cd/hurd-i386/current/debian-hurd.img.tar.gz</a>,
2299 and started it using virt-manager.</p>
2300
2301 <p>The first think I had to do after logging in (root without any
2302 password) was to get the network operational.  I followed
2303 <a href="https://www.debian.org/ports/hurd/hurd-install">the
2304 instructions on the Debian GNU/Hurd ports page</a> and ran these
2305 commands as root to get the machine to accept a IP address from the
2306 kvm internal DHCP server:</p>
2307
2308 <p><blockquote><pre>
2309 settrans -fgap /dev/netdde /hurd/netdde
2310 kill $(ps -ef|awk '/[p]finet/ { print $2}')
2311 kill $(ps -ef|awk '/[d]evnode/ { print $2}')
2312 dhclient /dev/eth0
2313 </pre></blockquote></p>
2314
2315 <p>After this, the machine had internet connectivity, and I could
2316 upgrade it and install the sysvinit packages from experimental and
2317 enable it as the default boot system in Hurd.</p>
2318
2319 <p>But before I did that, I set a password on the root user, as ssh is
2320 running on the machine it for ssh login to work a password need to be
2321 set.  Also, note that a bug somewhere in openssh on Hurd block
2322 compression from working.  Remember to turn that off on the client
2323 side.</p>
2324
2325 <p>Run these commands as root to upgrade and test the new sysvinit
2326 stuff:</p>
2327
2328 <p><blockquote><pre>
2329 cat > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/experimental.list &lt;&lt;EOF
2330 deb http://http.debian.net/debian/ experimental main
2331 EOF
2332 apt-get update
2333 apt-get dist-upgrade
2334 apt-get install -t experimental initscripts sysv-rc sysvinit \
2335     sysvinit-core sysvinit-utils
2336 update-alternatives --config runsystem
2337 </pre></blockquote></p>
2338
2339 <p>To reboot after switching boot system, you have to use
2340 <tt>reboot-hurd</tt> instead of just <tt>reboot</tt>, as there is not
2341 yet a sysvinit process able to receive the signals from the normal
2342 'reboot' command.  After switching to sysvinit as the boot system,
2343 upgrading every package and rebooting, the network come up with DHCP
2344 after boot as it should, and the settrans/pkill hack mentioned at the
2345 start is no longer needed.  But for some strange reason, there are no
2346 longer any login prompt in the virtual console, so I logged in using
2347 ssh instead.
2348
2349 <p>Note that there are some race conditions in Hurd making the boot
2350 fail some times.  No idea what the cause is, but hope the Hurd porters
2351 figure it out.  At least Justus said on IRC (#debian-hurd on
2352 irc.debian.org) that they are aware of the problem.  A way to reduce
2353 the impact is to upgrade to the Hurd packages built by Justus by
2354 adding this repository to the machine:</p>
2355
2356 <p><blockquote><pre>
2357 cat > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/hurd-ci.list &lt;&lt;EOF
2358 deb http://darnassus.sceen.net/~teythoon/hurd-ci/ sid main
2359 EOF
2360 </pre></blockquote></p>
2361
2362 <p>At the moment the prebuilt virtual machine get some packages from
2363 http://ftp.debian-ports.org/debian, because some of the packages in
2364 unstable do not yet include the required patches that are lingering in
2365 BTS.  This is the completely list of "unofficial" packages installed:</p>
2366
2367 <p><blockquote><pre>
2368 # aptitude search '?narrow(?version(CURRENT),?origin(Debian Ports))'
2369 i   emacs                   - GNU Emacs editor (metapackage)
2370 i   gdb                     - GNU Debugger
2371 i   hurd-recommended        - Miscellaneous translators
2372 i   isc-dhcp-client         - ISC DHCP client
2373 i   isc-dhcp-common         - common files used by all the isc-dhcp* packages
2374 i   libc-bin                - Embedded GNU C Library: Binaries
2375 i   libc-dev-bin            - Embedded GNU C Library: Development binaries
2376 i   libc0.3                 - Embedded GNU C Library: Shared libraries
2377 i A libc0.3-dbg             - Embedded GNU C Library: detached debugging symbols
2378 i   libc0.3-dev             - Embedded GNU C Library: Development Libraries and Hea
2379 i   multiarch-support       - Transitional package to ensure multiarch compatibilit
2380 i A x11-common              - X Window System (X.Org) infrastructure
2381 i   xorg                    - X.Org X Window System
2382 i A xserver-xorg            - X.Org X server
2383 i A xserver-xorg-input-all  - X.Org X server -- input driver metapackage
2384 #
2385 </pre></blockquote></p>
2386
2387 <p>All in all, testing hurd has been an interesting experience. :)
2388 X.org did not work out of the box and I never took the time to follow
2389 the porters instructions to fix it.  This time I was interested in the
2390 command line stuff.<p>
2391
2392       </div>
2393       <div class="tags">
2394
2395
2396         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>.
2397
2398
2399       </div>
2400     </div>
2401     <div class="padding"></div>
2402
2403     <div class="entry">
2404       <div class="title">
2405         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/New_chrpath_release_0_16.html">New chrpath release 0.16</a>
2406       </div>
2407       <div class="date">
2408         14th January 2014
2409       </div>
2410       <div class="body">
2411         <p><a href="http://www.coverity.com/">Coverity</a> is a nice tool to
2412 find problems in C, C++ and Java code using static source code
2413 analysis.  It can detect a lot of different problems, and is very
2414 useful to find memory and locking bugs in the error handling part of
2415 the source.  The company behind it provide
2416 <a href="https://scan.coverity.com/">check of free software projects as
2417 a community service</a>, and many hundred free software projects are
2418 already checked.  A few days ago I decided to have a closer look at
2419 the Coverity system, and discovered that the
2420 <a href="http://www.gnu.org/software/gnash/">gnash</a> and
2421 <a href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/ipmitool/">ipmitool</a>
2422 projects I am involved with was already registered.  But these are
2423 fairly big, and I would also like to have a small and easy project to
2424 check, and decided to <a href="http://scan.coverity.com/projects/1179">request
2425 checking of the chrpath project</a>.  It was
2426 added to the checker and discovered seven potential defects.  Six of
2427 these were real, mostly resource "leak" when the program detected an
2428 error.  Nothing serious, as the resources would be released a fraction
2429 of a second later when the program exited because of the error, but it
2430 is nice to do it right in case the source of the program some time in
2431 the future end up in a library.  Having fixed all defects and added
2432 <a href="https://lists.alioth.debian.org/mailman/listinfo/chrpath-devel">a
2433 mailing list for the chrpath developers</a>, I decided it was time to
2434 publish a new release.  These are the release notes:</p>
2435
2436 <p>New in 0.16 released 2014-01-14:</p>
2437
2438 <ul>
2439
2440   <li>Fixed all minor bugs discovered by Coverity.</li>
2441   <li>Updated config.sub and config.guess from the GNU project.</li>
2442   <li>Mention new project mailing list in the documentation.</li>
2443
2444 </ul>
2445
2446 <p>You can
2447 <a href="https://alioth.debian.org/frs/?group_id=31052">download the
2448 new version 0.16 from alioth</a>.  Please let us know via the Alioth
2449 project if something is wrong with the new release.  The test suite
2450 did not discover any old errors, so if you find a new one, please also
2451 include a test suite check.</p>
2452
2453       </div>
2454       <div class="tags">
2455
2456
2457         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/chrpath">chrpath</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
2458
2459
2460       </div>
2461     </div>
2462     <div class="padding"></div>
2463
2464     <div class="entry">
2465       <div class="title">
2466         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/New_chrpath_release_0_15.html">New chrpath release 0.15</a>
2467       </div>
2468       <div class="date">
2469         24th November 2013
2470       </div>
2471       <div class="body">
2472         <p>After many years break from the package and a vain hope that
2473 development would be continued by someone else, I finally pulled my
2474 acts together this morning and wrapped up a new release of chrpath,
2475 the command line tool to modify the rpath and runpath of already
2476 compiled ELF programs.  The update was triggered by the persistence of
2477 Isha Vishnoi at IBM, which needed a new config.guess file to get
2478 support for the ppc64le architecture (powerpc 64-bit Little Endian) he
2479 is working on.  I checked the
2480 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/chrpath">Debian</a>,
2481 <a href="https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/chrpath">Ubuntu</a> and
2482 <a href="https://admin.fedoraproject.org/pkgdb/acls/name/chrpath">Fedora</a>
2483 packages for interesting patches (failed to find the source from
2484 OpenSUSE and Mandriva packages), and found quite a few nice fixes.
2485 These are the release notes:</p>
2486
2487 <p>New in 0.15 released 2013-11-24:</p>
2488
2489 <ul>
2490
2491   <li>Updated config.sub and config.guess from the GNU project to work
2492    with newer architectures.  Thanks to isha vishnoi for the heads
2493    up.</li>
2494
2495   <li>Updated README with current URLs.</li>
2496
2497   <li>Added byteswap fix found in Ubuntu, credited Jeremy Kerr and
2498    Matthias Klose.</li>
2499
2500   <li>Added missing help for -k|--keepgoing option, using patch by
2501    Petr Machata found in Fedora.</li>
2502
2503   <li>Rewrite removal of RPATH/RUNPATH to make sure the entry in
2504    .dynamic is a NULL terminated string.  Based on patch found in
2505    Fedora credited Axel Thimm and Christian Krause.</li>
2506
2507 </ul>
2508
2509 <p>You can
2510 <a href="https://alioth.debian.org/frs/?group_id=31052">download the
2511 new version 0.15 from alioth</a>.  Please let us know via the Alioth
2512 project if something is wrong with the new release.  The test suite
2513 did not discover any old errors, so if you find a new one, please also
2514 include a testsuite check.</p>
2515
2516       </div>
2517       <div class="tags">
2518
2519
2520         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/chrpath">chrpath</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
2521
2522
2523       </div>
2524     </div>
2525     <div class="padding"></div>
2526
2527     <div class="entry">
2528       <div class="title">
2529         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_init_d_boot_script_example_for_rsyslog.html">Debian init.d boot script example for rsyslog</a>
2530       </div>
2531       <div class="date">
2532          2nd November 2013
2533       </div>
2534       <div class="body">
2535         <p>If one of the points of switching to a new init system in Debian is
2536 <a href="http://thomas.goirand.fr/blog/?p=147">to get rid of huge
2537 init.d scripts</a>, I doubt we need to switch away from sysvinit and
2538 init.d scripts at all.  Here is an example init.d script, ie a rewrite
2539 of /etc/init.d/rsyslog:</p>
2540
2541 <p><pre>
2542 #!/lib/init/init-d-script
2543 ### BEGIN INIT INFO
2544 # Provides:          rsyslog
2545 # Required-Start:    $remote_fs $time
2546 # Required-Stop:     umountnfs $time
2547 # X-Stop-After:      sendsigs
2548 # Default-Start:     2 3 4 5
2549 # Default-Stop:      0 1 6
2550 # Short-Description: enhanced syslogd
2551 # Description:       Rsyslog is an enhanced multi-threaded syslogd.
2552 #                    It is quite compatible to stock sysklogd and can be
2553 #                    used as a drop-in replacement.
2554 ### END INIT INFO
2555 DESC="enhanced syslogd"
2556 DAEMON=/usr/sbin/rsyslogd
2557 </pre></p>
2558
2559 <p>Pretty minimalistic to me... For the record, the original sysv-rc
2560 script was 137 lines, and the above is just 15 lines, most of it meta
2561 info/comments.</p>
2562
2563 <p>How to do this, you ask?  Well, one create a new script
2564 /lib/init/init-d-script looking something like this:
2565
2566 <p><pre>
2567 #!/bin/sh
2568
2569 # Define LSB log_* functions.
2570 # Depend on lsb-base (>= 3.2-14) to ensure that this file is present
2571 # and status_of_proc is working.
2572 . /lib/lsb/init-functions
2573
2574 #
2575 # Function that starts the daemon/service
2576
2577 #
2578 do_start()
2579 {
2580         # Return
2581         #   0 if daemon has been started
2582         #   1 if daemon was already running
2583         #   2 if daemon could not be started
2584         start-stop-daemon --start --quiet --pidfile $PIDFILE --exec $DAEMON --test > /dev/null \
2585                 || return 1
2586         start-stop-daemon --start --quiet --pidfile $PIDFILE --exec $DAEMON -- \
2587                 $DAEMON_ARGS \
2588                 || return 2
2589         # Add code here, if necessary, that waits for the process to be ready
2590         # to handle requests from services started subsequently which depend
2591         # on this one.  As a last resort, sleep for some time.
2592 }
2593
2594 #
2595 # Function that stops the daemon/service
2596 #
2597 do_stop()
2598 {
2599         # Return
2600         #   0 if daemon has been stopped
2601         #   1 if daemon was already stopped
2602         #   2 if daemon could not be stopped
2603         #   other if a failure occurred
2604         start-stop-daemon --stop --quiet --retry=TERM/30/KILL/5 --pidfile $PIDFILE --name $NAME
2605         RETVAL="$?"
2606         [ "$RETVAL" = 2 ] && return 2
2607         # Wait for children to finish too if this is a daemon that forks
2608         # and if the daemon is only ever run from this initscript.
2609         # If the above conditions are not satisfied then add some other code
2610         # that waits for the process to drop all resources that could be
2611         # needed by services started subsequently.  A last resort is to
2612         # sleep for some time.
2613         start-stop-daemon --stop --quiet --oknodo --retry=0/30/KILL/5 --exec $DAEMON
2614         [ "$?" = 2 ] && return 2
2615         # Many daemons don't delete their pidfiles when they exit.
2616         rm -f $PIDFILE
2617         return "$RETVAL"
2618 }
2619
2620 #
2621 # Function that sends a SIGHUP to the daemon/service
2622 #
2623 do_reload() {
2624         #
2625         # If the daemon can reload its configuration without
2626         # restarting (for example, when it is sent a SIGHUP),
2627         # then implement that here.
2628         #
2629         start-stop-daemon --stop --signal 1 --quiet --pidfile $PIDFILE --name $NAME
2630         return 0
2631 }
2632
2633 SCRIPTNAME=$1
2634 scriptbasename="$(basename $1)"
2635 echo "SN: $scriptbasename"
2636 if [ "$scriptbasename" != "init-d-library" ] ; then
2637     script="$1"
2638     shift
2639     . $script
2640 else
2641     exit 0
2642 fi
2643
2644 NAME=$(basename $DAEMON)
2645 PIDFILE=/var/run/$NAME.pid
2646
2647 # Exit if the package is not installed
2648 #[ -x "$DAEMON" ] || exit 0
2649
2650 # Read configuration variable file if it is present
2651 [ -r /etc/default/$NAME ] && . /etc/default/$NAME
2652
2653 # Load the VERBOSE setting and other rcS variables
2654 . /lib/init/vars.sh
2655
2656 case "$1" in
2657   start)
2658         [ "$VERBOSE" != no ] && log_daemon_msg "Starting $DESC" "$NAME"
2659         do_start
2660         case "$?" in
2661                 0|1) [ "$VERBOSE" != no ] && log_end_msg 0 ;;
2662                 2) [ "$VERBOSE" != no ] && log_end_msg 1 ;;
2663         esac
2664         ;;
2665   stop)
2666         [ "$VERBOSE" != no ] && log_daemon_msg "Stopping $DESC" "$NAME"
2667         do_stop
2668         case "$?" in
2669                 0|1) [ "$VERBOSE" != no ] && log_end_msg 0 ;;
2670                 2) [ "$VERBOSE" != no ] && log_end_msg 1 ;;
2671         esac
2672         ;;
2673   status)
2674         status_of_proc "$DAEMON" "$NAME" && exit 0 || exit $?
2675         ;;
2676   #reload|force-reload)
2677         #
2678         # If do_reload() is not implemented then leave this commented out
2679         # and leave 'force-reload' as an alias for 'restart'.
2680         #
2681         #log_daemon_msg "Reloading $DESC" "$NAME"
2682         #do_reload
2683         #log_end_msg $?
2684         #;;
2685   restart|force-reload)
2686         #
2687         # If the "reload" option is implemented then remove the
2688         # 'force-reload' alias
2689         #
2690         log_daemon_msg "Restarting $DESC" "$NAME"
2691         do_stop
2692         case "$?" in
2693           0|1)
2694                 do_start
2695                 case "$?" in
2696                         0) log_end_msg 0 ;;
2697                         1) log_end_msg 1 ;; # Old process is still running
2698                         *) log_end_msg 1 ;; # Failed to start
2699                 esac
2700                 ;;
2701           *)
2702                 # Failed to stop
2703                 log_end_msg 1
2704                 ;;
2705         esac
2706         ;;
2707   *)
2708         echo "Usage: $SCRIPTNAME {start|stop|status|restart|force-reload}" >&2
2709         exit 3
2710         ;;
2711 esac
2712
2713 :
2714 </pre></p>
2715
2716 <p>It is based on /etc/init.d/skeleton, and could be improved quite a
2717 lot.  I did not really polish the approach, so it might not always
2718 work out of the box, but you get the idea.  I did not try very hard to
2719 optimize it nor make it more robust either.</p>
2720
2721 <p>A better argument for switching init system in Debian than reducing
2722 the size of init scripts (which is a good thing to do anyway), is to
2723 get boot system that is able to handle the kernel events sensibly and
2724 robustly, and do not depend on the boot to run sequentially.  The boot
2725 and the kernel have not behaved sequentially in years.</p>
2726
2727       </div>
2728       <div class="tags">
2729
2730
2731         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>.
2732
2733
2734       </div>
2735     </div>
2736     <div class="padding"></div>
2737
2738     <div class="entry">
2739       <div class="title">
2740         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Browser_plugin_for_SPICE__spice_xpi__uploaded_to_Debian.html">Browser plugin for SPICE (spice-xpi) uploaded to Debian</a>
2741       </div>
2742       <div class="date">
2743          1st November 2013
2744       </div>
2745       <div class="body">
2746         <p><a href="http://www.spice-space.org/">The SPICE protocol</a> for
2747 remote display access is the preferred solution with oVirt and RedHat
2748 Enterprise Virtualization, and I was sad to discover the other day
2749 that the browser plugin needed to use these systems seamlessly was
2750 missing in Debian.  The <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/668284">request
2751 for a package</a> was from 2012-04-10 with no progress since
2752 2013-04-01, so I decided to wrap up a package based on the great work
2753 from Cajus Pollmeier and put it in a collab-maint maintained git
2754 repository to get a package I could use.  I would very much like
2755 others to help me maintain the package (or just take over, I do not
2756 mind), but as no-one had volunteered so far, I just uploaded it to
2757 NEW.  I hope it will be available in Debian in a few days.</p>
2758
2759 <p>The source is now available from
2760 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/gitweb/?p=collab-maint/spice-xpi.git;a=summary">http://anonscm.debian.org/gitweb/?p=collab-maint/spice-xpi.git;a=summary</a>.</p>
2761
2762       </div>
2763       <div class="tags">
2764
2765
2766         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>.
2767
2768
2769       </div>
2770     </div>
2771     <div class="padding"></div>
2772
2773     <div class="entry">
2774       <div class="title">
2775         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Teaching_vmdebootstrap_to_create_Raspberry_Pi_SD_card_images.html">Teaching vmdebootstrap to create Raspberry Pi SD card images</a>
2776       </div>
2777       <div class="date">
2778         27th October 2013
2779       </div>
2780       <div class="body">
2781         <p>The
2782 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/v/vmdebootstrap.html">vmdebootstrap</a>
2783 program is a a very nice system to create virtual machine images.  It
2784 create a image file, add a partition table, mount it and run
2785 debootstrap in the mounted directory to create a Debian system on a
2786 stick.  Yesterday, I decided to try to teach it how to make images for
2787 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/RaspberryPi">Raspberry Pi</a>, as part
2788 of a plan to simplify the build system for
2789 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/FreedomBox">the FreedomBox
2790 project</a>.  The FreedomBox project already uses vmdebootstrap for
2791 the virtualbox images, but its current build system made multistrap
2792 based system for Dreamplug images, and it is lacking support for
2793 Raspberry Pi.</p>
2794
2795 <p>Armed with the knowledge on how to build "foreign" (aka non-native
2796 architecture) chroots for Raspberry Pi, I dived into the vmdebootstrap
2797 code and adjusted it to be able to build armel images on my amd64
2798 Debian laptop.  I ended up giving vmdebootstrap five new options,
2799 allowing me to replicate the image creation process I use to make
2800 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/A_Raspberry_Pi_based_batman_adv_Mesh_network_node.html">Debian
2801 Jessie based mesh node images for the Raspberry Pi</a>.  First, the
2802 <tt>--foreign /path/to/binfm_handler</tt> option tell vmdebootstrap to
2803 call debootstrap with --foreign and to copy the handler into the
2804 generated chroot before running the second stage.  This allow
2805 vmdebootstrap to create armel images on an amd64 host.  Next I added
2806 two new options <tt>--bootsize size</tt> and <tt>--boottype
2807 fstype</tt> to teach it to create a separate /boot/ partition with the
2808 given file system type, allowing me to create an image with a vfat
2809 partition for the /boot/ stuff.  I also added a <tt>--variant
2810 variant</tt> option to allow me to create smaller images without the
2811 Debian base system packages installed.  Finally, I added an option
2812 <tt>--no-extlinux</tt> to tell vmdebootstrap to not install extlinux
2813 as a boot loader.  It is not needed on the Raspberry Pi and probably
2814 most other non-x86 architectures.  The changes were accepted by the
2815 upstream author of vmdebootstrap yesterday and today, and is now
2816 available from
2817 <a href="http://git.liw.fi/cgi-bin/cgit/cgit.cgi/vmdebootstrap/">the
2818 upstream project page</a>.</p>
2819
2820 <p>To use it to build a Raspberry Pi image using Debian Jessie, first
2821 create a small script (the customize script) to add the non-free
2822 binary blob needed to boot the Raspberry Pi and the APT source
2823 list:</p>
2824
2825 <p><pre>
2826 #!/bin/sh
2827 set -e # Exit on first error
2828 rootdir="$1"
2829 cd "$rootdir"
2830 cat &lt;&lt;EOF > etc/apt/sources.list
2831 deb http://http.debian.net/debian/ jessie main contrib non-free
2832 EOF
2833 # Install non-free binary blob needed to boot Raspberry Pi.  This
2834 # install a kernel somewhere too.
2835 wget https://raw.github.com/Hexxeh/rpi-update/master/rpi-update \
2836     -O $rootdir/usr/bin/rpi-update
2837 chmod a+x $rootdir/usr/bin/rpi-update
2838 mkdir -p $rootdir/lib/modules
2839 touch $rootdir/boot/start.elf
2840 chroot $rootdir rpi-update
2841 </pre></p>
2842
2843 <p>Next, fetch the latest vmdebootstrap script and call it like this
2844 to build the image:</p>
2845
2846 <pre>
2847 sudo ./vmdebootstrap \
2848     --variant minbase \
2849     --arch armel \
2850     --distribution jessie \
2851     --mirror http://http.debian.net/debian \
2852     --image test.img \
2853     --size 600M \
2854     --bootsize 64M \
2855     --boottype vfat \
2856     --log-level debug \
2857     --verbose \
2858     --no-kernel \
2859     --no-extlinux \
2860     --root-password raspberry \
2861     --hostname raspberrypi \
2862     --foreign /usr/bin/qemu-arm-static \
2863     --customize `pwd`/customize \
2864     --package netbase \
2865     --package git-core \
2866     --package binutils \
2867     --package ca-certificates \
2868     --package wget \
2869     --package kmod
2870 </pre></p>
2871
2872 <p>The list of packages being installed are the ones needed by
2873 rpi-update to make the image bootable on the Raspberry Pi, with the
2874 exception of netbase, which is needed by debootstrap to find
2875 /etc/hosts with the minbase variant.  I really wish there was a way to
2876 set up an Raspberry Pi using only packages in the Debian archive, but
2877 that is not possible as far as I know, because it boots from the GPU
2878 using a non-free binary blob.</p>
2879
2880 <p>The build host need debootstrap, kpartx and qemu-user-static and
2881 probably a few others installed.  I have not checked the complete
2882 build dependency list.</p>
2883
2884 <p>The resulting image will not use the hardware floating point unit
2885 on the Raspberry PI, because the armel architecture in Debian is not
2886 optimized for that use.  So the images created will be a bit slower
2887 than <a href="http://www.raspbian.org/">Raspbian</a> based images.</p>
2888
2889       </div>
2890       <div class="tags">
2891
2892
2893         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freedombox">freedombox</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/mesh network">mesh network</a>.
2894
2895
2896       </div>
2897     </div>
2898     <div class="padding"></div>
2899
2900     <div class="entry">
2901       <div class="title">
2902         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Good_causes__Debian_Outreach_Program_for_Women__EFF_documenting_the_spying_and_Open_access_in_Norway.html">Good causes: Debian Outreach Program for Women, EFF documenting the spying and Open access in Norway</a>
2903       </div>
2904       <div class="date">
2905         15th October 2013
2906       </div>
2907       <div class="body">
2908         <p>The last few days I came across a few good causes that should get
2909 wider attention.  I recommend signing and donating to each one of
2910 these. :)</p>
2911
2912 <p>Via <a href="http://www.debian.org/News/weekly/2013/18/">Debian
2913 Project News for 2013-10-14</a> I came across the Outreach Program for
2914 Women program which is a Google Summer of Code like initiative to get
2915 more women involved in free software.  One debian sponsor has offered
2916 to match <a href="http://debian.ch/opw2013">any donation done to Debian
2917 earmarked</a> for this initiative.  I donated a few minutes ago, and
2918 hope you will to. :)</p>
2919
2920 <p>And the Electronic Frontier Foundation just announced plans to
2921 create <a href="https://supporters.eff.org/donate/nsa-videos">video
2922 documentaries about the excessive spying</a> on every Internet user that
2923 take place these days, and their need to fund the work.  I've already
2924 donated.  Are you next?</p>
2925
2926 <p>For my Norwegian audience, the organisation Studentenes og
2927 Akademikernes Internasjonale Hjelpefond is collecting signatures for a
2928 statement under the heading
2929 <a href="http://saih.no/Bloggers_United/">Bloggers United for Open
2930 Access</a> for those of us asking for more focus on open access in the
2931 Norwegian government.  So far 499 signatures.  I hope you will sign it
2932 too.</p>
2933
2934       </div>
2935       <div class="tags">
2936
2937
2938         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/opphavsrett">opphavsrett</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance</a>.
2939
2940
2941       </div>
2942     </div>
2943     <div class="padding"></div>
2944
2945     <div class="entry">
2946       <div class="title">
2947         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Videos_about_the_Freedombox_project___for_inspiration_and_learning.html">Videos about the Freedombox project - for inspiration and learning</a>
2948       </div>
2949       <div class="date">
2950         27th September 2013
2951       </div>
2952       <div class="body">
2953         <p>The <a href="http://www.freedomboxfoundation.org/">Freedombox
2954 project</a> have been going on for a while, and have presented the
2955 vision, ideas and solution several places.  Here is a little
2956 collection of videos of talks and presentation of the project.</p>
2957
2958 <ul>
2959
2960 <li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ukvUz5taxvA">FreedomBox -
2961 2,5 minute marketing film</a> (Youtube)</li>
2962
2963 <li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SzW25QTVWsE">Eben Moglen
2964 discusses the Freedombox on CBS news 2011</a> (Youtube)</li>
2965
2966 <li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ae8SZbxfE0g">Eben Moglen -
2967 Freedom in the Cloud - Software Freedom, Privacy and and Security for
2968 Web 2.0 and Cloud computing at ISOC-NY Public Meeting 2010</a>
2969 (Youtube)</li>
2970
2971 <li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNaIji_3xBE">Fosdem 2011
2972 Keynote by Eben Moglen presenting the Freedombox</a> (Youtube)</li>
2973
2974 <li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bDDUyJSQ9s">Presentation of
2975 the Freedombox by James Vasile at Elevate in Gratz 2011</a> (Youtube)</li>
2976
2977 <li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQTmnk27g9s"> Freedombox -
2978 Discovery, Identity, and Trust by Nick Daly at Freedombox Hackfest New
2979 York City in 2012</a> (Youtube)</li>
2980
2981 <li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tkbSB4Ba7Ck">Introduction
2982 to the Freedombox at Freedombox Hackfest New York City in 2012</a>
2983 (Youtube)</li>
2984
2985 <li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-P2Jaeg0aQ">Freedom, Out
2986 of the Box! by Bdale Garbee at linux.conf.au Ballarat, 2012</a> (Youtube) </li>
2987
2988 <li><a href="https://archive.fosdem.org/2013/schedule/event/freedombox/">Freedombox
2989 1.0 by Eben Moglen and Bdale Garbee at Fosdem 2013</a> (FOSDEM) </li>
2990
2991 <li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e1LpYX2zVYg">What is the
2992 FreedomBox today by Bdale Garbee at Debconf13 in Vaumarcus
2993 2013</a> (Youtube)</li>
2994
2995 </ul>
2996
2997 <p>A larger list is available from
2998 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/FreedomBox/TalksAndPresentations">the
2999 Freedombox Wiki</a>.</p>
3000
3001 <p>On other news, I am happy to report that Freedombox based on Debian
3002 Jessie is coming along quite well, and soon both Owncloud and using
3003 Tor should be available for testers of the Freedombox solution. :) In
3004 a few weeks I hope everything needed to test it is included in Debian.
3005 The withsqlite package is already in Debian, and the plinth package is
3006 pending in NEW.  The third and vital part of that puzzle is the
3007 metapackage/setup framework, which is still pending an upload.  Join
3008 us on <a href="irc://irc.debian.org:6667/%23freedombox">IRC
3009 (#freedombox on irc.debian.org)</a> and
3010 <a href="http://lists.alioth.debian.org/mailman/listinfo/freedombox-discuss">the
3011 mailing list</a> if you want to help make this vision come true.</p>
3012
3013       </div>
3014       <div class="tags">
3015
3016
3017         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freedombox">freedombox</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/web">web</a>.
3018
3019
3020       </div>
3021     </div>
3022     <div class="padding"></div>
3023
3024     <div class="entry">
3025       <div class="title">
3026         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Recipe_to_test_the_Freedombox_project_on_amd64_or_Raspberry_Pi.html">Recipe to test the Freedombox project on amd64 or Raspberry Pi</a>
3027       </div>
3028       <div class="date">
3029         10th September 2013
3030       </div>
3031       <div class="body">
3032         <p>I was introduced to the
3033 <a href="http://www.freedomboxfoundation.org/">Freedombox project</a>
3034 in 2010, when Eben Moglen presented his vision about serving the need
3035 of non-technical people to keep their personal information private and
3036 within the legal protection of their own homes.  The idea is to give
3037 people back the power over their network and machines, and return
3038 Internet back to its intended peer-to-peer architecture.  Instead of
3039 depending on a central service, the Freedombox will give everyone
3040 control over their own basic infrastructure.</p>
3041
3042 <p>I've intended to join the effort since then, but other tasks have
3043 taken priority.  But this summers nasty news about the misuse of trust
3044 and privilege exercised by the "western" intelligence gathering
3045 communities increased my eagerness to contribute to a point where I
3046 actually started working on the project a while back.</p>
3047
3048 <p>The <a href="https://alioth.debian.org/projects/freedombox/">initial
3049 Debian initiative</a> based on the vision from Eben Moglen, is to
3050 create a simple and cheap Debian based appliance that anyone can hook
3051 up in their home and get access to secure and private services and
3052 communication.  The initial deployment platform have been the
3053 <a href="http://www.globalscaletechnologies.com/t-dreamplugdetails.aspx">Dreamplug</a>,
3054 which is a piece of hardware I do not own.  So to be able to test what
3055 the current Freedombox setup look like, I had to come up with a way to install
3056 it on some hardware I do have access to.  I have rewritten the
3057 <a href="https://github.com/NickDaly/freedom-maker">freedom-maker</a>
3058 image build framework to use .deb packages instead of only copying
3059 setup into the boot images, and thanks to this rewrite I am able to
3060 set up any machine supported by Debian Wheezy as a Freedombox, using
3061 the previously mentioned deb (and a few support debs for packages
3062 missing in Debian).</p>
3063
3064 <p>The current Freedombox setup consist of a set of bootstrapping
3065 scripts
3066 (<a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/freedombox-setup">freedombox-setup</a>),
3067 and a administrative web interface
3068 (<a href="https://github.com/NickDaly/Plinth">plinth</a> + exmachina +
3069 withsqlite), as well as a privacy enhancing proxy based on
3070 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/privoxy">privoxy</a>
3071 (freedombox-privoxy).  There is also a web/javascript based XMPP
3072 client (<a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/jwchat">jwchat</a>)
3073 trying (unsuccessfully so far) to talk to the XMPP server
3074 (<a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/ejabberd">ejabberd</a>).  The
3075 web interface is pluggable, and the goal is to use it to enable OpenID
3076 services, mesh network connectivity, use of TOR, etc, etc.  Not much of
3077 this is really working yet, see
3078 <a href="https://github.com/NickDaly/freedombox-todos/blob/master/TODO">the
3079 project TODO</a> for links to GIT repositories.  Most of the code is
3080 on github at the moment.  The HTTP proxy is operational out of the
3081 box, and the admin web interface can be used to add/remove plinth
3082 users.  I've not been able to do anything else with it so far, but
3083 know there are several branches spread around github and other places
3084 with lots of half baked features.</p>
3085
3086 <p>Anyway, if you want to have a look at the current state, the
3087 following recipes should work to give you a test machine to poke
3088 at.</p>
3089
3090 <p><strong>Debian Wheezy amd64</strong></p>
3091
3092 <ol>
3093
3094 <li>Fetch normal Debian Wheezy installation ISO.</li>
3095 <li>Boot from it, either as CD or USB stick.</li>
3096 <li><p>Press [tab] on the boot prompt and add this as a boot argument
3097 to the Debian installer:<p>
3098 <pre>url=<a href="http://www.reinholdtsen.name/freedombox/preseed-wheezy.dat">http://www.reinholdtsen.name/freedombox/preseed-wheezy.dat</a></pre></li>
3099
3100 <li>Answer the few language/region/password questions and pick disk to
3101 install on.</li>
3102
3103 <li>When the installation is finished and the machine have rebooted a
3104 few times, your Freedombox is ready for testing.</li>
3105
3106 </ol>
3107
3108 <p><strong>Raspberry Pi Raspbian</strong></p>
3109
3110 <ol>
3111
3112 <li>Fetch a Raspbian SD card image, create SD card.</li>
3113 <li>Boot from SD card, extend file system to fill the card completely.</li>
3114 <li><p>Log in and add this to /etc/sources.list:</p>
3115 <pre>
3116 deb <a href="http://www.reinholdtsen.name/freedombox/">http://www.reinholdtsen.name/freedombox</a> wheezy main
3117 </pre></li>
3118 <li><p>Run this as root:</p>
3119 <pre>
3120 wget -O - http://www.reinholdtsen.name/freedombox/BE1A583D.asc | \
3121    apt-key add -
3122 apt-get update
3123 apt-get install freedombox-setup
3124 /usr/lib/freedombox/setup
3125 </pre></li>
3126 <li>Reboot into your freshly created Freedombox.</li>
3127
3128 </ol>
3129
3130 <p>You can test it on other architectures too, but because the
3131 freedombox-privoxy package is binary, it will only work as intended on
3132 the architectures where I have had time to build the binary and put it
3133 in my APT repository.  But do not let this stop you.  It is only a
3134 short "<tt>apt-get source -b freedombox-privoxy</tt>" away. :)</p>
3135
3136 <p>Note that by default Freedombox is a DHCP server on the
3137 192.168.1.0/24 subnet, so if this is your subnet be careful and turn
3138 off the DHCP server by running "<tt>update-rc.d isc-dhcp-server
3139 disable</tt>" as root.</p>
3140
3141 <p>Please let me know if this works for you, or if you have any
3142 problems.  We gather on the IRC channel
3143 <a href="irc://irc.debian.org:6667/%23freedombox">#freedombox</a> on
3144 irc.debian.org and the
3145 <a href="http://lists.alioth.debian.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/freedombox-discuss">project
3146 mailing list</a>.</p>
3147
3148 <p>Once you get your freedombox operational, you can visit
3149 <tt>http://your-host-name:8001/</tt> to see the state of the plint
3150 welcome screen (dead end - do not be surprised if you are unable to
3151 get past it), and next visit <tt>http://your-host-name:8001/help/</tt>
3152 to look at the rest of plinth.  The default user is 'admin' and the
3153 default password is 'secret'.</p>
3154
3155       </div>
3156       <div class="tags">
3157
3158
3159         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freedombox">freedombox</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/web">web</a>.
3160
3161
3162       </div>
3163     </div>
3164     <div class="padding"></div>
3165
3166     <div class="entry">
3167       <div class="title">
3168         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Intel_180_SSD_disk_with_Lenovo_firmware_can_not_use_Intel_firmware.html">Intel 180 SSD disk with Lenovo firmware can not use Intel firmware</a>
3169       </div>
3170       <div class="date">
3171         18th August 2013
3172       </div>
3173       <div class="body">
3174         <p>Earlier, I reported about
3175 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_fix_a_Thinkpad_X230_with_a_broken_180_GB_SSD_disk.html">my
3176 problems using an Intel SSD 520 Series 180 GB disk</a>.  Friday I was
3177 told by IBM that the original disk should be thrown away.  And as
3178 there no longer was a problem if I bricked the firmware, I decided
3179 today to try to install Intel firmware to replace the Lenovo firmware
3180 currently on the disk.</p>
3181
3182 <p>I searched the Intel site for firmware, and found
3183 <a href="https://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_Desc.aspx?agr=Y&ProdId=3472&DwnldID=18363&ProductFamily=Solid-State+Drives+and+Caching&ProductLine=Intel%c2%ae+High+Performance+Solid-State+Drive&ProductProduct=Intel%c2%ae+SSD+520+Series+(180GB%2c+2.5in+SATA+6Gb%2fs%2c+25nm%2c+MLC)&lang=eng">issdfut_2.0.4.iso</a>
3184 (aka Intel SATA Solid-State Drive Firmware Update Tool) which
3185 according to the site should contain the latest firmware for SSD
3186 disks.  I inserted the broken disk in one of my spare laptops and
3187 booted the ISO from a USB stick.  The disk was recognized, but the
3188 program claimed the newest firmware already were installed and refused
3189 to insert any Intel firmware.  So no change, and the disk is still
3190 unable to handle write load. :( I guess the only way to get them
3191 working would be if Lenovo releases new firmware.  No idea how likely
3192 that is.  Anyway, just blogging about this test for completeness.  I
3193 got a working Samsung disk, and see no point in spending more time on
3194 the broken disks.</p>
3195
3196       </div>
3197       <div class="tags">
3198
3199
3200         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>.
3201
3202
3203       </div>
3204     </div>
3205     <div class="padding"></div>
3206
3207     <div class="entry">
3208       <div class="title">
3209         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_fix_a_Thinkpad_X230_with_a_broken_180_GB_SSD_disk.html">How to fix a Thinkpad X230 with a broken 180 GB SSD disk</a>
3210       </div>
3211       <div class="date">
3212         17th July 2013
3213       </div>
3214       <div class="body">
3215         <p>Today I switched to
3216 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_Thinkpad_is_dead__long_live_the_Thinkpad_X230_.html">my
3217 new laptop</a>.  I've previously written about the problems I had with
3218 my new Thinkpad X230, which was delivered with an
3219 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Intel_SSD_520_Series_180_GB_with_Lenovo_firmware_still_lock_up_from_sustained_writes.html">180
3220 GB Intel SSD disk with Lenovo firmware</a> that did not handle
3221 sustained writes.  My hardware supplier have been very forthcoming in
3222 trying to find a solution, and after first trying with another
3223 identical 180 GB disks they decided to send me a 256 GB Samsung SSD
3224 disk instead to fix it once and for all.  The Samsung disk survived
3225 the installation of Debian with encrypted disks (filling the disk with
3226 random data during installation killed the first two), and I thus
3227 decided to trust it with my data.  I have installed it as a Debian Edu
3228 Wheezy roaming workstation hooked up with my Debian Edu Squeeze main
3229 server at home using Kerberos and LDAP, and will use it as my work
3230 station from now on.</p>
3231
3232 <p>As this is a solid state disk with no moving parts, I believe the
3233 Debian Wheezy default installation need to be tuned a bit to increase
3234 performance and increase life time of the disk.  The Linux kernel and
3235 user space applications do not yet adjust automatically to such
3236 environment.  To make it easier for my self, I created a draft Debian
3237 package <tt>ssd-setup</tt> to handle this tuning.  The
3238 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/gitweb/?p=collab-maint/ssd-setup.git">source
3239 for the ssd-setup package</a> is available from collab-maint, and it
3240 is set up to adjust the setup of the machine by just installing the
3241 package.  If there is any non-SSD disk in the machine, the package
3242 will refuse to install, as I did not try to write any logic to sort
3243 file systems in SSD and non-SSD file systems.</p>
3244
3245 <p>I consider the package a draft, as I am a bit unsure how to best
3246 set up Debian Wheezy with an SSD.  It is adjusted to my use case,
3247 where I set up the machine with one large encrypted partition (in
3248 addition to /boot), put LVM on top of this and set up partitions on
3249 top of this again.  See the README file in the package source for the
3250 references I used to pick the settings.  At the moment these
3251 parameters are tuned:</p>
3252
3253 <ul>
3254
3255 <li>Set up cryptsetup to pass TRIM commands to the physical disk
3256     (adding discard to /etc/crypttab)</li>
3257
3258 <li>Set up LVM to pass on TRIM commands to the underlying device (in
3259     this case a cryptsetup partition) by changing issue_discards from
3260     0 to 1 in /etc/lvm/lvm.conf.</li>
3261
3262 <li>Set relatime as a file system option for ext3 and ext4 file
3263     systems.</li>
3264
3265 <li>Tell swap to use TRIM commands by adding 'discard' to
3266     /etc/fstab.</li>
3267
3268 <li>Change I/O scheduler from cfq to deadline using a udev rule.</li>
3269
3270 <li>Run fstrim on every ext3 and ext4 file system every night (from
3271     cron.daily).</li>
3272
3273 <li>Adjust sysctl values vm.swappiness to 1 and vm.vfs_cache_pressure
3274     to 50 to reduce the kernel eagerness to swap out processes.</li>
3275
3276 </ul>
3277
3278 <p>During installation, I cancelled the part where the installer fill
3279 the disk with random data, as this would kill the SSD performance for
3280 little gain.  My goal with the encrypted file system is to ensure
3281 those stealing my laptop end up with a brick and not a working
3282 computer.  I have no hope in keeping the really resourceful people
3283 from getting the data on the disk (see
3284 <a href="http://xkcd.com/538/">XKCD #538</a> for an explanation why).
3285 Thus I concluded that adding the discard option to crypttab is the
3286 right thing to do.</p>
3287
3288 <p>I considered using the noop I/O scheduler, as several recommended
3289 it for SSD, but others recommended deadline and a benchmark I found
3290 indicated that deadline might be better for interactive use.</p>
3291
3292 <p>I also considered using the 'discard' file system option for ext3
3293 and ext4, but read that it would give a performance hit ever time a
3294 file is removed, and thought it best to that that slowdown once a day
3295 instead of during my work.</p>
3296
3297 <p>My package do not set up tmpfs on /var/run, /var/lock and /tmp, as
3298 this is already done by Debian Edu.</p>
3299
3300 <p>I have not yet started on the user space tuning.  I expect
3301 iceweasel need some tuning, and perhaps other applications too, but
3302 have not yet had time to investigate those parts.</p>
3303
3304 <p>The package should work on Ubuntu too, but I have not yet tested it
3305 there.</p>
3306
3307 <p>As for the answer to the question in the title of this blog post,
3308 as far as I know, the only solution I know about is to replace the
3309 disk.  It might be possible to flash it with Intel firmware instead of
3310 the Lenovo firmware.  But I have not tried and did not want to do so
3311 without approval from Lenovo as I wanted to keep the warranty on the
3312 disk until a solution was found and they wanted the broken disks
3313 back.</p>
3314
3315       </div>
3316       <div class="tags">
3317
3318
3319         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>.
3320
3321
3322       </div>
3323     </div>
3324     <div class="padding"></div>
3325
3326     <div class="entry">
3327       <div class="title">
3328         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Intel_SSD_520_Series_180_GB_with_Lenovo_firmware_still_lock_up_from_sustained_writes.html">Intel SSD 520 Series 180 GB with Lenovo firmware still lock up from sustained writes</a>
3329       </div>
3330       <div class="date">
3331         10th July 2013
3332       </div>
3333       <div class="body">
3334         <p>A few days ago, I wrote about
3335 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_Thinkpad_is_dead__long_live_the_Thinkpad_X230_.html">the
3336 problems I experienced with my new X230 and its SSD disk</a>, which
3337 was dying during installation because it is unable to cope with
3338 sustained write.  My supplier is in contact with
3339 <a href="http://www.lenovo.com/">Lenovo</a>, and they wanted to send a
3340 replacement disk to try to fix the problem.  They decided to send an
3341 identical model, so my hopes for a permanent fix was slim.</p>
3342
3343 <p>Anyway, today I got the replacement disk and tried to install
3344 Debian Edu Wheezy with encrypted disk on it.  The new disk have the
3345 same firmware version as the original.  This time my hope raised
3346 slightly as the installation progressed, as the original disk used to
3347 die after 4-7% of the disk was written to, while this time it kept
3348 going past 10%, 20%, 40% and even past 50%.  But around 60%, the disk
3349 died again and I was back on square one.  I still do not have a new
3350 laptop with a disk I can trust.  I can not live with a disk that might
3351 lock up when I download a new
3352 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux</a> ISO or
3353 other large files.  I look forward to hearing from my supplier with
3354 the next proposal from Lenovo.</p>
3355
3356 <p>The original disk is marked Intel SSD 520 Series 180 GB,
3357 11S0C38722Z1ZNME35X1TR, ISN: CVCV321407HB180EGN, SA: G57560302, FW:
3358 LF1i, 29MAY2013, PBA: G39779-300, LBA 351,651,888, LI P/N: 0C38722,
3359 Pb-free 2LI, LC P/N: 16-200366, WWN: 55CD2E40002756C4, Model:
3360 SSDSC2BW180A3L 2.5" 6Gb/s SATA SSD 180G 5V 1A, ASM P/N 0C38732, FRU
3361 P/N 45N8295, P0C38732.</p>
3362
3363 <p>The replacement disk is marked Intel SSD 520 Series 180 GB,
3364 11S0C38722Z1ZNDE34N0L0, ISN: CVCV315306RK180EGN, SA: G57560-302, FW:
3365 LF1i, 22APR2013, PBA: G39779-300, LBA 351,651,888, LI P/N: 0C38722,
3366 Pb-free 2LI, LC P/N: 16-200366, WWN: 55CD2E40000AB69E, Model:
3367 SSDSC2BW180A3L 2.5" 6Gb/s SATA SSD 180G 5V 1A, ASM P/N 0C38732, FRU
3368 P/N 45N8295, P0C38732.</p>
3369
3370 <p>The only difference is in the first number (serial number?), ISN,
3371 SA, date and WNPP values.  Mentioning all the details here in case
3372 someone is able to use the information to find a way to identify the
3373 failing disk among working ones (if any such working disk actually
3374 exist).</p>
3375
3376       </div>
3377       <div class="tags">
3378
3379
3380         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>.
3381
3382
3383       </div>
3384     </div>
3385     <div class="padding"></div>
3386
3387     <div class="entry">
3388       <div class="title">
3389         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/July_13th__Debian_Ubuntu_BSP_and_Skolelinux_Debian_Edu_developer_gathering_in_Oslo.html">July 13th: Debian/Ubuntu BSP and Skolelinux/Debian Edu developer gathering in Oslo</a>
3390       </div>
3391       <div class="date">
3392          9th July 2013
3393       </div>
3394       <div class="body">
3395         <p>The upcoming Saturday, 2013-07-13, we are organising a combined
3396 Debian Edu developer gathering and Debian and Ubuntu bug squashing
3397 party in Oslo.  It is organised by <a href="http://www.nuug.no/">the
3398 member assosiation NUUG</a> and
3399 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">the Debian Edu / Skolelinux
3400 project</a> together with <a href="http://bitraf.no/">the hack space
3401 Bitraf</a>.</p>
3402
3403 <p>It starts 10:00 and continue until late evening.  Everyone is
3404 welcome, and there is no fee to participate.  There is on the other
3405 hand limited space, and only room for 30 people.  Please put your name
3406 on <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/BSP/2013/07/13/no/Oslo">the event
3407 wiki page</a> if you plan to join us.</p>
3408
3409       </div>
3410       <div class="tags">
3411
3412
3413         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>.
3414
3415
3416       </div>
3417     </div>
3418     <div class="padding"></div>
3419
3420     <div class="entry">
3421       <div class="title">
3422         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_Thinkpad_is_dead__long_live_the_Thinkpad_X230_.html">The Thinkpad is dead, long live the Thinkpad X230?</a>
3423       </div>
3424       <div class="date">
3425          5th July 2013
3426       </div>
3427       <div class="body">
3428         <p>Half a year ago, I reported that I had to find a
3429 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Thank_you_Thinkpad_X41__for_your_long_and_trustworthy_service.html">replacement
3430 for my trusty old Thinkpad X41</a>.  Unfortunately I did not have much
3431 time to spend on it, and it took a while to find a model I believe
3432 will do the job, but two days ago the replacement finally arrived.  I
3433 ended up picking a
3434 <a href="http://www.linlap.com/lenovo_thinkpad_x230">Thinkpad X230</a>
3435 with SSD disk (NZDAJMN).  I first test installed Debian Edu Wheezy as
3436 a roaming workstation, and it seemed to work flawlessly.  But my
3437 second installation with encrypted disk was not as successful.  More
3438 on that below.</p>
3439
3440 <p>I had a hard time trying to track down a good laptop, as my most
3441 important requirements (robust and with a good keyboard) are never
3442 listed in the feature list.  But I did get good help from the search
3443 feature at <a href="http://www.prisjakt.no/">Prisjakt</a>, which
3444 allowed me to limit the list of interesting laptops based on my other
3445 requirements.  A bit surprising that SSD disk are not disks according
3446 to that search interface, so I had to drop specifying the number of
3447 disks from my search parameters.  I also asked around among friends to
3448 get their impression on keyboards and robustness.</p>
3449
3450 <p>So the new laptop arrived, and it is quite a lot wider than the
3451 X41.  I am not quite convinced about the keyboard, as it is
3452 significantly wider than my old keyboard, and I have to stretch my
3453 hand a lot more to reach the edges.  But the key response is fairly
3454 good and the individual key shape is fairly easy to handle, so I hope
3455 I will get used to it.  My old X40 was starting to fail, and I really
3456 needed a new laptop now. :)</p>
3457
3458 <p>Turning off the touch pad was simple.  All it took was a quick
3459 visit to the BIOS during boot it disable it.</p>
3460
3461 <p>But there is a fatal problem with the laptop.  The 180 GB SSD disk
3462 lock up during load.  And this happen when installing Debian Wheezy
3463 with encrypted disk, while the disk is being filled with random data.
3464 I also tested to install Ubuntu Raring, and it happen there too if I
3465 reenable the code to fill the disk with random data (it is disabled by
3466 default in Ubuntu).  And the bug with is already known.  It was
3467 reported to Debian as <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/691427">BTS
3468 report #691427 2012-10-25</a> (journal commit I/O error on brand-new
3469 Thinkpad T430s ext4 on lvm on SSD).  It is also reported to the Linux
3470 kernel developers as
3471 <a href="https://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=51861">Kernel bugzilla
3472 report #51861 2012-12-20</a> (Intel SSD 520 stops working under load
3473 (SSDSC2BW180A3L in Lenovo ThinkPad T430s)). It is also reported on the
3474 Lenovo forums, both for
3475 <a href="http://forums.lenovo.com/t5/T400-T500-and-newer-T-series/T430s-Intel-SSD-520-180GB-issue/m-p/1070549">T430
3476 2012-11-10</a> and for
3477 <a href="http://forums.lenovo.com/t5/X-Series-ThinkPad-Laptops/x230-SATA-errors-with-180GB-Intel-520-SSD-under-heavy-write-load/m-p/1068147">X230
3478 03-20-2013</a>.  The problem do not only affect installation.  The
3479 reports state that the disk lock up during use if many writes are done
3480 on the disk, so it is much no use to work around the installation
3481 problem and end up with a computer that can lock up at any moment.
3482 There is even a
3483 <a href="https://git.efficios.com/?p=test-ssd.git">small C program
3484 available</a> that will lock up the hard drive after running a few
3485 minutes by writing to a file.</p>
3486
3487 <p>I've contacted my supplier and asked how to handle this, and after
3488 contacting PCHELP Norway (request 01D1FDP) which handle support
3489 requests for Lenovo, his first suggestion was to upgrade the disk
3490 firmware.  Unfortunately there is no newer firmware available from
3491 Lenovo, as my disk already have the most recent one (version LF1i).  I
3492 hope to hear more from him today and hope the problem can be
3493 fixed. :)</p>
3494
3495       </div>
3496       <div class="tags">
3497
3498
3499         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>.
3500
3501
3502       </div>
3503     </div>
3504     <div class="padding"></div>
3505
3506     <div class="entry">
3507       <div class="title">
3508         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_Thinkpad_is_dead__long_live_the_Thinkpad_X230.html">The Thinkpad is dead, long live the Thinkpad X230</a>
3509       </div>
3510       <div class="date">
3511          4th July 2013
3512       </div>
3513       <div class="body">
3514         <p>Half a year ago, I reported that I had to find a replacement for my
3515 trusty old Thinkpad X41.  Unfortunately I did not have much time to
3516 spend on it, but today the replacement finally arrived.  I ended up
3517 picking a <a href="http://www.linlap.com/lenovo_thinkpad_x230">Thinkpad
3518 X230</a> with SSD disk (NZDAJMN).  I first test installed Debian Edu
3519 Wheezy as a roaming workstation, and it worked flawlessly.  As I write
3520 this, it is installing what I hope will be a more final installation,
3521 with a encrypted hard drive to ensure any dope head stealing it end up
3522 with an expencive door stop.</p>
3523
3524 <p>I had a hard time trying to track down a good laptop, as my most
3525 important requirements (robust and with a good keyboard) are never
3526 listed in the feature list.  But I did get good help from the search
3527 feature at <ahref="http://www.prisjakt.no/">Prisjakt</a>, which
3528 allowed me to limit the list of interesting laptops based on my other
3529 requirements.  A bit surprising that SSD disk are not disks, so I had
3530 to drop number of disks from my search parameters.</p>
3531
3532 <p>I am not quite convinced about the keyboard, as it is significantly
3533 wider than my old keyboard, and I have to stretch my hand a lot more
3534 to reach the edges.  But the key response is fairly good and the
3535 individual key shape is fairly easy to handle, so I hope I will get
3536 used to it.  My old X40 was starting to fail, and I really needed a
3537 new laptop now. :)</p>
3538
3539 <p>I look forward to figuring out how to turn off the touch pad.</p>
3540
3541       </div>
3542       <div class="tags">
3543
3544
3545         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>.
3546
3547
3548       </div>
3549     </div>
3550     <div class="padding"></div>
3551
3552     <div class="entry">
3553       <div class="title">
3554         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Automatically_locate_and_install_required_firmware_packages_on_Debian__Isenkram_0_4_.html">Automatically locate and install required firmware packages on Debian (Isenkram 0.4)</a>
3555       </div>
3556       <div class="date">
3557         25th June 2013
3558       </div>
3559       <div class="body">
3560         <p>It annoys me when the computer fail to do automatically what it is
3561 perfectly capable of, and I have to do it manually to get things
3562 working.  One such task is to find out what firmware packages are
3563 needed to get the hardware on my computer working.  Most often this
3564 affect the wifi card, but some times it even affect the RAID
3565 controller or the ethernet card.  Today I pushed version 0.4 of the
3566 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/isenkram">Isenkram package</a>
3567 including a new script isenkram-autoinstall-firmware handling the
3568 process of asking all the loaded kernel modules what firmware files
3569 they want, find debian packages providing these files and install the
3570 debian packages.  Here is a test run on my laptop:</p>
3571
3572 <p><pre>
3573 # isenkram-autoinstall-firmware
3574 info: kernel drivers requested extra firmware: ipw2200-bss.fw ipw2200-ibss.fw ipw2200-sniffer.fw
3575 info: fetching http://http.debian.net/debian/dists/squeeze/Contents-i386.gz
3576 info: locating packages with the requested firmware files
3577 info: Updating APT sources after adding non-free APT source
3578 info: trying to install firmware-ipw2x00
3579 firmware-ipw2x00
3580 firmware-ipw2x00
3581 Preconfiguring packages ...
3582 Selecting previously deselected package firmware-ipw2x00.
3583 (Reading database ... 259727 files and directories currently installed.)
3584 Unpacking firmware-ipw2x00 (from .../firmware-ipw2x00_0.28+squeeze1_all.deb) ...
3585 Setting up firmware-ipw2x00 (0.28+squeeze1) ...
3586 #
3587 </pre></p>
3588
3589 <p>When all the requested firmware is present, a simple message is
3590 printed instead:</p>
3591
3592 <p><pre>
3593 # isenkram-autoinstall-firmware
3594 info: did not find any firmware files requested by loaded kernel modules.  exiting
3595 #
3596 </pre></p>
3597
3598 <p>It could use some polish, but it is already working well and saving
3599 me some time when setting up new machines. :)</p>
3600
3601 <p>So, how does it work?  It look at the set of currently loaded
3602 kernel modules, and look up each one of them using modinfo, to find
3603 the firmware files listed in the module meta-information.  Next, it
3604 download the Contents file from a nearby APT mirror, and search for
3605 the firmware files in this file to locate the package with the
3606 requested firmware file.  If the package is in the non-free section, a
3607 non-free APT source is added and the package is installed using
3608 <tt>apt-get install</tt>.  The end result is a slightly better working
3609 machine.</p>
3610
3611 <p>I hope someone find time to implement a more polished version of
3612 this script as part of the hw-detect debian-installer module, to
3613 finally fix <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/655507">BTS report
3614 #655507</a>.  There really is no need to insert USB sticks with
3615 firmware during a PXE install when the packages already are available
3616 from the nearby Debian mirror.</p>
3617
3618       </div>
3619       <div class="tags">
3620
3621
3622         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>.
3623
3624
3625       </div>
3626     </div>
3627     <div class="padding"></div>
3628
3629     <div class="entry">
3630       <div class="title">
3631         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Fixing_the_Linux_black_screen_of_death_on_machines_with_Intel_HD_video.html">Fixing the Linux black screen of death on machines with Intel HD video</a>
3632       </div>
3633       <div class="date">
3634         11th June 2013
3635       </div>
3636       <div class="body">
3637         <p>When installing RedHat, Fedora, Debian and Ubuntu on some machines,
3638 the screen just turn black when Linux boot, either during installation
3639 or on first boot from the hard disk.  I've seen it once in a while the
3640 last few years, but only recently understood the cause.  I've seen it
3641 on HP laptops, and on my latest acquaintance the Packard Bell laptop.
3642 The reason seem to be in the wiring of some laptops.  The system to
3643 control the screen background light is inverted, so when Linux try to
3644 turn the brightness fully on, it end up turning it off instead.  I do
3645 not know which Linux drivers are affected, but this post is about the
3646 i915 driver used by the
3647 <a href="http://www.linlap.com/packard_bell_easynote_lv">Packard Bell
3648 EasyNote LV</a>, Thinkpad X40 and many other laptops.</p>
3649
3650 <p>The problem can be worked around two ways.  Either by adding
3651 i915.invert_brightness=1 as a kernel option, or by adding a file in
3652 /etc/modprobe.d/ to tell modprobe to add the invert_brightness=1
3653 option when it load the i915 kernel module.  On Debian and Ubuntu, it
3654 can be done by running these commands as root:</p>
3655
3656 <pre>
3657 echo options i915 invert_brightness=1 | tee /etc/modprobe.d/i915.conf
3658 update-initramfs -u -k all
3659 </pre>
3660
3661 <p>Since March 2012 there is
3662 <a href="http://git.kernel.org/cgit/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/commit/?id=4dca20efb1a9c2efefc28ad2867e5d6c3f5e1955">a
3663 mechanism in the Linux kernel</a> to tell the i915 driver which
3664 hardware have this problem, and get the driver to invert the
3665 brightness setting automatically.  To use it, one need to add a row in
3666 <a href="http://git.kernel.org/cgit/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/tree/drivers/gpu/drm/i915/intel_display.c">the
3667 intel_quirks array</a> in the driver source
3668 <tt>drivers/gpu/drm/i915/intel_display.c</tt> (look for "<tt>static
3669 struct intel_quirk intel_quirks</tt>"), specifying the PCI device
3670 number (vendor number 8086 is assumed) and subdevice vendor and device
3671 number.</p>
3672
3673 <p>My Packard Bell EasyNote LV got this output from <tt>lspci
3674 -vvnn</tt> for the video card in question:</p>
3675
3676 <p><pre>
3677 00:02.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: Intel Corporation \
3678     3rd Gen Core processor Graphics Controller [8086:0156] \
3679     (rev 09) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
3680  Subsystem: Acer Incorporated [ALI] Device [1025:0688]
3681  Control: I/O+ Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- \
3682     ParErr- Stepping- SE RR- FastB2B- DisINTx+
3683  Status: Cap+ 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B+ ParErr- DEVSEL=fast >TAbort- \
3684     <TAbort- <MAbort->SERR- <PERR- INTx-
3685  Latency: 0
3686  Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 42
3687  Region 0: Memory at c2000000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4M]
3688  Region 2: Memory at b0000000 (64-bit, prefetchable) [size=256M]
3689  Region 4: I/O ports at 4000 [size=64]
3690  Expansion ROM at <unassigned> [disabled]
3691  Capabilities: <access denied>
3692  Kernel driver in use: i915
3693 </pre></p>
3694
3695 <p>The resulting intel_quirks entry would then look like this:</p>
3696
3697 <p><pre>
3698 struct intel_quirk intel_quirks[] = {
3699        ...
3700         /* Packard Bell EasyNote LV11HC needs invert brightness quirk */
3701         { 0x0156, 0x1025, 0x0688, quirk_invert_brightness },
3702        ...
3703 }
3704 </pre></p>
3705
3706 <p>According to the kernel module instructions (as seen using
3707 <tt>modinfo i915</tt>), information about hardware needing the
3708 invert_brightness flag should be sent to the
3709 <a href="http://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/dri-devel">dri-devel
3710 (at) lists.freedesktop.org</a> mailing list to reach the kernel
3711 developers.  But my email about the laptop sent 2013-06-03 have not
3712 yet shown up in
3713 <a href="http://lists.freedesktop.org/archives/dri-devel/2013-June/thread.html">the
3714 web archive for the mailing list</a>, so I suspect they do not accept
3715 emails from non-subscribers.  Because of this, I sent my patch also to
3716 the Debian bug tracking system instead as
3717 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/710938">BTS report #710938</a>, to make
3718 sure the patch is not lost.</p>
3719
3720 <p>Unfortunately, it is not enough to fix the kernel to get Laptops
3721 with this problem working properly with Linux.  If you use Gnome, your
3722 worries should be over at this point.  But if you use KDE, there is
3723 something in KDE ignoring the invert_brightness setting and turning on
3724 the screen during login.  I've reported it to Debian as
3725 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/711237">BTS report #711237</a>, and
3726 have no idea yet how to figure out exactly what subsystem is doing
3727 this.  Perhaps you can help?  Perhaps you know what the Gnome
3728 developers did to handle this, and this can give a clue to the KDE
3729 developers?  Or you know where in KDE the screen brightness is changed
3730 during login?  If so, please update the BTS report (or get in touch if
3731 you do not know how to update BTS).</p>
3732
3733 <p>Update 2013-07-19: The correct fix for this machine seem to be
3734 acpi_backlight=vendor, to disable ACPI backlight support completely,
3735 as the ACPI information on the machine is trash and it is better to
3736 leave it to the intel video driver to control the screen
3737 backlight.</p>
3738
3739       </div>
3740       <div class="tags">
3741
3742
3743         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>.
3744
3745
3746       </div>
3747     </div>
3748     <div class="padding"></div>
3749
3750     <div class="entry">
3751       <div class="title">
3752         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_install_Linux_on_a_Packard_Bell_Easynote_LV_preinstalled_with_Windows_8.html">How to install Linux on a Packard Bell Easynote LV preinstalled with Windows 8</a>
3753       </div>
3754       <div class="date">
3755         27th May 2013
3756       </div>
3757       <div class="body">
3758         <p>Two days ago, I asked
3759 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_can_I_install_Linux_on_a_Packard_Bell_Easynote_LV_preinstalled_with_Windows_8_.html">how
3760 I could install Linux on a Packard Bell EasyNote LV computer
3761 preinstalled with Windows 8</a>.  I found a solution, but am horrified
3762 with the obstacles put in the way of Linux users on a laptop with UEFI
3763 and Windows 8.</p>
3764
3765 <p>I never found out if the cause of my problems were the use of UEFI
3766 secure booting or fast boot.  I suspect fast boot was the problem,
3767 causing the firmware to boot directly from HD without considering any
3768 key presses and alternative devices, but do not know UEFI settings
3769 enough to tell.</p>
3770
3771 <p>There is no way to install Linux on the machine in question without
3772 opening the box and disconnecting the hard drive!  This is as far as I
3773 can tell, the only way to get access to the firmware setup menu
3774 without accepting the Windows 8 license agreement.  I am told (and
3775 found description on how to) that it is possible to configure the
3776 firmware setup once booted into Windows 8.  But as I believe the terms
3777 of that agreement are completely unacceptable, accepting the license
3778 was never an alternative.  I do not enter agreements I do not intend
3779 to follow.</p>
3780
3781 <p>I feared I had to return the laptops and ask for a refund, and
3782 waste many hours on this, but luckily there was a way to get it to
3783 work.  But I would not recommend it to anyone planning to run Linux on
3784 it, and I have become sceptical to Windows 8 certified laptops.  Is
3785 this the way Linux will be forced out of the market place, by making
3786 it close to impossible for "normal" users to install Linux without
3787 accepting the Microsoft Windows license terms?  Or at least not
3788 without risking to loose the warranty?</p>
3789
3790 <p>I've updated the
3791 <a href="http://www.linlap.com/packard_bell_easynote_lv">Linux Laptop
3792 wiki page for Packard Bell EasyNote LV</a>, to ensure the next person
3793 do not have to struggle as much as I did to get Linux into the
3794 machine.</p>
3795
3796 <p>Thanks to Bob Rosbag, Florian Weimer, Philipp Kern, Ben Hutching,
3797 Michael Tokarev and others for feedback and ideas.</p>
3798
3799       </div>
3800       <div class="tags">
3801
3802
3803         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>.
3804
3805
3806       </div>
3807     </div>
3808     <div class="padding"></div>
3809
3810     <div class="entry">
3811       <div class="title">
3812         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_can_I_install_Linux_on_a_Packard_Bell_Easynote_LV_preinstalled_with_Windows_8_.html">How can I install Linux on a Packard Bell Easynote LV preinstalled with Windows 8?</a>
3813       </div>
3814       <div class="date">
3815         25th May 2013
3816       </div>
3817       <div class="body">
3818         <p>I've run into quite a problem the last few days.  I bought three
3819 new laptops for my parents and a few others.  I bought Packard Bell
3820 Easynote LV to run Kubuntu on and use as their home computer.  But I
3821 am completely unable to figure out how to install Linux on it.  The
3822 computer is preinstalled with Windows 8, and I suspect it uses UEFI
3823 instead of a BIOS to boot.</p>
3824
3825 <p>The problem is that I am unable to get it to PXE boot, and unable
3826 to get it to boot the Linux installer from my USB stick.  I have yet
3827 to try the DVD install, and still hope it will work.  when I turn on
3828 the computer, there is no information on what buttons to press to get
3829 the normal boot menu.  I expect to get some boot menu to select PXE or
3830 USB stick booting.  When booting, it first ask for the language to
3831 use, then for some regional settings, and finally if I will accept the
3832 Windows 8 terms of use.  As these terms are completely unacceptable to
3833 me, I have no other choice but to turn off the computer and try again
3834 to get it to boot the Linux installer.</p>
3835
3836 <p>I have gathered my findings so far on a Linlap page about the
3837 <a href="http://www.linlap.com/packard_bell_easynote_lv">Packard Bell
3838 EasyNote LV</a> model.  If you have any idea how to get Linux
3839 installed on this machine, please get in touch or update that wiki
3840 page.  If I can't find a way to install Linux, I will have to return
3841 the laptop to the seller and find another machine for my parents.</p>
3842
3843 <p>I wonder, is this the way Linux will be forced out of the market
3844 using UEFI and "secure boot" by making it impossible to install Linux
3845 on new Laptops?</p>
3846
3847       </div>
3848       <div class="tags">
3849
3850
3851         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>.
3852
3853
3854       </div>
3855     </div>
3856     <div class="padding"></div>
3857
3858     <div class="entry">
3859       <div class="title">
3860         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_transform_a_Debian_based_system_to_a_Debian_Edu_installation.html">How to transform a Debian based system to a Debian Edu installation</a>
3861       </div>
3862       <div class="date">
3863         17th May 2013
3864       </div>
3865       <div class="body">
3866         <p><a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux</a> is
3867 an operating system based on Debian intended for use in schools.  It
3868 contain a turn-key solution for the computer network provided to
3869 pupils in the primary schools.  It provide both the central server,
3870 network boot servers and desktop environments with heaps of
3871 educational software.  The project was founded almost 12 years ago,
3872 2001-07-02.  If you want to support the project, which is in need for
3873 cash to fund developer gatherings and other project related activity,
3874 <a href="http://www.linuxiskolen.no/slxdebianlabs/donations.html">please
3875 donate some money</a>.
3876
3877 <p>A topic that come up again and again on the Debian Edu mailing
3878 lists and elsewhere, is the question on how to transform a Debian or
3879 Ubuntu installation into a Debian Edu installation.  It isn't very
3880 hard, and last week I wrote a script to replicate the steps done by
3881 the Debian Edu installer.</p>
3882
3883 <p>The script,
3884 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/branches/wheezy/debian-edu-config/share/debian-edu-config/tools/debian-edu-bless?view=markup">debian-edu-bless<a/>
3885 in the debian-edu-config package, will go through these six steps and
3886 transform an existing Debian Wheezy or Ubuntu (untested) installation
3887 into a Debian Edu Workstation:</p>
3888
3889 <ol>
3890
3891 <li>Add skolelinux related APT sources.</li>
3892 <li>Create /etc/debian-edu/config with the wanted configuration.</li>
3893 <li>Install debian-edu-install to load preseeding values and pull in
3894     our configuration.</li>
3895 <li>Preseed debconf database with profile setup in
3896     /etc/debian-edu/config, and run tasksel to install packages
3897     according to the profile specified in the config above,
3898     overriding some of the Debian automation machinery.</li>
3899 <li>Run debian-edu-cfengine-D installation to configure everything
3900     that could not be done using preseeding.</li>
3901 <li>Ask for a reboot to enable all the configuration changes.</li>
3902
3903 </ol>
3904
3905 <p>There are some steps in the Debian Edu installation that can not be
3906 replicated like this.  Disk partitioning and LVM setup, for example.
3907 So this script just assume there is enough disk space to install all
3908 the needed packages.</p>
3909
3910 <p>The script was created to help a Debian Edu student working on
3911 setting up <a href="http://www.raspberrypi.org">Raspberry Pi</a> as a
3912 Debian Edu client, and using it he can take the existing
3913 <a href="http://www.raspbian.org/FrontPage‎">Raspbian</a> installation and
3914 transform it into a fully functioning Debian Edu Workstation (or
3915 Roaming Workstation, or whatever :).</p>
3916
3917 <p>The default setting in the script is to create a KDE Workstation.
3918 If a LXDE based Roaming workstation is wanted instead, modify the
3919 PROFILE and DESKTOP values at the top to look like this instead:</p>
3920
3921 <p><pre>
3922 PROFILE="Roaming-Workstation"
3923 DESKTOP="lxde"
3924 </pre></p>
3925
3926 <p>The script could even become useful to set up Debian Edu servers in
3927 the cloud, by starting with a virtual Debian installation at some
3928 virtual hosting service and setting up all the services on first
3929 boot.</p>
3930
3931       </div>
3932       <div class="tags">
3933
3934
3935         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>.
3936
3937
3938       </div>
3939     </div>
3940     <div class="padding"></div>
3941
3942     <div class="entry">
3943       <div class="title">
3944         <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>
3945       </div>
3946       <div class="date">
3947         11th May 2013
3948       </div>
3949       <div class="body">
3950         <P>In January,
3951 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/New_IRC_channel_for_LEGO_designers_using_Debian.html">I
3952 announced a</a> new <a href="irc://irc.debian.org/%23debian-lego">IRC
3953 channel #debian-lego</a>, for those of us in the Debian and Linux
3954 community interested in <a href="http://www.lego.com/">LEGO</a>, the
3955 marvellous construction system from Denmark.  We also created
3956 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/LegoDesigners">a wiki page</a> to have
3957 a place to take notes and write down our plans and hopes.  And several
3958 people showed up to help.  I was very happy to see the effect of my
3959 call.  Since the small start, we have a debtags tag
3960 <a href="http://debtags.debian.net/search/bytag?wl=hardware::hobby:lego">hardware::hobby:lego</a>
3961 tag for LEGO related packages, and now count 10 packages related to
3962 LEGO and <a href="http://mindstorms.lego.com/">Mindstorms</a>:</p>
3963
3964 <p><table>
3965 <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>
3966 <tr><td><a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/leocad">leocad</a></td><td>virtual brick CAD software</td></tr>
3967 <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>
3968 <tr><td><a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/lnpd">lnpd</a></td><td>daemon for LNP communication with BrickOS</td></tr>
3969 <tr><td><a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/nbc">nbc</a></td><td>compiler for LEGO Mindstorms NXT bricks</td></tr>
3970 <tr><td><a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/nqc">nqc</a></td><td>Not Quite C compiler for LEGO Mindstorms RCX</td></tr>
3971 <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>
3972 <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>
3973 <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>
3974 <tr><td><a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/t2n">t2n</a></td><td>simple command-line tool for Lego NXT</td></tr>
3975 </table></p>
3976
3977 <p>Some of these are available in Wheezy, and all but one are
3978 currently available in Jessie/testing.  leocad is so far only
3979 available in experimental.</p>
3980
3981 <p>If you care about LEGO in Debian, please join us on IRC and help
3982 adding the rest of the great free software tools available on Linux
3983 for LEGO designers.</p>
3984
3985       </div>
3986       <div class="tags">
3987
3988
3989         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>.
3990
3991
3992       </div>
3993     </div>
3994     <div class="padding"></div>
3995
3996     <div class="entry">
3997       <div class="title">
3998         <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>
3999       </div>
4000       <div class="date">
4001          5th May 2013
4002       </div>
4003       <div class="body">
4004         <p>When I woke up this morning, I was very happy to see that the
4005 <a href="http://www.debian.org/News/2013/20130504">release announcement
4006 for Debian Wheezy</a> was waiting in my mail box.  This is a great
4007 Debian release, and I expect to move my machines at home over to it fairly
4008 soon.</p>
4009
4010 <p>The new debian release contain heaps of new stuff, and one program
4011 in particular make me very happy to see included.  The
4012 <a href="http://scratch.mit.edu/">Scratch</a> program, made famous by
4013 the <a href="http://www.code.org/">Teach kids code</a> movement, is
4014 included for the first time.  Alongside similar programs like
4015 <a href="http://edu.kde.org/kturtle/">kturtle</a> and
4016 <a href="http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Activities/Turtle_Art">turtleart</a>,
4017 it allow for visual programming where syntax errors can not happen,
4018 and a friendly programming environment for learning to control the
4019 computer.  Scratch will also be included in the next release of Debian
4020 Edu.</a>
4021
4022 <p>And now that Wheezy is wrapped up, we can wrap up the next Debian
4023 Edu/Skolelinux release too.  The
4024 <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-edu/2013/04/msg00132.html">first
4025 alpha release</a> went out last week, and the next should soon
4026 follow.<p>
4027
4028       </div>
4029       <div class="tags">
4030
4031
4032         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>.
4033
4034
4035       </div>
4036     </div>
4037     <div class="padding"></div>
4038
4039     <div class="entry">
4040       <div class="title">
4041         <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>
4042       </div>
4043       <div class="date">
4044          3rd April 2013
4045       </div>
4046       <div class="body">
4047         <p>Today the <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/isenkram">Isenkram
4048 package</a> finally made it into the archive, after lingering in NEW
4049 for many months.  I uploaded it to the Debian experimental suite
4050 2013-01-27, and today it was accepted into the archive.</p>
4051
4052 <p>Isenkram is a system for suggesting to users what packages to
4053 install to work with a pluggable hardware device.  The suggestion pop
4054 up when the device is plugged in.  For example if a Lego Mindstorm NXT
4055 is inserted, it will suggest to install the program needed to program
4056 the NXT controller.  Give it a go, and report bugs and suggestions to
4057 BTS. :)</p>
4058
4059       </div>
4060       <div class="tags">
4061
4062
4063         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>.
4064
4065
4066       </div>
4067     </div>
4068     <div class="padding"></div>
4069
4070     <div class="entry">
4071       <div class="title">
4072         <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>
4073       </div>
4074       <div class="date">
4075          2nd February 2013
4076       </div>
4077       <div class="body">
4078         <p>My
4079 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_backport_bitcoin_qt_version_0_7_2_2_to_Debian_Squeeze.html">last
4080 bitcoin related blog post</a> mentioned that the new
4081 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/bitcoin">bitcoin package</a> for
4082 Debian was waiting in NEW.  It was accepted by the Debian ftp-masters
4083 2013-01-19, and have been available in unstable since then.  It was
4084 automatically copied to Ubuntu, and is available in their Raring
4085 version too.</p>
4086
4087 <p>But there is a strange problem with the build that block this new
4088 version from being available on the i386 and kfreebsd-i386
4089 architectures.  For some strange reason, the autobuilders in Debian
4090 for these architectures fail to run the test suite on these
4091 architectures (<a href="http://bugs.debian.org/672524">BTS #672524</a>).
4092 We are so far unable to reproduce it when building it manually, and
4093 no-one have been able to propose a fix.  If you got an idea what is
4094 failing, please let us know via the BTS.</p>
4095
4096 <p>One feature that is annoying me with of the bitcoin client, because
4097 I often run low on disk space, is the fact that the client will exit
4098 if it run short on space (<a href="http://bugs.debian.org/696715">BTS
4099 #696715</a>).  So make sure you have enough disk space when you run
4100 it. :)</p>
4101
4102 <p>As usual, if you use bitcoin and want to show your support of my
4103 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
4104 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b&label=PetterReinholdtsenBlog">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
4105
4106       </div>
4107       <div class="tags">
4108
4109
4110         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>.
4111
4112
4113       </div>
4114     </div>
4115     <div class="padding"></div>
4116
4117     <div class="entry">
4118       <div class="title">
4119         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Welcome_to_the_world__Isenkram_.html">Welcome to the world, Isenkram!</a>
4120       </div>
4121       <div class="date">
4122         22nd January 2013
4123       </div>
4124       <div class="body">
4125         <p>Yesterday, I
4126 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/First_prototype_ready_making_hardware_easier_to_use_in_Debian.html">asked
4127 for testers</a> for my prototype for making Debian better at handling
4128 pluggable hardware devices, which I
4129 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lets_make_hardware_dongles_easier_to_use_in_Debian.html">set
4130 out to create</a> earlier this month.  Several valuable testers showed
4131 up, and caused me to really want to to open up the development to more
4132 people.  But before I did this, I want to come up with a sensible name
4133 for this project.  Today I finally decided on a new name, and I have
4134 renamed the project from hw-support-handler to this new name.  In the
4135 process, I moved the source to git and made it available as a
4136 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/gitweb/?p=collab-maint/isenkram.git">collab-maint</a>
4137 repository in Debian.  The new name?  It is <strong>Isenkram</strong>.
4138 To fetch and build the latest version of the source, use</p>
4139
4140 <pre>
4141 git clone http://anonscm.debian.org/git/collab-maint/isenkram.git
4142 cd isenkram && git-buildpackage -us -uc
4143 </pre>
4144
4145 <p>I have not yet adjusted all files to use the new name yet.  If you
4146 want to hack on the source or improve the package, please go ahead.
4147 But please talk to me first on IRC or via email before you do major
4148 changes, to make sure we do not step on each others toes. :)</p>
4149
4150 <p>If you wonder what 'isenkram' is, it is a Norwegian word for iron
4151 stuff, typically meaning tools, nails, screws, etc.  Typical hardware
4152 stuff, in other words.  I've been told it is the Norwegian variant of
4153 the German word eisenkram, for those that are familiar with that
4154 word.</p>
4155
4156 <p><strong>Update 2013-01-26</strong>: Added -us -us to build
4157 instructions, to avoid confusing people with an error from the signing
4158 process.</p>
4159
4160 <p><strong>Update 2013-01-27</strong>: Switch to HTTP URL for the git
4161 clone argument to avoid the need for authentication.</p>
4162
4163       </div>
4164       <div class="tags">
4165
4166
4167         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram">isenkram</a>.
4168
4169
4170       </div>
4171     </div>
4172     <div class="padding"></div>
4173
4174     <div class="entry">
4175       <div class="title">
4176         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/First_prototype_ready_making_hardware_easier_to_use_in_Debian.html">First prototype ready making hardware easier to use in Debian</a>
4177       </div>
4178       <div class="date">
4179         21st January 2013
4180       </div>
4181       <div class="body">
4182         <p>Early this month I set out to try to
4183 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lets_make_hardware_dongles_easier_to_use_in_Debian.html">improve
4184 the Debian support for pluggable hardware devices</a>.  Now my
4185 prototype is working, and it is ready for a larger audience.  To test
4186 it, fetch the
4187 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/">source
4188 from the Debian Edu subversion repository</a>, build and install the
4189 package.  You might have to log out and in again activate the
4190 autostart script.</p>
4191
4192 <p>The design is simple:</p>
4193
4194 <ul>
4195
4196 <li>Add desktop entry in /usr/share/autostart/ causing a program
4197 hw-support-handlerd to start when the user log in.</li>
4198
4199 <li>This program listen for kernel events about new hardware (directly
4200 from the kernel like udev does), not using HAL dbus events as I
4201 initially did.</li>
4202
4203 <li>When new hardware is inserted, look up the hardware modalias in
4204 the APT database, a database
4205 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/modaliases?view=markup">available
4206 via HTTP</a> and a database available as part of the package.</li>
4207
4208 <li>If a package is mapped to the hardware in question, the package
4209 isn't installed yet and this is the first time the hardware was
4210 plugged in, show a desktop notification suggesting to install the
4211 package or packages.</li>
4212
4213 <li>If the user click on the 'install package now' button, ask
4214 aptdaemon via the PackageKit API to install the requrired package.</li>
4215
4216 <li>aptdaemon ask for root password or sudo password, and install the
4217 package while showing progress information in a window.</li>
4218
4219 </ul>
4220
4221 <p>I still need to come up with a better name for the system.  Here
4222 are some screen shots showing the prototype in action.  First the
4223 notification, then the password request, and finally the request to
4224 approve all the dependencies.  Sorry for the Norwegian Bokmål GUI.</p>
4225
4226 <p><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-01-21-hw-support-1-notification.png">
4227 <br><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-01-21-hw-support-2-password.png">
4228 <br><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-01-21-hw-support-3-dependencies.png">
4229 <br><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-01-21-hw-support-4-installing.png">
4230 <br><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-01-21-hw-support-5-installing-details.png" width="70%"></p>
4231
4232 <p>The prototype still need to be improved with longer timeouts, but
4233 is already useful.  The database of hardware to package mappings also
4234 need more work.  It is currently compatible with the Ubuntu way of
4235 storing such information in the package control file, but could be
4236 changed to use other formats instead or in addition to the current
4237 method.  I've dropped the use of discover for this mapping, as the
4238 modalias approach is more flexible and easier to use on Linux as long
4239 as the Linux kernel expose its modalias strings directly.</p>
4240
4241 <p><strong>Update 2013-01-21 16:50</strong>: Due to popular demand,
4242 here is the command required to check out and build the source: Use
4243 '<tt>svn checkout
4244 svn://svn.debian.org/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/; cd
4245 hw-support-handler; debuild</tt>'.  If you lack debuild, install the
4246 devscripts package.</p>
4247
4248 <p><strong>Update 2013-01-23 12:00</strong>: The project is now
4249 renamed to Isenkram and the source moved from the Debian Edu
4250 subversion repository to a Debian collab-maint git repository.  See
4251 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Welcome_to_the_world__Isenkram_.html">build
4252 instructions</a> for details.</p>
4253
4254       </div>
4255       <div class="tags">
4256
4257
4258         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>.
4259
4260
4261       </div>
4262     </div>
4263     <div class="padding"></div>
4264
4265     <div class="entry">
4266       <div class="title">
4267         <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>
4268       </div>
4269       <div class="date">
4270         19th January 2013
4271       </div>
4272       <div class="body">
4273         <p>This Christmas my trusty old laptop died.  It died quietly and
4274 suddenly in bed.  With a quiet whimper, it went completely quiet and
4275 black.  The power button was no longer able to turn it on.  It was a
4276 IBM Thinkpad X41, and the best laptop I ever had.  Better than both
4277 Thinkpads X30, X31, X40, X60, X61 and X61S.  Far better than the
4278 Compaq I had before that.  Now I need to find a replacement.  To keep
4279 going during Christmas, I moved the one year old SSD disk to my old
4280 X40 where it fitted (only one I had left that could use it), but it is
4281 not a durable solution.
4282
4283 <p>My laptop needs are fairly modest.  This is my wishlist from when I
4284 got a new one more than 10 years ago.  It still holds true.:)</p>
4285
4286 <ul>
4287
4288 <li>Lightweight (around 1 kg) and small volume (preferably smaller
4289   than A4).</li>
4290 <li>Robust, it will be in my backpack every day.</li>
4291 <li>Three button mouse and a mouse pin instead of touch pad.</li>
4292 <li>Long battery life time.  Preferable a week.</li>
4293 <li>Internal WIFI network card.</li>
4294 <li>Internal Twisted Pair network card.</li>
4295 <li>Some USB slots (2-3 is plenty)</li>
4296 <li>Good keyboard - similar to the Thinkpad.</li>
4297 <li>Video resolution at least 1024x768, with size around 12" (A4 paper
4298 size).</li>
4299 <li>Hardware supported by Debian Stable, ie the default kernel and
4300   X.org packages.</li>
4301 <li>Quiet, preferably fan free (or at least not using the fan most of
4302   the time).
4303
4304 </ul>
4305
4306 <p>You will notice that there are no RAM and CPU requirements in the
4307 list.  The reason is simply that the specifications on laptops the
4308 last 10-15 years have been sufficient for my needs, and I have to look
4309 at other features to choose my laptop.  But are there still made as
4310 robust laptops as my X41?  The Thinkpad X60/X61 proved to be less
4311 robust, and Thinkpads seem to be heading in the wrong direction since
4312 Lenovo took over.  But I've been told that X220 and X1 Carbon might
4313 still be useful.</p>
4314
4315 <p>Perhaps I should rethink my needs, and look for a pad with an
4316 external keyboard?  I'll have to check the
4317 <a href="http://www.linux-laptop.net/">Linux Laptops site</a> for
4318 well-supported laptops, or perhaps just buy one preinstalled from one
4319 of the vendors listed on the <a href="http://linuxpreloaded.com/">Linux
4320 Pre-loaded site</a>.</p>
4321
4322       </div>
4323       <div class="tags">
4324
4325
4326         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>.
4327
4328
4329       </div>
4330     </div>
4331     <div class="padding"></div>
4332
4333     <div class="entry">
4334       <div class="title">
4335         <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>
4336       </div>
4337       <div class="date">
4338         18th January 2013
4339       </div>
4340       <div class="body">
4341         <p>Some times I try to figure out which Iceweasel browser plugin to
4342 install to get support for a given MIME type.  Thanks to
4343 <a href="https://wiki.ubuntu.com/MozillaTeam/Plugins">specifications
4344 done by Ubuntu</a> and Mozilla, it is possible to do this in Debian.
4345 Unfortunately, not very many packages provide the needed meta
4346 information, Anyway, here is a small script to look up all browser
4347 plugin packages announcing ther MIME support using this specification:</p>
4348
4349 <pre>
4350 #!/usr/bin/python
4351 import sys
4352 import apt
4353 def pkgs_handling_mimetype(mimetype):
4354     cache = apt.Cache()
4355     cache.open(None)
4356     thepkgs = []
4357     for pkg in cache:
4358         version = pkg.candidate
4359         if version is None:
4360             version = pkg.installed
4361         if version is None:
4362             continue
4363         record = version.record
4364         if not record.has_key('Npp-MimeType'):
4365             continue
4366         mime_types = record['Npp-MimeType'].split(',')
4367         for t in mime_types:
4368             t = t.rstrip().strip()
4369             if t == mimetype:
4370                 thepkgs.append(pkg.name)
4371     return thepkgs
4372 mimetype = "audio/ogg"
4373 if 1 < len(sys.argv):
4374     mimetype = sys.argv[1]
4375 print "Browser plugin packages supporting %s:" % mimetype
4376 for pkg in pkgs_handling_mimetype(mimetype):
4377     print "  %s" %pkg
4378 </pre>
4379
4380 <p>It can be used like this to look up a given MIME type:</p>
4381
4382 <pre>
4383 % ./apt-find-browserplug-for-mimetype
4384 Browser plugin packages supporting audio/ogg:
4385   gecko-mediaplayer
4386 % ./apt-find-browserplug-for-mimetype application/x-shockwave-flash
4387 Browser plugin packages supporting application/x-shockwave-flash:
4388   browser-plugin-gnash
4389 %
4390 </pre>
4391
4392 <p>In Ubuntu this mechanism is combined with support in the browser
4393 itself to query for plugins and propose to install the needed
4394 packages.  It would be great if Debian supported such feature too.  Is
4395 anyone working on adding it?</p>
4396
4397 <p><strong>Update 2013-01-18 14:20</strong>: The Debian BTS
4398 request for icweasel support for this feature is
4399 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/484010">#484010</a> from 2008 (and
4400 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/698426">#698426</a> from today).  Lack
4401 of manpower and wish for a different design is the reason thus feature
4402 is not yet in iceweasel from Debian.</p>
4403
4404       </div>
4405       <div class="tags">
4406
4407
4408         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>.
4409
4410
4411       </div>
4412     </div>
4413     <div class="padding"></div>
4414
4415     <div class="entry">
4416       <div class="title">
4417         <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>
4418       </div>
4419       <div class="date">
4420         16th January 2013
4421       </div>
4422       <div class="body">
4423         <p>The <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/AppStreamDebianProposal">DEP-11
4424 proposal to add AppStream information to the Debian archive</a>, is a
4425 proposal to make it possible for a Desktop application to propose to
4426 the user some package to install to gain support for a given MIME
4427 type, font, library etc. that is currently missing.  With such
4428 mechanism in place, it would be possible for the desktop to
4429 automatically propose and install leocad if some LDraw file is
4430 downloaded by the browser.</p>
4431
4432 <p>To get some idea about the current content of the archive, I decided
4433 to write a simple program to extract all .desktop files from the
4434 Debian archive and look up the claimed MIME support there.  The result
4435 can be found on the
4436 <a href="http://ftp.skolelinux.org/pub/AppStreamTest">Skolelinux FTP
4437 site</a>.  Using the collected information, it become possible to
4438 answer the question in the title.  Here are the 20 most supported MIME
4439 types in Debian stable (Squeeze), testing (Wheezy) and unstable (Sid).
4440 The complete list is available from the link above.</p>
4441
4442 <p><strong>Debian Stable:</strong></p>
4443
4444 <pre>
4445   count MIME type
4446   ----- -----------------------
4447      32 text/plain
4448      30 audio/mpeg
4449      29 image/png
4450      28 image/jpeg
4451      27 application/ogg
4452      26 audio/x-mp3
4453      25 image/tiff
4454      25 image/gif
4455      22 image/bmp
4456      22 audio/x-wav
4457      20 audio/x-flac
4458      19 audio/x-mpegurl
4459      18 video/x-ms-asf
4460      18 audio/x-musepack
4461      18 audio/x-mpeg
4462      18 application/x-ogg
4463      17 video/mpeg
4464      17 audio/x-scpls
4465      17 audio/ogg
4466      16 video/x-ms-wmv
4467 </pre>
4468
4469 <p><strong>Debian Testing:</strong></p>
4470
4471 <pre>
4472   count MIME type
4473   ----- -----------------------
4474      33 text/plain
4475      32 image/png
4476      32 image/jpeg
4477      29 audio/mpeg
4478      27 image/gif
4479      26 image/tiff
4480      26 application/ogg
4481      25 audio/x-mp3
4482      22 image/bmp
4483      21 audio/x-wav
4484      19 audio/x-mpegurl
4485      19 audio/x-mpeg
4486      18 video/mpeg
4487      18 audio/x-scpls
4488      18 audio/x-flac
4489      18 application/x-ogg
4490      17 video/x-ms-asf
4491      17 text/html
4492      17 audio/x-musepack
4493      16 image/x-xbitmap
4494 </pre>
4495
4496 <p><strong>Debian Unstable:</strong></p>
4497
4498 <pre>
4499   count MIME type
4500   ----- -----------------------
4501      31 text/plain
4502      31 image/png
4503      31 image/jpeg
4504      29 audio/mpeg
4505      28 application/ogg
4506      27 image/gif
4507      26 image/tiff
4508      26 audio/x-mp3
4509      23 audio/x-wav
4510      22 image/bmp
4511      21 audio/x-flac
4512      20 audio/x-mpegurl
4513      19 audio/x-mpeg
4514      18 video/x-ms-asf
4515      18 video/mpeg
4516      18 audio/x-scpls
4517      18 application/x-ogg
4518      17 audio/x-musepack
4519      16 video/x-ms-wmv
4520      16 video/x-msvideo
4521 </pre>
4522
4523 <p>I am told that PackageKit can provide an API to access the kind of
4524 information mentioned in DEP-11.  I have not yet had time to look at
4525 it, but hope the PackageKit people in Debian are on top of these
4526 issues.</p>
4527
4528 <p><strong>Update 2013-01-16 13:35</strong>: Updated numbers after
4529 discovering a typo in my script.</p>
4530
4531       </div>
4532       <div class="tags">
4533
4534
4535         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>.
4536
4537
4538       </div>
4539     </div>
4540     <div class="padding"></div>
4541
4542     <div class="entry">
4543       <div class="title">
4544         <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>
4545       </div>
4546       <div class="date">
4547         15th January 2013
4548       </div>
4549       <div class="body">
4550         <p>Yesterday, I wrote about the
4551 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Modalias_strings___a_practical_way_to_map__stuff__to_hardware.html">modalias
4552 values provided by the Linux kernel</a> following my hope for
4553 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lets_make_hardware_dongles_easier_to_use_in_Debian.html">better
4554 dongle support in Debian</a>.  Using this knowledge, I have tested how
4555 modalias values attached to package names can be used to map packages
4556 to hardware.  This allow the system to look up and suggest relevant
4557 packages when I plug in some new hardware into my machine, and replace
4558 discover and discover-data as the database used to map hardware to
4559 packages.</p>
4560
4561 <p>I create a modaliases file with entries like the following,
4562 containing package name, kernel module name (if relevant, otherwise
4563 the package name) and globs matching the relevant hardware
4564 modalias.</p>
4565
4566 <p><blockquote>
4567 Package: package-name
4568 <br>Modaliases: module(modaliasglob, modaliasglob, modaliasglob)</p>
4569 </blockquote></p>
4570
4571 <p>It is fairly trivial to write code to find the relevant packages
4572 for a given modalias value using this file.</p>
4573
4574 <p>An entry like this would suggest the video and picture application
4575 cheese for many USB web cameras (interface bus class 0E01):</p>
4576
4577 <p><blockquote>
4578 Package: cheese
4579 <br>Modaliases: cheese(usb:v*p*d*dc*dsc*dp*ic0Eisc01ip*)</p>
4580 </blockquote></p>
4581
4582 <p>An entry like this would suggest the pcmciautils package when a
4583 CardBus bridge (bus class 0607) PCI device is present:</p>
4584
4585 <p><blockquote>
4586 Package: pcmciautils
4587 <br>Modaliases: pcmciautils(pci:v*d*sv*sd*bc06sc07i*)
4588 </blockquote></p>
4589
4590 <p>An entry like this would suggest the package colorhug-client when
4591 plugging in a ColorHug with USB IDs 04D8:F8DA:</p>
4592
4593 <p><blockquote>
4594 Package: colorhug-client
4595 <br>Modaliases: colorhug-client(usb:v04D8pF8DAd*)</p>
4596 </blockquote></p>
4597
4598 <p>I believe the format is compatible with the format of the Packages
4599 file in the Debian archive.  Ubuntu already uses their Packages file
4600 to store their mappings from packages to hardware.</p>
4601
4602 <p>By adding a XB-Modaliases: header in debian/control, any .deb can
4603 announce the hardware it support in a way my prototype understand.
4604 This allow those publishing packages in an APT source outside the
4605 Debian archive as well as those backporting packages to make sure the
4606 hardware mapping are included in the package meta information.  I've
4607 tested such header in the pymissile package, and its modalias mapping
4608 is working as it should with my prototype.  It even made it to Ubuntu
4609 Raring.</p>
4610
4611 <p>To test if it was possible to look up supported hardware using only
4612 the shell tools available in the Debian installer, I wrote a shell
4613 implementation of the lookup code.  The idea is to create files for
4614 each modalias and let the shell do the matching.  Please check out and
4615 try the
4616 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/hw-support-lookup?view=co">hw-support-lookup</a>
4617 shell script.  It run without any extra dependencies and fetch the
4618 hardware mappings from the Debian archive and the subversion
4619 repository where I currently work on my prototype.</p>
4620
4621 <p>When I use it on a machine with a yubikey inserted, it suggest to
4622 install yubikey-personalization:</p>
4623
4624 <p><blockquote>
4625 % ./hw-support-lookup
4626 <br>yubikey-personalization
4627 <br>%
4628 </blockquote></p>
4629
4630 <p>When I run it on my Thinkpad X40 with a PCMCIA/CardBus slot, it
4631 propose to install the pcmciautils package:</p>
4632
4633 <p><blockquote>
4634 % ./hw-support-lookup
4635 <br>pcmciautils
4636 <br>%
4637 </blockquote></p>
4638
4639 <p>If you know of any hardware-package mapping that should be added to
4640 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/modaliases?view=co">my
4641 database</a>, please tell me about it.</p>
4642
4643 <p>It could be possible to generate several of the mappings between
4644 packages and hardware.  One source would be to look at packages with
4645 kernel modules, ie packages with *.ko files in /lib/modules/, and
4646 extract their modalias information.  Another would be to look at
4647 packages with udev rules, ie packages with files in
4648 /lib/udev/rules.d/, and extract their vendor/model information to
4649 generate a modalias matching rule.  I have not tested any of these to
4650 see if it work.</p>
4651
4652 <p>If you want to help implementing a system to let us propose what
4653 packages to install when new hardware is plugged into a Debian
4654 machine, please send me an email or talk to me on
4655 <a href="irc://irc.debian.org/%23debian-devel">#debian-devel</a>.</p>
4656
4657       </div>
4658       <div class="tags">
4659
4660
4661         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>.
4662
4663
4664       </div>
4665     </div>
4666     <div class="padding"></div>
4667
4668     <div class="entry">
4669       <div class="title">
4670         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Modalias_strings___a_practical_way_to_map__stuff__to_hardware.html">Modalias strings - a practical way to map "stuff" to hardware</a>
4671       </div>
4672       <div class="date">
4673         14th January 2013
4674       </div>
4675       <div class="body">
4676         <p>While looking into how to look up Debian packages based on hardware
4677 information, to find the packages that support a given piece of
4678 hardware, I refreshed my memory regarding modalias values, and decided
4679 to document the details.  Here are my findings so far, also available
4680 in
4681 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/">the
4682 Debian Edu subversion repository</a>:
4683
4684 <p><strong>Modalias decoded</strong></p>
4685
4686 <p>This document try to explain what the different types of modalias
4687 values stands for.  It is in part based on information from
4688 &lt;URL: <a href="https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Modalias">https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Modalias</a> &gt;,
4689 &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;,
4690 &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
4691 &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;.
4692
4693 <p>The modalias entries for a given Linux machine can be found using
4694 this shell script:</p>
4695
4696 <pre>
4697 find /sys -name modalias -print0 | xargs -0 cat | sort -u
4698 </pre>
4699
4700 <p>The supported modalias globs for a given kernel module can be found
4701 using modinfo:</p>
4702
4703 <pre>
4704 % /sbin/modinfo psmouse | grep alias:
4705 alias:          serio:ty05pr*id*ex*
4706 alias:          serio:ty01pr*id*ex*
4707 %
4708 </pre>
4709
4710 <p><strong>PCI subtype</strong></p>
4711
4712 <p>A typical PCI entry can look like this.  This is an Intel Host
4713 Bridge memory controller:</p>
4714
4715 <p><blockquote>
4716 pci:v00008086d00002770sv00001028sd000001ADbc06sc00i00
4717 </blockquote></p>
4718
4719 <p>This represent these values:</p>
4720
4721 <pre>
4722  v   00008086  (vendor)
4723  d   00002770  (device)
4724  sv  00001028  (subvendor)
4725  sd  000001AD  (subdevice)
4726  bc  06        (bus class)
4727  sc  00        (bus subclass)
4728  i   00        (interface)
4729 </pre>
4730
4731 <p>The vendor/device values are the same values outputted from 'lspci
4732 -n' as 8086:2770.  The bus class/subclass is also shown by lspci as
4733 0600.  The 0600 class is a host bridge.  Other useful bus values are
4734 0300 (VGA compatible card) and 0200 (Ethernet controller).</p>
4735
4736 <p>Not sure how to figure out the interface value, nor what it
4737 means.</p>
4738
4739 <p><strong>USB subtype</strong></p>
4740
4741 <p>Some typical USB entries can look like this.  This is an internal
4742 USB hub in a laptop:</p>
4743
4744 <p><blockquote>
4745 usb:v1D6Bp0001d0206dc09dsc00dp00ic09isc00ip00
4746 </blockquote></p>
4747
4748 <p>Here is the values included in this alias:</p>
4749
4750 <pre>
4751  v    1D6B  (device vendor)
4752  p    0001  (device product)
4753  d    0206  (bcddevice)
4754  dc     09  (device class)
4755  dsc    00  (device subclass)
4756  dp     00  (device protocol)
4757  ic     09  (interface class)
4758  isc    00  (interface subclass)
4759  ip     00  (interface protocol)
4760 </pre>
4761
4762 <p>The 0900 device class/subclass means hub.  Some times the relevant
4763 class is in the interface class section.  For a simple USB web camera,
4764 these alias entries show up:</p>
4765
4766 <p><blockquote>
4767 usb:v0AC8p3420d5000dcEFdsc02dp01ic01isc01ip00
4768 <br>usb:v0AC8p3420d5000dcEFdsc02dp01ic01isc02ip00
4769 <br>usb:v0AC8p3420d5000dcEFdsc02dp01ic0Eisc01ip00
4770 <br>usb:v0AC8p3420d5000dcEFdsc02dp01ic0Eisc02ip00
4771 </blockquote></p>
4772
4773 <p>Interface class 0E01 is video control, 0E02 is video streaming (aka
4774 camera), 0101 is audio control device and 0102 is audio streaming (aka
4775 microphone).  Thus this is a camera with microphone included.</p>
4776
4777 <p><strong>ACPI subtype</strong></p>
4778
4779 <p>The ACPI type is used for several non-PCI/USB stuff.  This is an IR
4780 receiver in a Thinkpad X40:</p>
4781
4782 <p><blockquote>
4783 acpi:IBM0071:PNP0511:
4784 </blockquote></p>
4785
4786 <p>The values between the colons are IDs.</p>
4787
4788 <p><strong>DMI subtype</strong></p>
4789
4790 <p>The DMI table contain lots of information about the computer case
4791 and model.  This is an entry for a IBM Thinkpad X40, fetched from
4792 /sys/devices/virtual/dmi/id/modalias:</p>
4793
4794 <p><blockquote>
4795 dmi:bvnIBM:bvr1UETB6WW(1.66):bd06/15/2005:svnIBM:pn2371H4G:pvrThinkPadX40:rvnIBM:rn2371H4G:rvrNotAvailable:cvnIBM:ct10:cvrNotAvailable:
4796 </blockquote></p>
4797
4798 <p>The values present are</p>
4799
4800 <pre>
4801  bvn  IBM            (BIOS vendor)
4802  bvr  1UETB6WW(1.66) (BIOS version)
4803  bd   06/15/2005     (BIOS date)
4804  svn  IBM            (system vendor)
4805  pn   2371H4G        (product name)
4806  pvr  ThinkPadX40    (product version)
4807  rvn  IBM            (board vendor)
4808  rn   2371H4G        (board name)
4809  rvr  NotAvailable   (board version)
4810  cvn  IBM            (chassis vendor)
4811  ct   10             (chassis type)
4812  cvr  NotAvailable   (chassis version)
4813 </pre>
4814
4815 <p>The chassis type 10 is Notebook.  Other interesting values can be
4816 found in the dmidecode source:</p>
4817
4818 <pre>
4819   3 Desktop
4820   4 Low Profile Desktop
4821   5 Pizza Box
4822   6 Mini Tower
4823   7 Tower
4824   8 Portable
4825   9 Laptop
4826  10 Notebook
4827  11 Hand Held
4828  12 Docking Station
4829  13 All In One
4830  14 Sub Notebook
4831  15 Space-saving
4832  16 Lunch Box
4833  17 Main Server Chassis
4834  18 Expansion Chassis
4835  19 Sub Chassis
4836  20 Bus Expansion Chassis
4837  21 Peripheral Chassis
4838  22 RAID Chassis
4839  23 Rack Mount Chassis
4840  24 Sealed-case PC
4841  25 Multi-system
4842  26 CompactPCI
4843  27 AdvancedTCA
4844  28 Blade
4845  29 Blade Enclosing
4846 </pre>
4847
4848 <p>The chassis type values are not always accurately set in the DMI
4849 table.  For example my home server is a tower, but the DMI modalias
4850 claim it is a desktop.</p>
4851
4852 <p><strong>SerIO subtype</strong></p>
4853
4854 <p>This type is used for PS/2 mouse plugs.  One example is from my
4855 test machine:</p>
4856
4857 <p><blockquote>
4858 serio:ty01pr00id00ex00
4859 </blockquote></p>
4860
4861 <p>The values present are</p>
4862
4863 <pre>
4864   ty  01  (type)
4865   pr  00  (prototype)
4866   id  00  (id)
4867   ex  00  (extra)
4868 </pre>
4869
4870 <p>This type is supported by the psmouse driver.  I am not sure what
4871 the valid values are.</p>
4872
4873 <p><strong>Other subtypes</strong></p>
4874
4875 <p>There are heaps of other modalias subtypes according to
4876 file2alias.c.  There is the rest of the list from that source: amba,
4877 ap, bcma, ccw, css, eisa, hid, i2c, ieee1394, input, ipack, isapnp,
4878 mdio, of, parisc, pcmcia, platform, scsi, sdio, spi, ssb, vio, virtio,
4879 vmbus, x86cpu and zorro.  I did not spend time documenting all of
4880 these, as they do not seem relevant for my intended use with mapping
4881 hardware to packages when new stuff is inserted during run time.</p>
4882
4883 <p><strong>Looking up kernel modules using modalias values</strong></p>
4884
4885 <p>To check which kernel modules provide support for a given modalias,
4886 one can use the following shell script:</p>
4887
4888 <pre>
4889   for id in $(find /sys -name modalias -print0 | xargs -0 cat | sort -u); do \
4890     echo "$id" ; \
4891     /sbin/modprobe --show-depends "$id"|sed 's/^/  /' ; \
4892   done
4893 </pre>
4894
4895 <p>The output can look like this (only the first few entries as the
4896 list is very long on my test machine):</p>
4897
4898 <pre>
4899   acpi:ACPI0003:
4900     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/drivers/acpi/ac.ko
4901   acpi:device:
4902   FATAL: Module acpi:device: not found.
4903   acpi:IBM0068:
4904     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/drivers/char/nvram.ko
4905     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/drivers/leds/led-class.ko
4906     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/net/rfkill/rfkill.ko
4907     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/drivers/platform/x86/thinkpad_acpi.ko
4908   acpi:IBM0071:PNP0511:
4909     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/lib/crc-ccitt.ko
4910     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/net/irda/irda.ko
4911     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/drivers/net/irda/nsc-ircc.ko
4912   [...]
4913 </pre>
4914
4915 <p>If you want to help implementing a system to let us propose what
4916 packages to install when new hardware is plugged into a Debian
4917 machine, please send me an email or talk to me on
4918 <a href="irc://irc.debian.org/%23debian-devel">#debian-devel</a>.</p>
4919
4920 <p><strong>Update 2013-01-15:</strong> Rewrite "cat $(find ...)" to
4921 "find ... -print0 | xargs -0 cat" to make sure it handle directories
4922 in /sys/ with space in them.</p>
4923
4924       </div>
4925       <div class="tags">
4926
4927
4928         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>.
4929
4930
4931       </div>
4932     </div>
4933     <div class="padding"></div>
4934
4935     <div class="entry">
4936       <div class="title">
4937         <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>
4938       </div>
4939       <div class="date">
4940         10th January 2013
4941       </div>
4942       <div class="body">
4943         <p>As part of my investigation on how to improve the support in Debian
4944 for hardware dongles, I dug up my old Mark and Spencer USB Rocket
4945 Launcher and updated the Debian package
4946 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/pymissile">pymissile</a> to make
4947 sure udev will fix the device permissions when it is plugged in.  I
4948 also added a "Modaliases" header to test it in the Debian archive and
4949 hopefully make the package be proposed by jockey in Ubuntu when a user
4950 plug in his rocket launcher.  In the process I moved the source to a
4951 git repository under collab-maint, to make it easier for any DD to
4952 contribute.  <a href="http://code.google.com/p/pymissile/">Upstream</a>
4953 is not very active, but the software still work for me even after five
4954 years of relative silence.  The new git repository is not listed in
4955 the uploaded package yet, because I want to test the other changes a
4956 bit more before I upload the new version.  If you want to check out
4957 the new version with a .desktop file included, visit the
4958 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/gitweb/?p=collab-maint/pymissile.git">gitweb
4959 view</a> or use "<tt>git clone
4960 git://anonscm.debian.org/collab-maint/pymissile.git</tt>".</p>
4961
4962       </div>
4963       <div class="tags">
4964
4965
4966         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram">isenkram</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/robot">robot</a>.
4967
4968
4969       </div>
4970     </div>
4971     <div class="padding"></div>
4972
4973     <div class="entry">
4974       <div class="title">
4975         <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>
4976       </div>
4977       <div class="date">
4978          9th January 2013
4979       </div>
4980       <div class="body">
4981         <p>One thing that annoys me with Debian and Linux distributions in
4982 general, is that there is a great package management system with the
4983 ability to automatically install software packages by downloading them
4984 from the distribution mirrors, but no way to get it to automatically
4985 install the packages I need to use the hardware I plug into my
4986 machine.  Even if the package to use it is easily available from the
4987 Linux distribution.  When I plug in a LEGO Mindstorms NXT, it could
4988 suggest to automatically install the python-nxt, nbc and t2n packages
4989 I need to talk to it.  When I plug in a Yubikey, it could propose the
4990 yubikey-personalization package.  The information required to do this
4991 is available, but no-one have pulled all the pieces together.</p>
4992
4993 <p>Some years ago, I proposed to
4994 <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2010/05/msg01206.html">use
4995 the discover subsystem to implement this</a>.  The idea is fairly
4996 simple:
4997
4998 <ul>
4999
5000 <li>Add a desktop entry in /usr/share/autostart/ pointing to a program
5001   starting when a user log in.</li>
5002
5003 <li>Set this program up to listen for kernel events emitted when new
5004   hardware is inserted into the computer.</li>
5005
5006 <li>When new hardware is inserted, look up the hardware ID in a
5007   database mapping to packages, and take note of any non-installed
5008   packages.</li>
5009
5010 <li>Show a message to the user proposing to install the discovered
5011   package, and make it easy to install it.</li>
5012
5013 </ul>
5014
5015 <p>I am not sure what the best way to implement this is, but my
5016 initial idea was to use dbus events to discover new hardware, the
5017 discover database to find packages and
5018 <a href="http://www.packagekit.org/">PackageKit</a> to install
5019 packages.</p>
5020
5021 <p>Yesterday, I found time to try to implement this idea, and the
5022 draft package is now checked into
5023 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/">the
5024 Debian Edu subversion repository</a>.  In the process, I updated the
5025 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/d/discover-data.html">discover-data</a>
5026 package to map the USB ids of LEGO Mindstorms and Yubikey devices to
5027 the relevant packages in Debian, and uploaded a new version
5028 2.2013.01.09 to unstable.  I also discovered that the current
5029 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/d/discover.html">discover</a>
5030 package in Debian no longer discovered any USB devices, because
5031 /proc/bus/usb/devices is no longer present.  I ported it to use
5032 libusb as a fall back option to get it working.  The fixed package
5033 version 2.1.2-6 is now in experimental (didn't upload it to unstable
5034 because of the freeze).</p>
5035
5036 <p>With this prototype in place, I can insert my Yubikey, and get this
5037 desktop notification to show up (only once, the first time it is
5038 inserted):</p>
5039
5040 <p align="center"><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-01-09-hw-autoinstall.png"></p>
5041
5042 <p>For this prototype to be really useful, some way to automatically
5043 install the proposed packages by pressing the "Please install
5044 program(s)" button should to be implemented.</p>
5045
5046 <p>If this idea seem useful to you, and you want to help make it
5047 happen, please help me update the discover-data database with mappings
5048 from hardware to Debian packages.  Check if 'discover-pkginstall -l'
5049 list the package you would like to have installed when a given
5050 hardware device is inserted into your computer, and report bugs using
5051 reportbug if it isn't.  Or, if you know of a better way to provide
5052 such mapping, please let me know.</p>
5053
5054 <p>This prototype need more work, and there are several questions that
5055 should be considered before it is ready for production use.  Is dbus
5056 the correct way to detect new hardware?  At the moment I look for HAL
5057 dbus events on the system bus, because that is the events I could see
5058 on my Debian Squeeze KDE desktop.  Are there better events to use?
5059 How should the user be notified?  Is the desktop notification
5060 mechanism the best option, or should the background daemon raise a
5061 popup instead?  How should packages be installed?  When should they
5062 not be installed?</p>
5063
5064 <p>If you want to help getting such feature implemented in Debian,
5065 please send me an email. :)</p>
5066
5067       </div>
5068       <div class="tags">
5069
5070
5071         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>.
5072
5073
5074       </div>
5075     </div>
5076     <div class="padding"></div>
5077
5078     <div class="entry">
5079       <div class="title">
5080         <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>
5081       </div>
5082       <div class="date">
5083          2nd January 2013
5084       </div>
5085       <div class="body">
5086         <p>During Christmas, I have worked a bit on the Debian support for
5087 <a href="http://mindstorms.lego.com/en-us/Default.aspx">LEGO Mindstorm
5088 NXT</a>.  My son and I have played a bit with my NXT set, and I
5089 discovered I had to build all the tools myself because none were
5090 already in Debian Squeeze.  If Debian support for LEGO is something
5091 you care about, please join me on the IRC channel
5092 <a href="irc://irc.debian.org/%23debian-lego">#debian-lego</a> (server
5093 irc.debian.org).  There is a lot that could be done to improve the
5094 Debian support for LEGO designers.  For example both CAD software
5095 and Mindstorm compilers are missing. :)</p>
5096
5097 <p>Update 2012-01-03: A
5098 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/LegoDesigners">project page</a>
5099 including links to Lego related packages is now available.</p>
5100
5101       </div>
5102       <div class="tags">
5103
5104
5105         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>.
5106
5107
5108       </div>
5109     </div>
5110     <div class="padding"></div>
5111
5112     <div class="entry">
5113       <div class="title">
5114         <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>
5115       </div>
5116       <div class="date">
5117         25th December 2012
5118       </div>
5119       <div class="body">
5120         <p>Let me start by wishing you all marry Christmas and a happy new
5121 year!  I hope next year will prove to be a good year.</p>
5122
5123 <p><a href="http://www.bitcoin.org/">Bitcoin</a>, the digital
5124 decentralised "currency" that allow people to transfer bitcoins
5125 between each other with minimal overhead, is a very interesting
5126 experiment.  And as I wrote a few days ago, the bitcoin situation in
5127 <a href="http://www.debian.org/">Debian</a> is about to improve a bit.
5128 The <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/bitcoin">new debian source
5129 package</a> (version 0.7.2-2) was uploaded yesterday, and is waiting
5130 in <a href="http://ftp-master.debian.org/new.html">the NEW queue</A>
5131 for one of the ftpmasters to approve the new bitcoin-qt package
5132 name.</p>
5133
5134 <p>And thanks to the great work of Jonas and the rest of the bitcoin
5135 team in Debian, you can easily test the package in Debian Squeeze
5136 using the following steps to get a set of working packages:</p>
5137
5138 <blockquote><pre>
5139 git clone git://git.debian.org/git/collab-maint/bitcoin
5140 cd bitcoin
5141 DEB_MAINTAINER_MODE=1 DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS=noupnp fakeroot debian/rules clean
5142 DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS=noupnp git-buildpackage --git-ignore-new
5143 </pre></blockquote>
5144
5145 <p>You might have to install some build dependencies as well.  The
5146 list of commands should give you two packages, bitcoind and
5147 bitcoin-qt, ready for use in a Squeeze environment.  Note that the
5148 client will download the complete set of bitcoin "blocks", which need
5149 around 5.6 GiB of data on my machine at the moment.  Make sure your
5150 ~/.bitcoin/ directory have lots of spare room if you want to download
5151 all the blocks.  The client will warn if the disk is getting full, so
5152 there is not really a problem if you got too little room, but you will
5153 not be able to get all the features out of the client.</p>
5154
5155 <p>As usual, if you use bitcoin and want to show your support of my
5156 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
5157 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b&label=PetterReinholdtsenBlog">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
5158
5159       </div>
5160       <div class="tags">
5161
5162
5163         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>.
5164
5165
5166       </div>
5167     </div>
5168     <div class="padding"></div>
5169
5170     <div class="entry">
5171       <div class="title">
5172         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/A_word_on_bitcoin_support_in_Debian.html">A word on bitcoin support in Debian</a>
5173       </div>
5174       <div class="date">
5175         21st December 2012
5176       </div>
5177       <div class="body">
5178         <p>It has been a while since I wrote about
5179 <a href="http://www.bitcoin.org/">bitcoin</a>, the decentralised
5180 peer-to-peer based crypto-currency, and the reason is simply that I
5181 have been busy elsewhere.  But two days ago, I started looking at the
5182 state of <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/bitcoin">bitcoin in
5183 Debian</a> again to try to recover my old bitcoin wallet.  The package
5184 is now maintained by a
5185 <a href="https://alioth.debian.org/projects/pkg-bitcoin/">team of
5186 people</a>, and the grunt work had already been done by this team.  We
5187 owe a huge thank you to all these team members. :)
5188 But I was sad to discover that the bitcoin client is missing in
5189 Wheezy.  It is only available in Sid (and an outdated client from
5190 backports).  The client had several RC bugs registered in BTS blocking
5191 it from entering testing.  To try to help the team and improve the
5192 situation, I spent some time providing patches and triaging the bug
5193 reports.  I also had a look at the bitcoin package available from Matt
5194 Corallo in a
5195 <a href="https://launchpad.net/~bitcoin/+archive/bitcoin">PPA for
5196 Ubuntu</a>, and moved the useful pieces from that version into the
5197 Debian package.</p>
5198
5199 <p>After checking with the main package maintainer Jonas Smedegaard on
5200 IRC, I pushed several patches into the collab-maint git repository to
5201 improve the package.  It now contains fixes for the RC issues (not from
5202 me, but fixed by Scott Howard), build rules for a Qt GUI client
5203 package, konqueror support for the bitcoin: URI and bash completion
5204 setup.  As I work on Debian Squeeze, I also created
5205 <a href="http://lists.alioth.debian.org/pipermail/pkg-bitcoin-devel/Week-of-Mon-20121217/000041.html">a
5206 patch to backport</a> the latest version.  Jonas is going to look at
5207 it and try to integrate it into the git repository before uploading a
5208 new version to unstable.
5209
5210 <p>I would very much like bitcoin to succeed, to get rid of the
5211 centralized control currently exercised in the monetary system.  I
5212 find it completely unacceptable that the USA government is collecting
5213 transaction data for almost all international money transfers (most are done in USD and transaction logs shipped to the spooks), and
5214 that the major credit card companies can block legal money
5215 transactions to Wikileaks.  But for bitcoin to succeed, more people
5216 need to use bitcoins, and more people need to accept bitcoins when
5217 they sell products and services.  Improving the bitcoin support in
5218 Debian is a small step in the right direction, but not enough.
5219 Unfortunately the user experience when browsing the web and wanting to
5220 pay with bitcoin is still not very good.  The bitcoin: URI is a step
5221 in the right direction, but need to work in most or every browser in
5222 use.  Also the bitcoin-qt client is too heavy to fire up to do a
5223 quick transaction.  I believe there are other clients available, but
5224 have not tested them.</p>
5225
5226 <p>My
5227 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Now_accepting_bitcoins___anonymous_and_distributed_p2p_crypto_money.html">experiment
5228 with bitcoins</a> showed that at least some of my readers use bitcoin.
5229 I received 20.15 BTC so far on the address I provided in my blog two
5230 years ago, as can be
5231 <a href="http://blockexplorer.com/address/15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">seen
5232 on the blockexplorer service</a>.  Thank you everyone for your
5233 donation.  The blockexplorer service demonstrates quite well that
5234 bitcoin is not quite anonymous and untracked. :) I wonder if the
5235 number of users have gone up since then.  If you use bitcoin and want
5236 to show your support of my activity, please send Bitcoin donations to
5237 the same address as last time,
5238 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b&label=PetterReinholdtsenBlog">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
5239
5240       </div>
5241       <div class="tags">
5242
5243
5244         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>.
5245
5246
5247       </div>
5248     </div>
5249     <div class="padding"></div>
5250
5251     <div class="entry">
5252       <div class="title">
5253         <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>
5254       </div>
5255       <div class="date">
5256          7th September 2012
5257       </div>
5258       <div class="body">
5259         <p>As I
5260 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Song_book_for_Computer_Scientists.html">mentioned
5261 this summer</a>, I have created a Computer Science song book a few
5262 years ago, and today I finally found time to create a public
5263 <a href="https://gitorious.org/pere-cs-songbook/pere-cs-songbook">Gitorious
5264 repository for the project</a>.</p>
5265
5266 <p>If you want to help out, please clone the source and submit patches
5267 to the HTML version.  To generate the PDF and PostScript version,
5268 please use prince XML, or let me know about a useful free software
5269 processor capable of creating a good looking PDF from the HTML.</p>
5270
5271 <p>Want to sing?  You can still find the song book in HTML, PDF and
5272 PostScript formats at
5273 <a href="http://www.hungry.com/~pere/cs-songbook/">Petter's Computer
5274 Science Songbook</a>.</p>
5275
5276       </div>
5277       <div class="tags">
5278
5279
5280         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>.
5281
5282
5283       </div>
5284     </div>
5285     <div class="padding"></div>
5286
5287     <div class="entry">
5288       <div class="title">
5289         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Gratulerer_med_19__rsdagen__Debian_.html">Gratulerer med 19-årsdagen, Debian!</a>
5290       </div>
5291       <div class="date">
5292         16th August 2012
5293       </div>
5294       <div class="body">
5295         <p>I dag fyller
5296 <a href="http://www.debian.org/News/2012/20120813">Debian-prosjektet 19
5297 år</a>.  Jeg har fulgt det de siste 12 årene, og er veldig glad for å kunne
5298 si gratulerer med dagen, Debian!</p>
5299
5300       </div>
5301       <div class="tags">
5302
5303
5304         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>.
5305
5306
5307       </div>
5308     </div>
5309     <div class="padding"></div>
5310
5311     <div class="entry">
5312       <div class="title">
5313         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Song_book_for_Computer_Scientists.html">Song book for Computer Scientists</a>
5314       </div>
5315       <div class="date">
5316         24th June 2012
5317       </div>
5318       <div class="body">
5319         <p>Many years ago, while studying Computer Science at the
5320 <a href="http://www.uit.no/">University of Tromsø</a>, I started
5321 collecting computer related songs for use at parties.  The original
5322 version was written in LaTeX, but a few years ago I got help from
5323 Håkon W. Lie, one of the inventors of W3C CSS, to convert it to HTML
5324 while keeping the ability to create a nice book in PDF format.  I have
5325 not had time to maintain the book for a while now, and guess I should
5326 put it up on some public version control repository where others can
5327 help me extend and update the book.  If anyone is volunteering to help
5328 me with this, send me an email.  Also let me know if there are songs
5329 missing in my book.</p>
5330
5331 <p>I have not mentioned the book on my blog so far, and it occured to
5332 me today that I really should let all my readers share the joys of
5333 singing out load about programming, computers and computer networks.
5334 Especially now that <a href="http://debconf12.debconf.org/">Debconf
5335 12</a> is about to start (and I am not going).  Want to sing?  Check
5336 out <a href="http://www.hungry.com/~pere/cs-songbook/">Petter's
5337 Computer Science Songbook</a>.
5338
5339       </div>
5340       <div class="tags">
5341
5342
5343         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>.
5344
5345
5346       </div>
5347     </div>
5348     <div class="padding"></div>
5349
5350     <div class="entry">
5351       <div class="title">
5352         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Automatically_upgrading_server_firmware_on_Dell_PowerEdge.html">Automatically upgrading server firmware on Dell PowerEdge</a>
5353       </div>
5354       <div class="date">
5355         21st November 2011
5356       </div>
5357       <div class="body">
5358         <p>At work we have heaps of servers.  I believe the total count is
5359 around 1000 at the moment.  To be able to get help from the vendors
5360 when something go wrong, we want to keep the firmware on the servers
5361 up to date.  If the firmware isn't the latest and greatest, the
5362 vendors typically refuse to start debugging any problems until the
5363 firmware is upgraded.  So before every reboot, we want to upgrade the
5364 firmware, and we would really like everyone handling servers at the
5365 university to do this themselves when they plan to reboot a machine.
5366 For that to happen we at the unix server admin group need to provide
5367 the tools to do so.</p>
5368
5369 <p>To make firmware upgrading easier, I am working on a script to
5370 fetch and install the latest firmware for the servers we got.  Most of
5371 our hardware are from Dell and HP, so I have focused on these servers
5372 so far.  This blog post is about the Dell part.</P>
5373
5374 <p>On the Dell FTP site I was lucky enough to find
5375 <a href="ftp://ftp.us.dell.com/catalog/Catalog.xml.gz">an XML file</a>
5376 with firmware information for all 11th generation servers, listing
5377 which firmware should be used on a given model and where on the FTP
5378 site I can find it.  Using a simple perl XML parser I can then
5379 download the shell scripts Dell provides to do firmware upgrades from
5380 within Linux and reboot when all the firmware is primed and ready to
5381 be activated on the first reboot.</p>
5382
5383 <p>This is the Dell related fragment of the perl code I am working on.
5384 Are there anyone working on similar tools for firmware upgrading all
5385 servers at a site?  Please get in touch and lets share resources.</p>
5386
5387 <p><pre>
5388 #!/usr/bin/perl
5389 use strict;
5390 use warnings;
5391 use File::Temp qw(tempdir);
5392 BEGIN {
5393     # Install needed RHEL packages if missing
5394     my %rhelmodules = (
5395         'XML::Simple' => 'perl-XML-Simple',
5396         );
5397     for my $module (keys %rhelmodules) {
5398         eval "use $module;";
5399         if ($@) {
5400             my $pkg = $rhelmodules{$module};
5401             system("yum install -y $pkg");
5402             eval "use $module;";
5403         }
5404     }
5405 }
5406 my $errorsto = 'pere@hungry.com';
5407
5408 upgrade_dell();
5409
5410 exit 0;
5411
5412 sub run_firmware_script {
5413     my ($opts, $script) = @_;
5414     unless ($script) {
5415         print STDERR "fail: missing script name\n";
5416         exit 1
5417     }
5418     print STDERR "Running $script\n\n";
5419
5420     if (0 == system("sh $script $opts")) { # FIXME correct exit code handling
5421         print STDERR "success: firmware script ran succcessfully\n";
5422     } else {
5423         print STDERR "fail: firmware script returned error\n";
5424     }
5425 }
5426
5427 sub run_firmware_scripts {
5428     my ($opts, @dirs) = @_;
5429     # Run firmware packages
5430     for my $dir (@dirs) {
5431         print STDERR "info: Running scripts in $dir\n";
5432         opendir(my $dh, $dir) or die "Unable to open directory $dir: $!";
5433         while (my $s = readdir $dh) {
5434             next if $s =~ m/^\.\.?/;
5435             run_firmware_script($opts, "$dir/$s");
5436         }
5437         closedir $dh;
5438     }
5439 }
5440
5441 sub download {
5442     my $url = shift;
5443     print STDERR "info: Downloading $url\n";
5444     system("wget --quiet \"$url\"");
5445 }
5446
5447 sub upgrade_dell {
5448     my @dirs;
5449     my $product = `dmidecode -s system-product-name`;
5450     chomp $product;
5451
5452     if ($product =~ m/PowerEdge/) {
5453
5454         # on RHEL, these pacakges are needed by the firwmare upgrade scripts
5455         system('yum install -y compat-libstdc++-33.i686 libstdc++.i686 libxml2.i686 procmail');
5456
5457         my $tmpdir = tempdir(
5458             CLEANUP => 1
5459             );
5460         chdir($tmpdir);
5461         fetch_dell_fw('catalog/Catalog.xml.gz');
5462         system('gunzip Catalog.xml.gz');
5463         my @paths = fetch_dell_fw_list('Catalog.xml');
5464         # -q is quiet, disabling interactivity and reducing console output
5465         my $fwopts = "-q";
5466         if (@paths) {
5467             for my $url (@paths) {
5468                 fetch_dell_fw($url);
5469             }
5470             run_firmware_scripts($fwopts, $tmpdir);
5471         } else {
5472             print STDERR "error: Unsupported Dell model '$product'.\n";
5473             print STDERR "error: Please report to $errorsto.\n";
5474         }
5475         chdir('/');
5476     } else {
5477         print STDERR "error: Unsupported Dell model '$product'.\n";
5478         print STDERR "error: Please report to $errorsto.\n";
5479     }
5480 }
5481
5482 sub fetch_dell_fw {
5483     my $path = shift;
5484     my $url = "ftp://ftp.us.dell.com/$path";
5485     download($url);
5486 }
5487
5488 # Using ftp://ftp.us.dell.com/catalog/Catalog.xml.gz, figure out which
5489 # firmware packages to download from Dell.  Only work for Linux
5490 # machines and 11th generation Dell servers.
5491 sub fetch_dell_fw_list {
5492     my $filename = shift;
5493
5494     my $product = `dmidecode -s system-product-name`;
5495     chomp $product;
5496     my ($mybrand, $mymodel) = split(/\s+/, $product);
5497
5498     print STDERR "Finding firmware bundles for $mybrand $mymodel\n";
5499
5500     my $xml = XMLin($filename);
5501     my @paths;
5502     for my $bundle (@{$xml->{SoftwareBundle}}) {
5503         my $brand = $bundle->{TargetSystems}->{Brand}->{Display}->{content};
5504         my $model = $bundle->{TargetSystems}->{Brand}->{Model}->{Display}->{content};
5505         my $oscode;
5506         if ("ARRAY" eq ref $bundle->{TargetOSes}->{OperatingSystem}) {
5507             $oscode = $bundle->{TargetOSes}->{OperatingSystem}[0]->{osCode};
5508         } else {
5509             $oscode = $bundle->{TargetOSes}->{OperatingSystem}->{osCode};
5510         }
5511         if ($mybrand eq $brand && $mymodel eq $model && "LIN" eq $oscode)
5512         {
5513             @paths = map { $_->{path} } @{$bundle->{Contents}->{Package}};
5514         }
5515     }
5516     for my $component (@{$xml->{SoftwareComponent}}) {
5517         my $componenttype = $component->{ComponentType}->{value};
5518
5519         # Drop application packages, only firmware and BIOS
5520         next if 'APAC' eq $componenttype;
5521
5522         my $cpath = $component->{path};
5523         for my $path (@paths) {
5524             if ($cpath =~ m%/$path$%) {
5525                 push(@paths, $cpath);
5526             }
5527         }
5528     }
5529     return @paths;
5530 }
5531 </pre>
5532
5533 <p>The code is only tested on RedHat Enterprise Linux, but I suspect
5534 it could work on other platforms with some tweaking.  Anyone know a
5535 index like Catalog.xml is available from HP for HP servers?  At the
5536 moment I maintain a similar list manually and it is quickly getting
5537 outdated.</p>
5538
5539       </div>
5540       <div class="tags">
5541
5542
5543         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>.
5544
5545
5546       </div>
5547     </div>
5548     <div class="padding"></div>
5549
5550     <div class="entry">
5551       <div class="title">
5552         <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>
5553       </div>
5554       <div class="date">
5555          4th August 2011
5556       </div>
5557       <div class="body">
5558         <p>Wouter Verhelst have some
5559 <a href="http://grep.be/blog/en/retorts/pere_kubuntu_boot">interesting
5560 comments and opinions</a> on my blog post on
5561 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/What_should_start_from__etc_rcS_d__in_Debian____almost_nothing.html">the
5562 need to clean up /etc/rcS.d/ in Debian</a> and my blog post about
5563 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/What_is_missing_in_the_Debian_desktop__or_why_my_parents_use_Kubuntu.html">the
5564 default KDE desktop in Debian</a>.  I only have time to address one
5565 small piece of his comment now, and though it best to address the
5566 misunderstanding he bring forward:</p>
5567
5568 <p><blockquote>
5569 Currently, a system admin has four options: [...] boot to a
5570 single-user system (by adding 'single' to the kernel command line;
5571 this runs rcS and rc1 scripts)
5572 </blockquote></p>
5573
5574 <p>This make me believe Wouter believe booting into single user mode
5575 and booting into runlevel 1 is the same.  I am not surprised he
5576 believe this, because it would make sense and is a quite sensible
5577 thing to believe.  But because the boot in Debian is slightly broken,
5578 runlevel 1 do not work properly and it isn't the same as single user
5579 mode.  I'll try to explain what is actually happing, but it is a bit
5580 hard to explain.</p>
5581
5582 <p>Single user mode is defined like this in /etc/inittab:
5583 "<tt>~~:S:wait:/sbin/sulogin</tt>".  This means the only thing that is
5584 executed in single user mode is sulogin.  Single user mode is a boot
5585 state "between" the runlevels, and when booting into single user mode,
5586 only the scripts in /etc/rcS.d/ are executed before the init process
5587 enters the single user state.  When switching to runlevel 1, the state
5588 is in fact not ending in runlevel 1, but it passes through runlevel 1
5589 and end up in the single user mode (see /etc/rc1.d/S03single, which
5590 runs "init -t1 S" to switch to single user mode at the end of runlevel
5591 1.  It is confusing that the 'S' (single user) init mode is not the
5592 mode enabled by /etc/rcS.d/ (which is more like the initial boot
5593 mode).</p>
5594
5595 <p>This summary might make it clearer.  When booting for the first
5596 time into single user mode, the following commands are executed:
5597 "<tt>/etc/init.d/rc S; /sbin/sulogin</tt>".  When booting into
5598 runlevel 1, the following commands are executed: "<tt>/etc/init.d/rc
5599 S; /etc/init.d/rc 1; /sbin/sulogin</tt>".  A problem show up when
5600 trying to continue after visiting single user mode.  Not all services
5601 are started again as they should, causing the machine to end up in an
5602 unpredicatble state.  This is why Debian admins recommend rebooting
5603 after visiting single user mode.</p>
5604
5605 <p>A similar problem with runlevel 1 is caused by the amount of
5606 scripts executed from /etc/rcS.d/.  When switching from say runlevel 2
5607 to runlevel 1, the services started from /etc/rcS.d/ are not properly
5608 stopped when passing through the scripts in /etc/rc1.d/, and not
5609 started again when switching away from runlevel 1 to the runlevels
5610 2-5.  I believe the problem is best fixed by moving all the scripts
5611 out of /etc/rcS.d/ that are not <strong>required</strong> to get a
5612 functioning single user mode during boot.</p>
5613
5614 <p>I have spent several years investigating the Debian boot system,
5615 and discovered this problem a few years ago.  I suspect it originates
5616 from when sysvinit was introduced into Debian, a long time ago.</p>
5617
5618       </div>
5619       <div class="tags">
5620
5621
5622         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>.
5623
5624
5625       </div>
5626     </div>
5627     <div class="padding"></div>
5628
5629     <div class="entry">
5630       <div class="title">
5631         <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>
5632       </div>
5633       <div class="date">
5634         30th July 2011
5635       </div>
5636       <div class="body">
5637         <p>In the Debian boot system, several packages include scripts that
5638 are started from /etc/rcS.d/.  In fact, there is a bite more of them
5639 than make sense, and this causes a few problems.  What kind of
5640 problems, you might ask.  There are at least two problems.  The first
5641 is that it is not possible to recover a machine after switching to
5642 runlevel 1.  One need to actually reboot to get the machine back to
5643 the expected state.  The other is that single user boot will sometimes
5644 run into problems because some of the subsystems are activated before
5645 the root login is presented, causing problems when trying to recover a
5646 machine from a problem in that subsystem.  A minor additional point is
5647 that moving more scripts out of rcS.d/ and into the other rc#.d/
5648 directories will increase the amount of scripts that can run in
5649 parallel during boot, and thus decrease the boot time.</p>
5650
5651 <p>So, which scripts should start from rcS.d/.  In short, only the
5652 scripts that _have_ to execute before the root login prompt is
5653 presented during a single user boot should go there.  Everything else
5654 should go into the numeric runlevels.  This means things like
5655 lm-sensors, fuse and x11-common should not run from rcS.d, but from
5656 the numeric runlevels.  Today in Debian, there are around 115 init.d
5657 scripts that are started from rcS.d/, and most of them should be moved
5658 out.  Do your package have one of them?  Please help us make single
5659 user and runlevel 1 better by moving it.</p>
5660
5661 <p>Scripts setting up the screen, keyboard, system partitions
5662 etc. should still be started from rcS.d/, but there is for example no
5663 need to have the network enabled before the single user login prompt
5664 is presented.</p>
5665
5666 <p>As always, things are not so easy to fix as they sound.  To keep
5667 Debian systems working while scripts migrate and during upgrades, the
5668 scripts need to be moved from rcS.d/ to rc2.d/ in reverse dependency
5669 order, ie the scripts that nothing in rcS.d/ depend on can be moved,
5670 and the next ones can only be moved when their dependencies have been
5671 moved first.  This migration must be done sequentially while we ensure
5672 that the package system upgrade packages in the right order to keep
5673 the system state correct.  This will require some coordination when it
5674 comes to network related packages, but most of the packages with
5675 scripts that should migrate do not have anything in rcS.d/ depending
5676 on them.  Some packages have already been updated, like the sudo
5677 package, while others are still left to do.  I wish I had time to work
5678 on this myself, but real live constrains make it unlikely that I will
5679 find time to push this forward.</p>
5680
5681       </div>
5682       <div class="tags">
5683
5684
5685         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>.
5686
5687
5688       </div>
5689     </div>
5690     <div class="padding"></div>
5691
5692     <div class="entry">
5693       <div class="title">
5694         <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>
5695       </div>
5696       <div class="date">
5697         29th July 2011
5698       </div>
5699       <div class="body">
5700         <p>While at Debconf11, I have several times during discussions
5701 mentioned the issues I believe should be improved in Debian for its
5702 desktop to be useful for more people.  The use case for this is my
5703 parents, which are currently running Kubuntu which solve the
5704 issues.</p>
5705
5706 <p>I suspect these four missing features are not very hard to
5707 implement.  After all, they are present in Ubuntu, so if we wanted to
5708 do this in Debian we would have a source.</p>
5709
5710 <ol>
5711
5712 <li><strong>Simple GUI based upgrade of packages.</strong> When there
5713 are new packages available for upgrades, a icon in the KDE status bar
5714 indicate this, and clicking on it will activate the simple upgrade
5715 tool to handle it.  I have no problem guiding both of my parents
5716 through the process over the phone.  If a kernel reboot is required,
5717 this too is indicated by the status bars and the upgrade tool.  Last
5718 time I checked, nothing with the same features was working in KDE in
5719 Debian.</li>
5720
5721 <li><strong>Simple handling of missing Firefox browser
5722 plugins.</strong> When the browser encounter a MIME type it do not
5723 currently have a handler for, it will ask the user if the system
5724 should search for a package that would add support for this MIME type,
5725 and if the user say yes, the APT sources will be searched for packages
5726 advertising the MIME type in their control file (visible in the
5727 Packages file in the APT archive).  If one or more packages are found,
5728 it is a simple click of the mouse to add support for the missing mime
5729 type.  If the package require the user to accept some non-free
5730 license, this is explained to the user.  The entire process make it
5731 more clear to the user why something do not work in the browser, and
5732 make the chances higher for the user to blame the web page authors and
5733 not the browser for any missing features.</li>
5734
5735 <li><strong>Simple handling of missing multimedia codec/format
5736 handlers.</strong> When the media players encounter a format or codec
5737 it is not supporting, a dialog pop up asking the user if the system
5738 should search for a package that would add support for it.  This
5739 happen with things like MP3, Windows Media or H.264.  The selection
5740 and installation procedure is very similar to the Firefox browser
5741 plugin handling.  This is as far as I know implemented using a
5742 gstreamer hook.  The end result is that the user easily get access to
5743 the codecs that are present from the APT archives available, while
5744 explaining more on why a given format is unsupported by Ubuntu.</li>
5745
5746 <li><strong>Better browser handling of some MIME types.</strong> When
5747 displaying a text/plain file in my Debian browser, it will propose to
5748 start emacs to show it.  If I remember correctly, when doing the same
5749 in Kunbutu it show the file as a text file in the browser.  At least I
5750 know Opera will show text files within the browser.  I much prefer the
5751 latter behaviour.</li>
5752
5753 </ol>
5754
5755 <p>There are other nice features as well, like the simplified suite
5756 upgrader, but given that I am the one mostly doing the dist-upgrade,
5757 it do not matter much.</p>
5758
5759 <p>I really hope we could get these features in place for the next
5760 Debian release.  It would require the coordinated effort of several
5761 maintainers, but would make the end user experience a lot better.</p>
5762
5763       </div>
5764       <div class="tags">
5765
5766
5767         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/h264">h264</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/multimedia">multimedia</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/web">web</a>.
5768
5769
5770       </div>
5771     </div>
5772     <div class="padding"></div>
5773
5774     <div class="entry">
5775       <div class="title">
5776         <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>
5777       </div>
5778       <div class="date">
5779         26th July 2011
5780       </div>
5781       <div class="body">
5782         <p>The Norwegian <a href="http://www.fiksgatami.no/">FiksGataMi</A>
5783 site is build on Debian/Squeeze, and this platform was chosen because
5784 I am most familiar with Debian (being a Debian Developer for around 10
5785 years) because it is the latest stable Debian release which should get
5786 security support for a few years.</p>
5787
5788 <p>The web service is written in Perl, and depend on some perl modules
5789 that are missing in Debian at the moment.  It would be great if these
5790 modules were added to the Debian archive, allowing anyone to set up
5791 their own <a href="http://www.fixmystreet.com">FixMyStreet</a> clone
5792 in their own country using only Debian packages.  The list of modules
5793 missing in Debian/Squeeze isn't very long, and I hope the perl group
5794 will find time to package the 12 modules Catalyst::Plugin::SmartURI,
5795 Catalyst::Plugin::Unicode::Encoding, Catalyst::View::TT, Devel::Hide,
5796 Sort::Key, Statistics::Distributions, Template::Plugin::Comma,
5797 Template::Plugin::DateTime::Format, Term::Size::Any, Term::Size::Perl,
5798 URI::SmartURI and Web::Scraper to make the maintenance of FixMyStreet
5799 easier in the future.</p>
5800
5801 <p>Thanks to the great tools in Debian, getting the missing modules
5802 installed on my server was a simple call to 'cpan2deb Module::Name'
5803 and 'dpkg -i' to install the resulting package.  But this leave me
5804 with the responsibility of tracking security problems, which I really
5805 do not have time for.</p>
5806
5807       </div>
5808       <div class="tags">
5809
5810
5811         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>.
5812
5813
5814       </div>
5815     </div>
5816     <div class="padding"></div>
5817
5818     <div class="entry">
5819       <div class="title">
5820         <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>
5821       </div>
5822       <div class="date">
5823          3rd April 2011
5824       </div>
5825       <div class="body">
5826         <p>Here is a small update for my English readers.  Most of my blog
5827 posts have been in Norwegian the last few weeks, so here is a short
5828 update in English.</p>
5829
5830 <p>The kids still keep me too busy to get much free software work
5831 done, but I did manage to organise a project to get a Norwegian port
5832 of the British service
5833 <a href="http://www.fixmystreet.com/">FixMyStreet</a> up and running,
5834 and it has been running for a month now.  The entire project has been
5835 organised by me and two others.  Around Christmas we gathered sponsors
5836 to fund the development work.  In January I drafted a contract with
5837 <a href="http://www.mysociety.org/">mySociety</a> on what to develop,
5838 and in February the development took place.  Most of it involved
5839 converting the source to use GPS coordinates instead of British
5840 easting/northing, and the resulting code should be a lot easier to get
5841 running in any country by now.  The Norwegian
5842 <a href="http://www.fiksgatami.no/">FiksGataMi</a> is using
5843 <a href="http://www.openstreetmap.org/">OpenStreetmap</a> as the map
5844 source and the source for administrative borders in Norway, and
5845 support for this had to be added/fixed.</p>
5846
5847 <p>The Norwegian version went live March 3th, and we spent the weekend
5848 polishing the system before we announced it March 7th.  The system is
5849 running on a KVM instance of Debian/Squeeze, and has seen almost 3000
5850 problem reports in a few weeks.  Soon we hope to announce the Android
5851 and iPhone versions making it even easier to report problems with the
5852 public infrastructure.</p>
5853
5854 <p>Perhaps something to consider for those of you in countries without
5855 such service?</p>
5856
5857       </div>
5858       <div class="tags">
5859
5860
5861         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>.
5862
5863
5864       </div>
5865     </div>
5866     <div class="padding"></div>
5867
5868     <div class="entry">
5869       <div class="title">
5870         <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>
5871       </div>
5872       <div class="date">
5873         28th January 2011
5874       </div>
5875       <div class="body">
5876         <p>The last few days I have looked at ways to track open security
5877 issues here at my work with the University of Oslo.  My idea is that
5878 it should be possible to use the information about security issues
5879 available on the Internet, and check our locally
5880 maintained/distributed software against this information.  It should
5881 allow us to verify that no known security issues are forgotten.  The
5882 CVE database listing vulnerabilities seem like a great central point,
5883 and by using the package lists from Debian mapped to CVEs provided by
5884 the testing security team, I believed it should be possible to figure
5885 out which security holes were present in our free software
5886 collection.</p>
5887
5888 <p>After reading up on the topic, it became obvious that the first
5889 building block is to be able to name software packages in a unique and
5890 consistent way across data sources.  I considered several ways to do
5891 this, for example coming up with my own naming scheme like using URLs
5892 to project home pages or URLs to the Freshmeat entries, or using some
5893 existing naming scheme.  And it seem like I am not the first one to
5894 come across this problem, as MITRE already proposed and implemented a
5895 solution.  Enter the <a href="http://cpe.mitre.org/index.html">Common
5896 Platform Enumeration</a> dictionary, a vocabulary for referring to
5897 software, hardware and other platform components.  The CPE ids are
5898 mapped to CVEs in the <a href="http://web.nvd.nist.gov/">National
5899 Vulnerability Database</a>, allowing me to look up know security
5900 issues for any CPE name.  With this in place, all I need to do is to
5901 locate the CPE id for the software packages we use at the university.
5902 This is fairly trivial (I google for 'cve cpe $package' and check the
5903 NVD entry if a CVE for the package exist).</p>
5904
5905 <p>To give you an example.  The GNU gzip source package have the CPE
5906 name cpe:/a:gnu:gzip.  If the old version 1.3.3 was the package to
5907 check out, one could look up
5908 <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
5909 in NVD</a> and get a list of 6 security holes with public CVE entries.
5910 The most recent one is
5911 <a href="http://web.nvd.nist.gov/view/vuln/detail?vulnId=CVE-2010-0001">CVE-2010-0001</a>,
5912 and at the bottom of the NVD page for this vulnerability the complete
5913 list of affected versions is provided.</p>
5914
5915 <p>The NVD database of CVEs is also available as a XML dump, allowing
5916 for offline processing of issues.  Using this dump, I've written a
5917 small script taking a list of CPEs as input and list all CVEs
5918 affecting the packages represented by these CPEs.  One give it CPEs
5919 with version numbers as specified above and get a list of open
5920 security issues out.</p>
5921
5922 <p>Of course for this approach to be useful, the quality of the NVD
5923 information need to be high.  For that to happen, I believe as many as
5924 possible need to use and contribute to the NVD database.  I notice
5925 RHEL is providing
5926 <a href="https://www.redhat.com/security/data/metrics/rhsamapcpe.txt">a
5927 map from CVE to CPE</a>, indicating that they are using the CPE
5928 information.  I'm not aware of Debian and Ubuntu doing the same.</p>
5929
5930 <p>To get an idea about the quality for free software, I spent some
5931 time making it possible to compare the CVE database from Debian with
5932 the CVE database in NVD.  The result look fairly good, but there are
5933 some inconsistencies in NVD (same software package having several
5934 CPEs), and some inaccuracies (NVD not mentioning buggy packages that
5935 Debian believe are affected by a CVE).  Hope to find time to improve
5936 the quality of NVD, but that require being able to get in touch with
5937 someone maintaining it.  So far my three emails with questions and
5938 corrections have not seen any reply, but I hope contact can be
5939 established soon.</p>
5940
5941 <p>An interesting application for CPEs is cross platform package
5942 mapping.  It would be useful to know which packages in for example
5943 RHEL, OpenSuSe and Mandriva are missing from Debian and Ubuntu, and
5944 this would be trivial if all linux distributions provided CPE entries
5945 for their packages.</p>
5946
5947       </div>
5948       <div class="tags">
5949
5950
5951         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>.
5952
5953
5954       </div>
5955     </div>
5956     <div class="padding"></div>
5957
5958     <div class="entry">
5959       <div class="title">
5960         <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>
5961       </div>
5962       <div class="date">
5963         23rd January 2011
5964       </div>
5965       <div class="body">
5966         <p>In the
5967 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/discover-data">discover-data</a>
5968 package in Debian, there is a script to report useful information
5969 about the running hardware for use when people report missing
5970 information.  One part of this script that I find very useful when
5971 debugging hardware problems, is the part mapping loaded kernel module
5972 to the PCI device it claims.  It allow me to quickly see if the kernel
5973 module I expect is driving the hardware I am struggling with.  To see
5974 the output, make sure discover-data is installed and run
5975 <tt>/usr/share/bug/discover-data 3>&1</tt>.  The relevant output on
5976 one of my machines like this:</p>
5977
5978 <pre>
5979 loaded modules:
5980 10de:03eb i2c_nforce2
5981 10de:03f1 ohci_hcd
5982 10de:03f2 ehci_hcd
5983 10de:03f0 snd_hda_intel
5984 10de:03ec pata_amd
5985 10de:03f6 sata_nv
5986 1022:1103 k8temp
5987 109e:036e bttv
5988 109e:0878 snd_bt87x
5989 11ab:4364 sky2
5990 </pre>
5991
5992 <p>The code in question look like this, slightly modified for
5993 readability and to drop the output to file descriptor 3:</p>
5994
5995 <pre>
5996 if [ -d /sys/bus/pci/devices/ ] ; then
5997     echo loaded pci modules:
5998     (
5999         cd /sys/bus/pci/devices/
6000         for address in * ; do
6001             if [ -d "$address/driver/module" ] ; then
6002                 module=`cd $address/driver/module ; pwd -P | xargs basename`
6003                 if grep -q "^$module " /proc/modules ; then
6004                     address=$(echo $address |sed s/0000://)
6005                     id=`lspci -n -s $address | tail -n 1 | awk '{print $3}'`
6006                     echo "$id $module"
6007                 fi
6008             fi
6009         done
6010     )
6011     echo
6012 fi
6013 </pre>
6014
6015 <p>Similar code could be used to extract USB device module
6016 mappings:</p>
6017
6018 <pre>
6019 if [ -d /sys/bus/usb/devices/ ] ; then
6020     echo loaded usb modules:
6021     (
6022         cd /sys/bus/usb/devices/
6023         for address in * ; do
6024             if [ -d "$address/driver/module" ] ; then
6025                 module=`cd $address/driver/module ; pwd -P | xargs basename`
6026                 if grep -q "^$module " /proc/modules ; then
6027                     address=$(echo $address |sed s/0000://)
6028                     id=$(lsusb -s $address | tail -n 1 | awk '{print $6}')
6029                     if [ "$id" ] ; then
6030                         echo "$id $module"
6031                     fi
6032                 fi
6033             fi
6034         done
6035     )
6036     echo
6037 fi
6038 </pre>
6039
6040 <p>This might perhaps be something to include in other tools as
6041 well.</p>
6042
6043       </div>
6044       <div class="tags">
6045
6046
6047         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>.
6048
6049
6050       </div>
6051     </div>
6052     <div class="padding"></div>
6053
6054     <div class="entry">
6055       <div class="title">
6056         <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>
6057       </div>
6058       <div class="date">
6059         22nd December 2010
6060       </div>
6061       <div class="body">
6062         <p>The last few days I have spent at work here at the <a
6063 href="http://www.uio.no/">University of Oslo</a> testing if the new
6064 batch of computers will work with Linux.  Every year for the last few
6065 years the university have organised shared bid of a few thousand
6066 computers, and this year HP won the bid.  Two different desktops and
6067 five different laptops are on the list this year.  We in the UNIX
6068 group want to know which one of these computers work well with RHEL
6069 and Ubuntu, the two Linux distributions we currently handle at the
6070 university.</p>
6071
6072 <p>My test method is simple, and I share it here to get feedback and
6073 perhaps inspire others to test hardware as well.  To test, I PXE
6074 install the OS version of choice, and log in as my normal user and run
6075 a few applications and plug in selected pieces of hardware.  When
6076 something fail, I make a note about this in the test matrix and move
6077 on.  If I have some spare time I try to report the bug to the OS
6078 vendor, but as I only have the machines for a short time, I rarely
6079 have the time to do this for all the problems I find.</p>
6080
6081 <p>Anyway, to get to the point of this post.  Here is the simple tests
6082 I perform on a new model.</p>
6083
6084 <ul>
6085
6086 <li>Is PXE installation working?  I'm testing with RHEL6, Ubuntu Lucid
6087 and Ubuntu Maverik at the moment.  If I feel like it, I also test with
6088 RHEL5 and Debian Edu/Squeeze.</li>
6089
6090 <li>Is X.org working?  If the graphical login screen show up after
6091 installation, X.org is working.</li>
6092
6093 <li>Is hardware accelerated OpenGL working?  Running glxgears (in
6094 package mesa-utils on Ubuntu) and writing down the frames per second
6095 reported by the program.</li>
6096
6097 <li>Is sound working?  With Gnome and KDE, a sound is played when
6098 logging in, and if I can hear this the test is successful.  If there
6099 are several audio exits on the machine, I try them all and check if
6100 the Gnome/KDE audio mixer can control where to send the sound.  I
6101 normally test this by playing
6102 <a href="http://www.nuug.no/aktiviteter/20101012-chef/ ">a HTML5
6103 video</a> in Firefox/Iceweasel.</li>
6104
6105 <li>Is the USB subsystem working?  I test this by plugging in a USB
6106 memory stick and see if Gnome/KDE notices this.</li>
6107
6108 <li>Is the CD/DVD player working?  I test this by inserting any CD/DVD
6109 I have lying around, and see if Gnome/KDE notices this.</li>
6110
6111 <li>Is any built in camera working?  Test using cheese, and see if a
6112 picture from the v4l device show up.</li>
6113
6114 <li>Is bluetooth working?  Use the Gnome/KDE browsing tool to see if
6115 any bluetooth devices are discovered.  In my office, I normally see a
6116 few.</li>
6117
6118 <li>For laptops, is the SD or Compaq Flash reader working.  I have
6119 memory modules lying around, and stick them in and see if Gnome/KDE
6120 notice this.</li>
6121
6122 <li>For laptops, is suspend/hibernate working?  I'm testing if the
6123 special button work, and if the laptop continue to work after
6124 resume.</li>
6125
6126 <li>For laptops, is the extra buttons working, like audio level,
6127 adjusting background light, switching on/off external video output,
6128 switching on/off wifi, bluetooth, etc?  The set of buttons differ from
6129 laptop to laptop, so I just write down which are working and which are
6130 not.</li>
6131
6132 <li>Some laptops have smart card readers, finger print readers,
6133 acceleration sensors etc.  I rarely test these, as I do not know how
6134 to quickly test if they are working or not, so I only document their
6135 existence.</li>
6136
6137 </ul>
6138
6139 <p>By now I suspect you are really curious what the test results are
6140 for the HP machines I am testing.  I'm not done yet, so I will report
6141 the test results later.  For now I can report that HP 8100 Elite work
6142 fine, and hibernation fail with HP EliteBook 8440p on Ubuntu Lucid,
6143 and audio fail on RHEL6.  Ubuntu Maverik worked with 8440p.  As you
6144 can see, I have most machines left to test.  One interesting
6145 observation is that Ubuntu Lucid has almost twice the frame rate than
6146 RHEL6 with glxgears.  No idea why.</p>
6147
6148       </div>
6149       <div class="tags">
6150
6151
6152         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>.
6153
6154
6155       </div>
6156     </div>
6157     <div class="padding"></div>
6158
6159     <div class="entry">
6160       <div class="title">
6161         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Some_thoughts_on_BitCoins.html">Some thoughts on BitCoins</a>
6162       </div>
6163       <div class="date">
6164         11th December 2010
6165       </div>
6166       <div class="body">
6167         <p>As I continue to explore
6168 <a href="http://www.bitcoin.org/">BitCoin</a>, I've starting to wonder
6169 what properties the system have, and how it will be affected by laws
6170 and regulations here in Norway.  Here are some random notes.</p>
6171
6172 <p>One interesting thing to note is that since the transactions are
6173 verified using a peer to peer network, all details about a transaction
6174 is known to everyone.  This means that if a BitCoin address has been
6175 published like I did with mine in my initial post about BitCoin, it is
6176 possible for everyone to see how many BitCoins have been transfered to
6177 that address.  There is even a web service to look at the details for
6178 all transactions.  There I can see that my address
6179 <a href="http://blockexplorer.com/address/15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a>
6180 have received 16.06 Bitcoin, the
6181 <a href="http://blockexplorer.com/address/1LfdGnGuWkpSJgbQySxxCWhv8MHqvwst3">1LfdGnGuWkpSJgbQySxxCWhv8MHqvwst3</a>
6182 address of Simon Phipps have received 181.97 BitCoin and the address
6183 <a href="http://blockexplorer.com/address/1MCwBbhNGp5hRm5rC1Aims2YFRe2SXPYKt">1MCwBbhNGp5hRm5rC1Aims2YFRe2SXPYKt</A>
6184 of EFF have received 2447.38 BitCoins so far.  Thank you to each and
6185 every one of you that donated bitcoins to support my activity. The
6186 fact that anyone can see how much money was transfered to a given
6187 address make it more obvious why the BitCoin community recommend to
6188 generate and hand out a new address for each transaction.  I'm told
6189 there is no way to track which addresses belong to a given person or
6190 organisation without the person or organisation revealing it
6191 themselves, as Simon, EFF and I have done.</p>
6192
6193 <p>In Norway, and in most other countries, there are laws and
6194 regulations limiting how much money one can transfer across the border
6195 without declaring it.  There are money laundering, tax and accounting
6196 laws and regulations I would expect to apply to the use of BitCoin.
6197 If the Skolelinux foundation
6198 (<a href="http://linuxiskolen.no/slxdebianlabs/donations.html">SLX
6199 Debian Labs</a>) were to accept donations in BitCoin in addition to
6200 normal bank transfers like EFF is doing, how should this be accounted?
6201 Given that it is impossible to know if money can cross the border or
6202 not, should everything or nothing be declared?  What exchange rate
6203 should be used when calculating taxes?  Would receivers have to pay
6204 income tax if the foundation were to pay Skolelinux contributors in
6205 BitCoin?  I have no idea, but it would be interesting to know.</p>
6206
6207 <p>For a currency to be useful and successful, it must be trusted and
6208 accepted by a lot of users.  It must be possible to get easy access to
6209 the currency (as a wage or using currency exchanges), and it must be
6210 easy to spend it.  At the moment BitCoin seem fairly easy to get
6211 access to, but there are very few places to spend it.  I am not really
6212 a regular user of any of the vendor types currently accepting BitCoin,
6213 so I wonder when my kind of shop would start accepting BitCoins.  I
6214 would like to buy electronics, travels and subway tickets, not herbs
6215 and books. :) The currency is young, and this will improve over time
6216 if it become popular, but I suspect regular banks will start to lobby
6217 to get BitCoin declared illegal if it become popular.  I'm sure they
6218 will claim it is helping fund terrorism and money laundering (which
6219 probably would be true, as is any currency in existence), but I
6220 believe the problems should be solved elsewhere and not by blaming
6221 currencies.</p>
6222
6223 <p>The process of creating new BitCoins is called mining, and it is
6224 CPU intensive process that depend on a bit of luck as well (as one is
6225 competing against all the other miners currently spending CPU cycles
6226 to see which one get the next lump of cash).  The "winner" get 50
6227 BitCoin when this happen.  Yesterday I came across the obvious way to
6228 join forces to increase ones changes of getting at least some coins,
6229 by coordinating the work on mining BitCoins across several machines
6230 and people, and sharing the result if one is lucky and get the 50
6231 BitCoins.  Check out
6232 <a href="http://www.bluishcoder.co.nz/bitcoin-pool/">BitCoin Pool</a>
6233 if this sounds interesting.  I have not had time to try to set up a
6234 machine to participate there yet, but have seen that running on ones
6235 own for a few days have not yield any BitCoins througth mining
6236 yet.</p>
6237
6238 <p>Update 2010-12-15: Found an <a
6239 href="http://inertia.posterous.com/reply-to-the-underground-economist-why-bitcoi">interesting
6240 criticism</a> of bitcoin.  Not quite sure how valid it is, but thought
6241 it was interesting to read.  The arguments presented seem to be
6242 equally valid for gold, which was used as a currency for many years.</p>
6243
6244       </div>
6245       <div class="tags">
6246
6247
6248         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>.
6249
6250
6251       </div>
6252     </div>
6253     <div class="padding"></div>
6254
6255     <div class="entry">
6256       <div class="title">
6257         <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>
6258       </div>
6259       <div class="date">
6260         10th December 2010
6261       </div>
6262       <div class="body">
6263         <p>With this weeks lawless
6264 <a href="http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2010/12/06/wikileaks/index.html">governmental
6265 attacks</a> on Wikileak and
6266 <a href="http://www.salon.com/technology/dan_gillmor/2010/12/06/war_on_speech">free
6267 speech</a>, it has become obvious that PayPal, visa and mastercard can
6268 not be trusted to handle money transactions.
6269 A blog post from
6270 <a href="http://webmink.com/2010/12/06/now-accepting-bitcoin/">Simon
6271 Phipps on bitcoin</a> reminded me about a project that a friend of
6272 mine mentioned earlier.  I decided to follow Simon's example, and get
6273 involved with <a href="http://www.bitcoin.org/">BitCoin</a>.  I got
6274 some help from my friend to get it all running, and he even handed me
6275 some bitcoins to get started.  I even donated a few bitcoins to Simon
6276 for helping me remember BitCoin.</p>
6277
6278 <p>So, what is bitcoins, you probably wonder?  It is a digital
6279 crypto-currency, decentralised and handled using peer-to-peer
6280 networks.  It allows anonymous transactions and prohibits central
6281 control over the transactions, making it impossible for governments
6282 and companies alike to block donations and other transactions.  The
6283 source is free software, and while the key dependency wxWidgets 2.9
6284 for the graphical user interface is missing in Debian, the command
6285 line client builds just fine.  Hopefully Jonas
6286 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/578157">will get the package into
6287 Debian</a> soon.</p>
6288
6289 <p>Bitcoins can be converted to other currencies, like USD and EUR.
6290 There are <a href="http://www.bitcoin.org/trade">companies accepting
6291 bitcoins</a> when selling services and goods, and there are even
6292 currency "stock" markets where the exchange rate is decided.  There
6293 are not many users so far, but the concept seems promising.  If you
6294 want to get started and lack a friend with any bitcoins to spare,
6295 you can even get
6296 <a href="https://freebitcoins.appspot.com/">some for free</a> (0.05
6297 bitcoin at the time of writing).  Use
6298 <a href="http://www.bitcoinwatch.com/">BitcoinWatch</a> to keep an eye
6299 on the current exchange rates.</p>
6300
6301 <p>As an experiment, I have decided to set up bitcoind on one of my
6302 machines.  If you want to support my activity, please send Bitcoin
6303 donations to the address
6304 <b>15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</b>.  Thank you!</p>
6305
6306       </div>
6307       <div class="tags">
6308
6309
6310         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>.
6311
6312
6313       </div>
6314     </div>
6315     <div class="padding"></div>
6316
6317     <div class="entry">
6318       <div class="title">
6319         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Why_isn_t_Debian_Edu_using_VLC_.html">Why isn't Debian Edu using VLC?</a>
6320       </div>
6321       <div class="date">
6322         27th November 2010
6323       </div>
6324       <div class="body">
6325         <p>In the latest issue of Linux Journal, the readers choices were
6326 presented, and the winner among the multimedia player were VLC.
6327 Personally, I like VLC, and it is my player of choice when I first try
6328 to play a video file or stream.  Only if VLC fail will I drag out
6329 gmplayer to see if it can do better.  The reason is mostly the failure
6330 model and trust.  When VLC fail, it normally pop up a error message
6331 reporting the problem.  When mplayer fail, it normally segfault or
6332 just hangs.  The latter failure mode drain my trust in the program.<p>
6333
6334 <p>But even if VLC is my player of choice, we have choosen to use
6335 mplayer in <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian
6336 Edu/Skolelinux</a>.  The reason is simple.  We need a good browser
6337 plugin to play web videos seamlessly, and the VLC browser plugin is
6338 not very good.  For example, it lack in-line control buttons, so there
6339 is no way for the user to pause the video.  Also, when I
6340 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/BrowserMultimedia">last
6341 tested the browser plugins</a> available in Debian, the VLC plugin
6342 failed on several video pages where mplayer based plugins worked.  If
6343 the browser plugin for VLC was as good as the gecko-mediaplayer
6344 package (which uses mplayer), we would switch.</P>
6345
6346 <p>While VLC is a good player, its user interface is slightly
6347 annoying.  The most annoying feature is its inconsistent use of
6348 keyboard shortcuts.  When the player is in full screen mode, its
6349 shortcuts are different from when it is playing the video in a window.
6350 For example, space only work as pause when in full screen mode.  I
6351 wish it had consisten shortcuts and that space also would work when in
6352 window mode.  Another nice shortcut in gmplayer is [enter] to restart
6353 the current video.  It is very nice when playing short videos from the
6354 web and want to restart it when new people arrive to have a look at
6355 what is going on.</p>
6356
6357       </div>
6358       <div class="tags">
6359
6360
6361         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>.
6362
6363
6364       </div>
6365     </div>
6366     <div class="padding"></div>
6367
6368     <div class="entry">
6369       <div class="title">
6370         <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>
6371       </div>
6372       <div class="date">
6373         22nd November 2010
6374       </div>
6375       <div class="body">
6376         <p>Michael Biebl suggested to me on IRC, that I changed my automated
6377 upgrade testing of the
6378 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/~pere/debian-upgrade-testing/">Lenny
6379 Gnome and KDE Desktop</a> to do <tt>apt-get autoremove</tt> when using apt-get.
6380 This seem like a very good idea, so I adjusted by test scripts and
6381 can now present the updated result from today:</p>
6382
6383 <p>This is for Gnome:</p>
6384
6385 <p>Installed using apt-get, missing with aptitude</p>
6386
6387 <blockquote><p>
6388   apache2.2-bin
6389   aptdaemon
6390   baobab
6391   binfmt-support
6392   browser-plugin-gnash
6393   cheese-common
6394   cli-common
6395   cups-pk-helper
6396   dmz-cursor-theme
6397   empathy
6398   empathy-common
6399   freedesktop-sound-theme
6400   freeglut3
6401   gconf-defaults-service
6402   gdm-themes
6403   gedit-plugins
6404   geoclue
6405   geoclue-hostip
6406   geoclue-localnet
6407   geoclue-manual
6408   geoclue-yahoo
6409   gnash
6410   gnash-common
6411   gnome
6412   gnome-backgrounds
6413   gnome-cards-data
6414   gnome-codec-install
6415   gnome-core
6416   gnome-desktop-environment
6417   gnome-disk-utility
6418   gnome-screenshot
6419   gnome-search-tool
6420   gnome-session-canberra
6421   gnome-system-log
6422   gnome-themes-extras
6423   gnome-themes-more
6424   gnome-user-share
6425   gstreamer0.10-fluendo-mp3
6426   gstreamer0.10-tools
6427   gtk2-engines
6428   gtk2-engines-pixbuf
6429   gtk2-engines-smooth
6430   hamster-applet
6431   libapache2-mod-dnssd
6432   libapr1
6433   libaprutil1
6434   libaprutil1-dbd-sqlite3
6435   libaprutil1-ldap
6436   libart2.0-cil
6437   libboost-date-time1.42.0
6438   libboost-python1.42.0
6439   libboost-thread1.42.0
6440   libchamplain-0.4-0
6441   libchamplain-gtk-0.4-0
6442   libcheese-gtk18
6443   libclutter-gtk-0.10-0
6444   libcryptui0
6445   libdiscid0
6446   libelf1
6447   libepc-1.0-2
6448   libepc-common
6449   libepc-ui-1.0-2
6450   libfreerdp-plugins-standard
6451   libfreerdp0
6452   libgconf2.0-cil
6453   libgdata-common
6454   libgdata7
6455   libgdu-gtk0
6456   libgee2
6457   libgeoclue0
6458   libgexiv2-0
6459   libgif4
6460   libglade2.0-cil
6461   libglib2.0-cil
6462   libgmime2.4-cil
6463   libgnome-vfs2.0-cil
6464   libgnome2.24-cil
6465   libgnomepanel2.24-cil
6466   libgpod-common
6467   libgpod4
6468   libgtk2.0-cil
6469   libgtkglext1
6470   libgtksourceview2.0-common
6471   libmono-addins-gui0.2-cil
6472   libmono-addins0.2-cil
6473   libmono-cairo2.0-cil
6474   libmono-corlib2.0-cil
6475   libmono-i18n-west2.0-cil
6476   libmono-posix2.0-cil
6477   libmono-security2.0-cil
6478   libmono-sharpzip2.84-cil
6479   libmono-system2.0-cil
6480   libmtp8
6481   libmusicbrainz3-6
6482   libndesk-dbus-glib1.0-cil
6483   libndesk-dbus1.0-cil
6484   libopal3.6.8
6485   libpolkit-gtk-1-0
6486   libpt2.6.7
6487   libpython2.6
6488   librpm1
6489   librpmio1
6490   libsdl1.2debian
6491   libsrtp0
6492   libssh-4
6493   libtelepathy-farsight0
6494   libtelepathy-glib0
6495   libtidy-0.99-0
6496   media-player-info
6497   mesa-utils
6498   mono-2.0-gac
6499   mono-gac
6500   mono-runtime
6501   nautilus-sendto
6502   nautilus-sendto-empathy
6503   p7zip-full
6504   pkg-config
6505   python-aptdaemon
6506   python-aptdaemon-gtk
6507   python-axiom
6508   python-beautifulsoup
6509   python-bugbuddy
6510   python-clientform
6511   python-coherence
6512   python-configobj
6513   python-crypto
6514   python-cupshelpers
6515   python-elementtree
6516   python-epsilon
6517   python-evolution
6518   python-feedparser
6519   python-gdata
6520   python-gdbm
6521   python-gst0.10
6522   python-gtkglext1
6523   python-gtksourceview2
6524   python-httplib2
6525   python-louie
6526   python-mako
6527   python-markupsafe
6528   python-mechanize
6529   python-nevow
6530   python-notify
6531   python-opengl
6532   python-openssl
6533   python-pam
6534   python-pkg-resources
6535   python-pyasn1
6536   python-pysqlite2
6537   python-rdflib
6538   python-serial
6539   python-tagpy
6540   python-twisted-bin
6541   python-twisted-conch
6542   python-twisted-core
6543   python-twisted-web
6544   python-utidylib
6545   python-webkit
6546   python-xdg
6547   python-zope.interface
6548   remmina
6549   remmina-plugin-data
6550   remmina-plugin-rdp
6551   remmina-plugin-vnc
6552   rhythmbox-plugin-cdrecorder
6553   rhythmbox-plugins
6554   rpm-common
6555   rpm2cpio
6556   seahorse-plugins
6557   shotwell
6558   software-center
6559   system-config-printer-udev
6560   telepathy-gabble
6561   telepathy-mission-control-5
6562   telepathy-salut
6563   tomboy
6564   totem
6565   totem-coherence
6566   totem-mozilla
6567   totem-plugins
6568   transmission-common
6569   xdg-user-dirs
6570   xdg-user-dirs-gtk
6571   xserver-xephyr
6572 </p></blockquote>
6573
6574 <p>Installed using apt-get, removed with aptitude</p>
6575
6576 <blockquote><p>
6577   cheese
6578   ekiga
6579   eog
6580   epiphany-extensions
6581   evolution-exchange
6582   fast-user-switch-applet
6583   file-roller
6584   gcalctool
6585   gconf-editor
6586   gdm
6587   gedit
6588   gedit-common
6589   gnome-games
6590   gnome-games-data
6591   gnome-nettool
6592   gnome-system-tools
6593   gnome-themes
6594   gnuchess
6595   gucharmap
6596   guile-1.8-libs
6597   libavahi-ui0
6598   libdmx1
6599   libgalago3
6600   libgtk-vnc-1.0-0
6601   libgtksourceview2.0-0
6602   liblircclient0
6603   libsdl1.2debian-alsa
6604   libspeexdsp1
6605   libsvga1
6606   rhythmbox
6607   seahorse
6608   sound-juicer
6609   system-config-printer
6610   totem-common
6611   transmission-gtk
6612   vinagre
6613   vino
6614 </p></blockquote>
6615
6616 <p>Installed using aptitude, missing with apt-get</p>
6617
6618 <blockquote><p>
6619   gstreamer0.10-gnomevfs
6620 </p></blockquote>
6621
6622 <p>Installed using aptitude, removed with apt-get</p>
6623
6624 <blockquote><p>
6625 [nothing]
6626 </p></blockquote>
6627
6628 <p>This is for KDE:</p>
6629
6630 <p>Installed using apt-get, missing with aptitude</p>
6631
6632 <blockquote><p>
6633   ksmserver
6634 </p></blockquote>
6635
6636 <p>Installed using apt-get, removed with aptitude</p>
6637
6638 <blockquote><p>
6639   kwin
6640   network-manager-kde
6641 </p></blockquote>
6642
6643 <p>Installed using aptitude, missing with apt-get</p>
6644
6645 <blockquote><p>
6646   arts
6647   dolphin
6648   freespacenotifier
6649   google-gadgets-gst
6650   google-gadgets-xul
6651   kappfinder
6652   kcalc
6653   kcharselect
6654   kde-core
6655   kde-plasma-desktop
6656   kde-standard
6657   kde-window-manager
6658   kdeartwork
6659   kdeartwork-emoticons
6660   kdeartwork-style
6661   kdeartwork-theme-icon
6662   kdebase
6663   kdebase-apps
6664   kdebase-workspace
6665   kdebase-workspace-bin
6666   kdebase-workspace-data
6667   kdeeject
6668   kdelibs
6669   kdeplasma-addons
6670   kdeutils
6671   kdewallpapers
6672   kdf
6673   kfloppy
6674   kgpg
6675   khelpcenter4
6676   kinfocenter
6677   konq-plugins-l10n
6678   konqueror-nsplugins
6679   kscreensaver
6680   kscreensaver-xsavers
6681   ktimer
6682   kwrite
6683   libgle3
6684   libkde4-ruby1.8
6685   libkonq5
6686   libkonq5-templates
6687   libnetpbm10
6688   libplasma-ruby
6689   libplasma-ruby1.8
6690   libqt4-ruby1.8
6691   marble-data
6692   marble-plugins
6693   netpbm
6694   nuvola-icon-theme
6695   plasma-dataengines-workspace
6696   plasma-desktop
6697   plasma-desktopthemes-artwork
6698   plasma-runners-addons
6699   plasma-scriptengine-googlegadgets
6700   plasma-scriptengine-python
6701   plasma-scriptengine-qedje
6702   plasma-scriptengine-ruby
6703   plasma-scriptengine-webkit
6704   plasma-scriptengines
6705   plasma-wallpapers-addons
6706   plasma-widget-folderview
6707   plasma-widget-networkmanagement
6708   ruby
6709   sweeper
6710   update-notifier-kde
6711   xscreensaver-data-extra
6712   xscreensaver-gl
6713   xscreensaver-gl-extra
6714   xscreensaver-screensaver-bsod
6715 </p></blockquote>
6716
6717 <p>Installed using aptitude, removed with apt-get</p>
6718
6719 <blockquote><p>
6720   ark
6721   google-gadgets-common
6722   google-gadgets-qt
6723   htdig
6724   kate
6725   kdebase-bin
6726   kdebase-data
6727   kdepasswd
6728   kfind
6729   klipper
6730   konq-plugins
6731   konqueror
6732   ksysguard
6733   ksysguardd
6734   libarchive1
6735   libcln6
6736   libeet1
6737   libeina-svn-06
6738   libggadget-1.0-0b
6739   libggadget-qt-1.0-0b
6740   libgps19
6741   libkdecorations4
6742   libkephal4
6743   libkonq4
6744   libkonqsidebarplugin4a
6745   libkscreensaver5
6746   libksgrd4
6747   libksignalplotter4
6748   libkunitconversion4
6749   libkwineffects1a
6750   libmarblewidget4
6751   libntrack-qt4-1
6752   libntrack0
6753   libplasma-geolocation-interface4
6754   libplasmaclock4a
6755   libplasmagenericshell4
6756   libprocesscore4a
6757   libprocessui4a
6758   libqalculate5
6759   libqedje0a
6760   libqtruby4shared2
6761   libqzion0a
6762   libruby1.8
6763   libscim8c2a
6764   libsmokekdecore4-3
6765   libsmokekdeui4-3
6766   libsmokekfile3
6767   libsmokekhtml3
6768   libsmokekio3
6769   libsmokeknewstuff2-3
6770   libsmokeknewstuff3-3
6771   libsmokekparts3
6772   libsmokektexteditor3
6773   libsmokekutils3
6774   libsmokenepomuk3
6775   libsmokephonon3
6776   libsmokeplasma3
6777   libsmokeqtcore4-3
6778   libsmokeqtdbus4-3
6779   libsmokeqtgui4-3
6780   libsmokeqtnetwork4-3
6781   libsmokeqtopengl4-3
6782   libsmokeqtscript4-3
6783   libsmokeqtsql4-3
6784   libsmokeqtsvg4-3
6785   libsmokeqttest4-3
6786   libsmokeqtuitools4-3
6787   libsmokeqtwebkit4-3
6788   libsmokeqtxml4-3
6789   libsmokesolid3
6790   libsmokesoprano3
6791   libtaskmanager4a
6792   libtidy-0.99-0
6793   libweather-ion4a
6794   libxklavier16
6795   libxxf86misc1
6796   okteta
6797   oxygencursors
6798   plasma-dataengines-addons
6799   plasma-scriptengine-superkaramba
6800   plasma-widget-lancelot
6801   plasma-widgets-addons
6802   plasma-widgets-workspace
6803   polkit-kde-1
6804   ruby1.8
6805   systemsettings
6806   update-notifier-common
6807 </p></blockquote>
6808
6809 <p>Running apt-get autoremove made the results using apt-get and
6810 aptitude a bit more similar, but there are still quite a lott of
6811 differences.  I have no idea what packages should be installed after
6812 the upgrade, but hope those that do can have a look.</p>
6813
6814       </div>
6815       <div class="tags">
6816
6817
6818         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>.
6819
6820
6821       </div>
6822     </div>
6823     <div class="padding"></div>
6824
6825     <div class="entry">
6826       <div class="title">
6827         <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>
6828       </div>
6829       <div class="date">
6830         22nd November 2010
6831       </div>
6832       <div class="body">
6833         <p>Most of the computers in use by the
6834 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu/Skolelinux project</a>
6835 are virtual machines.  And they have been Xen machines running on a
6836 fairly old IBM eserver xseries 345 machine, and we wanted to migrate
6837 them to KVM on a newer Dell PowerEdge 2950 host machine.  This was a
6838 bit harder that it could have been, because we set up the Xen virtual
6839 machines to get the virtual partitions from LVM, which as far as I
6840 know is not supported by KVM.  So to migrate, we had to convert
6841 several LVM logical volumes to partitions on a virtual disk file.</p>
6842
6843 <p>I found
6844 <a href="http://searchnetworking.techtarget.com.au/articles/35011-Six-steps-for-migrating-Xen-virtual-machines-to-KVM">a
6845 nice recipe</a> to do this, and wrote the following script to do the
6846 migration.  It uses qemu-img from the qemu package to make the disk
6847 image, parted to partition it, losetup and kpartx to present the disk
6848 image partions as devices, and dd to copy the data.  I NFS mounted the
6849 new servers storage area on the old server to do the migration.</p>
6850
6851 <pre>
6852 #!/bin/sh
6853
6854 # Based on
6855 # http://searchnetworking.techtarget.com.au/articles/35011-Six-steps-for-migrating-Xen-virtual-machines-to-KVM
6856
6857 set -e
6858 set -x
6859
6860 if [ -z "$1" ] ; then
6861     echo "Usage: $0 &lt;hostname&gt;"
6862     exit 1
6863 else
6864     host="$1"
6865 fi
6866
6867 if [ ! -e /dev/vg_data/$host-disk ] ; then
6868     echo "error: unable to find LVM volume for $host"
6869     exit 1
6870 fi
6871
6872 # Partitions need to be a bit bigger than the LVM LVs.  not sure why.
6873 disksize=$( lvs --units m | grep $host-disk | awk '{sum = sum + $4} END { print int(sum * 1.05) }')
6874 swapsize=$( lvs --units m | grep $host-swap | awk '{sum = sum + $4} END { print int(sum * 1.05) }')
6875 totalsize=$(( ( $disksize + $swapsize ) ))
6876
6877 img=$host.img
6878 #dd if=/dev/zero of=$img bs=1M count=$(( $disksize + $swapsize ))
6879 qemu-img create $img ${totalsize}MMaking room on the Debian Edu/Sqeeze DVD
6880
6881 parted $img mklabel msdos
6882 parted $img mkpart primary linux-swap 0 $disksize
6883 parted $img mkpart primary ext2 $disksize $totalsize
6884 parted $img set 1 boot on
6885
6886 modprobe dm-mod
6887 losetup /dev/loop0 $img
6888 kpartx -a /dev/loop0
6889
6890 dd if=/dev/vg_data/$host-disk of=/dev/mapper/loop0p1 bs=1M
6891 fsck.ext3 -f /dev/mapper/loop0p1 || true
6892 mkswap /dev/mapper/loop0p2
6893
6894 kpartx -d /dev/loop0
6895 losetup -d /dev/loop0
6896 </pre>
6897
6898 <p>The script is perhaps so simple that it is not copyrightable, but
6899 if it is, it is licenced using GPL v2 or later at your discretion.</p>
6900
6901 <p>After doing this, I booted a Debian CD in rescue mode in KVM with
6902 the new disk image attached, installed grub-pc and linux-image-686 and
6903 set up grub to boot from the disk image.  After this, the KVM machines
6904 seem to work just fine.</p>
6905
6906       </div>
6907       <div class="tags">
6908
6909
6910         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>.
6911
6912
6913       </div>
6914     </div>
6915     <div class="padding"></div>
6916
6917     <div class="entry">
6918       <div class="title">
6919         <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>
6920       </div>
6921       <div class="date">
6922         20th November 2010
6923       </div>
6924       <div class="body">
6925         <p>I'm still running upgrade testing of the
6926 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/~pere/debian-upgrade-testing/">Lenny
6927 Gnome and KDE Desktop</a>, but have not had time to spend on reporting the
6928 status.  Here is a short update based on a test I ran 20101118.</p>
6929
6930 <p>I still do not know what a correct migration should look like, so I
6931 report any differences between apt and aptitude and hope someone else
6932 can see if anything should be changed.</p>
6933
6934 <p>This is for Gnome:</p>
6935
6936 <p>Installed using apt-get, missing with aptitude</p>
6937
6938 <blockquote><p>
6939   apache2.2-bin aptdaemon at-spi baobab binfmt-support
6940   browser-plugin-gnash cheese-common cli-common cpp-4.3 cups-pk-helper
6941   dmz-cursor-theme empathy empathy-common finger
6942   freedesktop-sound-theme freeglut3 gconf-defaults-service gdm-themes
6943   gedit-plugins geoclue geoclue-hostip geoclue-localnet geoclue-manual
6944   geoclue-yahoo gnash gnash-common gnome gnome-backgrounds
6945   gnome-cards-data gnome-codec-install gnome-core
6946   gnome-desktop-environment gnome-disk-utility gnome-screenshot
6947   gnome-search-tool gnome-session-canberra gnome-spell
6948   gnome-system-log gnome-themes-extras gnome-themes-more
6949   gnome-user-share gs-common gstreamer0.10-fluendo-mp3
6950   gstreamer0.10-tools gtk2-engines gtk2-engines-pixbuf
6951   gtk2-engines-smooth hal-info hamster-applet libapache2-mod-dnssd
6952   libapr1 libaprutil1 libaprutil1-dbd-sqlite3 libaprutil1-ldap
6953   libart2.0-cil libatspi1.0-0 libboost-date-time1.42.0
6954   libboost-python1.42.0 libboost-thread1.42.0 libchamplain-0.4-0
6955   libchamplain-gtk-0.4-0 libcheese-gtk18 libclutter-gtk-0.10-0
6956   libcryptui0 libcupsys2 libdiscid0 libeel2-data libelf1 libepc-1.0-2
6957   libepc-common libepc-ui-1.0-2 libfreerdp-plugins-standard
6958   libfreerdp0 libgail-common libgconf2.0-cil libgdata-common libgdata7
6959   libgdl-1-common libgdu-gtk0 libgee2 libgeoclue0 libgexiv2-0 libgif4
6960   libglade2.0-cil libglib2.0-cil libgmime2.4-cil libgnome-vfs2.0-cil
6961   libgnome2.24-cil libgnomepanel2.24-cil libgnomeprint2.2-data
6962   libgnomeprintui2.2-common libgnomevfs2-bin libgpod-common libgpod4
6963   libgtk2.0-cil libgtkglext1 libgtksourceview-common
6964   libgtksourceview2.0-common libmono-addins-gui0.2-cil
6965   libmono-addins0.2-cil libmono-cairo2.0-cil libmono-corlib2.0-cil
6966   libmono-i18n-west2.0-cil libmono-posix2.0-cil
6967   libmono-security2.0-cil libmono-sharpzip2.84-cil
6968   libmono-system2.0-cil libmtp8 libmusicbrainz3-6
6969   libndesk-dbus-glib1.0-cil libndesk-dbus1.0-cil libopal3.6.8
6970   libpolkit-gtk-1-0 libpt-1.10.10-plugins-alsa
6971   libpt-1.10.10-plugins-v4l libpt2.6.7 libpython2.6 librpm1 librpmio1
6972   libsdl1.2debian libservlet2.4-java libsrtp0 libssh-4
6973   libtelepathy-farsight0 libtelepathy-glib0 libtidy-0.99-0
6974   libxalan2-java libxerces2-java media-player-info mesa-utils
6975   mono-2.0-gac mono-gac mono-runtime nautilus-sendto
6976   nautilus-sendto-empathy openoffice.org-writer2latex
6977   openssl-blacklist p7zip p7zip-full pkg-config python-4suite-xml
6978   python-aptdaemon python-aptdaemon-gtk python-axiom
6979   python-beautifulsoup python-bugbuddy python-clientform
6980   python-coherence python-configobj python-crypto python-cupshelpers
6981   python-cupsutils python-eggtrayicon python-elementtree
6982   python-epsilon python-evolution python-feedparser python-gdata
6983   python-gdbm python-gst0.10 python-gtkglext1 python-gtkmozembed
6984   python-gtksourceview2 python-httplib2 python-louie python-mako
6985   python-markupsafe python-mechanize python-nevow python-notify
6986   python-opengl python-openssl python-pam python-pkg-resources
6987   python-pyasn1 python-pysqlite2 python-rdflib python-serial
6988   python-tagpy python-twisted-bin python-twisted-conch
6989   python-twisted-core python-twisted-web python-utidylib python-webkit
6990   python-xdg python-zope.interface remmina remmina-plugin-data
6991   remmina-plugin-rdp remmina-plugin-vnc rhythmbox-plugin-cdrecorder
6992   rhythmbox-plugins rpm-common rpm2cpio seahorse-plugins shotwell
6993   software-center svgalibg1 system-config-printer-udev
6994   telepathy-gabble telepathy-mission-control-5 telepathy-salut tomboy
6995   totem totem-coherence totem-mozilla totem-plugins
6996   transmission-common xdg-user-dirs xdg-user-dirs-gtk xserver-xephyr
6997   zip
6998 </p></blockquote>
6999
7000 Installed using apt-get, removed with aptitude
7001
7002 <blockquote><p>
7003   arj bluez-utils cheese dhcdbd djvulibre-desktop ekiga eog
7004   epiphany-extensions epiphany-gecko evolution-exchange
7005   fast-user-switch-applet file-roller gcalctool gconf-editor gdm gedit
7006   gedit-common gnome-app-install gnome-games gnome-games-data
7007   gnome-nettool gnome-system-tools gnome-themes gnome-utils
7008   gnome-vfs-obexftp gnome-volume-manager gnuchess gucharmap
7009   guile-1.8-libs hal libavahi-compat-libdnssd1 libavahi-core5
7010   libavahi-ui0 libbind9-50 libbluetooth2 libcamel1.2-11 libcdio7
7011   libcucul0 libcurl3 libdirectfb-1.0-0 libdmx1 libdvdread3
7012   libedata-cal1.2-6 libedataserver1.2-9 libeel2-2.20 libepc-1.0-1
7013   libepc-ui-1.0-1 libexchange-storage1.2-3 libfaad0 libgadu3
7014   libgalago3 libgd2-noxpm libgda3-3 libgda3-common libggz2 libggzcore9
7015   libggzmod4 libgksu1.2-0 libgksuui1.0-1 libgmyth0 libgnome-desktop-2
7016   libgnome-pilot2 libgnomecups1.0-1 libgnomeprint2.2-0
7017   libgnomeprintui2.2-0 libgpod3 libgraphviz4 libgtk-vnc-1.0-0
7018   libgtkhtml2-0 libgtksourceview1.0-0 libgtksourceview2.0-0
7019   libgucharmap6 libhesiod0 libicu38 libisccc50 libisccfg50 libiw29
7020   libjaxp1.3-java-gcj libkpathsea4 liblircclient0 libltdl3 liblwres50
7021   libmagick++10 libmagick10 libmalaga7 libmozjs1d libmpfr1ldbl libmtp7
7022   libmysqlclient15off libnautilus-burn4 libneon27 libnm-glib0
7023   libnm-util0 libopal-2.2 libosp5 libparted1.8-10 libpisock9
7024   libpisync1 libpoppler-glib3 libpoppler3 libpt-1.10.10 libraw1394-8
7025   libsdl1.2debian-alsa libsensors3 libsexy2 libsmbios2 libsoup2.2-8
7026   libspeexdsp1 libssh2-1 libsuitesparse-3.1.0 libsvga1
7027   libswfdec-0.6-90 libtalloc1 libtotem-plparser10 libtrackerclient0
7028   libvoikko1 libxalan2-java-gcj libxerces2-java-gcj libxklavier12
7029   libxtrap6 libxxf86misc1 libzephyr3 mysql-common rhythmbox seahorse
7030   sound-juicer swfdec-gnome system-config-printer totem-common
7031   totem-gstreamer transmission-gtk vinagre vino w3c-dtd-xhtml wodim
7032 </p></blockquote>
7033
7034 <p>Installed using aptitude, missing with apt-get</p>
7035
7036 <blockquote><p>
7037   gstreamer0.10-gnomevfs
7038 </p></blockquote>
7039
7040 <p>Installed using aptitude, removed with apt-get</p>
7041
7042 <blockquote><p>
7043 [nothing]
7044 </p></blockquote>
7045
7046 <p>This is for KDE:</p>
7047
7048 <p>Installed using apt-get, missing with aptitude</p>
7049
7050 <blockquote><p>
7051   autopoint bomber bovo cantor cantor-backend-kalgebra cpp-4.3 dcoprss
7052   edict espeak espeak-data eyesapplet fifteenapplet finger gettext
7053   ghostscript-x git gnome-audio gnugo granatier gs-common
7054   gstreamer0.10-pulseaudio indi kaddressbook-plugins kalgebra
7055   kalzium-data kanjidic kapman kate-plugins kblocks kbreakout kbstate
7056   kde-icons-mono kdeaccessibility kdeaddons-kfile-plugins
7057   kdeadmin-kfile-plugins kdeartwork-misc kdeartwork-theme-window
7058   kdeedu kdeedu-data kdeedu-kvtml-data kdegames kdegames-card-data
7059   kdegames-mahjongg-data kdegraphics-kfile-plugins kdelirc
7060   kdemultimedia-kfile-plugins kdenetwork-kfile-plugins
7061   kdepim-kfile-plugins kdepim-kio-plugins kdessh kdetoys kdewebdev
7062   kdiamond kdnssd kfilereplace kfourinline kgeography-data kigo
7063   killbots kiriki klettres-data kmoon kmrml knewsticker-scripts
7064   kollision kpf krosspython ksirk ksmserver ksquares kstars-data
7065   ksudoku kubrick kweather libasound2-plugins libboost-python1.42.0
7066   libcfitsio3 libconvert-binhex-perl libcrypt-ssleay-perl libdb4.6++
7067   libdjvulibre-text libdotconf1.0 liberror-perl libespeak1
7068   libfinance-quote-perl libgail-common libgsl0ldbl libhtml-parser-perl
7069   libhtml-tableextract-perl libhtml-tagset-perl libhtml-tree-perl
7070   libio-stringy-perl libkdeedu4 libkdegames5 libkiten4 libkpathsea5
7071   libkrossui4 libmailtools-perl libmime-tools-perl
7072   libnews-nntpclient-perl libopenbabel3 libportaudio2 libpulse-browse0
7073   libservlet2.4-java libspeechd2 libtiff-tools libtimedate-perl
7074   libunistring0 liburi-perl libwww-perl libxalan2-java libxerces2-java
7075   lirc luatex marble networkstatus noatun-plugins
7076   openoffice.org-writer2latex palapeli palapeli-data parley
7077   parley-data poster psutils pulseaudio pulseaudio-esound-compat
7078   pulseaudio-module-x11 pulseaudio-utils quanta-data rocs rsync
7079   speech-dispatcher step svgalibg1 texlive-binaries texlive-luatex
7080   ttf-sazanami-gothic
7081 </p></blockquote>
7082
7083 <p>Installed using apt-get, removed with aptitude</p>
7084
7085 <blockquote><p>
7086   amor artsbuilder atlantik atlantikdesigner blinken bluez-utils cvs
7087   dhcdbd djvulibre-desktop imlib-base imlib11 kalzium kanagram kandy
7088   kasteroids katomic kbackgammon kbattleship kblackbox kbounce kbruch
7089   kcron kdat kdemultimedia-kappfinder-data kdeprint kdict kdvi kedit
7090   keduca kenolaba kfax kfaxview kfouleggs kgeography kghostview
7091   kgoldrunner khangman khexedit kiconedit kig kimagemapeditor
7092   kitchensync kiten kjumpingcube klatin klettres klickety klines
7093   klinkstatus kmag kmahjongg kmailcvt kmenuedit kmid kmilo kmines
7094   kmousetool kmouth kmplot knetwalk kodo kolf kommander konquest kooka
7095   kpager kpat kpdf kpercentage kpilot kpoker kpovmodeler krec
7096   kregexpeditor kreversi ksame ksayit kshisen ksig ksim ksirc ksirtet
7097   ksmiletris ksnake ksokoban kspaceduel kstars ksvg ksysv kteatime
7098   ktip ktnef ktouch ktron kttsd ktuberling kturtle ktux kuickshow
7099   kverbos kview kviewshell kvoctrain kwifimanager kwin kwin4 kwordquiz
7100   kworldclock kxsldbg libakode2 libarts1-akode libarts1-audiofile
7101   libarts1-mpeglib libarts1-xine libavahi-compat-libdnssd1
7102   libavahi-core5 libavc1394-0 libbind9-50 libbluetooth2
7103   libboost-python1.34.1 libcucul0 libcurl3 libcvsservice0
7104   libdirectfb-1.0-0 libdjvulibre21 libdvdread3 libfaad0 libfreebob0
7105   libgd2-noxpm libgraphviz4 libgsmme1c2a libgtkhtml2-0 libicu38
7106   libiec61883-0 libindex0 libisccc50 libisccfg50 libiw29
7107   libjaxp1.3-java-gcj libk3b3 libkcal2b libkcddb1 libkdeedu3
7108   libkdegames1 libkdepim1a libkgantt0 libkleopatra1 libkmime2
7109   libkpathsea4 libkpimexchange1 libkpimidentities1 libkscan1
7110   libksieve0 libktnef1 liblockdev1 libltdl3 liblwres50 libmagick10
7111   libmimelib1c2a libmodplug0c2 libmozjs1d libmpcdec3 libmpfr1ldbl
7112   libneon27 libnm-util0 libopensync0 libpisock9 libpoppler-glib3
7113   libpoppler-qt2 libpoppler3 libraw1394-8 librss1 libsensors3
7114   libsmbios2 libssh2-1 libsuitesparse-3.1.0 libswfdec-0.6-90
7115   libtalloc1 libxalan2-java-gcj libxerces2-java-gcj libxtrap6 lskat
7116   mpeglib network-manager-kde noatun pmount tex-common texlive-base
7117   texlive-common texlive-doc-base texlive-fonts-recommended tidy
7118   ttf-dustin ttf-kochi-gothic ttf-sjfonts
7119 </p></blockquote>
7120
7121 <p>Installed using aptitude, missing with apt-get</p>
7122
7123 <blockquote><p>
7124   dolphin kde-core kde-plasma-desktop kde-standard kde-window-manager
7125   kdeartwork kdebase kdebase-apps kdebase-workspace
7126   kdebase-workspace-bin kdebase-workspace-data kdeutils kscreensaver
7127   kscreensaver-xsavers libgle3 libkonq5 libkonq5-templates libnetpbm10
7128   netpbm plasma-widget-folderview plasma-widget-networkmanagement
7129   xscreensaver-data-extra xscreensaver-gl xscreensaver-gl-extra
7130   xscreensaver-screensaver-bsod
7131 </p></blockquote>
7132
7133 <p>Installed using aptitude, removed with apt-get</p>
7134
7135 <blockquote><p>
7136   kdebase-bin konq-plugins konqueror
7137 </p></blockquote>
7138
7139       </div>
7140       <div class="tags">
7141
7142
7143         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>.
7144
7145
7146       </div>
7147     </div>
7148     <div class="padding"></div>
7149
7150     <div class="entry">
7151       <div class="title">
7152         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Gnash_buildbot_slave_and_Debian_kfreebsd.html">Gnash buildbot slave and Debian kfreebsd</a>
7153       </div>
7154       <div class="date">
7155         20th November 2010
7156       </div>
7157       <div class="body">
7158         <p>Answering
7159 <a href="http://www.listware.net/201011/gnash-dev/67431-gnash-dev-buildbot-looking-for-slaves.html">the
7160 call from the Gnash project</a> for
7161 <a href="http://www.gnashdev.org:8010">buildbot</a> slaves to test the
7162 current source, I have set up a virtual KVM machine on the Debian
7163 Edu/Skolelinux virtualization host to test the git source on
7164 Debian/Squeeze.  I hope this can help the developers in getting new
7165 releases out more often.</p>
7166
7167 <p>As the developers want less main-stream build platforms tested to,
7168 I have considered setting up a <a
7169 href="http://www.debian.org/ports/kfreebsd-gnu/">Debian/kfreebsd</a>
7170 machine as well.  I have also considered using the kfreebsd
7171 architecture in Debian as a file server in NUUG to get access to the 5
7172 TB zfs volume we currently use to store DV video.  Because of this, I
7173 finally got around to do a test installation of Debian/Squeeze with
7174 kfreebsd.  Installation went fairly smooth, thought I noticed some
7175 visual glitches in the cdebconf dialogs (black cursor left on the
7176 screen at random locations).  Have not gotten very far with the
7177 testing.  Noticed cfdisk did not work, but fdisk did so it was not a
7178 fatal problem.  Have to spend some more time on it to see if it is
7179 useful as a file server for NUUG.  Will try to find time to set up a
7180 gnash buildbot slave on the Debian Edu/Skolelinux this weekend.</p>
7181
7182       </div>
7183       <div class="tags">
7184
7185
7186         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>.
7187
7188
7189       </div>
7190     </div>
7191     <div class="padding"></div>
7192
7193     <div class="entry">
7194       <div class="title">
7195         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_in_3D.html">Debian in 3D</a>
7196       </div>
7197       <div class="date">
7198          9th November 2010
7199       </div>
7200       <div class="body">
7201         <p><img src="http://thingiverse-production.s3.amazonaws.com/renders/23/e0/c4/f9/2b/debswagtdose_preview_medium.jpg"></p>
7202
7203 <p>3D printing is just great.  I just came across this Debian logo in
7204 3D linked in from
7205 <a href="http://blog.thingiverse.com/2010/11/09/participatory-branding/">the
7206 thingiverse blog</a>.</p>
7207
7208       </div>
7209       <div class="tags">
7210
7211
7212         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>.
7213
7214
7215       </div>
7216     </div>
7217     <div class="padding"></div>
7218
7219     <div class="entry">
7220       <div class="title">
7221         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Software_updates_2010_10_24.html">Software updates 2010-10-24</a>
7222       </div>
7223       <div class="date">
7224         24th October 2010
7225       </div>
7226       <div class="body">
7227         <p>Some updates.</p>
7228
7229 <p>My <a href="http://pledgebank.com/gnash-avm2">gnash pledge</a> to
7230 raise money for the project is going well.  The lower limit of 10
7231 signers was reached in 24 hours, and so far 13 people have signed it.
7232 More signers and more funding is most welcome, and I am really curious
7233 how far we can get before the time limit of December 24 is reached.
7234 :)</p>
7235
7236 <p>On the #gnash IRC channel on irc.freenode.net, I was just tipped
7237 about what appear to be a great code coverage tool capable of
7238 generating code coverage stats without any changes to the source code.
7239 It is called
7240 <a href="http://simonkagstrom.github.com/kcov/index.html">kcov</a>,
7241 and can be used using <tt>kcov &lt;directory&gt; &lt;binary&gt;</tt>.
7242 It is missing in Debian, but the git source built just fine in Squeeze
7243 after I installed libelf-dev, libdwarf-dev, pkg-config and
7244 libglib2.0-dev.  Failed to build in Lenny, but suspect that is
7245 solvable.  I hope kcov make it into Debian soon.</p>
7246
7247 <p>Finally found time to wrap up the release notes for <a
7248 href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-edu-announce/2010/10/msg00002.html">a
7249 new alpha release of Debian Edu</a>, and just published the second
7250 alpha test release of the Squeeze based Debian Edu /
7251 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Skolelinux</a>
7252 release.  Give it a try if you need a complete linux solution for your
7253 school, including central infrastructure server, workstations, thin
7254 client servers and diskless workstations.  A nice touch added
7255 yesterday is RDP support on the thin client servers, for windows
7256 clients to get a Linux desktop on request.</p>
7257
7258       </div>
7259       <div class="tags">
7260
7261
7262         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>.
7263
7264
7265       </div>
7266     </div>
7267     <div class="padding"></div>
7268
7269     <div class="entry">
7270       <div class="title">
7271         <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>
7272       </div>
7273       <div class="date">
7274          4th September 2010
7275       </div>
7276       <div class="body">
7277         <p>In the <a href="http://popcon.debian.org/unknown/by_vote">Debian
7278 popularity-contest numbers</a>, the adobe-flashplugin package the
7279 second most popular used package that is missing in Debian.  The sixth
7280 most popular is flashplayer-mozilla.  This is a clear indication that
7281 working flash is important for Debian users.  Around 10 percent of the
7282 users submitting data to popcon.debian.org have this package
7283 installed.</p>
7284
7285 <p>In the report written by Lars Risan in August 2008
7286 («<a href="http://wiki.skolelinux.no/Dokumentasjon/Rapporter?action=AttachFile&do=view&target=Skolelinux_i_bruk_rapport_1.0.pdf">Skolelinux
7287 i bruk – Rapport for Hurum kommune, Universitetet i Agder og
7288 stiftelsen SLX Debian Labs</a>»), one of the most important problems
7289 schools experienced with <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian
7290 Edu/Skolelinux</a> was the lack of working Flash.  A lot of educational
7291 web sites require Flash to work, and lacking working Flash support in
7292 the web browser and the problems with installing it was perceived as a
7293 good reason to stay with Windows.</p>
7294
7295 <p>I once saw a funny and sad comment in a web forum, where Linux was
7296 said to be the retarded cousin that did not really understand
7297 everything you told him but could work fairly well.  This was a
7298 comment regarding the problems Linux have with proprietary formats and
7299 non-standard web pages, and is sad because it exposes a fairly common
7300 understanding of whose fault it is if web pages that only work in for
7301 example Internet Explorer 6 fail to work on Firefox, and funny because
7302 it explain very well how annoying it is for users when Linux
7303 distributions do not work with the documents they receive or the web
7304 pages they want to visit.</p>
7305
7306 <p>This is part of the reason why I believe it is important for Debian
7307 and Debian Edu to have a well working Flash implementation in the
7308 distribution, to get at least popular sites as Youtube and Google
7309 Video to working out of the box.  For Squeeze, Debian have the chance
7310 to include the latest version of Gnash that will make this happen, as
7311 the new release 0.8.8 was published a few weeks ago and is resting in
7312 unstable.  The new version work with more sites that version 0.8.7.
7313 The Gnash maintainers have asked for a freeze exception, but the
7314 release team have not had time to reply to it yet.  I hope they agree
7315 with me that Flash is important for the Debian desktop users, and thus
7316 accept the new package into Squeeze.</p>
7317
7318       </div>
7319       <div class="tags">
7320
7321
7322         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>.
7323
7324
7325       </div>
7326     </div>
7327     <div class="padding"></div>
7328
7329     <div class="entry">
7330       <div class="title">
7331         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Circular_package_dependencies_harms_apt_recovery.html">Circular package dependencies harms apt recovery</a>
7332       </div>
7333       <div class="date">
7334         27th July 2010
7335       </div>
7336       <div class="body">
7337         <p>I discovered this while doing
7338 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Automatic_upgrade_testing_from_Lenny_to_Squeeze.html">automated
7339 testing of upgrades from Debian Lenny to Squeeze</a>.  A few packages
7340 in Debian still got circular dependencies, and it is often claimed
7341 that apt and aptitude should be able to handle this just fine, but
7342 some times these dependency loops causes apt to fail.</p>
7343
7344 <p>An example is from todays
7345 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/~pere/debian-upgrade-testing//test-20100727-lenny-squeeze-kde-aptitude.txt">upgrade
7346 of KDE using aptitude</a>.  In it, a bug in kdebase-workspace-data
7347 causes perl-modules to fail to upgrade.  The cause is simple.  If a
7348 package fail to unpack, then only part of packages with the circular
7349 dependency might end up being unpacked when unpacking aborts, and the
7350 ones already unpacked will fail to configure in the recovery phase
7351 because its dependencies are unavailable.</p>
7352
7353 <p>In this log, the problem manifest itself with this error:</p>
7354
7355 <blockquote><pre>
7356 dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of perl-modules:
7357  perl-modules depends on perl (>= 5.10.1-1); however:
7358   Version of perl on system is 5.10.0-19lenny2.
7359 dpkg: error processing perl-modules (--configure):
7360  dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
7361 </pre></blockquote>
7362
7363 <p>The perl/perl-modules circular dependency is already
7364 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/527917">reported as a bug</a>, and will
7365 hopefully be solved as soon as possible, but it is not the only one,
7366 and each one of these loops in the dependency tree can cause similar
7367 failures.  Of course, they only occur when there are bugs in other
7368 packages causing the unpacking to fail, but it is rather nasty when
7369 the failure of one package causes the problem to become worse because
7370 of dependency loops.</p>
7371
7372 <p>Thanks to
7373 <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2010/06/msg00116.html">the
7374 tireless effort by Bill Allombert</a>, the number of circular
7375 dependencies
7376 <a href="http://debian.semistable.com/debgraph.out.html">left in Debian
7377 is dropping</a>, and perhaps it will reach zero one day. :)</p>
7378
7379 <p>Todays testing also exposed a bug in
7380 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/590605">update-notifier</a> and
7381 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/590604">different behaviour</a> between
7382 apt-get and aptitude, the latter possibly caused by some circular
7383 dependency.  Reported both to BTS to try to get someone to look at
7384 it.</p>
7385
7386       </div>
7387       <div class="tags">
7388
7389
7390         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>.
7391
7392
7393       </div>
7394     </div>
7395     <div class="padding"></div>
7396
7397     <div class="entry">
7398       <div class="title">
7399         <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>
7400       </div>
7401       <div class="date">
7402         17th July 2010
7403       </div>
7404       <div class="body">
7405         <p>This is a
7406 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Time_for_new__LDAP_schemas_replacing_RFC_2307_.html">followup</a>
7407 on my
7408 <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
7409 work</a> on
7410 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Combining_PowerDNS_and_ISC_DHCP_LDAP_objects.html">merging
7411 all</a> the computer related LDAP objects in Debian Edu.</p>
7412
7413 <p>As a step to try to see if it possible to merge the DNS and DHCP
7414 LDAP objects, I have had a look at how the packages pdns-backend-ldap
7415 and dhcp3-server-ldap in Debian use the LDAP server.  The two
7416 implementations are quite different in how they use LDAP.</p>
7417
7418 To get this information, I started slapd with debugging enabled and
7419 dumped the debug output to a file to get the LDAP searches performed
7420 on a Debian Edu main-server.  Here is a summary.
7421
7422 <p><strong>powerdns</strong></p>
7423
7424 <a href="http://www.linuxnetworks.de/doc/index.php/PowerDNS_LDAP_Backend">Clues
7425 on how to</a> set up PowerDNS to use a LDAP backend is available on
7426 the web.
7427
7428 <p>PowerDNS have two modes of operation using LDAP as its backend.
7429 One "strict" mode where the forward and reverse DNS lookups are done
7430 using the same LDAP objects, and a "tree" mode where the forward and
7431 reverse entries are in two different subtrees in LDAP with a structure
7432 based on the DNS names, as in tjener.intern and
7433 2.2.0.10.in-addr.arpa.</p>
7434
7435 <p>In tree mode, the server is set up to use a LDAP subtree as its
7436 base, and uses a "base" scoped search for the DNS name by adding
7437 "dc=tjener,dc=intern," to the base with a filter for
7438 "(associateddomain=tjener.intern)" for the forward entry and
7439 "dc=2,dc=2,dc=0,dc=10,dc=in-addr,dc=arpa," with a filter for
7440 "(associateddomain=2.2.0.10.in-addr.arpa)" for the reverse entry.  For
7441 forward entries, it is looking for attributes named dnsttl, arecord,
7442 nsrecord, cnamerecord, soarecord, ptrrecord, hinforecord, mxrecord,
7443 txtrecord, rprecord, afsdbrecord, keyrecord, aaaarecord, locrecord,
7444 srvrecord, naptrrecord, kxrecord, certrecord, dsrecord, sshfprecord,
7445 ipseckeyrecord, rrsigrecord, nsecrecord, dnskeyrecord, dhcidrecord,
7446 spfrecord and modifytimestamp.  For reverse entries it is looking for
7447 the attributes dnsttl, arecord, nsrecord, cnamerecord, soarecord,
7448 ptrrecord, hinforecord, mxrecord, txtrecord, rprecord, aaaarecord,
7449 locrecord, srvrecord, naptrrecord and modifytimestamp.  The equivalent
7450 ldapsearch commands could look like this:</p>
7451
7452 <blockquote><pre>
7453 ldapsearch -h ldap \
7454   -b dc=tjener,dc=intern,ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no \
7455   -s base -x '(associateddomain=tjener.intern)' dNSTTL aRecord nSRecord \
7456   cNAMERecord sOARecord pTRRecord hInfoRecord mXRecord tXTRecord \
7457   rPRecord aFSDBRecord KeyRecord aAAARecord lOCRecord sRVRecord \
7458   nAPTRRecord kXRecord certRecord dSRecord sSHFPRecord iPSecKeyRecord \
7459   rRSIGRecord nSECRecord dNSKeyRecord dHCIDRecord sPFRecord modifyTimestamp
7460
7461 ldapsearch -h ldap \
7462   -b dc=2,dc=2,dc=0,dc=10,dc=in-addr,dc=arpa,ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no \
7463   -s base -x '(associateddomain=2.2.0.10.in-addr.arpa)'
7464   dnsttl, arecord, nsrecord, cnamerecord soarecord ptrrecord \
7465   hinforecord mxrecord txtrecord rprecord aaaarecord locrecord \
7466   srvrecord naptrrecord modifytimestamp
7467 </pre></blockquote>
7468
7469 <p>In Debian Edu/Lenny, the PowerDNS tree mode is used with
7470 ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no as the base, and these are two
7471 example LDAP objects used there.  In addition to these objects, the
7472 parent objects all th way up to ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
7473 also exist.</p>
7474
7475 <blockquote><pre>
7476 dn: dc=tjener,dc=intern,ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
7477 objectclass: top
7478 objectclass: dnsdomain
7479 objectclass: domainrelatedobject
7480 dc: tjener
7481 arecord: 10.0.2.2
7482 associateddomain: tjener.intern
7483
7484 dn: dc=2,dc=2,dc=0,dc=10,dc=in-addr,dc=arpa,ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
7485 objectclass: top
7486 objectclass: dnsdomain2
7487 objectclass: domainrelatedobject
7488 dc: 2
7489 ptrrecord: tjener.intern
7490 associateddomain: 2.2.0.10.in-addr.arpa
7491 </pre></blockquote>
7492
7493 <p>In strict mode, the server behaves differently.  When looking for
7494 forward DNS entries, it is doing a "subtree" scoped search with the
7495 same base as in the tree mode for a object with filter
7496 "(associateddomain=tjener.intern)" and requests the attributes dnsttl,
7497 arecord, nsrecord, cnamerecord, soarecord, ptrrecord, hinforecord,
7498 mxrecord, txtrecord, rprecord, aaaarecord, locrecord, srvrecord,
7499 naptrrecord and modifytimestamp.  For reverse entires it also do a
7500 subtree scoped search but this time the filter is "(arecord=10.0.2.2)"
7501 and the requested attributes are associateddomain, dnsttl and
7502 modifytimestamp.  In short, in strict mode the objects with ptrrecord
7503 go away, and the arecord attribute in the forward object is used
7504 instead.</p>
7505
7506 <p>The forward and reverse searches can be simulated using ldapsearch
7507 like this:</p>
7508
7509 <blockquote><pre>
7510 ldapsearch -h ldap -b ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no -s sub -x \
7511   '(associateddomain=tjener.intern)' dNSTTL aRecord nSRecord \
7512   cNAMERecord sOARecord pTRRecord hInfoRecord mXRecord tXTRecord \
7513   rPRecord aFSDBRecord KeyRecord aAAARecord lOCRecord sRVRecord \
7514   nAPTRRecord kXRecord certRecord dSRecord sSHFPRecord iPSecKeyRecord \
7515   rRSIGRecord nSECRecord dNSKeyRecord dHCIDRecord sPFRecord modifyTimestamp
7516
7517 ldapsearch -h ldap -b ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no -s sub -x \
7518   '(arecord=10.0.2.2)' associateddomain dnsttl modifytimestamp
7519 </pre></blockquote>
7520
7521 <p>In addition to the forward and reverse searches , there is also a
7522 search for SOA records, which behave similar to the forward and
7523 reverse lookups.</p>
7524
7525 <p>A thing to note with the PowerDNS behaviour is that it do not
7526 specify any objectclass names, and instead look for the attributes it
7527 need to generate a DNS reply.  This make it able to work with any
7528 objectclass that provide the needed attributes.</p>
7529
7530 <p>The attributes are normally provided in the cosine (RFC 1274) and
7531 dnsdomain2 schemas.  The latter is used for reverse entries like
7532 ptrrecord and recent DNS additions like aaaarecord and srvrecord.</p>
7533
7534 <p>In Debian Edu, we have created DNS objects using the object classes
7535 dcobject (for dc), dnsdomain or dnsdomain2 (structural, for the DNS
7536 attributes) and domainrelatedobject (for associatedDomain).  The use
7537 of structural object classes make it impossible to combine these
7538 classes with the object classes used by DHCP.</p>
7539
7540 <p>There are other schemas that could be used too, for example the
7541 dnszone structural object class used by Gosa and bind-sdb for the DNS
7542 attributes combined with the domainrelatedobject object class, but in
7543 this case some unused attributes would have to be included as well
7544 (zonename and relativedomainname).</p>
7545
7546 <p>My proposal for Debian Edu would be to switch PowerDNS to strict
7547 mode and not use any of the existing objectclasses (dnsdomain,
7548 dnsdomain2 and dnszone) when one want to combine the DNS information
7549 with DHCP information, and instead create a auxiliary object class
7550 defined something like this (using the attributes defined for
7551 dnsdomain and dnsdomain2 or dnszone):</p>
7552
7553 <blockquote><pre>
7554 objectclass ( some-oid NAME 'dnsDomainAux'
7555     SUP top
7556     AUXILIARY
7557     MAY ( ARecord $ MDRecord $ MXRecord $ NSRecord $ SOARecord $ CNAMERecord $
7558           DNSTTL $ DNSClass $ PTRRecord $ HINFORecord $ MINFORecord $
7559           TXTRecord $ SIGRecord $ KEYRecord $ AAAARecord $ LOCRecord $
7560           NXTRecord $ SRVRecord $ NAPTRRecord $ KXRecord $ CERTRecord $
7561           A6Record $ DNAMERecord
7562     ))
7563 </pre></blockquote>
7564
7565 <p>This will allow any object to become a DNS entry when combined with
7566 the domainrelatedobject object class, and allow any entity to include
7567 all the attributes PowerDNS wants.  I've sent an email to the PowerDNS
7568 developers asking for their view on this schema and if they are
7569 interested in providing such schema with PowerDNS, and I hope my
7570 message will be accepted into their mailing list soon.</p>
7571
7572 <p><strong>ISC dhcp</strong></p>
7573
7574 <p>The DHCP server searches for specific objectclass and requests all
7575 the object attributes, and then uses the attributes it want.  This
7576 make it harder to figure out exactly what attributes are used, but
7577 thanks to the working example in Debian Edu I can at least get an idea
7578 what is needed without having to read the source code.</p>
7579
7580 <p>In the DHCP server configuration, the LDAP base to use and the
7581 search filter to use to locate the correct dhcpServer entity is
7582 stored.  These are the relevant entries from
7583 /etc/dhcp3/dhcpd.conf:</p>
7584
7585 <blockquote><pre>
7586 ldap-base-dn "dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no";
7587 ldap-dhcp-server-cn "dhcp";
7588 </pre></blockquote>
7589
7590 <p>The DHCP server uses this information to nest all the DHCP
7591 configuration it need.  The cn "dhcp" is located using the given LDAP
7592 base and the filter "(&(objectClass=dhcpServer)(cn=dhcp))".  The
7593 search result is this entry:</p>
7594
7595 <blockquote><pre>
7596 dn: cn=dhcp,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
7597 cn: dhcp
7598 objectClass: top
7599 objectClass: dhcpServer
7600 dhcpServiceDN: cn=DHCP Config,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
7601 </pre></blockquote>
7602
7603 <p>The content of the dhcpServiceDN attribute is next used to locate the
7604 subtree with DHCP configuration.  The DHCP configuration subtree base
7605 is located using a base scope search with base "cn=DHCP
7606 Config,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no" and filter
7607 "(&(objectClass=dhcpService)(|(dhcpPrimaryDN=cn=dhcp,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no)(dhcpSecondaryDN=cn=dhcp,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no)))".
7608 The search result is this entry:</p>
7609
7610 <blockquote><pre>
7611 dn: cn=DHCP Config,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
7612 cn: DHCP Config
7613 objectClass: top
7614 objectClass: dhcpService
7615 objectClass: dhcpOptions
7616 dhcpPrimaryDN: cn=dhcp, dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
7617 dhcpStatements: ddns-update-style none
7618 dhcpStatements: authoritative
7619 dhcpOption: smtp-server code 69 = array of ip-address
7620 dhcpOption: www-server code 72 = array of ip-address
7621 dhcpOption: wpad-url code 252 = text
7622 </pre></blockquote>
7623
7624 <p>Next, the entire subtree is processed, one level at the time.  When
7625 all the DHCP configuration is loaded, it is ready to receive requests.
7626 The subtree in Debian Edu contain objects with object classes
7627 top/dhcpService/dhcpOptions, top/dhcpSharedNetwork/dhcpOptions,
7628 top/dhcpSubnet, top/dhcpGroup and top/dhcpHost.  These provide options
7629 and information about netmasks, dynamic range etc.  Leaving out the
7630 details here because it is not relevant for the focus of my
7631 investigation, which is to see if it is possible to merge dns and dhcp
7632 related computer objects.</p>
7633
7634 <p>When a DHCP request come in, LDAP is searched for the MAC address
7635 of the client (00:00:00:00:00:00 in this example), using a subtree
7636 scoped search with "cn=DHCP Config,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no" as
7637 the base and "(&(objectClass=dhcpHost)(dhcpHWAddress=ethernet
7638 00:00:00:00:00:00))" as the filter.  This is what a host object look
7639 like:</p>
7640
7641 <blockquote><pre>
7642 dn: cn=hostname,cn=group1,cn=THINCLIENTS,cn=DHCP Config,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
7643 cn: hostname
7644 objectClass: top
7645 objectClass: dhcpHost
7646 dhcpHWAddress: ethernet 00:00:00:00:00:00
7647 dhcpStatements: fixed-address hostname
7648 </pre></blockquote>
7649
7650 <p>There is less flexiblity in the way LDAP searches are done here.
7651 The object classes need to have fixed names, and the configuration
7652 need to be stored in a fairly specific LDAP structure.  On the
7653 positive side, the invidiual dhcpHost entires can be anywhere without
7654 the DN pointed to by the dhcpServer entries.  The latter should make
7655 it possible to group all host entries in a subtree next to the
7656 configuration entries, and this subtree can also be shared with the
7657 DNS server if the schema proposed above is combined with the dhcpHost
7658 structural object class.
7659
7660 <p><strong>Conclusion</strong></p>
7661
7662 <p>The PowerDNS implementation seem to be very flexible when it come
7663 to which LDAP schemas to use.  While its "tree" mode is rigid when it
7664 come to the the LDAP structure, the "strict" mode is very flexible,
7665 allowing DNS objects to be stored anywhere under the base cn specified
7666 in the configuration.</p>
7667
7668 <p>The DHCP implementation on the other hand is very inflexible, both
7669 regarding which LDAP schemas to use and which LDAP structure to use.
7670 I guess one could implement ones own schema, as long as the
7671 objectclasses and attributes have the names used, but this do not
7672 really help when the DHCP subtree need to have a fairly fixed
7673 structure.</p>
7674
7675 <p>Based on the observed behaviour, I suspect a LDAP structure like
7676 this might work for Debian Edu:</p>
7677
7678 <blockquote><pre>
7679 ou=services
7680   cn=machine-info (dhcpService) - dhcpServiceDN points here
7681     cn=dhcp (dhcpServer)
7682     cn=dhcp-internal (dhcpSharedNetwork/dhcpOptions)
7683       cn=10.0.2.0 (dhcpSubnet)
7684         cn=group1 (dhcpGroup/dhcpOptions)
7685     cn=dhcp-thinclients (dhcpSharedNetwork/dhcpOptions)
7686       cn=192.168.0.0 (dhcpSubnet)
7687         cn=group1 (dhcpGroup/dhcpOptions)
7688     ou=machines - PowerDNS base points here
7689       cn=hostname (dhcpHost/domainrelatedobject/dnsDomainAux)
7690 </pre></blockquote>
7691
7692 <P>This is not tested yet.  If the DHCP server require the dhcpHost
7693 entries to be in the dhcpGroup subtrees, the entries can be stored
7694 there instead of a common machines subtree, and the PowerDNS base
7695 would have to be moved one level up to the machine-info subtree.</p>
7696
7697 <p>The combined object under the machines subtree would look something
7698 like this:</p>
7699
7700 <blockquote><pre>
7701 dn: dc=hostname,ou=machines,cn=machine-info,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
7702 dc: hostname
7703 objectClass: top
7704 objectClass: dhcpHost
7705 objectclass: domainrelatedobject
7706 objectclass: dnsDomainAux
7707 associateddomain: hostname.intern
7708 arecord: 10.11.12.13
7709 dhcpHWAddress: ethernet 00:00:00:00:00:00
7710 dhcpStatements: fixed-address hostname.intern
7711 </pre></blockquote>
7712
7713 </p>One could even add the LTSP configuration associated with a given
7714 machine, as long as the required attributes are available in a
7715 auxiliary object class.</p>
7716
7717       </div>
7718       <div class="tags">
7719
7720
7721         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>.
7722
7723
7724       </div>
7725     </div>
7726     <div class="padding"></div>
7727
7728     <div class="entry">
7729       <div class="title">
7730         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Combining_PowerDNS_and_ISC_DHCP_LDAP_objects.html">Combining PowerDNS and ISC DHCP LDAP objects</a>
7731       </div>
7732       <div class="date">
7733         14th July 2010
7734       </div>
7735       <div class="body">
7736         <p>For a while now, I have wanted to find a way to change the DNS and
7737 DHCP services in Debian Edu to use the same LDAP objects for a given
7738 computer, to avoid the possibility of having a inconsistent state for
7739 a computer in LDAP (as in DHCP but no DNS entry or the other way
7740 around) and make it easier to add computers to LDAP.</p>
7741
7742 <p>I've looked at how powerdns and dhcpd is using LDAP, and using this
7743 information finally found a solution that seem to work.</p>
7744
7745 <p>The old setup required three LDAP objects for a given computer.
7746 One forward DNS entry, one reverse DNS entry and one DHCP entry.  If
7747 we switch powerdns to use its strict LDAP method (ldap-method=strict
7748 in pdns-debian-edu.conf), the forward and reverse DNS entries are
7749 merged into one while making it impossible to transfer the reverse map
7750 to a slave DNS server.</p>
7751
7752 <p>If we also replace the object class used to get the DNS related
7753 attributes to one allowing these attributes to be combined with the
7754 dhcphost object class, we can merge the DNS and DHCP entries into one.
7755 I've written such object class in the dnsdomainaux.schema file (need
7756 proper OIDs, but that is a minor issue), and tested the setup.  It
7757 seem to work.</p>
7758
7759 <p>With this test setup in place, we can get away with one LDAP object
7760 for both DNS and DHCP, and even the LTSP configuration I suggested in
7761 an earlier email.  The combined LDAP object will look something like
7762 this:</p>
7763
7764 <blockquote><pre>
7765   dn: cn=hostname,cn=group1,cn=THINCLIENTS,cn=DHCP Config,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
7766   cn: hostname
7767   objectClass: dhcphost
7768   objectclass: domainrelatedobject
7769   objectclass: dnsdomainaux
7770   associateddomain: hostname.intern
7771   arecord: 10.11.12.13
7772   dhcphwaddress: ethernet 00:00:00:00:00:00
7773   dhcpstatements: fixed-address hostname
7774   ldapconfigsound: Y
7775 </pre></blockquote>
7776
7777 <p>The DNS server uses the associateddomain and arecord entries, while
7778 the DHCP server uses the dhcphwaddress and dhcpstatements entries
7779 before asking DNS to resolve the fixed-adddress.  LTSP will use
7780 dhcphwaddress or associateddomain and the ldapconfig* attributes.</p>
7781
7782 <p>I am not yet sure if I can get the DHCP server to look for its
7783 dhcphost in a different location, to allow us to put the objects
7784 outside the "DHCP Config" subtree, but hope to figure out a way to do
7785 that.  If I can't figure out a way to do that, we can still get rid of
7786 the hosts subtree and move all its content into the DHCP Config tree
7787 (which probably should be renamed to be more related to the new
7788 content.  I suspect cn=dnsdhcp,ou=services or something like that
7789 might be a good place to put it.</p>
7790
7791 <p>If you want to help out with implementing this for Debian Edu,
7792 please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.</p>
7793
7794       </div>
7795       <div class="tags">
7796
7797
7798         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>.
7799
7800
7801       </div>
7802     </div>
7803     <div class="padding"></div>
7804
7805     <div class="entry">
7806       <div class="title">
7807         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Idea_for_storing_LTSP_configuration_in_LDAP.html">Idea for storing LTSP configuration in LDAP</a>
7808       </div>
7809       <div class="date">
7810         11th July 2010
7811       </div>
7812       <div class="body">
7813         <p>Vagrant mentioned on IRC today that ltsp_config now support
7814 sourcing files from /usr/share/ltsp/ltsp_config.d/ on the thin
7815 clients, and that this can be used to fetch configuration from LDAP if
7816 Debian Edu choose to store configuration there.</p>
7817
7818 <p>Armed with this information, I got inspired and wrote a test module
7819 to get configuration from LDAP.  The idea is to look up the MAC
7820 address of the client in LDAP, and look for attributes on the form
7821 ltspconfigsetting=value, and use this to export SETTING=value to the
7822 LTSP clients.</p>
7823
7824 <p>The goal is to be able to store the LTSP configuration attributes
7825 in a "computer" LDAP object used by both DNS and DHCP, and thus
7826 allowing us to store all information about a computer in one place.</p>
7827
7828 <p>This is a untested draft implementation, and I welcome feedback on
7829 this approach.  A real LDAP schema for the ltspClientAux objectclass
7830 need to be written.  Comments, suggestions, etc?</p>
7831
7832 <blockquote><pre>
7833 # Store in /opt/ltsp/$arch/usr/share/ltsp/ltsp_config.d/ldap-config
7834 #
7835 # Fetch LTSP client settings from LDAP based on MAC address
7836 #
7837 # Uses ethernet address as stored in the dhcpHost objectclass using
7838 # the dhcpHWAddress attribute or ethernet address stored in the
7839 # ieee802Device objectclass with the macAddress attribute.
7840 #
7841 # This module is written to be schema agnostic, and only depend on the
7842 # existence of attribute names.
7843 #
7844 # The LTSP configuration variables are saved directly using a
7845 # ltspConfig prefix and uppercasing the rest of the attribute name.
7846 # To set the SERVER variable, set the ltspConfigServer attribute.
7847 #
7848 # Some LDAP schema should be created with all the relevant
7849 # configuration settings.  Something like this should work:
7850 #
7851 # objectclass ( 1.1.2.2 NAME 'ltspClientAux'
7852 #     SUP top
7853 #     AUXILIARY
7854 #     MAY ( ltspConfigServer $ ltsConfigSound $ ... )
7855
7856 LDAPSERVER=$(debian-edu-ldapserver)
7857 if [ "$LDAPSERVER" ] ; then
7858     LDAPBASE=$(debian-edu-ldapserver -b)
7859     for MAC in $(LANG=C ifconfig |grep -i hwaddr| awk '{print $5}'|sort -u) ; do
7860         filter="(|(dhcpHWAddress=ethernet $MAC)(macAddress=$MAC))"
7861         ldapsearch -h "$LDAPSERVER" -b "$LDAPBASE" -v -x "$filter" | \
7862             grep '^ltspConfig' | while read attr value ; do
7863             # Remove prefix and convert to upper case
7864             attr=$(echo $attr | sed 's/^ltspConfig//i' | tr a-z A-Z)
7865             # bass value on to clients
7866             eval "$attr=$value; export $attr"
7867         done
7868     done
7869 fi
7870 </pre></blockquote>
7871
7872 <p>I'm not sure this shell construction will work, because I suspect
7873 the while block might end up in a subshell causing the variables set
7874 there to not show up in ltsp-config, but if that is the case I am sure
7875 the code can be restructured to make sure the variables are passed on.
7876 I expect that can be solved with some testing. :)</p>
7877
7878 <p>If you want to help out with implementing this for Debian Edu,
7879 please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.</p>
7880
7881 <p>Update 2010-07-17: I am aware of another effort to store LTSP
7882 configuration in LDAP that was created around year 2000 by
7883 <a href="http://www.pcxperience.com/thinclient/documentation/ldap.html">PC
7884 Xperience, Inc., 2000</a>.  I found its
7885 <a href="http://people.redhat.com/alikins/ltsp/ldap/">files</a> on a
7886 personal home page over at redhat.com.</p>
7887
7888       </div>
7889       <div class="tags">
7890
7891
7892         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>.
7893
7894
7895       </div>
7896     </div>
7897     <div class="padding"></div>
7898
7899     <div class="entry">
7900       <div class="title">
7901         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/jXplorer__a_very_nice_LDAP_GUI.html">jXplorer, a very nice LDAP GUI</a>
7902       </div>
7903       <div class="date">
7904          9th July 2010
7905       </div>
7906       <div class="body">
7907         <p>Since
7908 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/LUMA__a_very_nice_LDAP_GUI.html">my
7909 last post</a> about available LDAP tools in Debian, I was told about a
7910 LDAP GUI that is even better than luma.  The java application
7911 <a href="http://jxplorer.org/">jXplorer</a> is claimed to be capable of
7912 moving LDAP objects and subtrees using drag-and-drop, and can
7913 authenticate using Kerberos.  I have only tested the Kerberos
7914 authentication, but do not have a LDAP setup allowing me to rewrite
7915 LDAP with my test user yet.  It is
7916 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/j/jxplorer.html">available in
7917 Debian</a> testing and unstable at the moment.  The only problem I
7918 have with it is how it handle errors.  If something go wrong, its
7919 non-intuitive behaviour require me to go through some query work list
7920 and remove the failing query.  Nothing big, but very annoying.</p>
7921
7922       </div>
7923       <div class="tags">
7924
7925
7926         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>.
7927
7928
7929       </div>
7930     </div>
7931     <div class="padding"></div>
7932
7933     <div class="entry">
7934       <div class="title">
7935         <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>
7936       </div>
7937       <div class="date">
7938          3rd July 2010
7939       </div>
7940       <div class="body">
7941         <p>Here is a short update on my <a
7942 href="http://people.skolelinux.org/~pere/debian-upgrade-testing/">my
7943 Debian Lenny->Squeeze upgrade testing</a>.  Here is a summary of the
7944 difference for Gnome when it is upgraded by apt-get and aptitude.  I'm
7945 not reporting the status for KDE, because the upgrade crashes when
7946 aptitude try because of missing conflicts
7947 (<a href="http://bugs.debian.org/584861">#584861</a> and
7948 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/585716">#585716</a>).</p>
7949
7950 <p>At the end of the upgrade test script, dpkg -l is executed to get a
7951 complete list of the installed packages.  Based on this I see these
7952 differences when I did a test run today.  As usual, I do not really
7953 know what the correct set of packages would be, but thought it best to
7954 publish the difference.</p>
7955
7956 <p>Installed using apt-get, missing with aptitude</p>
7957
7958 <blockquote><p>
7959   at-spi cpp-4.3 finger gnome-spell gstreamer0.10-gnomevfs
7960   libatspi1.0-0 libcupsys2 libeel2-data libgail-common libgdl-1-common
7961   libgnomeprint2.2-data libgnomeprintui2.2-common libgnomevfs2-bin
7962   libgtksourceview-common libpt-1.10.10-plugins-alsa
7963   libpt-1.10.10-plugins-v4l libservlet2.4-java libxalan2-java
7964   libxerces2-java openoffice.org-writer2latex openssl-blacklist p7zip
7965   python-4suite-xml python-eggtrayicon python-gtkhtml2
7966   python-gtkmozembed svgalibg1 xserver-xephyr zip
7967 </p></blockquote>
7968
7969 <p>Installed using apt-get, removed with aptitude</p>
7970
7971 <blockquote><p>
7972   bluez-utils dhcdbd djvulibre-desktop epiphany-gecko
7973   gnome-app-install gnome-mount gnome-vfs-obexftp gnome-volume-manager
7974   libao2 libavahi-compat-libdnssd1 libavahi-core5 libbind9-50
7975   libbluetooth2 libcamel1.2-11 libcdio7 libcucul0 libcurl3
7976   libdirectfb-1.0-0 libdvdread3 libedata-cal1.2-6 libedataserver1.2-9
7977   libeel2-2.20 libepc-1.0-1 libepc-ui-1.0-1 libexchange-storage1.2-3
7978   libfaad0 libgd2-noxpm libgda3-3 libgda3-common libggz2 libggzcore9
7979   libggzmod4 libgksu1.2-0 libgksuui1.0-1 libgmyth0 libgnome-desktop-2
7980   libgnome-pilot2 libgnomecups1.0-1 libgnomeprint2.2-0
7981   libgnomeprintui2.2-0 libgpod3 libgraphviz4 libgtkhtml2-0
7982   libgtksourceview1.0-0 libgucharmap6 libhesiod0 libicu38 libisccc50
7983   libisccfg50 libiw29 libkpathsea4 libltdl3 liblwres50 libmagick++10
7984   libmagick10 libmalaga7 libmtp7 libmysqlclient15off libnautilus-burn4
7985   libneon27 libnm-glib0 libnm-util0 libopal-2.2 libosp5
7986   libparted1.8-10 libpisock9 libpisync1 libpoppler-glib3 libpoppler3
7987   libpt-1.10.10 libraw1394-8 libsensors3 libsmbios2 libsoup2.2-8
7988   libssh2-1 libsuitesparse-3.1.0 libswfdec-0.6-90 libtalloc1
7989   libtotem-plparser10 libtrackerclient0 libvoikko1 libxalan2-java-gcj
7990   libxerces2-java-gcj libxklavier12 libxtrap6 libxxf86misc1 libzephyr3
7991   mysql-common swfdec-gnome totem-gstreamer wodim
7992 </p></blockquote>
7993
7994 <p>Installed using aptitude, missing with apt-get</p>
7995
7996 <blockquote><p>
7997   gnome gnome-desktop-environment hamster-applet python-gnomeapplet
7998   python-gnomekeyring python-wnck rhythmbox-plugins xorg
7999   xserver-xorg-input-all xserver-xorg-input-evdev
8000   xserver-xorg-input-kbd xserver-xorg-input-mouse
8001   xserver-xorg-input-synaptics xserver-xorg-video-all
8002   xserver-xorg-video-apm xserver-xorg-video-ark xserver-xorg-video-ati
8003   xserver-xorg-video-chips xserver-xorg-video-cirrus
8004   xserver-xorg-video-dummy xserver-xorg-video-fbdev
8005   xserver-xorg-video-glint xserver-xorg-video-i128
8006   xserver-xorg-video-i740 xserver-xorg-video-mach64
8007   xserver-xorg-video-mga xserver-xorg-video-neomagic
8008   xserver-xorg-video-nouveau xserver-xorg-video-nv
8009   xserver-xorg-video-r128 xserver-xorg-video-radeon
8010   xserver-xorg-video-radeonhd xserver-xorg-video-rendition
8011   xserver-xorg-video-s3 xserver-xorg-video-s3virge
8012   xserver-xorg-video-savage xserver-xorg-video-siliconmotion
8013   xserver-xorg-video-sis xserver-xorg-video-sisusb
8014   xserver-xorg-video-tdfx xserver-xorg-video-tga
8015   xserver-xorg-video-trident xserver-xorg-video-tseng
8016   xserver-xorg-video-vesa xserver-xorg-video-vmware
8017   xserver-xorg-video-voodoo
8018 </p></blockquote>
8019
8020 <p>Installed using aptitude, removed with apt-get</p>
8021
8022 <blockquote><p>
8023   deskbar-applet xserver-xorg xserver-xorg-core
8024   xserver-xorg-input-wacom xserver-xorg-video-intel
8025   xserver-xorg-video-openchrome
8026 </p></blockquote>
8027
8028 <p>I was told on IRC that the xorg-xserver package was
8029 <a href="http://git.debian.org/?p=pkg-xorg/xserver/xorg-server.git;a=commit;h=9c8080d06c457932d3bfec021c69ac000aa60120">changed
8030 in git</a> today to try to get apt-get to not remove xorg completely.
8031 No idea when it hits Squeeze, but when it does I hope it will reduce
8032 the difference somewhat.
8033
8034       </div>
8035       <div class="tags">
8036
8037
8038         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>.
8039
8040
8041       </div>
8042     </div>
8043     <div class="padding"></div>
8044
8045     <div class="entry">
8046       <div class="title">
8047         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/LUMA__a_very_nice_LDAP_GUI.html">LUMA, a very nice LDAP GUI</a>
8048       </div>
8049       <div class="date">
8050         28th June 2010
8051       </div>
8052       <div class="body">
8053         <p>The last few days I have been looking into the status of the LDAP
8054 directory in Debian Edu, and in the process I started to miss a GUI
8055 tool to browse the LDAP tree.  The only one I was able to find in
8056 Debian/Squeeze and Lenny is
8057 <a href="http://luma.sourceforge.net/">LUMA</a>, which has proved to
8058 be a great tool to get a overview of the current LDAP directory
8059 populated by default in Skolelinux.  Thanks to it, I have been able to
8060 find empty and obsolete subtrees, misplaced objects and duplicate
8061 objects.  It will be installed by default in Debian/Squeeze.  If you
8062 are working with LDAP, give it a go. :)</p>
8063
8064 <p>I did notice one problem with it I have not had time to report to
8065 the BTS yet.  There is no .desktop file in the package, so the tool do
8066 not show up in the Gnome and KDE menus, but only deep down in in the
8067 Debian submenu in KDE.  I hope that can be fixed before Squeeze is
8068 released.</p>
8069
8070 <p>I have not yet been able to get it to modify the tree yet.  I would
8071 like to move objects and remove subtrees directly in the GUI, but have
8072 not found a way to do that with LUMA yet.  So in the mean time, I use
8073 <a href="http://www.lichteblau.com/ldapvi/">ldapvi</a> for that.</p>
8074
8075 <p>If you have tips on other GUI tools for LDAP that might be useful
8076 in Debian Edu, please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.</p>
8077
8078 <p>Update 2010-06-29: Ross Reedstrom tipped us about the
8079 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/g/gq.html">gq</a> package as a
8080 useful GUI alternative.  It seem like a good tool, but is unmaintained
8081 in Debian and got a RC bug keeping it out of Squeeze.  Unless that
8082 changes, it will not be an option for Debian Edu based on Squeeze.</p>
8083
8084       </div>
8085       <div class="tags">
8086
8087
8088         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>.
8089
8090
8091       </div>
8092     </div>
8093     <div class="padding"></div>
8094
8095     <div class="entry">
8096       <div class="title">
8097         <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>
8098       </div>
8099       <div class="date">
8100         24th June 2010
8101       </div>
8102       <div class="body">
8103         <p>A while back, I
8104 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Time_for_new__LDAP_schemas_replacing_RFC_2307_.html">complained
8105 about the fact</a> that it is not possible with the provided schemas
8106 for storing DNS and DHCP information in LDAP to combine the two sets
8107 of information into one LDAP object representing a computer.</p>
8108
8109 <p>In the mean time, I discovered that a simple fix would be to make
8110 the dhcpHost object class auxiliary, to allow it to be combined with
8111 the dNSDomain object class, and thus forming one object for one
8112 computer when storing both DHCP and DNS information in LDAP.</p>
8113
8114 <p>If I understand this correctly, it is not safe to do this change
8115 without also changing the assigned number for the object class, and I
8116 do not know enough about LDAP schema design to do that properly for
8117 Debian Edu.</p>
8118
8119 <p>Anyway, for future reference, this is how I believe we could change
8120 the
8121 <a href="http://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-ietf-dhc-ldap-schema-00">DHCP
8122 schema</a> to solve at least part of the problem with the LDAP schemas
8123 available today from IETF.</p>
8124
8125 <pre>
8126 --- dhcp.schema    (revision 65192)
8127 +++ dhcp.schema    (working copy)
8128 @@ -376,7 +376,7 @@
8129  objectclass ( 2.16.840.1.113719.1.203.6.6
8130         NAME 'dhcpHost'
8131         DESC 'This represents information about a particular client'
8132 -       SUP top
8133 +       SUP top AUXILIARY
8134         MUST cn
8135         MAY  (dhcpLeaseDN $ dhcpHWAddress $ dhcpOptionsDN $ dhcpStatements $ dhcpComments $ dhcpOption)
8136         X-NDS_CONTAINMENT ('dhcpService' 'dhcpSubnet' 'dhcpGroup') )
8137 </pre>
8138
8139 <p>I very much welcome clues on how to do this properly for Debian
8140 Edu/Squeeze.  We provide the DHCP schema in our debian-edu-config
8141 package, and should thus be free to rewrite it as we see fit.</p>
8142
8143 <p>If you want to help out with implementing this for Debian Edu,
8144 please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.</p>
8145
8146       </div>
8147       <div class="tags">
8148
8149
8150         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>.
8151
8152
8153       </div>
8154     </div>
8155     <div class="padding"></div>
8156
8157     <div class="entry">
8158       <div class="title">
8159         <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>
8160       </div>
8161       <div class="date">
8162         16th June 2010
8163       </div>
8164       <div class="body">
8165         <p>A few times I have had the need to simulate the way tasksel
8166 installs packages during the normal debian-installer run.  Until now,
8167 I have ended up letting tasksel do the work, with the annoying problem
8168 of not getting any feedback at all when something fails (like a
8169 conffile question from dpkg or a download that fails), using code like
8170 this:
8171
8172 <blockquote><pre>
8173 export DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive
8174 tasksel --new-install
8175 </pre></blockquote>
8176
8177 This would invoke tasksel, let its automatic task selection pick the
8178 tasks to install, and continue to install the requested tasks without
8179 any output what so ever.
8180
8181 Recently I revisited this problem while working on the automatic
8182 package upgrade testing, because tasksel would some times hang without
8183 any useful feedback, and I want to see what is going on when it
8184 happen.  Then it occured to me, I can parse the output from tasksel
8185 when asked to run in test mode, and use that aptitude command line
8186 printed by tasksel then to simulate the tasksel run.  I ended up using
8187 code like this:
8188
8189 <blockquote><pre>
8190 export DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive
8191 cmd="$(in_target tasksel -t --new-install | sed 's/debconf-apt-progress -- //')"
8192 $cmd
8193 </pre></blockquote>
8194
8195 <p>The content of $cmd is typically something like "<tt>aptitude -q
8196 --without-recommends -o APT::Install-Recommends=no -y install
8197 ~t^desktop$ ~t^gnome-desktop$ ~t^laptop$ ~pstandard ~prequired
8198 ~pimportant</tt>", which will install the gnome desktop task, the
8199 laptop task and all packages with priority standard , required and
8200 important, just like tasksel would have done it during
8201 installation.</p>
8202
8203 <p>A better approach is probably to extend tasksel to be able to
8204 install packages without using debconf-apt-progress, for use cases
8205 like this.</p>
8206
8207       </div>
8208       <div class="tags">
8209
8210
8211         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>.
8212
8213
8214       </div>
8215     </div>
8216     <div class="padding"></div>
8217
8218     <div class="entry">
8219       <div class="title">
8220         <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>
8221       </div>
8222       <div class="date">
8223         13th June 2010
8224       </div>
8225       <div class="body">
8226         <p>My
8227 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Automatic_upgrade_testing_from_Lenny_to_Squeeze.html">testing
8228 of Debian upgrades</a> from Lenny to Squeeze continues, and I've
8229 finally made the upgrade logs available from
8230 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/debian-upgrade-testing/">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/debian-upgrade-testing/</a>.
8231 I am now testing dist-upgrade of Gnome and KDE in a chroot using both
8232 apt and aptitude, and found their differences interesting.  This time
8233 I will only focus on their removal plans.</p>
8234
8235 <p>After installing a Gnome desktop and the laptop task, apt-get wants
8236 to remove 72 packages when dist-upgrading from Lenny to Squeeze.  The
8237 surprising part is that it want to remove xorg and all
8238 xserver-xorg-video* drivers.  Clearly not a good choice, but I am not
8239 sure why.  When asking aptitude to do the same, it want to remove 129
8240 packages, but most of them are library packages I suspect are no
8241 longer needed.  Both of them want to remove bluetooth packages, which
8242 I do not know.  Perhaps these bluetooth packages are obsolete?</p>
8243
8244 <p>For KDE, apt-get want to remove 82 packages, among them kdebase
8245 which seem like a bad idea and xorg the same way as with Gnome. Asking
8246 aptitude for the same, it wants to remove 192 packages, none which are
8247 too surprising.</p>
8248
8249 <p>I guess the removal of xorg during upgrades should be investigated
8250 and avoided, and perhaps others as well.  Here are the complete list
8251 of planned removals.  The complete logs is available from the URL
8252 above.  Note if you want to repeat these tests, that the upgrade test
8253 for kde+apt-get hung in the tasksel setup because of dpkg asking
8254 conffile questions.  No idea why.  I worked around it by using
8255 '<tt>echo >> /proc/<em>pidofdpkg</em>/fd/0</tt>' to tell dpkg to
8256 continue.</p>
8257
8258 <p><b>apt-get gnome 72</b>
8259 <br>bluez-gnome cupsddk-drivers deskbar-applet gnome
8260   gnome-desktop-environment gnome-network-admin gtkhtml3.14
8261   iceweasel-gnome-support libavcodec51 libdatrie0 libgdl-1-0
8262   libgnomekbd2 libgnomekbdui2 libmetacity0 libslab0 libxcb-xlib0
8263   nautilus-cd-burner python-gnome2-desktop python-gnome2-extras
8264   serpentine swfdec-mozilla update-manager xorg xserver-xorg
8265   xserver-xorg-core xserver-xorg-input-all xserver-xorg-input-evdev
8266   xserver-xorg-input-kbd xserver-xorg-input-mouse
8267   xserver-xorg-input-synaptics xserver-xorg-input-wacom
8268   xserver-xorg-video-all xserver-xorg-video-apm xserver-xorg-video-ark
8269   xserver-xorg-video-ati xserver-xorg-video-chips
8270   xserver-xorg-video-cirrus xserver-xorg-video-cyrix
8271   xserver-xorg-video-dummy xserver-xorg-video-fbdev
8272   xserver-xorg-video-glint xserver-xorg-video-i128
8273   xserver-xorg-video-i740 xserver-xorg-video-imstt
8274   xserver-xorg-video-intel xserver-xorg-video-mach64
8275   xserver-xorg-video-mga xserver-xorg-video-neomagic
8276   xserver-xorg-video-nsc xserver-xorg-video-nv
8277   xserver-xorg-video-openchrome xserver-xorg-video-r128
8278   xserver-xorg-video-radeon xserver-xorg-video-radeonhd
8279   xserver-xorg-video-rendition xserver-xorg-video-s3
8280   xserver-xorg-video-s3virge xserver-xorg-video-savage
8281   xserver-xorg-video-siliconmotion xserver-xorg-video-sis
8282   xserver-xorg-video-sisusb xserver-xorg-video-tdfx
8283   xserver-xorg-video-tga xserver-xorg-video-trident
8284   xserver-xorg-video-tseng xserver-xorg-video-v4l
8285   xserver-xorg-video-vesa xserver-xorg-video-vga
8286   xserver-xorg-video-vmware xserver-xorg-video-voodoo xulrunner-1.9
8287   xulrunner-1.9-gnome-support</p>
8288
8289 <p><b>aptitude gnome 129</b>
8290
8291 <br>bluez-gnome bluez-utils cpp-4.3 cupsddk-drivers dhcdbd
8292   djvulibre-desktop finger gnome-app-install gnome-mount
8293   gnome-network-admin gnome-spell gnome-vfs-obexftp
8294   gnome-volume-manager gstreamer0.10-gnomevfs gtkhtml3.14 libao2
8295   libavahi-compat-libdnssd1 libavahi-core5 libavcodec51 libbluetooth2
8296   libcamel1.2-11 libcdio7 libcucul0 libcupsys2 libcurl3 libdatrie0
8297   libdirectfb-1.0-0 libdvdread3 libedataserver1.2-9 libeel2-2.20
8298   libeel2-data libepc-1.0-1 libepc-ui-1.0-1 libfaad0 libgail-common
8299   libgd2-noxpm libgda3-3 libgda3-common libgdl-1-0 libgdl-1-common
8300   libggz2 libggzcore9 libggzmod4 libgksu1.2-0 libgksuui1.0-1 libgmyth0
8301   libgnomecups1.0-1 libgnomekbd2 libgnomekbdui2 libgnomeprint2.2-0
8302   libgnomeprint2.2-data libgnomeprintui2.2-0 libgnomeprintui2.2-common
8303   libgnomevfs2-bin libgpod3 libgraphviz4 libgtkhtml2-0
8304   libgtksourceview-common libgtksourceview1.0-0 libgucharmap6
8305   libhesiod0 libicu38 libiw29 libkpathsea4 libltdl3 libmagick++10
8306   libmagick10 libmalaga7 libmetacity0 libmtp7 libmysqlclient15off
8307   libnautilus-burn4 libneon27 libnm-glib0 libnm-util0 libopal-2.2
8308   libosp5 libparted1.8-10 libpoppler-glib3 libpoppler3 libpt-1.10.10
8309   libpt-1.10.10-plugins-alsa libpt-1.10.10-plugins-v4l libraw1394-8
8310   libsensors3 libslab0 libsmbios2 libsoup2.2-8 libssh2-1
8311   libsuitesparse-3.1.0 libswfdec-0.6-90 libtalloc1 libtotem-plparser10
8312   libtrackerclient0 libxalan2-java libxalan2-java-gcj libxcb-xlib0
8313   libxerces2-java libxerces2-java-gcj libxklavier12 libxtrap6
8314   libxxf86misc1 libzephyr3 mysql-common nautilus-cd-burner
8315   openoffice.org-writer2latex openssl-blacklist p7zip
8316   python-4suite-xml python-eggtrayicon python-gnome2-desktop
8317   python-gnome2-extras python-gtkhtml2 python-gtkmozembed
8318   python-numeric python-sexy serpentine svgalibg1 swfdec-gnome
8319   swfdec-mozilla totem-gstreamer update-manager wodim
8320   xserver-xorg-video-cyrix xserver-xorg-video-imstt
8321   xserver-xorg-video-nsc xserver-xorg-video-v4l xserver-xorg-video-vga
8322   zip</p>
8323
8324 <p><b>apt-get kde 82</b>
8325
8326 <br>cupsddk-drivers karm kaudiocreator kcoloredit kcontrol kde kde-core
8327   kdeaddons kdeartwork kdebase kdebase-bin kdebase-bin-kde3
8328   kdebase-kio-plugins kdesktop kdeutils khelpcenter kicker
8329   kicker-applets knewsticker kolourpaint konq-plugins konqueror korn
8330   kpersonalizer kscreensaver ksplash libavcodec51 libdatrie0 libkiten1
8331   libxcb-xlib0 quanta superkaramba texlive-base-bin xorg xserver-xorg
8332   xserver-xorg-core xserver-xorg-input-all xserver-xorg-input-evdev
8333   xserver-xorg-input-kbd xserver-xorg-input-mouse
8334   xserver-xorg-input-synaptics xserver-xorg-input-wacom
8335   xserver-xorg-video-all xserver-xorg-video-apm xserver-xorg-video-ark
8336   xserver-xorg-video-ati xserver-xorg-video-chips
8337   xserver-xorg-video-cirrus xserver-xorg-video-cyrix
8338   xserver-xorg-video-dummy xserver-xorg-video-fbdev
8339   xserver-xorg-video-glint xserver-xorg-video-i128
8340   xserver-xorg-video-i740 xserver-xorg-video-imstt
8341   xserver-xorg-video-intel xserver-xorg-video-mach64
8342   xserver-xorg-video-mga xserver-xorg-video-neomagic
8343   xserver-xorg-video-nsc xserver-xorg-video-nv
8344   xserver-xorg-video-openchrome xserver-xorg-video-r128
8345   xserver-xorg-video-radeon xserver-xorg-video-radeonhd
8346   xserver-xorg-video-rendition xserver-xorg-video-s3
8347   xserver-xorg-video-s3virge xserver-xorg-video-savage
8348   xserver-xorg-video-siliconmotion xserver-xorg-video-sis
8349   xserver-xorg-video-sisusb xserver-xorg-video-tdfx
8350   xserver-xorg-video-tga xserver-xorg-video-trident
8351   xserver-xorg-video-tseng xserver-xorg-video-v4l
8352   xserver-xorg-video-vesa xserver-xorg-video-vga
8353   xserver-xorg-video-vmware xserver-xorg-video-voodoo xulrunner-1.9</p>
8354
8355 <p><b>aptitude kde 192</b>
8356 <br>bluez-utils cpp-4.3 cupsddk-drivers cvs dcoprss dhcdbd
8357   djvulibre-desktop dosfstools eyesapplet fifteenapplet finger gettext
8358   ghostscript-x imlib-base imlib11 indi kandy karm kasteroids
8359   kaudiocreator kbackgammon kbstate kcoloredit kcontrol kcron kdat
8360   kdeadmin-kfile-plugins kdeartwork-misc kdeartwork-theme-window
8361   kdebase-bin-kde3 kdebase-kio-plugins kdeedu-data
8362   kdegraphics-kfile-plugins kdelirc kdemultimedia-kappfinder-data
8363   kdemultimedia-kfile-plugins kdenetwork-kfile-plugins
8364   kdepim-kfile-plugins kdepim-kio-plugins kdeprint kdesktop kdessh
8365   kdict kdnssd kdvi kedit keduca kenolaba kfax kfaxview kfouleggs
8366   kghostview khelpcenter khexedit kiconedit kitchensync klatin
8367   klickety kmailcvt kmenuedit kmid kmilo kmoon kmrml kodo kolourpaint
8368   kooka korn kpager kpdf kpercentage kpf kpilot kpoker kpovmodeler
8369   krec kregexpeditor ksayit ksim ksirc ksirtet ksmiletris ksmserver
8370   ksnake ksokoban ksplash ksvg ksysv ktip ktnef kuickshow kverbos
8371   kview kviewshell kvoctrain kwifimanager kwin kwin4 kworldclock
8372   kxsldbg libakode2 libao2 libarts1-akode libarts1-audiofile
8373   libarts1-mpeglib libarts1-xine libavahi-compat-libdnssd1
8374   libavahi-core5 libavc1394-0 libavcodec51 libbluetooth2
8375   libboost-python1.34.1 libcucul0 libcurl3 libcvsservice0 libdatrie0
8376   libdirectfb-1.0-0 libdjvulibre21 libdvdread3 libfaad0 libfreebob0
8377   libgail-common libgd2-noxpm libgraphviz4 libgsmme1c2a libgtkhtml2-0
8378   libicu38 libiec61883-0 libindex0 libiw29 libk3b3 libkcal2b libkcddb1
8379   libkdeedu3 libkdepim1a libkgantt0 libkiten1 libkleopatra1 libkmime2
8380   libkpathsea4 libkpimexchange1 libkpimidentities1 libkscan1
8381   libksieve0 libktnef1 liblockdev1 libltdl3 libmagick10 libmimelib1c2a
8382   libmozjs1d libmpcdec3 libneon27 libnm-util0 libopensync0 libpisock9
8383   libpoppler-glib3 libpoppler-qt2 libpoppler3 libraw1394-8 libsmbios2
8384   libssh2-1 libsuitesparse-3.1.0 libtalloc1 libtiff-tools
8385   libxalan2-java libxalan2-java-gcj libxcb-xlib0 libxerces2-java
8386   libxerces2-java-gcj libxtrap6 mpeglib networkstatus
8387   openoffice.org-writer2latex pmount poster psutils quanta quanta-data
8388   superkaramba svgalibg1 tex-common texlive-base texlive-base-bin
8389   texlive-common texlive-doc-base texlive-fonts-recommended
8390   xserver-xorg-video-cyrix xserver-xorg-video-imstt
8391   xserver-xorg-video-nsc xserver-xorg-video-v4l xserver-xorg-video-vga
8392   xulrunner-1.9</p>
8393
8394
8395       </div>
8396       <div class="tags">
8397
8398
8399         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>.
8400
8401
8402       </div>
8403     </div>
8404     <div class="padding"></div>
8405
8406     <div class="entry">
8407       <div class="title">
8408         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Automatic_upgrade_testing_from_Lenny_to_Squeeze.html">Automatic upgrade testing from Lenny to Squeeze</a>
8409       </div>
8410       <div class="date">
8411         11th June 2010
8412       </div>
8413       <div class="body">
8414         <p>The last few days I have done some upgrade testing in Debian, to
8415 see if the upgrade from Lenny to Squeeze will go smoothly.  A few bugs
8416 have been discovered and reported in the process
8417 (<a href="http://bugs.debian.org/585410">#585410</a> in nagios3-cgi,
8418 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/584879">#584879</a> already fixed in
8419 enscript and <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/584861">#584861</a> in
8420 kdebase-workspace-data), and to get a more regular testing going on, I
8421 am working on a script to automate the test.</p>
8422
8423 <p>The idea is to create a Lenny chroot and use tasksel to install a
8424 Gnome or KDE desktop installation inside the chroot before upgrading
8425 it.  To ensure no services are started in the chroot, a policy-rc.d
8426 script is inserted.  To make sure tasksel believe it is to install a
8427 desktop on a laptop, the tasksel tests are replaced in the chroot
8428 (only acceptable because this is a throw-away chroot).</p>
8429
8430 <p>A naive upgrade from Lenny to Squeeze using aptitude dist-upgrade
8431 currently always fail because udev refuses to upgrade with the kernel
8432 in Lenny, so to avoid that problem the file /etc/udev/kernel-upgrade
8433 is created.  The bug report
8434 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/566000">#566000</a> make me suspect
8435 this problem do not trigger in a chroot, but I touch the file anyway
8436 to make sure the upgrade go well.  Testing on virtual and real
8437 hardware have failed me because of udev so far, and creating this file
8438 do the trick in such settings anyway.  This is a
8439 <a href="http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/debian-26/failed-dist-upgrade-due-to-udev-config_sysfs_deprecated-nonsense-804130/">known
8440 issue</a> and the current udev behaviour is intended by the udev
8441 maintainer because he lack the resources to rewrite udev to keep
8442 working with old kernels or something like that.  I really wish the
8443 udev upstream would keep udev backwards compatible, to avoid such
8444 upgrade problem, but given that they fail to do so, I guess
8445 documenting the way out of this mess is the best option we got for
8446 Debian Squeeze.</p>
8447
8448 <p>Anyway, back to the task at hand, testing upgrades.  This test
8449 script, which I call <tt>upgrade-test</tt> for now, is doing the
8450 trick:</p>
8451
8452 <blockquote><pre>
8453 #!/bin/sh
8454 set -ex
8455
8456 if [ "$1" ] ; then
8457     desktop=$1
8458 else
8459     desktop=gnome
8460 fi
8461
8462 from=lenny
8463 to=squeeze
8464
8465 exec &lt; /dev/null
8466 unset LANG
8467 mirror=http://ftp.skolelinux.org/debian
8468 tmpdir=chroot-$from-upgrade-$to-$desktop
8469 fuser -mv .
8470 debootstrap $from $tmpdir $mirror
8471 chroot $tmpdir aptitude update
8472 cat > $tmpdir/usr/sbin/policy-rc.d &lt;&lt;EOF
8473 #!/bin/sh
8474 exit 101
8475 EOF
8476 chmod a+rx $tmpdir/usr/sbin/policy-rc.d
8477 exit_cleanup() {
8478     umount $tmpdir/proc
8479 }
8480 mount -t proc proc $tmpdir/proc
8481 # Make sure proc is unmounted also on failure
8482 trap exit_cleanup EXIT INT
8483
8484 chroot $tmpdir aptitude -y install debconf-utils
8485
8486 # Make sure tasksel autoselection trigger.  It need the test scripts
8487 # to return the correct answers.
8488 echo tasksel tasksel/desktop multiselect $desktop | \
8489     chroot $tmpdir debconf-set-selections
8490
8491 # Include the desktop and laptop task
8492 for test in desktop laptop ; do
8493     echo > $tmpdir/usr/lib/tasksel/tests/$test &lt;&lt;EOF
8494 #!/bin/sh
8495 exit 2
8496 EOF
8497     chmod a+rx $tmpdir/usr/lib/tasksel/tests/$test
8498 done
8499
8500 DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive
8501 DEBIAN_PRIORITY=critical
8502 export DEBIAN_FRONTEND DEBIAN_PRIORITY
8503 chroot $tmpdir tasksel --new-install
8504
8505 echo deb $mirror $to main > $tmpdir/etc/apt/sources.list
8506 chroot $tmpdir aptitude update
8507 touch $tmpdir/etc/udev/kernel-upgrade
8508 chroot $tmpdir aptitude -y dist-upgrade
8509 fuser -mv
8510 </pre></blockquote>
8511
8512 <p>I suspect it would be useful to test upgrades with both apt-get and
8513 with aptitude, but I have not had time to look at how they behave
8514 differently so far.  I hope to get a cron job running to do the test
8515 regularly and post the result on the web.  The Gnome upgrade currently
8516 work, while the KDE upgrade fail because of the bug in
8517 kdebase-workspace-data</p>
8518
8519 <p>I am not quite sure what kind of extract from the huge upgrade logs
8520 (KDE 167 KiB, Gnome 516 KiB) it make sense to include in this blog
8521 post, so I will refrain from trying.  I can report that for Gnome,
8522 aptitude report 760 packages upgraded, 448 newly installed, 129 to
8523 remove and 1 not upgraded and 1024MB need to be downloaded while for
8524 KDE the same numbers are 702 packages upgraded, 507 newly installed,
8525 193 to remove and 0 not upgraded and 1117MB need to be downloaded</p>
8526
8527 <p>I am very happy to notice that the Gnome desktop + laptop upgrade
8528 is able to migrate to dependency based boot sequencing and parallel
8529 booting without a hitch.  Was unsure if there were still bugs with
8530 packages failing to clean up their obsolete init.d script during
8531 upgrades, and no such problem seem to affect the Gnome desktop+laptop
8532 packages.</p>
8533
8534       </div>
8535       <div class="tags">
8536
8537
8538         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>.
8539
8540
8541       </div>
8542     </div>
8543     <div class="padding"></div>
8544
8545     <div class="entry">
8546       <div class="title">
8547         <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>
8548       </div>
8549       <div class="date">
8550          6th June 2010
8551       </div>
8552       <div class="body">
8553         <p>If Debian is to migrate to upstart on Linux, I expect some init.d
8554 scripts to migrate (some of) their operations to upstart job while
8555 keeping the init.d for hurd and kfreebsd.  The packages with such
8556 needs will need a way to get their init.d scripts to behave
8557 differently when used with sysvinit and with upstart.  Because of
8558 this, I had a look at the environment variables set when a init.d
8559 script is running under upstart, and when it is not.</p>
8560
8561 <p>With upstart, I notice these environment variables are set when a
8562 script is started from rcS.d/ (ignoring some irrelevant ones like
8563 COLUMNS):</p>
8564
8565 <blockquote><pre>
8566 DEFAULT_RUNLEVEL=2
8567 previous=N
8568 PREVLEVEL=
8569 RUNLEVEL=
8570 runlevel=S
8571 UPSTART_EVENTS=startup
8572 UPSTART_INSTANCE=
8573 UPSTART_JOB=rc-sysinit
8574 </pre></blockquote>
8575
8576 <p>With sysvinit, these environment variables are set for the same
8577 script.</p>
8578
8579 <blockquote><pre>
8580 INIT_VERSION=sysvinit-2.88
8581 previous=N
8582 PREVLEVEL=N
8583 RUNLEVEL=S
8584 runlevel=S
8585 </pre></blockquote>
8586
8587 <p>The RUNLEVEL and PREVLEVEL environment variables passed on from
8588 sysvinit are not set by upstart.  Not sure if it is intentional or not
8589 to not be compatible with sysvinit in this regard.</p>
8590
8591 <p>For scripts needing to behave differently when upstart is used,
8592 looking for the UPSTART_JOB environment variable seem to be a good
8593 choice.</p>
8594
8595       </div>
8596       <div class="tags">
8597
8598
8599         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>.
8600
8601
8602       </div>
8603     </div>
8604     <div class="padding"></div>
8605
8606     <div class="entry">
8607       <div class="title">
8608         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/A_manual_for_standards_wars___.html">A manual for standards wars...</a>
8609       </div>
8610       <div class="date">
8611          6th June 2010
8612       </div>
8613       <div class="body">
8614         <p>Via the
8615 <a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/robweir/antic-atom/~3/QzU4RgoAGMg/weekly-links-10.html">blog
8616 of Rob Weir</a> I came across the very interesting essay named
8617 <a href="http://faculty.haas.berkeley.edu/shapiro/wars.pdf">The Art of
8618 Standards Wars</a> (PDF 25 pages).  I recommend it for everyone
8619 following the standards wars of today.</p>
8620
8621       </div>
8622       <div class="tags">
8623
8624
8625         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>.
8626
8627
8628       </div>
8629     </div>
8630     <div class="padding"></div>
8631
8632     <div class="entry">
8633       <div class="title">
8634         <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>
8635       </div>
8636       <div class="date">
8637          3rd June 2010
8638       </div>
8639       <div class="body">
8640         <p>When using sitesummary at a site to track machines, it is possible
8641 to get a list of the machine types in use thanks to the DMI
8642 information extracted from each machine.  The script to do so is
8643 included in the sitesummary package, and here is example output from
8644 the Skolelinux build servers:</p>
8645
8646 <blockquote><pre>
8647 maintainer:~# /usr/lib/sitesummary/hardware-model-summary
8648   vendor                    count
8649   Dell Computer Corporation     1
8650     PowerEdge 1750              1
8651   IBM                           1
8652     eserver xSeries 345 -[8670M1X]-     1
8653   Intel                         2
8654   [no-dmi-info]                 3
8655 maintainer:~#
8656 </pre></blockquote>
8657
8658 <p>The quality of the report depend on the quality of the DMI tables
8659 provided in each machine.  Here there are Intel machines without model
8660 information listed with Intel as vendor and no model, and virtual Xen
8661 machines listed as [no-dmi-info].  One can add -l as a command line
8662 option to list the individual machines.</p>
8663
8664 <p>A larger list is
8665 <a href="http://narvikskolen.no/sitesummary/">available from the the
8666 city of Narvik</a>, which uses Skolelinux on all their shools and also
8667 provide the basic sitesummary report publicly.  In their report there
8668 are ~1400 machines. I know they use both Ubuntu and Skolelinux on
8669 their machines, and as sitesummary is available in both distributions,
8670 it is trivial to get all of them to report to the same central
8671 collector.</p>
8672
8673       </div>
8674       <div class="tags">
8675
8676
8677         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>.
8678
8679
8680       </div>
8681     </div>
8682     <div class="padding"></div>
8683
8684     <div class="entry">
8685       <div class="title">
8686         <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>
8687       </div>
8688       <div class="date">
8689          1st June 2010
8690       </div>
8691       <div class="body">
8692         <p>It is strange to watch how a bug in Debian causing KDM to fail to
8693 start at boot when an NVidia video card is used is handled.  The
8694 problem seem to be that the nvidia X.org driver uses a long time to
8695 initialize, and this duration is longer than kdm is configured to
8696 wait.</p>
8697
8698 <p>I came across two bugs related to this issue,
8699 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/583312">#583312</a> initially filed
8700 against initscripts and passed on to nvidia-glx when it became obvious
8701 that the nvidia drivers were involved, and
8702 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/524751">#524751</a> initially filed against
8703 kdm and passed on to src:nvidia-graphics-drivers for unknown reasons.</p>
8704
8705 <p>To me, it seem that no-one is interested in actually solving the
8706 problem nvidia video card owners experience and make sure the Debian
8707 distribution work out of the box for these users.  The nvidia driver
8708 maintainers expect kdm to be set up to wait longer, while kdm expect
8709 the nvidia driver maintainers to fix the driver to start faster, and
8710 while they wait for each other I guess the users end up switching to a
8711 distribution that work for them.  I have no idea what the solution is,
8712 but I am pretty sure that waiting for each other is not it.</p>
8713
8714 <p>I wonder why we end up handling bugs this way.</p>
8715
8716       </div>
8717       <div class="tags">
8718
8719
8720         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>.
8721
8722
8723       </div>
8724     </div>
8725     <div class="padding"></div>
8726
8727     <div class="entry">
8728       <div class="title">
8729         <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>
8730       </div>
8731       <div class="date">
8732         27th May 2010
8733       </div>
8734       <div class="body">
8735         <p>A few days ago, parallel booting was enabled in Debian/testing.
8736 The feature seem to hold up pretty well, but three fairly serious
8737 issues are known and should be solved:
8738
8739 <p><ul>
8740
8741 <li>The wicd package seen to
8742 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/508289">break NFS mounting</a> and
8743 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/581586">network setup</a> when
8744 parallel booting is enabled.  No idea why, but the wicd maintainer
8745 seem to be on the case.</li>
8746
8747 <li>The nvidia X driver seem to
8748 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/583312">have a race condition</a>
8749 triggered more easily when parallel booting is in effect.  The
8750 maintainer is on the case.</li>
8751
8752 <li>The sysv-rc package fail to properly enable dependency based boot
8753 sequencing (the shutdown is broken) when old file-rc users
8754 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/575080">try to switch back</a> to
8755 sysv-rc.  One way to solve it would be for file-rc to create
8756 /etc/init.d/.legacy-bootordering, and another is to try to make
8757 sysv-rc more robust.  Will investigate some more and probably upload a
8758 workaround in sysv-rc to help those trying to move from file-rc to
8759 sysv-rc get a working shutdown.</li>
8760
8761 </ul></p>
8762
8763 <p>All in all not many surprising issues, and all of them seem
8764 solvable before Squeeze is released.  In addition to these there are
8765 some packages with bugs in their dependencies and run level settings,
8766 which I expect will be fixed in a reasonable time span.</p>
8767
8768 <p>If you report any problems with dependencies in init.d scripts to
8769 the BTS, please usertag the report to get it to show up at
8770 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/pkgreport.cgi?users=initscripts-ng-devel@lists.alioth.debian.org">the
8771 list of usertagged bugs related to this</a>.</p>
8772
8773 <p>Update: Correct bug number to file-rc issue.</p>
8774
8775       </div>
8776       <div class="tags">
8777
8778
8779         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>.
8780
8781
8782       </div>
8783     </div>
8784     <div class="padding"></div>
8785
8786     <div class="entry">
8787       <div class="title">
8788         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/More_flexible_firmware_handling_in_debian_installer.html">More flexible firmware handling in debian-installer</a>
8789       </div>
8790       <div class="date">
8791         22nd May 2010
8792       </div>
8793       <div class="body">
8794         <p>After a long break from debian-installer development, I finally
8795 found time today to return to the project.  Having to spend less time
8796 working dependency based boot in debian, as it is almost complete now,
8797 definitely helped freeing some time.</p>
8798
8799 <p>A while back, I ran into a problem while working on Debian Edu.  We
8800 include some firmware packages on the Debian Edu CDs, those needed to
8801 get disk and network controllers working.  Without having these
8802 firmware packages available during installation, it is impossible to
8803 install Debian Edu on the given machine, and because our target group
8804 are non-technical people, asking them to provide firmware packages on
8805 an external medium is a support pain.  Initially, I expected it to be
8806 enough to include the firmware packages on the CD to get
8807 debian-installer to find and use them.  This proved to be wrong.
8808 Next, I hoped it was enough to symlink the relevant firmware packages
8809 to some useful location on the CD (tried /cdrom/ and
8810 /cdrom/firmware/).  This also proved to not work, and at this point I
8811 found time to look at the debian-installer code to figure out what was
8812 going to work.</p>
8813
8814 <p>The firmware loading code is in the hw-detect package, and a closer
8815 look revealed that it would only look for firmware packages outside
8816 the installation media, so the CD was never checked for firmware
8817 packages.  It would only check USB sticks, floppies and other
8818 "external" media devices.  Today I changed it to also look in the
8819 /cdrom/firmware/ directory on the mounted CD or DVD, which should
8820 solve the problem I ran into with Debian edu.  I also changed it to
8821 look in /firmware/, to make sure the installer also find firmware
8822 provided in the initrd when booting the installer via PXE, to allow us
8823 to provide the same feature in the PXE setup included in Debian
8824 Edu.</p>
8825
8826 <p>To make sure firmware deb packages with a license questions are not
8827 activated without asking if the license is accepted, I extended
8828 hw-detect to look for preinst scripts in the firmware packages, and
8829 run these before activating the firmware during installation.  The
8830 license question is asked using debconf in the preinst, so this should
8831 solve the issue for the firmware packages I have looked at so far.</p>
8832
8833 <p>If you want to discuss the details of these features, please
8834 contact us on debian-boot@lists.debian.org.</p>
8835
8836       </div>
8837       <div class="tags">
8838
8839
8840         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>.
8841
8842
8843       </div>
8844     </div>
8845     <div class="padding"></div>
8846
8847     <div class="entry">
8848       <div class="title">
8849         <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>
8850       </div>
8851       <div class="date">
8852         14th May 2010
8853       </div>
8854       <div class="body">
8855         <p>Since this evening, parallel booting is the default in
8856 Debian/unstable for machines using dependency based boot sequencing.
8857 Apparently the testing of concurrent booting has been wider than
8858 expected, if I am to believe the
8859 <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2010/05/msg00122.html">input
8860 on debian-devel@</a>, and I concluded a few days ago to move forward
8861 with the feature this weekend, to give us some time to detect any
8862 remaining problems before Squeeze is frozen.  If serious problems are
8863 detected, it is simple to change the default back to sequential boot.
8864 The upload of the new sysvinit package also activate a new upstream
8865 version.</p>
8866
8867 More information about
8868 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/LSBInitScripts/DependencyBasedBoot">dependency
8869 based boot sequencing</a> is available from the Debian wiki.  It is
8870 currently possible to disable parallel booting when one run into
8871 problems caused by it, by adding this line to /etc/default/rcS:</p>
8872
8873 <blockquote><pre>
8874 CONCURRENCY=none
8875 </pre></blockquote>
8876
8877 <p>If you report any problems with dependencies in init.d scripts to
8878 the BTS, please usertag the report to get it to show up at
8879 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/pkgreport.cgi?users=initscripts-ng-devel@lists.alioth.debian.org">the
8880 list of usertagged bugs related to this</a>.</p>
8881
8882       </div>
8883       <div class="tags">
8884
8885
8886         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>.
8887
8888
8889       </div>
8890     </div>
8891     <div class="padding"></div>
8892
8893     <div class="entry">
8894       <div class="title">
8895         <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>
8896       </div>
8897       <div class="date">
8898         14th May 2010
8899       </div>
8900       <div class="body">
8901         <p>In the recent Debian Edu versions, the
8902 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/HowTo/SiteSummary">sitesummary
8903 system</a> is used to keep track of the machines in the school
8904 network.  Each machine will automatically report its status to the
8905 central server after boot and once per night.  The network setup is
8906 also reported, and using this information it is possible to get the
8907 MAC address of all network interfaces in the machines.  This is useful
8908 to update the DHCP configuration.</p>
8909
8910 <p>To give some idea how to use sitesummary, here is a one-liner to
8911 ist all MAC addresses of all machines reporting to sitesummary.  Run
8912 this on the collector host:</p>
8913
8914 <blockquote><pre>
8915 perl -MSiteSummary -e 'for_all_hosts(sub { print join(" ", get_macaddresses(shift)), "\n"; });'
8916 </pre></blockquote>
8917
8918 <p>This will list all MAC addresses assosiated with all machine, one
8919 line per machine and with space between the MAC addresses.</p>
8920
8921 <p>To allow system administrators easier job at adding static DHCP
8922 addresses for hosts, it would be possible to extend this to fetch
8923 machine information from sitesummary and update the DHCP and DNS
8924 tables in LDAP using this information.  Such tool is unfortunately not
8925 written yet.</p>
8926
8927       </div>
8928       <div class="tags">
8929
8930
8931         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>.
8932
8933
8934       </div>
8935     </div>
8936     <div class="padding"></div>
8937
8938     <div class="entry">
8939       <div class="title">
8940         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/systemd__an_interesting_alternative_to_upstart.html">systemd, an interesting alternative to upstart</a>
8941       </div>
8942       <div class="date">
8943         13th May 2010
8944       </div>
8945       <div class="body">
8946         <p>The last few days a new boot system called
8947 <a href="http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/systemd">systemd</a>
8948 has been
8949 <a href="http://0pointer.de/blog/projects/systemd.html">introduced</a>
8950
8951 to the free software world.  I have not yet had time to play around
8952 with it, but it seem to be a very interesting alternative to
8953 <a href="http://upstart.ubuntu.com/">upstart</a>, and might prove to be
8954 a good alternative for Debian when we are able to switch to an event
8955 based boot system.  Tollef is
8956 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/580814">in the process</a> of getting
8957 systemd into Debian, and I look forward to seeing how well it work.  I
8958 like the fact that systemd handles init.d scripts with dependency
8959 information natively, allowing them to run in parallel where upstart
8960 at the moment do not.</p>
8961
8962 <p>Unfortunately do systemd have the same problem as upstart regarding
8963 platform support.  It only work on recent Linux kernels, and also need
8964 some new kernel features enabled to function properly.  This means
8965 kFreeBSD and Hurd ports of Debian will need a port or a different boot
8966 system.  Not sure how that will be handled if systemd proves to be the
8967 way forward.</p>
8968
8969 <p>In the mean time, based on the
8970 <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2010/05/msg00122.html">input
8971 on debian-devel@</a> regarding parallel booting in Debian, I have
8972 decided to enable full parallel booting as the default in Debian as
8973 soon as possible (probably this weekend or early next week), to see if
8974 there are any remaining serious bugs in the init.d dependencies.  A
8975 new version of the sysvinit package implementing this change is
8976 already in experimental.  If all go well, Squeeze will be released
8977 with parallel booting enabled by default.</p>
8978
8979       </div>
8980       <div class="tags">
8981
8982
8983         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>.
8984
8985
8986       </div>
8987     </div>
8988     <div class="padding"></div>
8989
8990     <div class="entry">
8991       <div class="title">
8992         <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>
8993       </div>
8994       <div class="date">
8995          6th May 2010
8996       </div>
8997       <div class="body">
8998         <p>These days, the init.d script dependencies in Squeeze are quite
8999 complete, so complete that it is actually possible to run all the
9000 init.d scripts in parallell based on these dependencies.  If you want
9001 to test your Squeeze system, make sure
9002 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/LSBInitScripts/DependencyBasedBoot">dependency
9003 based boot sequencing</a> is enabled, and add this line to
9004 /etc/default/rcS:</p>
9005
9006 <blockquote><pre>
9007 CONCURRENCY=makefile
9008 </pre></blockquote>
9009
9010 <p>That is it.  It will cause sysv-rc to use the startpar tool to run
9011 scripts in parallel using the dependency information stored in
9012 /etc/init.d/.depend.boot, /etc/init.d/.depend.start and
9013 /etc/init.d/.depend.stop to order the scripts.  Startpar is configured
9014 to try to start the kdm and gdm scripts as early as possible, and will
9015 start the facilities required by kdm or gdm as early as possible to
9016 make this happen.</p>
9017
9018 <p>Give it a try, and see if you like the result.  If some services
9019 fail to start properly, it is most likely because they have incomplete
9020 init.d script dependencies in their startup script (or some of their
9021 dependent scripts have incomplete dependencies).  Report bugs and get
9022 the package maintainers to fix it. :)</p>
9023
9024 <p>Running scripts in parallel could be the default in Debian when we
9025 manage to get the init.d script dependencies complete and correct.  I
9026 expect we will get there in Squeeze+1, if we get manage to test and
9027 fix the remaining issues.</p>
9028
9029 <p>If you report any problems with dependencies in init.d scripts to
9030 the BTS, please usertag the report to get it to show up at
9031 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/pkgreport.cgi?users=initscripts-ng-devel@lists.alioth.debian.org">the
9032 list of usertagged bugs related to this</a>.</p>
9033
9034       </div>
9035       <div class="tags">
9036
9037
9038         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>.
9039
9040
9041       </div>
9042     </div>
9043     <div class="padding"></div>
9044
9045     <div class="entry">
9046       <div class="title">
9047         <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>
9048       </div>
9049       <div class="date">
9050         27th July 2009
9051       </div>
9052       <div class="body">
9053         <p>Since this evening, with the upload of sysvinit version 2.87dsf-2,
9054 and the upload of insserv version 1.12.0-10 yesterday, Debian unstable
9055 have been migrated to using dependency based boot sequencing.  This
9056 conclude work me and others have been doing for the last three days.
9057 It feels great to see this finally part of the default Debian
9058 installation.  Now we just need to weed out the last few problems that
9059 are bound to show up, to get everything ready for Squeeze.</p>
9060
9061 <p>The next step is migrating /sbin/init from sysvinit to upstart, and
9062 fixing the more fundamental problem of handing the event based
9063 non-predictable kernel in the early boot.</p>
9064
9065       </div>
9066       <div class="tags">
9067
9068
9069         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>.
9070
9071
9072       </div>
9073     </div>
9074     <div class="padding"></div>
9075
9076     <div class="entry">
9077       <div class="title">
9078         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Taking_over_sysvinit_development.html">Taking over sysvinit development</a>
9079       </div>
9080       <div class="date">
9081         22nd July 2009
9082       </div>
9083       <div class="body">
9084         <p>After several years of frustration with the lack of activity from
9085 the existing sysvinit upstream developer, I decided a few weeks ago to
9086 take over the package and become the new upstream.  The number of
9087 patches to track for the Debian package was becoming a burden, and the
9088 lack of synchronization between the distribution made it hard to keep
9089 the package up to date.</p>
9090
9091 <p>On the new sysvinit team is the SuSe maintainer Dr. Werner Fink,
9092 and my Debian co-maintainer Kel Modderman.  About 10 days ago, I made
9093 a new upstream tarball with version number 2.87dsf (for Debian, SuSe
9094 and Fedora), based on the patches currently in use in these
9095 distributions.  We Debian maintainers plan to move to this tarball as
9096 the new upstream as soon as we find time to do the merge.  Since the
9097 new tarball was created, we agreed with Werner at SuSe to make a new
9098 upstream project at <a href="http://savannah.nongnu.org/">Savannah</a>, and continue
9099 development there.  The project is registered and currently waiting
9100 for approval by the Savannah administrators, and as soon as it is
9101 approved, we will import the old versions from svn and continue
9102 working on the future release.</p>
9103
9104 <p>It is a bit ironic that this is done now, when some of the involved
9105 distributions are moving to upstart as a syvinit replacement.</p>
9106
9107       </div>
9108       <div class="tags">
9109
9110
9111         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>.
9112
9113
9114       </div>
9115     </div>
9116     <div class="padding"></div>
9117
9118     <div class="entry">
9119       <div class="title">
9120         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_boots_quicker_and_quicker.html">Debian boots quicker and quicker</a>
9121       </div>
9122       <div class="date">
9123         24th June 2009
9124       </div>
9125       <div class="body">
9126         <p>I spent Monday and tuesday this week in London with a lot of the
9127 people involved in the boot system on Debian and Ubuntu, to see if we
9128 could find more ways to speed up the boot system.  This was an Ubuntu
9129 funded
9130 <a href="https://wiki.ubuntu.com/FoundationsTeam/BootPerformance/DebianUbuntuSprint">developer
9131 gathering</a>. It was quite productive.  We also discussed the future
9132 of boot systems, and ways to handle the increasing number of boot
9133 issues introduced by the Linux kernel becoming more and more
9134 asynchronous and event base.  The Ubuntu approach using udev and
9135 upstart might be a good way forward.  Time will show.</p>
9136
9137 <p>Anyway, there are a few ways at the moment to speed up the boot
9138 process in Debian.  All of these should be applied to get a quick
9139 boot:</p>
9140
9141 <ul>
9142
9143 <li>Use dash as /bin/sh.</li>
9144
9145 <li>Disable the init.d/hwclock*.sh scripts and make sure the hardware
9146    clock is in UTC.</li>
9147
9148 <li>Install and activate the insserv package to enable
9149    <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/LSBInitScripts/DependencyBasedBoot">dependency
9150    based boot sequencing</a>, and enable concurrent booting.</li>
9151
9152 </ul>
9153
9154 These points are based on the Google summer of code work done by
9155 <a href="http://initscripts-ng.alioth.debian.org/soc2006-bootsystem/">Carlos
9156 Villegas</a>.
9157
9158 <p>Support for makefile-style concurrency during boot was uploaded to
9159 unstable yesterday.  When we tested it, we were able to cut 6 seconds
9160 from the boot sequence.  It depend on very correct dependency
9161 declaration in all init.d scripts, so I expect us to find edge cases
9162 where the dependences in some scripts are slightly wrong when we start
9163 using this.</p>
9164
9165 <p>On our IRC channel for this effort, #pkg-sysvinit, a new idea was
9166 introduced by Raphael Geissert today, one that could affect the
9167 startup speed as well.  Instead of starting some scripts concurrently
9168 from rcS.d/ and another set of scripts from rc2.d/, it would be
9169 possible to run a of them in the same process.  A quick way to test
9170 this would be to enable insserv and run 'mv /etc/rc2.d/S* /etc/rcS.d/;
9171 insserv'.  Will need to test if that work. :)</p>
9172
9173       </div>
9174       <div class="tags">
9175
9176
9177         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>.
9178
9179
9180       </div>
9181     </div>
9182     <div class="padding"></div>
9183
9184     <div class="entry">
9185       <div class="title">
9186         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/BSAs_p_stander_om_piratkopiering_m_ter_motstand.html">BSAs påstander om piratkopiering møter motstand</a>
9187       </div>
9188       <div class="date">
9189         17th May 2009
9190       </div>
9191       <div class="body">
9192         <p>Hvert år de siste årene har BSA, lobbyfronten til de store
9193 programvareselskapene som Microsoft og Apple, publisert en rapport der
9194 de gjetter på hvor mye piratkopiering påfører i tapte inntekter i
9195 ulike land rundt om i verden.  Resultatene er tendensiøse.  For noen
9196 dager siden kom
9197 <a href="http://global.bsa.org/globalpiracy2008/studies/globalpiracy2008.pdf">siste
9198 rapport</a>, og det er flere kritiske kommentarer publisert de siste
9199 dagene.  Et spesielt interessant kommentar fra Sverige,
9200 <a href="http://www.idg.se/2.1085/1.229795/bsa-hoftade-sverigesiffror">BSA
9201 höftade Sverigesiffror</a>, oppsummeres slik:</p>
9202
9203 <blockquote>
9204 I sin senaste rapport slår BSA fast att 25 procent av all mjukvara i
9205 Sverige är piratkopierad. Det utan att ha pratat med ett enda svenskt
9206 företag. "Man bör nog kanske inte se de här siffrorna som helt
9207 exakta", säger BSAs Sverigechef John Hugosson.
9208 </blockquote>
9209
9210 <p>Mon tro om de er like metodiske når de gjetter på andelen piratkopiering i Norge?  To andre kommentarer er <a
9211 href="http://www.vnunet.com/vnunet/comment/2242134/bsa-piracy-figures-shot-reality">BSA
9212 piracy figures need a shot of reality</a> og <a
9213 href="http://www.michaelgeist.ca/content/view/3958/125/">Does The WIPO
9214 Copyright Treaty Work?</a></p>
9215
9216 <p>Fant lenkene via <a
9217 href="http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/05/17/1632242">oppslag
9218 på Slashdot</a>.</p>
9219
9220       </div>
9221       <div class="tags">
9222
9223
9224         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>.
9225
9226
9227       </div>
9228     </div>
9229     <div class="padding"></div>
9230
9231     <div class="entry">
9232       <div class="title">
9233         <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>
9234       </div>
9235       <div class="date">
9236          7th May 2009
9237       </div>
9238       <div class="body">
9239         <p>Kom over
9240 <a href="http://news.cnet.com/8301-13505_3-10216873-16.html">interessante
9241 tall</a> fra IDG om utviklingen av linuxservermarkedet.  Fikk meg til
9242 å tenke på antall tjenermaskiner ved Universitetet i Oslo der jeg
9243 jobber til daglig.  En rask opptelling forteller meg at vi har 490
9244 (61%) fysiske unix-tjener (mest linux men også noen solaris) og 196
9245 (25%) windowstjenere, samt 112 (14%) virtuelle unix-tjenere.  Med den
9246 bakgrunnskunnskapen kan jeg godt tro at IDG er inne på noe.</p>
9247
9248       </div>
9249       <div class="tags">
9250
9251
9252         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>.
9253
9254
9255       </div>
9256     </div>
9257     <div class="padding"></div>
9258
9259     <div class="entry">
9260       <div class="title">
9261         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Kryptert_harddisk___naturligvis.html">Kryptert harddisk - naturligvis</a>
9262       </div>
9263       <div class="date">
9264          2nd May 2009
9265       </div>
9266       <div class="body">
9267         <p><a href="http://www.dagensit.no/trender/article1658676.ece">Dagens
9268 IT melder</a> at Intel hevder at det er dyrt å miste en datamaskin,
9269 når en tar tap av arbeidstid, fortrolige dokumenter,
9270 personopplysninger og alt annet det innebærer.  Det er ingen tvil om
9271 at det er en kostbar affære å miste sin datamaskin, og det er årsaken
9272 til at jeg har kryptert harddisken på både kontormaskinen og min
9273 bærbare.  Begge inneholder personopplysninger jeg ikke ønsker skal
9274 komme på avveie, den første informasjon relatert til jobben min ved
9275 Universitetet i Oslo, og den andre relatert til blant annet
9276 foreningsarbeide.  Kryptering av diskene gjør at det er lite
9277 sannsynlig at dophoder som kan finne på å rappe maskinene får noe ut
9278 av dem.  Maskinene låses automatisk etter noen minutter uten bruk,
9279 og en reboot vil gjøre at de ber om passord før de vil starte opp.
9280 Jeg bruker Debian på begge maskinene, og installasjonssystemet der
9281 gjør det trivielt å sette opp krypterte disker.  Jeg har LVM på toppen
9282 av krypterte partisjoner, slik at alt av datapartisjoner er kryptert.
9283 Jeg anbefaler alle å kryptere diskene på sine bærbare.  Kostnaden når
9284 det er gjort slik jeg gjør det er minimale, og gevinstene er
9285 betydelige.  En bør dog passe på passordet.  Hvis det går tapt, må
9286 maskinen reinstalleres og alt er tapt.</p>
9287
9288 <p>Krypteringen vil ikke stoppe kompetente angripere som f.eks. kjøler
9289 ned minnebrikkene før maskinen rebootes med programvare for å hente ut
9290 krypteringsnøklene.  Kostnaden med å forsvare seg mot slike angripere
9291 er for min del høyere enn gevinsten.  Jeg tror oddsene for at
9292 f.eks. etteretningsorganisasjoner har glede av å titte på mine
9293 maskiner er minimale, og ulempene jeg ville oppnå ved å forsøke å
9294 gjøre det vanskeligere for angripere med kompetanse og ressurser er
9295 betydelige.</p>
9296
9297       </div>
9298       <div class="tags">
9299
9300
9301         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>.
9302
9303
9304       </div>
9305     </div>
9306     <div class="padding"></div>
9307
9308     <div class="entry">
9309       <div class="title">
9310         <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>
9311       </div>
9312       <div class="date">
9313          2nd May 2009
9314       </div>
9315       <div class="body">
9316         <p>There are two software projects that have had huge influence on the
9317 quality of free software, and I wanted to mention both in case someone
9318 do not yet know them.</p>
9319
9320 <p>The first one is <a href="http://valgrind.org/">valgrind</a>, a
9321 tool to detect and expose errors in the memory handling of programs.
9322 It is easy to use, all one need to do is to run 'valgrind program',
9323 and it will report any problems on stdout.  It is even better if the
9324 program include debug information.  With debug information, it is able
9325 to report the source file name and line number where the problem
9326 occurs.  It can report things like 'reading past memory block in file
9327 X line N, the memory block was allocated in file Y, line M', and
9328 'using uninitialised value in control logic'.  This tool has made it
9329 trivial to investigate reproducible crash bugs in programs, and have
9330 reduced the number of this kind of bugs in free software a lot.
9331
9332 <p>The second one is
9333 <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coverity">Coverity</a> which is
9334 a source code checker.  It is able to process the source of a program
9335 and find problems in the logic without running the program.  It
9336 started out as the Stanford Checker and became well known when it was
9337 used to find bugs in the Linux kernel.  It is now a commercial tool
9338 and the company behind it is running
9339 <a href="http://www.scan.coverity.com/">a community service</a> for the
9340 free software community, where a lot of free software projects get
9341 their source checked for free.  Several thousand defects have been
9342 found and fixed so far.  It can find errors like 'lock L taken in file
9343 X line N is never released if exiting in line M', or 'the code in file
9344 Y lines O to P can never be executed'.  The projects included in the
9345 community service project have managed to get rid of a lot of
9346 reliability problems thanks to Coverity.</p>
9347
9348 <p>I believe tools like this, that are able to automatically find
9349 errors in the source, are vital to improve the quality of software and
9350 make sure we can get rid of the crashing and failing software we are
9351 surrounded by today.</p>
9352
9353       </div>
9354       <div class="tags">
9355
9356
9357         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>.
9358
9359
9360       </div>
9361     </div>
9362     <div class="padding"></div>
9363
9364     <div class="entry">
9365       <div class="title">
9366         <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>
9367       </div>
9368       <div class="date">
9369         28th April 2009
9370       </div>
9371       <div class="body">
9372         <p>Julien Blache
9373 <a href="http://blog.technologeek.org/2009/04/12/214">claim that no
9374 patch is better than a useless patch</a>.  I completely disagree, as a
9375 patch allow one to discuss a concrete and proposed solution, and also
9376 prove that the issue at hand is important enough for someone to spent
9377 time on fixing it.  No patch do not provide any of these positive
9378 properties.</p>
9379
9380       </div>
9381       <div class="tags">
9382
9383
9384         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>.
9385
9386
9387       </div>
9388     </div>
9389     <div class="padding"></div>
9390
9391     <div class="entry">
9392       <div class="title">
9393         <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>
9394       </div>
9395       <div class="date">
9396         30th March 2009
9397       </div>
9398       <div class="body">
9399         <p>Where I work at the University of Oslo, one decision stand out as a
9400 very good one to form a long lived computer infrastructure.  It is the
9401 simple one, lost by many in todays computer industry: Standardize on
9402 open network protocols and open exchange/storage formats, not applications.
9403 Applications come and go, while protocols and files tend to stay, and
9404 thus one want to make it easy to change application and vendor, while
9405 avoiding conversion costs and locking users to a specific platform or
9406 application.</p>
9407
9408 <p>This approach make it possible to replace the client applications
9409 independently of the server applications.  One can even allow users to
9410 use several different applications as long as they handle the selected
9411 protocol and format.  In the normal case, only one client application
9412 is recommended and users only get help if they choose to use this
9413 application, but those that want to deviate from the easy path are not
9414 blocked from doing so.</p>
9415
9416 <p>It also allow us to replace the server side without forcing the
9417 users to replace their applications, and thus allow us to select the
9418 best server implementation at any moment, when scale and resouce
9419 requirements change.</p>
9420
9421 <p>I strongly recommend standardizing - on open network protocols and
9422 open formats, but I would never recommend standardizing on a single
9423 application that do not use open network protocol or open formats.</p>
9424
9425       </div>
9426       <div class="tags">
9427
9428
9429         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>.
9430
9431
9432       </div>
9433     </div>
9434     <div class="padding"></div>
9435
9436     <div class="entry">
9437       <div class="title">
9438         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Returning_from_Skolelinux_developer_gathering.html">Returning from Skolelinux developer gathering</a>
9439       </div>
9440       <div class="date">
9441         29th March 2009
9442       </div>
9443       <div class="body">
9444         <p>I'm sitting on the train going home from this weekends Debian
9445 Edu/Skolelinux development gathering.  I got a bit done tuning the
9446 desktop, and looked into the dynamic service location protocol
9447 implementation avahi.  It look like it could be useful for us.  Almost
9448 30 people participated, and I believe it was a great environment to
9449 get to know the Skolelinux system.  Walter Bender, involved in the
9450 development of the Sugar educational platform, presented his stuff and
9451 also helped me improve my OLPC installation.  He also showed me that
9452 his Turtle Art application can be used in standalone mode, and we
9453 agreed that I would help getting it packaged for Debian.  As a
9454 standalone application it would be great for Debian Edu.  We also
9455 tried to get the video conferencing working with two OLPCs, but that
9456 proved to be too hard for us.  The application seem to need more work
9457 before it is ready for me.  I look forward to getting home and relax
9458 now. :)</p>
9459
9460       </div>
9461       <div class="tags">
9462
9463
9464         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>.
9465
9466
9467       </div>
9468     </div>
9469     <div class="padding"></div>
9470
9471     <div class="entry">
9472       <div class="title">
9473         <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>
9474       </div>
9475       <div class="date">
9476         29th March 2009
9477       </div>
9478       <div class="body">
9479         <p>The state of standardized LDAP schemas on Linux is far from
9480 optimal.  There is RFC 2307 documenting one way to store NIS maps in
9481 LDAP, and a modified version of this normally called RFC 2307bis, with
9482 some modifications to be compatible with Active Directory.  The RFC
9483 specification handle the content of a lot of system databases, but do
9484 not handle DNS zones and DHCP configuration.</p>
9485
9486 <p>In <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu/Skolelinux</a>,
9487 we would like to store information about users, SMB clients/hosts,
9488 filegroups, netgroups (users and hosts), DHCP and DNS configuration,
9489 and LTSP configuration in LDAP.  These objects have a lot in common,
9490 but with the current LDAP schemas it is not possible to have one
9491 object per entity.  For example, one need to have at least three LDAP
9492 objects for a given computer, one with the SMB related stuff, one with
9493 DNS information and another with DHCP information.  The schemas
9494 provided for DNS and DHCP are impossible to combine into one LDAP
9495 object.  In addition, it is impossible to implement quick queries for
9496 netgroup membership, because of the way NIS triples are implemented.
9497 It just do not scale.  I believe it is time for a few RFC
9498 specifications to cleam up this mess.</p>
9499
9500 <p>I would like to have one LDAP object representing each computer in
9501 the network, and this object can then keep the SMB (ie host key), DHCP
9502 (mac address/name) and DNS (name/IP address) settings in one place.
9503 It need to be efficently stored to make sure it scale well.</p>
9504
9505 <p>I would also like to have a quick way to map from a user or
9506 computer and to the net group this user or computer is a member.</p>
9507
9508 <p>Active Directory have done a better job than unix heads like myself
9509 in this regard, and the unix side need to catch up.  Time to start a
9510 new IETF work group?</p>
9511
9512       </div>
9513       <div class="tags">
9514
9515
9516         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>.
9517
9518
9519       </div>
9520     </div>
9521     <div class="padding"></div>
9522
9523     <div class="entry">
9524       <div class="title">
9525         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Endelig_er_Debian_Lenny_gitt_ut.html">Endelig er Debian Lenny gitt ut</a>
9526       </div>
9527       <div class="date">
9528         15th February 2009
9529       </div>
9530       <div class="body">
9531         <p>Endelig er <a href="http://www.debian.org/">Debian</a>
9532 <a href="http://www.debian.org/News/2009/20090214">Lenny</a> gitt ut.
9533 Et langt steg videre for Debian-prosjektet, og en rekke nye
9534 programpakker blir nå tilgjengelig for de av oss som bruker den
9535 stabile utgaven av Debian.  Neste steg er nå å få
9536 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Skolelinux</a> /
9537 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/">Debian Edu</a> ferdig
9538 oppdatert for den nye utgaven, slik at en oppdatert versjon kan
9539 slippes løs på skolene.  Takk til alle debian-utviklerne som har
9540 gjort dette mulig.  Endelig er f.eks. fungerende avhengighetsstyrt
9541 bootsekvens tilgjengelig i stabil utgave, vha pakken
9542 <tt>insserv</tt>.</p>
9543
9544       </div>
9545       <div class="tags">
9546
9547
9548         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>.
9549
9550
9551       </div>
9552     </div>
9553     <div class="padding"></div>
9554
9555     <div class="entry">
9556       <div class="title">
9557         <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>
9558       </div>
9559       <div class="date">
9560          7th December 2008
9561       </div>
9562       <div class="body">
9563         <p>This weekend we had a small developer gathering for Debian Edu in
9564 Oslo.  Most of Saturday was used for the general assemly for the
9565 member organization, but the rest of the weekend I used to tune the
9566 LTSP installation.  LTSP now work out of the box on the 10-network.
9567 Acer Aspire One proved to be a very nice thin client, with both
9568 screen, mouse and keybard in a small box.  Was working on getting the
9569 diskless workstation setup configured out of the box, but did not
9570 finish it before the weekend was up.</p>
9571
9572 <p>Did not find time to look at the 4 VGA cards in one box we got from
9573 the Brazilian group, so that will have to wait for the next
9574 development gathering.  Would love to have the Debian Edu installer
9575 automatically detect and configure a multiseat setup when it find one
9576 of these cards.</p>
9577
9578       </div>
9579       <div class="tags">
9580
9581
9582         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>.
9583
9584
9585       </div>
9586     </div>
9587     <div class="padding"></div>
9588
9589     <div class="entry">
9590       <div class="title">
9591         <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>
9592       </div>
9593       <div class="date">
9594         25th November 2008
9595       </div>
9596       <div class="body">
9597         <p>Recently I have spent some time evaluating the multimedia browser
9598 plugins available in Debian Lenny, to see which one we should use by
9599 default in Debian Edu.  We need an embedded video playing plugin with
9600 control buttons to pause or stop the video, and capable of streaming
9601 all the multimedia content available on the web.  The test results and
9602 notes are available on
9603 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/BrowserMultimedia">the
9604 Debian wiki</a>.  I was surprised how few of the plugins are able to
9605 fill this need.  My personal video player favorite, VLC, has a really
9606 bad plugin which fail on a lot of the test pages.  A lot of the MIME
9607 types I would expect to work with any free software player (like
9608 video/ogg), just do not work.  And simple formats like the
9609 audio/x-mplegurl format (m3u playlists), just isn't supported by the
9610 totem and vlc plugins.  I hope the situation will improve soon.  No
9611 wonder sites use the proprietary Adobe flash to play video.</p>
9612
9613 <p>For Lenny, we seem to end up with the mplayer plugin.  It seem to
9614 be the only one fitting our needs. :/</p>
9615
9616       </div>
9617       <div class="tags">
9618
9619
9620         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>.
9621
9622
9623       </div>
9624     </div>
9625     <div class="padding"></div>
9626
9627     <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>
9628     <div id="sidebar">
9629
9630
9631
9632 <h2>Archive</h2>
9633 <ul>
9634
9635 <li>2015
9636 <ul>
9637
9638 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/01/">January (7)</a></li>
9639
9640 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/02/">February (6)</a></li>
9641
9642 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/03/">March (1)</a></li>
9643
9644 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/04/">April (4)</a></li>
9645
9646 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/05/">May (3)</a></li>
9647
9648 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/06/">June (4)</a></li>
9649
9650 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/07/">July (6)</a></li>
9651
9652 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/08/">August (2)</a></li>
9653
9654 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/09/">September (2)</a></li>
9655
9656 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/10/">October (9)</a></li>
9657
9658 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/11/">November (6)</a></li>
9659
9660 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/12/">December (3)</a></li>
9661
9662 </ul></li>
9663
9664 <li>2014
9665 <ul>
9666
9667 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/01/">January (2)</a></li>
9668
9669 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/02/">February (3)</a></li>
9670
9671 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/03/">March (8)</a></li>
9672
9673 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/04/">April (7)</a></li>
9674
9675 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/05/">May (1)</a></li>
9676
9677 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/06/">June (2)</a></li>
9678
9679 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/07/">July (2)</a></li>
9680
9681 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/08/">August (2)</a></li>
9682
9683 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/09/">September (5)</a></li>
9684
9685 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/10/">October (6)</a></li>
9686
9687 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/11/">November (3)</a></li>
9688
9689 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/12/">December (5)</a></li>
9690
9691 </ul></li>
9692
9693 <li>2013
9694 <ul>
9695
9696 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/01/">January (11)</a></li>
9697
9698 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/02/">February (9)</a></li>
9699
9700 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/03/">March (9)</a></li>
9701
9702 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/04/">April (6)</a></li>
9703
9704 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/05/">May (9)</a></li>
9705
9706 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/06/">June (10)</a></li>
9707
9708 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/07/">July (7)</a></li>
9709
9710 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/08/">August (3)</a></li>
9711
9712 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/09/">September (5)</a></li>
9713
9714 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/10/">October (7)</a></li>
9715
9716 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/11/">November (9)</a></li>
9717
9718 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/12/">December (3)</a></li>
9719
9720 </ul></li>
9721
9722 <li>2012
9723 <ul>
9724
9725 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/01/">January (7)</a></li>
9726
9727 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/02/">February (10)</a></li>
9728
9729 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/03/">March (17)</a></li>
9730
9731 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/04/">April (12)</a></li>
9732
9733 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/05/">May (12)</a></li>
9734
9735 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/06/">June (20)</a></li>
9736
9737 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/07/">July (17)</a></li>
9738
9739 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/08/">August (6)</a></li>
9740
9741 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/09/">September (9)</a></li>
9742
9743 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/10/">October (17)</a></li>
9744
9745 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/11/">November (10)</a></li>
9746
9747 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/12/">December (7)</a></li>
9748
9749 </ul></li>
9750
9751 <li>2011
9752 <ul>
9753
9754 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/01/">January (16)</a></li>
9755
9756 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/02/">February (6)</a></li>
9757
9758 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/03/">March (6)</a></li>
9759
9760 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/04/">April (7)</a></li>
9761
9762 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/05/">May (3)</a></li>
9763
9764 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/06/">June (2)</a></li>
9765
9766 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/07/">July (7)</a></li>
9767
9768 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/08/">August (6)</a></li>
9769
9770 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/09/">September (4)</a></li>
9771
9772 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/10/">October (2)</a></li>
9773
9774 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/11/">November (3)</a></li>
9775
9776 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/12/">December (1)</a></li>
9777
9778 </ul></li>
9779
9780 <li>2010
9781 <ul>
9782
9783 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/01/">January (2)</a></li>
9784
9785 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/02/">February (1)</a></li>
9786
9787 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/03/">March (3)</a></li>
9788
9789 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/04/">April (3)</a></li>
9790
9791 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/05/">May (9)</a></li>
9792
9793 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/06/">June (14)</a></li>
9794
9795 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/07/">July (12)</a></li>
9796
9797 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/08/">August (13)</a></li>
9798
9799 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/09/">September (7)</a></li>
9800
9801 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/10/">October (9)</a></li>
9802
9803 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/11/">November (13)</a></li>
9804
9805 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/12/">December (12)</a></li>
9806
9807 </ul></li>
9808
9809 <li>2009
9810 <ul>
9811
9812 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/01/">January (8)</a></li>
9813
9814 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/02/">February (8)</a></li>
9815
9816 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/03/">March (12)</a></li>
9817
9818 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/04/">April (10)</a></li>
9819
9820 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/05/">May (9)</a></li>
9821
9822 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/06/">June (3)</a></li>
9823
9824 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/07/">July (4)</a></li>
9825
9826 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/08/">August (3)</a></li>
9827
9828 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/09/">September (1)</a></li>
9829
9830 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/10/">October (2)</a></li>
9831
9832 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/11/">November (3)</a></li>
9833
9834 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/12/">December (3)</a></li>
9835
9836 </ul></li>
9837
9838 <li>2008
9839 <ul>
9840
9841 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2008/11/">November (5)</a></li>
9842
9843 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2008/12/">December (7)</a></li>
9844
9845 </ul></li>
9846
9847 </ul>
9848
9849
9850
9851 <h2>Tags</h2>
9852 <ul>
9853
9854  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/3d-printer">3d-printer (13)</a></li>
9855
9856  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/amiga">amiga (1)</a></li>
9857
9858  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/aros">aros (1)</a></li>
9859
9860  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bankid">bankid (4)</a></li>
9861
9862  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bitcoin">bitcoin (9)</a></li>
9863
9864  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bootsystem">bootsystem (15)</a></li>
9865
9866  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bsa">bsa (2)</a></li>
9867
9868  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/chrpath">chrpath (2)</a></li>
9869
9870  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian (116)</a></li>
9871
9872  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu (154)</a></li>
9873
9874  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/digistan">digistan (10)</a></li>
9875
9876  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/dld">dld (15)</a></li>
9877
9878  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/docbook">docbook (20)</a></li>
9879
9880  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/drivstoffpriser">drivstoffpriser (4)</a></li>
9881
9882  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english (298)</a></li>
9883
9884  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/fiksgatami">fiksgatami (23)</a></li>
9885
9886  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/fildeling">fildeling (12)</a></li>
9887
9888  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freeculture">freeculture (25)</a></li>
9889
9890  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freedombox">freedombox (9)</a></li>
9891
9892  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/frikanalen">frikanalen (16)</a></li>
9893
9894  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/h264">h264 (20)</a></li>
9895
9896  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/intervju">intervju (42)</a></li>
9897
9898  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram">isenkram (11)</a></li>
9899
9900  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/kart">kart (19)</a></li>
9901
9902  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ldap">ldap (9)</a></li>
9903
9904  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/lenker">lenker (8)</a></li>
9905
9906  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/lsdvd">lsdvd (2)</a></li>
9907
9908  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ltsp">ltsp (1)</a></li>
9909
9910  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/mesh network">mesh network (8)</a></li>
9911
9912  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/multimedia">multimedia (36)</a></li>
9913
9914  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nice free software">nice free software (6)</a></li>
9915
9916  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/norsk">norsk (272)</a></li>
9917
9918  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug (177)</a></li>
9919
9920  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/offentlig innsyn">offentlig innsyn (22)</a></li>
9921
9922  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/open311">open311 (2)</a></li>
9923
9924  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/opphavsrett">opphavsrett (58)</a></li>
9925
9926  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/personvern">personvern (92)</a></li>
9927
9928  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/raid">raid (1)</a></li>
9929
9930  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/reactos">reactos (1)</a></li>
9931
9932  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/reprap">reprap (11)</a></li>
9933
9934  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/rfid">rfid (3)</a></li>
9935
9936  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/robot">robot (9)</a></li>
9937
9938  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/rss">rss (1)</a></li>
9939
9940  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ruter">ruter (4)</a></li>
9941
9942  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/scraperwiki">scraperwiki (2)</a></li>
9943
9944  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet (44)</a></li>
9945
9946  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sitesummary">sitesummary (4)</a></li>
9947
9948  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/skepsis">skepsis (4)</a></li>
9949
9950  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/standard">standard (48)</a></li>
9951
9952  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/stavekontroll">stavekontroll (3)</a></li>
9953
9954  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/stortinget">stortinget (10)</a></li>
9955
9956  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance (36)</a></li>
9957
9958  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sysadmin">sysadmin (2)</a></li>
9959
9960  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/usenix">usenix (2)</a></li>
9961
9962  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/valg">valg (8)</a></li>
9963
9964  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/video">video (54)</a></li>
9965
9966  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/vitenskap">vitenskap (4)</a></li>
9967
9968  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/web">web (37)</a></li>
9969
9970 </ul>
9971
9972
9973     </div>
9974     <p style="text-align: right">
9975  Created by <a href="http://steve.org.uk/Software/chronicle">Chronicle v4.6</a>
9976 </p>
9977
9978   </body>
9979 </html>