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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/Recipe_to_test_the_Freedombox_project_on_amd64_or_Raspberry_Pi.html">Recipe to test the Freedombox project on amd64 or Raspberry Pi</a>
  26       </div>
  27       <div class="date">
  28         10th September 2013
  29       </div>
  30       <div class="body">
  31         <p>I was introduced to the
  32 <a href="http://www.freedomboxfoundation.org/">Freedombox project</a>
  33 in 2010, when Eben Moglen presented his vision about serving the need
  34 of non-technical people to keep their personal information private and
  35 within the legal protection of their own homes.  The idea is to give
  36 people back the power over their network and machines, and return
  37 Internet back to its intended peer-to-peer architecture.  Instead of
  38 depending on a central service, the Freedombox will give everyone
  39 control over their own basic infrastructure.</p>
  40
  41 <p>I've intended to join the effort since then, but other tasks have
  42 taken priority.  But this summers nasty news about the misuse of trust
  43 and privilege exercised by the "western" intelligence gathering
  44 communities increased my eagerness to contribute to a point where I
  45 actually started working on the project a while back.</p>
  46
  47 <p>The <a href="https://alioth.debian.org/projects/freedombox/">initial
  48 Debian initiative</a> based on the vision from Eben Moglen, is to
  49 create a simple and cheap Debian based appliance that anyone can hook
  50 up in their home and get access to secure and private services and
  51 communication.  The initial deployment platform have been the
  52 <a href="http://www.globalscaletechnologies.com/t-dreamplugdetails.aspx">Dreamplug</a>,
  53 which is a piece of hardware I do not own.  So to be able to test what
  54 the current Freedombox setup, I had to come up with a way to install
  55 it on some hardware I do got access to.  I have rewritten the
  56 <a href="https://github.com/NickDaly/freedom-maker">freedom-maker</a>
  57 image build framework to use .deb packages instead of only copying
  58 setup into the boot images, and thanks to this rewrite I am able to
  59 set up any machine supported by Debian Wheezy as a Freedombox, using
  60 the previously mentioned deb (and a few support debs for packages
  61 missing in Debian).</p>
  62
  63 <p>The current Freedombox setup consist of a set of bootstrapping
  64 scripts
  65 (<a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/freedombox-setup">freedombox-setup</a>),
  66 and a administrative web interface
  67 (<a href="https://github.com/NickDaly/Plinth">plinth</a> + exmachina +
  68 withsqlite), as well as a privacy enhancing proxy based on
  69 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/privoxy">privoxy</a>
  70 (freedombox-privoxy).  There is also a web/javascript based XMPP
  71 client (<a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/jwchat">jwchat</a>)
  72 trying (unsuccessfully so far) to talk to the XMPP server
  73 (<a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/ejabberd">ejabberd</a>).  The
  74 web interface is pluggable, and the goal is to use it to enable OpenID
  75 services, mesh network connectivity, use of TOR, etc, etc.  Not much of
  76 this is really working yet, see
  77 <a href="https://github.com/NickDaly/freedombox-todos/blob/master/TODO">the
  78 project TODO</a> for links to GIT repositories.  Most of the code is
  79 on github at the moment.  The HTTP proxy is operational out of the
  80 box, and the admin web interface can be used to add/remove plinth
  81 users.  I've not been able to do anything else with it so far, but
  82 know there are several branches spread around github and other places
  83 with lots of half baked features.</p>
  84
  85 <p>Anyway, if you want to have a look at the current state, the
  86 following recipes should work to give you a test machine to poke
  87 at.</p>
  88
  89 <p><strong>Debian Wheezy amd64</strong></p>
  90
  91 <ol>
  92
  93 <li>Fetch normal Debian Wheezy installation ISO.</li>
  94 <li>Boot from it, either as CD or USB stick.</li>
  95 <li><p>Press [tab] on the boot prompt and add this as a boot argument
  96 to the Debian installer:<p>
  97 <pre>url=<a href="http://www.reinholdtsen.name/freedombox/preseed-wheezy.dat">http://www.reinholdtsen.name/freedombox/preseed-wheezy.dat</a></pre></li>
  98
  99 <li>Answer the few language/region/password questions and pick disk to
 100 install on.</li>
 101
 102 <li>When the installation is finished and the machine have rebooted a
 103 few times, your Freedombox is ready for testing.</li>
 104
 105 </ol>
 106
 107 <p><strong>Raspberry Pi Raspbian</strong></p>
 108
 109 <ol>
 110
 111 <li>Fetch a Raspbian SD card image, create SD card.</li>
 112 <li>Boot from SD card, extend file system to fill the card completely.</li>
 113 <li><p>Log in and add this to /etc/sources.list:</p>
 114 <pre>
 115 deb <a href="http://www.reinholdtsen.name/freedombox/">http://www.reinholdtsen.name/freedombox</a> wheezy main
 116 </pre></li>
 117 <li><p>Run this as root:</p>
 118 <pre>
 119 wget -O - http://www.reinholdtsen.name/freedombox/BE1A583D.asc | \
 120    apt-key add -
 121 apt-get update
 122 apt-get install freedombox-setup
 123 /usr/lib/freedombox/setup
 124 </pre></li>
 125 <li>Reboot into your freshly created Freedombox.</li>
 126
 127 </ol>
 128
 129 <p>You can test it on other architectures too, but because the
 130 freedombox-privoxy package is binary, it will only work as intended on
 131 the architectures where I have had time to build the binary and put it
 132 in my APT repository.  But do not let this stop you.  It is only a
 133 short "<tt>apt-get source -b freedombox-privoxy</tt>" away. :)</p>
 134
 135 <p>Note that by default Freedombox is a DHCP server on the
 136 192.168.1.0/24 subnet, so if this is your subnet be careful and turn
 137 off the DHCP server by running "<tt>update-rc.d isc-dhcp-server
 138 disable</tt>" as root.</p>
 139
 140 <p>Please let me know if this work for you, or if you have any
 141 problems.  We gather on the IRC channel
 142 <a href="irc://irc.debian.org:6667/%23freedombox">#freedombox</a> on
 143 irc.debian.org and the
 144 <a href="http://lists.alioth.debian.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/freedombox-discuss">project
 145 mailing list</a>.</p>
 146
 147 <p>Once you get your freedombox operational, you can visit
 148 <tt>http://your-host-name:8001/</tt> to see the state of the plint
 149 welcome screen (dead end - do not be surprised if you are unable to
 150 get past it), and next visit <tt>http://your-host-name:8001/help/</tt>
 151 to look at the rest of plinth.  The default user is 'admin' and the
 152 default password is 'secret'.</p>
 153
 154       </div>
 155       <div class="tags">
 156
 157
 158         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>.
 159
 160
 161       </div>
 162     </div>
 163     <div class="padding"></div>
 164
 165     <div class="entry">
 166       <div class="title">
 167         <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>
 168       </div>
 169       <div class="date">
 170         18th August 2013
 171       </div>
 172       <div class="body">
 173         <p>Earlier, I reported about
 174 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_fix_a_Thinkpad_X230_with_a_broken_180_GB_SSD_disk.html">my
 175 problems using an Intel SSD 520 Series 180 GB disk</a>.  Friday I was
 176 told by IBM that the original disk should be thrown away.  And as
 177 there no longer was a problem if I bricked the firmware, I decided
 178 today to try to install Intel firmware to replace the Lenovo firmware
 179 currently on the disk.</p>
 180
 181 <p>I searched the Intel site for firmware, and found
 182 <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>
 183 (aka Intel SATA Solid-State Drive Firmware Update Tool) which
 184 according to the site should contain the latest firmware for SSD
 185 disks.  I inserted the broken disk in one of my spare laptops and
 186 booted the ISO from a USB stick.  The disk was recognized, but the
 187 program claimed the newest firmware already were installed and refused
 188 to insert any Intel firmware.  So no change, and the disk is still
 189 unable to handle write load. :( I guess the only way to get them
 190 working would be if Lenovo releases new firmware.  No idea how likely
 191 that is.  Anyway, just blogging about this test for completeness.  I
 192 got a working Samsung disk, and see no point in spending more time on
 193 the broken disks.</p>
 194
 195       </div>
 196       <div class="tags">
 197
 198
 199         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>.
 200
 201
 202       </div>
 203     </div>
 204     <div class="padding"></div>
 205
 206     <div class="entry">
 207       <div class="title">
 208         <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>
 209       </div>
 210       <div class="date">
 211         17th July 2013
 212       </div>
 213       <div class="body">
 214         <p>Today I switched to
 215 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_Thinkpad_is_dead__long_live_the_Thinkpad_X230_.html">my
 216 new laptop</a>.  I've previously written about the problems I had with
 217 my new Thinkpad X230, which was delivered with an
 218 <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
 219 GB Intel SSD disk with Lenovo firmware</a> that did not handle
 220 sustained writes.  My hardware supplier have been very forthcoming in
 221 trying to find a solution, and after first trying with another
 222 identical 180 GB disks they decided to send me a 256 GB Samsung SSD
 223 disk instead to fix it once and for all.  The Samsung disk survived
 224 the installation of Debian with encrypted disks (filling the disk with
 225 random data during installation killed the first two), and I thus
 226 decided to trust it with my data.  I have installed it as a Debian Edu
 227 Wheezy roaming workstation hooked up with my Debian Edu Squeeze main
 228 server at home using Kerberos and LDAP, and will use it as my work
 229 station from now on.</p>
 230
 231 <p>As this is a solid state disk with no moving parts, I believe the
 232 Debian Wheezy default installation need to be tuned a bit to increase
 233 performance and increase life time of the disk.  The Linux kernel and
 234 user space applications do not yet adjust automatically to such
 235 environment.  To make it easier for my self, I created a draft Debian
 236 package <tt>ssd-setup</tt> to handle this tuning.  The
 237 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/gitweb/?p=collab-maint/ssd-setup.git">source
 238 for the ssd-setup package</a> is available from collab-maint, and it
 239 is set up to adjust the setup of the machine by just installing the
 240 package.  If there is any non-SSD disk in the machine, the package
 241 will refuse to install, as I did not try to write any logic to sort
 242 file systems in SSD and non-SSD file systems.</p>
 243
 244 <p>I consider the package a draft, as I am a bit unsure how to best
 245 set up Debian Wheezy with an SSD.  It is adjusted to my use case,
 246 where I set up the machine with one large encrypted partition (in
 247 addition to /boot), put LVM on top of this and set up partitions on
 248 top of this again.  See the README file in the package source for the
 249 references I used to pick the settings.  At the moment these
 250 parameters are tuned:</p>
 251
 252 <ul>
 253
 254 <li>Set up cryptsetup to pass TRIM commands to the physical disk
 255     (adding discard to /etc/crypttab)</li>
 256
 257 <li>Set up LVM to pass on TRIM commands to the underlying device (in
 258     this case a cryptsetup partition) by changing issue_discards from
 259     0 to 1 in /etc/lvm/lvm.conf.</li>
 260
 261 <li>Set relatime as a file system option for ext3 and ext4 file
 262     systems.</li>
 263
 264 <li>Tell swap to use TRIM commands by adding 'discard' to
 265     /etc/fstab.</li>
 266
 267 <li>Change I/O scheduler from cfq to deadline using a udev rule.</li>
 268
 269 <li>Run fstrim on every ext3 and ext4 file system every night (from
 270     cron.daily).</li>
 271
 272 <li>Adjust sysctl values vm.swappiness to 1 and vm.vfs_cache_pressure
 273     to 50 to reduce the kernel eagerness to swap out processes.</li>
 274
 275 </ul>
 276
 277 <p>During installation, I cancelled the part where the installer fill
 278 the disk with random data, as this would kill the SSD performance for
 279 little gain.  My goal with the encrypted file system is to ensure
 280 those stealing my laptop end up with a brick and not a working
 281 computer.  I have no hope in keeping the really resourceful people
 282 from getting the data on the disk (see
 283 <a href="http://xkcd.com/538/">XKCD #538</a> for an explanation why).
 284 Thus I concluded that adding the discard option to crypttab is the
 285 right thing to do.</p>
 286
 287 <p>I considered using the noop I/O scheduler, as several recommended
 288 it for SSD, but others recommended deadline and a benchmark I found
 289 indicated that deadline might be better for interactive use.</p>
 290
 291 <p>I also considered using the 'discard' file system option for ext3
 292 and ext4, but read that it would give a performance hit ever time a
 293 file is removed, and thought it best to that that slowdown once a day
 294 instead of during my work.</p>
 295
 296 <p>My package do not set up tmpfs on /var/run, /var/lock and /tmp, as
 297 this is already done by Debian Edu.</p>
 298
 299 <p>I have not yet started on the user space tuning.  I expect
 300 iceweasel need some tuning, and perhaps other applications too, but
 301 have not yet had time to investigate those parts.</p>
 302
 303 <p>The package should work on Ubuntu too, but I have not yet tested it
 304 there.</p>
 305
 306 <p>As for the answer to the question in the title of this blog post,
 307 as far as I know, the only solution I know about is to replace the
 308 disk.  It might be possible to flash it with Intel firmware instead of
 309 the Lenovo firmware.  But I have not tried and did not want to do so
 310 without approval from Lenovo as I wanted to keep the warranty on the
 311 disk until a solution was found and they wanted the broken disks
 312 back.</p>
 313
 314       </div>
 315       <div class="tags">
 316
 317
 318         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>.
 319
 320
 321       </div>
 322     </div>
 323     <div class="padding"></div>
 324
 325     <div class="entry">
 326       <div class="title">
 327         <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>
 328       </div>
 329       <div class="date">
 330         10th July 2013
 331       </div>
 332       <div class="body">
 333         <p>A few days ago, I wrote about
 334 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_Thinkpad_is_dead__long_live_the_Thinkpad_X230_.html">the
 335 problems I experienced with my new X230 and its SSD disk</a>, which
 336 was dying during installation because it is unable to cope with
 337 sustained write.  My supplier is in contact with
 338 <a href="http://www.lenovo.com/">Lenovo</a>, and they wanted to send a
 339 replacement disk to try to fix the problem.  They decided to send an
 340 identical model, so my hopes for a permanent fix was slim.</p>
 341
 342 <p>Anyway, today I got the replacement disk and tried to install
 343 Debian Edu Wheezy with encrypted disk on it.  The new disk have the
 344 same firmware version as the original.  This time my hope raised
 345 slightly as the installation progressed, as the original disk used to
 346 die after 4-7% of the disk was written to, while this time it kept
 347 going past 10%, 20%, 40% and even past 50%.  But around 60%, the disk
 348 died again and I was back on square one.  I still do not have a new
 349 laptop with a disk I can trust.  I can not live with a disk that might
 350 lock up when I download a new
 351 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux</a> ISO or
 352 other large files.  I look forward to hearing from my supplier with
 353 the next proposal from Lenovo.</p>
 354
 355 <p>The original disk is marked Intel SSD 520 Series 180 GB,
 356 11S0C38722Z1ZNME35X1TR, ISN: CVCV321407HB180EGN, SA: G57560302, FW:
 357 LF1i, 29MAY2013, PBA: G39779-300, LBA 351,651,888, LI P/N: 0C38722,
 358 Pb-free 2LI, LC P/N: 16-200366, WWN: 55CD2E40002756C4, Model:
 359 SSDSC2BW180A3L 2.5" 6Gb/s SATA SSD 180G 5V 1A, ASM P/N 0C38732, FRU
 360 P/N 45N8295, P0C38732.</p>
 361
 362 <p>The replacement disk is marked Intel SSD 520 Series 180 GB,
 363 11S0C38722Z1ZNDE34N0L0, ISN: CVCV315306RK180EGN, SA: G57560-302, FW:
 364 LF1i, 22APR2013, PBA: G39779-300, LBA 351,651,888, LI P/N: 0C38722,
 365 Pb-free 2LI, LC P/N: 16-200366, WWN: 55CD2E40000AB69E, Model:
 366 SSDSC2BW180A3L 2.5" 6Gb/s SATA SSD 180G 5V 1A, ASM P/N 0C38732, FRU
 367 P/N 45N8295, P0C38732.</p>
 368
 369 <p>The only difference is in the first number (serial number?), ISN,
 370 SA, date and WNPP values.  Mentioning all the details here in case
 371 someone is able to use the information to find a way to identify the
 372 failing disk among working ones (if any such working disk actually
 373 exist).</p>
 374
 375       </div>
 376       <div class="tags">
 377
 378
 379         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>.
 380
 381
 382       </div>
 383     </div>
 384     <div class="padding"></div>
 385
 386     <div class="entry">
 387       <div class="title">
 388         <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>
 389       </div>
 390       <div class="date">
 391          9th July 2013
 392       </div>
 393       <div class="body">
 394         <p>The upcoming Saturday, 2013-07-13, we are organising a combined
 395 Debian Edu developer gathering and Debian and Ubuntu bug squashing
 396 party in Oslo.  It is organised by <a href="http://www.nuug.no/">the
 397 member assosiation NUUG</a> and
 398 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">the Debian Edu / Skolelinux
 399 project</a> together with <a href="http://bitraf.no/">the hack space
 400 Bitraf</a>.</p>
 401
 402 <p>It starts 10:00 and continue until late evening.  Everyone is
 403 welcome, and there is no fee to participate.  There is on the other
 404 hand limited space, and only room for 30 people.  Please put your name
 405 on <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/BSP/2013/07/13/no/Oslo">the event
 406 wiki page</a> if you plan to join us.</p>
 407
 408       </div>
 409       <div class="tags">
 410
 411
 412         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>.
 413
 414
 415       </div>
 416     </div>
 417     <div class="padding"></div>
 418
 419     <div class="entry">
 420       <div class="title">
 421         <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>
 422       </div>
 423       <div class="date">
 424          5th July 2013
 425       </div>
 426       <div class="body">
 427         <p>Half a year ago, I reported that I had to find a
 428 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Thank_you_Thinkpad_X41__for_your_long_and_trustworthy_service.html">replacement
 429 for my trusty old Thinkpad X41</a>.  Unfortunately I did not have much
 430 time to spend on it, and it took a while to find a model I believe
 431 will do the job, but two days ago the replacement finally arrived.  I
 432 ended up picking a
 433 <a href="http://www.linlap.com/lenovo_thinkpad_x230">Thinkpad X230</a>
 434 with SSD disk (NZDAJMN).  I first test installed Debian Edu Wheezy as
 435 a roaming workstation, and it seemed to work flawlessly.  But my
 436 second installation with encrypted disk was not as successful.  More
 437 on that below.</p>
 438
 439 <p>I had a hard time trying to track down a good laptop, as my most
 440 important requirements (robust and with a good keyboard) are never
 441 listed in the feature list.  But I did get good help from the search
 442 feature at <a href="http://www.prisjakt.no/">Prisjakt</a>, which
 443 allowed me to limit the list of interesting laptops based on my other
 444 requirements.  A bit surprising that SSD disk are not disks according
 445 to that search interface, so I had to drop specifying the number of
 446 disks from my search parameters.  I also asked around among friends to
 447 get their impression on keyboards and robustness.</p>
 448
 449 <p>So the new laptop arrived, and it is quite a lot wider than the
 450 X41.  I am not quite convinced about the keyboard, as it is
 451 significantly wider than my old keyboard, and I have to stretch my
 452 hand a lot more to reach the edges.  But the key response is fairly
 453 good and the individual key shape is fairly easy to handle, so I hope
 454 I will get used to it.  My old X40 was starting to fail, and I really
 455 needed a new laptop now. :)</p>
 456
 457 <p>Turning off the touch pad was simple.  All it took was a quick
 458 visit to the BIOS during boot it disable it.</p>
 459
 460 <p>But there is a fatal problem with the laptop.  The 180 GB SSD disk
 461 lock up during load.  And this happen when installing Debian Wheezy
 462 with encrypted disk, while the disk is being filled with random data.
 463 I also tested to install Ubuntu Raring, and it happen there too if I
 464 reenable the code to fill the disk with random data (it is disabled by
 465 default in Ubuntu).  And the bug with is already known.  It was
 466 reported to Debian as <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/691427">BTS
 467 report #691427 2012-10-25</a> (journal commit I/O error on brand-new
 468 Thinkpad T430s ext4 on lvm on SSD).  It is also reported to the Linux
 469 kernel developers as
 470 <a href="https://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=51861">Kernel bugzilla
 471 report #51861 2012-12-20</a> (Intel SSD 520 stops working under load
 472 (SSDSC2BW180A3L in Lenovo ThinkPad T430s)). It is also reported on the
 473 Lenovo forums, both for
 474 <a href="http://forums.lenovo.com/t5/T400-T500-and-newer-T-series/T430s-Intel-SSD-520-180GB-issue/m-p/1070549">T430
 475 2012-11-10</a> and for
 476 <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
 477 03-20-2013</a>.  The problem do not only affect installation.  The
 478 reports state that the disk lock up during use if many writes are done
 479 on the disk, so it is much no use to work around the installation
 480 problem and end up with a computer that can lock up at any moment.
 481 There is even a
 482 <a href="https://git.efficios.com/?p=test-ssd.git">small C program
 483 available</a> that will lock up the hard drive after running a few
 484 minutes by writing to a file.</p>
 485
 486 <p>I've contacted my supplier and asked how to handle this, and after
 487 contacting PCHELP Norway (request 01D1FDP) which handle support
 488 requests for Lenovo, his first suggestion was to upgrade the disk
 489 firmware.  Unfortunately there is no newer firmware available from
 490 Lenovo, as my disk already have the most recent one (version LF1i).  I
 491 hope to hear more from him today and hope the problem can be
 492 fixed. :)</p>
 493
 494       </div>
 495       <div class="tags">
 496
 497
 498         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>.
 499
 500
 501       </div>
 502     </div>
 503     <div class="padding"></div>
 504
 505     <div class="entry">
 506       <div class="title">
 507         <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>
 508       </div>
 509       <div class="date">
 510          4th July 2013
 511       </div>
 512       <div class="body">
 513         <p>Half a year ago, I reported that I had to find a replacement for my
 514 trusty old Thinkpad X41.  Unfortunately I did not have much time to
 515 spend on it, but today the replacement finally arrived.  I ended up
 516 picking a <a href="http://www.linlap.com/lenovo_thinkpad_x230">Thinkpad
 517 X230</a> with SSD disk (NZDAJMN).  I first test installed Debian Edu
 518 Wheezy as a roaming workstation, and it worked flawlessly.  As I write
 519 this, it is installing what I hope will be a more final installation,
 520 with a encrypted hard drive to ensure any dope head stealing it end up
 521 with an expencive door stop.</p>
 522
 523 <p>I had a hard time trying to track down a good laptop, as my most
 524 important requirements (robust and with a good keyboard) are never
 525 listed in the feature list.  But I did get good help from the search
 526 feature at <ahref="http://www.prisjakt.no/">Prisjakt</a>, which
 527 allowed me to limit the list of interesting laptops based on my other
 528 requirements.  A bit surprising that SSD disk are not disks, so I had
 529 to drop number of disks from my search parameters.</p>
 530
 531 <p>I am not quite convinced about the keyboard, as it is significantly
 532 wider than my old keyboard, and I have to stretch my hand a lot more
 533 to reach the edges.  But the key response is fairly good and the
 534 individual key shape is fairly easy to handle, so I hope I will get
 535 used to it.  My old X40 was starting to fail, and I really needed a
 536 new laptop now. :)</p>
 537
 538 <p>I look forward to figuring out how to turn off the touch pad.</p>
 539
 540       </div>
 541       <div class="tags">
 542
 543
 544         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>.
 545
 546
 547       </div>
 548     </div>
 549     <div class="padding"></div>
 550
 551     <div class="entry">
 552       <div class="title">
 553         <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>
 554       </div>
 555       <div class="date">
 556         25th June 2013
 557       </div>
 558       <div class="body">
 559         <p>It annoys me when the computer fail to do automatically what it is
 560 perfectly capable of, and I have to do it manually to get things
 561 working.  One such task is to find out what firmware packages are
 562 needed to get the hardware on my computer working.  Most often this
 563 affect the wifi card, but some times it even affect the RAID
 564 controller or the ethernet card.  Today I pushed version 0.4 of the
 565 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/isenkram">Isenkram package</a>
 566 including a new script isenkram-autoinstall-firmware handling the
 567 process of asking all the loaded kernel modules what firmware files
 568 they want, find debian packages providing these files and install the
 569 debian packages.  Here is a test run on my laptop:</p>
 570
 571 <p><pre>
 572 # isenkram-autoinstall-firmware
 573 info: kernel drivers requested extra firmware: ipw2200-bss.fw ipw2200-ibss.fw ipw2200-sniffer.fw
 574 info: fetching http://http.debian.net/debian/dists/squeeze/Contents-i386.gz
 575 info: locating packages with the requested firmware files
 576 info: Updating APT sources after adding non-free APT source
 577 info: trying to install firmware-ipw2x00
 578 firmware-ipw2x00
 579 firmware-ipw2x00
 580 Preconfiguring packages ...
 581 Selecting previously deselected package firmware-ipw2x00.
 582 (Reading database ... 259727 files and directories currently installed.)
 583 Unpacking firmware-ipw2x00 (from .../firmware-ipw2x00_0.28+squeeze1_all.deb) ...
 584 Setting up firmware-ipw2x00 (0.28+squeeze1) ...
 585 #
 586 </pre></p>
 587
 588 <p>When all the requested firmware is present, a simple message is
 589 printed instead:</p>
 590
 591 <p><pre>
 592 # isenkram-autoinstall-firmware
 593 info: did not find any firmware files requested by loaded kernel modules.  exiting
 594 #
 595 </pre></p>
 596
 597 <p>It could use some polish, but it is already working well and saving
 598 me some time when setting up new machines. :)</p>
 599
 600 <p>So, how does it work?  It look at the set of currently loaded
 601 kernel modules, and look up each one of them using modinfo, to find
 602 the firmware files listed in the module meta-information.  Next, it
 603 download the Contents file from a nearby APT mirror, and search for
 604 the firmware files in this file to locate the package with the
 605 requested firmware file.  If the package is in the non-free section, a
 606 non-free APT source is added and the package is installed using
 607 <tt>apt-get install</tt>.  The end result is a slightly better working
 608 machine.</p>
 609
 610 <p>I hope someone find time to implement a more polished version of
 611 this script as part of the hw-detect debian-installer module, to
 612 finally fix <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/655507">BTS report
 613 #655507</a>.  There really is no need to insert USB sticks with
 614 firmware during a PXE install when the packages already are available
 615 from the nearby Debian mirror.</p>
 616
 617       </div>
 618       <div class="tags">
 619
 620
 621         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>.
 622
 623
 624       </div>
 625     </div>
 626     <div class="padding"></div>
 627
 628     <div class="entry">
 629       <div class="title">
 630         <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>
 631       </div>
 632       <div class="date">
 633         11th June 2013
 634       </div>
 635       <div class="body">
 636         <p>When installing RedHat, Fedora, Debian and Ubuntu on some machines,
 637 the screen just turn black when Linux boot, either during installation
 638 or on first boot from the hard disk.  I've seen it once in a while the
 639 last few years, but only recently understood the cause.  I've seen it
 640 on HP laptops, and on my latest acquaintance the Packard Bell laptop.
 641 The reason seem to be in the wiring of some laptops.  The system to
 642 control the screen background light is inverted, so when Linux try to
 643 turn the brightness fully on, it end up turning it off instead.  I do
 644 not know which Linux drivers are affected, but this post is about the
 645 i915 driver used by the
 646 <a href="http://www.linlap.com/packard_bell_easynote_lv">Packard Bell
 647 EasyNote LV</a>, Thinkpad X40 and many other laptops.</p>
 648
 649 <p>The problem can be worked around two ways.  Either by adding
 650 i915.invert_brightness=1 as a kernel option, or by adding a file in
 651 /etc/modprobe.d/ to tell modprobe to add the invert_brightness=1
 652 option when it load the i915 kernel module.  On Debian and Ubuntu, it
 653 can be done by running these commands as root:</p>
 654
 655 <pre>
 656 echo options i915 invert_brightness=1 | tee /etc/modprobe.d/i915.conf
 657 update-initramfs -u -k all
 658 </pre>
 659
 660 <p>Since March 2012 there is
 661 <a href="http://git.kernel.org/cgit/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/commit/?id=4dca20efb1a9c2efefc28ad2867e5d6c3f5e1955">a
 662 mechanism in the Linux kernel</a> to tell the i915 driver which
 663 hardware have this problem, and get the driver to invert the
 664 brightness setting automatically.  To use it, one need to add a row in
 665 <a href="http://git.kernel.org/cgit/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/tree/drivers/gpu/drm/i915/intel_display.c">the
 666 intel_quirks array</a> in the driver source
 667 <tt>drivers/gpu/drm/i915/intel_display.c</tt> (look for "<tt>static
 668 struct intel_quirk intel_quirks</tt>"), specifying the PCI device
 669 number (vendor number 8086 is assumed) and subdevice vendor and device
 670 number.</p>
 671
 672 <p>My Packard Bell EasyNote LV got this output from <tt>lspci
 673 -vvnn</tt> for the video card in question:</p>
 674
 675 <p><pre>
 676 00:02.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: Intel Corporation \
 677     3rd Gen Core processor Graphics Controller [8086:0156] \
 678     (rev 09) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
 679  Subsystem: Acer Incorporated [ALI] Device [1025:0688]
 680  Control: I/O+ Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- \
 681     ParErr- Stepping- SE RR- FastB2B- DisINTx+
 682  Status: Cap+ 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B+ ParErr- DEVSEL=fast >TAbort- \
 683     <TAbort- <MAbort->SERR- <PERR- INTx-
 684  Latency: 0
 685  Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 42
 686  Region 0: Memory at c2000000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4M]
 687  Region 2: Memory at b0000000 (64-bit, prefetchable) [size=256M]
 688  Region 4: I/O ports at 4000 [size=64]
 689  Expansion ROM at <unassigned> [disabled]
 690  Capabilities: <access denied>
 691  Kernel driver in use: i915
 692 </pre></p>
 693
 694 <p>The resulting intel_quirks entry would then look like this:</p>
 695
 696 <p><pre>
 697 struct intel_quirk intel_quirks[] = {
 698        ...
 699         /* Packard Bell EasyNote LV11HC needs invert brightness quirk */
 700         { 0x0156, 0x1025, 0x0688, quirk_invert_brightness },
 701        ...
 702 }
 703 </pre></p>
 704
 705 <p>According to the kernel module instructions (as seen using
 706 <tt>modinfo i915</tt>), information about hardware needing the
 707 invert_brightness flag should be sent to the
 708 <a href="http://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/dri-devel">dri-devel
 709 (at) lists.freedesktop.org</a> mailing list to reach the kernel
 710 developers.  But my email about the laptop sent 2013-06-03 have not
 711 yet shown up in
 712 <a href="http://lists.freedesktop.org/archives/dri-devel/2013-June/thread.html">the
 713 web archive for the mailing list</a>, so I suspect they do not accept
 714 emails from non-subscribers.  Because of this, I sent my patch also to
 715 the Debian bug tracking system instead as
 716 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/710938">BTS report #710938</a>, to make
 717 sure the patch is not lost.</p>
 718
 719 <p>Unfortunately, it is not enough to fix the kernel to get Laptops
 720 with this problem working properly with Linux.  If you use Gnome, your
 721 worries should be over at this point.  But if you use KDE, there is
 722 something in KDE ignoring the invert_brightness setting and turning on
 723 the screen during login.  I've reported it to Debian as
 724 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/711237">BTS report #711237</a>, and
 725 have no idea yet how to figure out exactly what subsystem is doing
 726 this.  Perhaps you can help?  Perhaps you know what the Gnome
 727 developers did to handle this, and this can give a clue to the KDE
 728 developers?  Or you know where in KDE the screen brightness is changed
 729 during login?  If so, please update the BTS report (or get in touch if
 730 you do not know how to update BTS).</p>
 731
 732 <p>Update 2013-07-19: The correct fix for this machine seem to be
 733 acpi_backlight=vendor, to disable ACPI backlight support completely,
 734 as the ACPI information on the machine is trash and it is better to
 735 leave it to the intel video driver to control the screen
 736 backlight.</p>
 737
 738       </div>
 739       <div class="tags">
 740
 741
 742         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
 743
 744
 745       </div>
 746     </div>
 747     <div class="padding"></div>
 748
 749     <div class="entry">
 750       <div class="title">
 751         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/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>
 752       </div>
 753       <div class="date">
 754         27th May 2013
 755       </div>
 756       <div class="body">
 757         <p>Two days ago, I asked
 758 <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
 759 I could install Linux on a Packard Bell EasyNote LV computer
 760 preinstalled with Windows 8</a>.  I found a solution, but am horrified
 761 with the obstacles put in the way of Linux users on a laptop with UEFI
 762 and Windows 8.</p>
 763
 764 <p>I never found out if the cause of my problems were the use of UEFI
 765 secure booting or fast boot.  I suspect fast boot was the problem,
 766 causing the firmware to boot directly from HD without considering any
 767 key presses and alternative devices, but do not know UEFI settings
 768 enough to tell.</p>
 769
 770 <p>There is no way to install Linux on the machine in question without
 771 opening the box and disconnecting the hard drive!  This is as far as I
 772 can tell, the only way to get access to the firmware setup menu
 773 without accepting the Windows 8 license agreement.  I am told (and
 774 found description on how to) that it is possible to configure the
 775 firmware setup once booted into Windows 8.  But as I believe the terms
 776 of that agreement are completely unacceptable, accepting the license
 777 was never an alternative.  I do not enter agreements I do not intend
 778 to follow.</p>
 779
 780 <p>I feared I had to return the laptops and ask for a refund, and
 781 waste many hours on this, but luckily there was a way to get it to
 782 work.  But I would not recommend it to anyone planning to run Linux on
 783 it, and I have become sceptical to Windows 8 certified laptops.  Is
 784 this the way Linux will be forced out of the market place, by making
 785 it close to impossible for "normal" users to install Linux without
 786 accepting the Microsoft Windows license terms?  Or at least not
 787 without risking to loose the warranty?</p>
 788
 789 <p>I've updated the
 790 <a href="http://www.linlap.com/packard_bell_easynote_lv">Linux Laptop
 791 wiki page for Packard Bell EasyNote LV</a>, to ensure the next person
 792 do not have to struggle as much as I did to get Linux into the
 793 machine.</p>
 794
 795 <p>Thanks to Bob Rosbag, Florian Weimer, Philipp Kern, Ben Hutching,
 796 Michael Tokarev and others for feedback and ideas.</p>
 797
 798       </div>
 799       <div class="tags">
 800
 801
 802         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>.
 803
 804
 805       </div>
 806     </div>
 807     <div class="padding"></div>
 808
 809     <div class="entry">
 810       <div class="title">
 811         <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>
 812       </div>
 813       <div class="date">
 814         25th May 2013
 815       </div>
 816       <div class="body">
 817         <p>I've run into quite a problem the last few days.  I bought three
 818 new laptops for my parents and a few others.  I bought Packard Bell
 819 Easynote LV to run Kubuntu on and use as their home computer.  But I
 820 am completely unable to figure out how to install Linux on it.  The
 821 computer is preinstalled with Windows 8, and I suspect it uses UEFI
 822 instead of a BIOS to boot.</p>
 823
 824 <p>The problem is that I am unable to get it to PXE boot, and unable
 825 to get it to boot the Linux installer from my USB stick.  I have yet
 826 to try the DVD install, and still hope it will work.  when I turn on
 827 the computer, there is no information on what buttons to press to get
 828 the normal boot menu.  I expect to get some boot menu to select PXE or
 829 USB stick booting.  When booting, it first ask for the language to
 830 use, then for some regional settings, and finally if I will accept the
 831 Windows 8 terms of use.  As these terms are completely unacceptable to
 832 me, I have no other choice but to turn off the computer and try again
 833 to get it to boot the Linux installer.</p>
 834
 835 <p>I have gathered my findings so far on a Linlap page about the
 836 <a href="http://www.linlap.com/packard_bell_easynote_lv">Packard Bell
 837 EasyNote LV</a> model.  If you have any idea how to get Linux
 838 installed on this machine, please get in touch or update that wiki
 839 page.  If I can't find a way to install Linux, I will have to return
 840 the laptop to the seller and find another machine for my parents.</p>
 841
 842 <p>I wonder, is this the way Linux will be forced out of the market
 843 using UEFI and "secure boot" by making it impossible to install Linux
 844 on new Laptops?</p>
 845
 846       </div>
 847       <div class="tags">
 848
 849
 850         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>.
 851
 852
 853       </div>
 854     </div>
 855     <div class="padding"></div>
 856
 857     <div class="entry">
 858       <div class="title">
 859         <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>
 860       </div>
 861       <div class="date">
 862         17th May 2013
 863       </div>
 864       <div class="body">
 865         <p><a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux</a> is
 866 an operating system based on Debian intended for use in schools.  It
 867 contain a turn-key solution for the computer network provided to
 868 pupils in the primary schools.  It provide both the central server,
 869 network boot servers and desktop environments with heaps of
 870 educational software.  The project was founded almost 12 years ago,
 871 2001-07-02.  If you want to support the project, which is in need for
 872 cash to fund developer gatherings and other project related activity,
 873 <a href="http://www.linuxiskolen.no/slxdebianlabs/donations.html">please
 874 donate some money</a>.
 875
 876 <p>A topic that come up again and again on the Debian Edu mailing
 877 lists and elsewhere, is the question on how to transform a Debian or
 878 Ubuntu installation into a Debian Edu installation.  It isn't very
 879 hard, and last week I wrote a script to replicate the steps done by
 880 the Debian Edu installer.</p>
 881
 882 <p>The script,
 883 <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/>
 884 in the debian-edu-config package, will go through these six steps and
 885 transform an existing Debian Wheezy or Ubuntu (untested) installation
 886 into a Debian Edu Workstation:</p>
 887
 888 <ol>
 889
 890 <li>Add skolelinux related APT sources.</li>
 891 <li>Create /etc/debian-edu/config with the wanted configuration.</li>
 892 <li>Install debian-edu-install to load preseeding values and pull in
 893     our configuration.</li>
 894 <li>Preseed debconf database with profile setup in
 895     /etc/debian-edu/config, and run tasksel to install packages
 896     according to the profile specified in the config above,
 897     overriding some of the Debian automation machinery.</li>
 898 <li>Run debian-edu-cfengine-D installation to configure everything
 899     that could not be done using preseeding.</li>
 900 <li>Ask for a reboot to enable all the configuration changes.</li>
 901
 902 </ol>
 903
 904 <p>There are some steps in the Debian Edu installation that can not be
 905 replicated like this.  Disk partitioning and LVM setup, for example.
 906 So this script just assume there is enough disk space to install all
 907 the needed packages.</p>
 908
 909 <p>The script was created to help a Debian Edu student working on
 910 setting up <a href="http://www.raspberrypi.org">Raspberry Pi</a> as a
 911 Debian Edu client, and using it he can take the existing
 912 <a href="http://www.raspbian.org/FrontPage‎">Raspbian</a> installation and
 913 transform it into a fully functioning Debian Edu Workstation (or
 914 Roaming Workstation, or whatever :).</p>
 915
 916 <p>The default setting in the script is to create a KDE Workstation.
 917 If a LXDE based Roaming workstation is wanted instead, modify the
 918 PROFILE and DESKTOP values at the top to look like this instead:</p>
 919
 920 <p><pre>
 921 PROFILE="Roaming-Workstation"
 922 DESKTOP="lxde"
 923 </pre></p>
 924
 925 <p>The script could even become useful to set up Debian Edu servers in
 926 the cloud, by starting with a virtual Debian installation at some
 927 virtual hosting service and setting up all the services on first
 928 boot.</p>
 929
 930       </div>
 931       <div class="tags">
 932
 933
 934         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>.
 935
 936
 937       </div>
 938     </div>
 939     <div class="padding"></div>
 940
 941     <div class="entry">
 942       <div class="title">
 943         <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>
 944       </div>
 945       <div class="date">
 946         11th May 2013
 947       </div>
 948       <div class="body">
 949         <P>In January,
 950 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/New_IRC_channel_for_LEGO_designers_using_Debian.html">I
 951 announced a</a> new <a href="irc://irc.debian.org/%23debian-lego">IRC
 952 channel #debian-lego</a>, for those of us in the Debian and Linux
 953 community interested in <a href="http://www.lego.com/">LEGO</a>, the
 954 marvellous construction system from Denmark.  We also created
 955 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/LegoDesigners">a wiki page</a> to have
 956 a place to take notes and write down our plans and hopes.  And several
 957 people showed up to help.  I was very happy to see the effect of my
 958 call.  Since the small start, we have a debtags tag
 959 <a href="http://debtags.debian.net/search/bytag?wl=hardware::hobby:lego">hardware::hobby:lego</a>
 960 tag for LEGO related packages, and now count 10 packages related to
 961 LEGO and <a href="http://mindstorms.lego.com/">Mindstorms</a>:</p>
 962
 963 <p><table>
 964 <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>
 965 <tr><td><a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/leocad">leocad</a></td><td>virtual brick CAD software</td></tr>
 966 <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>
 967 <tr><td><a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/lnpd">lnpd</a></td><td>daemon for LNP communication with BrickOS</td></tr>
 968 <tr><td><a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/nbc">nbc</a></td><td>compiler for LEGO Mindstorms NXT bricks</td></tr>
 969 <tr><td><a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/nqc">nqc</a></td><td>Not Quite C compiler for LEGO Mindstorms RCX</td></tr>
 970 <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>
 971 <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>
 972 <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>
 973 <tr><td><a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/t2n">t2n</a></td><td>simple command-line tool for Lego NXT</td></tr>
 974 </table></p>
 975
 976 <p>Some of these are available in Wheezy, and all but one are
 977 currently available in Jessie/testing.  leocad is so far only
 978 available in experimental.</p>
 979
 980 <p>If you care about LEGO in Debian, please join us on IRC and help
 981 adding the rest of the great free software tools available on Linux
 982 for LEGO designers.</p>
 983
 984       </div>
 985       <div class="tags">
 986
 987
 988         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>.
 989
 990
 991       </div>
 992     </div>
 993     <div class="padding"></div>
 994
 995     <div class="entry">
 996       <div class="title">
 997         <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>
 998       </div>
 999       <div class="date">
1000          5th May 2013
1001       </div>
1002       <div class="body">
1003         <p>When I woke up this morning, I was very happy to see that the
1004 <a href="http://www.debian.org/News/2013/20130504">release announcement
1005 for Debian Wheezy</a> was waiting in my mail box.  This is a great
1006 Debian release, and I expect to move my machines at home over to it fairly
1007 soon.</p>
1008
1009 <p>The new debian release contain heaps of new stuff, and one program
1010 in particular make me very happy to see included.  The
1011 <a href="http://scratch.mit.edu/">Scratch</a> program, made famous by
1012 the <a href="http://www.code.org/">Teach kids code</a> movement, is
1013 included for the first time.  Alongside similar programs like
1014 <a href="http://edu.kde.org/kturtle/">kturtle</a> and
1015 <a href="http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Activities/Turtle_Art">turtleart</a>,
1016 it allow for visual programming where syntax errors can not happen,
1017 and a friendly programming environment for learning to control the
1018 computer.  Scratch will also be included in the next release of Debian
1019 Edu.</a>
1020
1021 <p>And now that Wheezy is wrapped up, we can wrap up the next Debian
1022 Edu/Skolelinux release too.  The
1023 <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-edu/2013/04/msg00132.html">first
1024 alpha release</a> went out last week, and the next should soon
1025 follow.<p>
1026
1027       </div>
1028       <div class="tags">
1029
1030
1031         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>.
1032
1033
1034       </div>
1035     </div>
1036     <div class="padding"></div>
1037
1038     <div class="entry">
1039       <div class="title">
1040         <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>
1041       </div>
1042       <div class="date">
1043          3rd April 2013
1044       </div>
1045       <div class="body">
1046         <p>Today the <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/isenkram">Isenkram
1047 package</a> finally made it into the archive, after lingering in NEW
1048 for many months.  I uploaded it to the Debian experimental suite
1049 2013-01-27, and today it was accepted into the archive.</p>
1050
1051 <p>Isenkram is a system for suggesting to users what packages to
1052 install to work with a pluggable hardware device.  The suggestion pop
1053 up when the device is plugged in.  For example if a Lego Mindstorm NXT
1054 is inserted, it will suggest to install the program needed to program
1055 the NXT controller.  Give it a go, and report bugs and suggestions to
1056 BTS. :)</p>
1057
1058       </div>
1059       <div class="tags">
1060
1061
1062         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>.
1063
1064
1065       </div>
1066     </div>
1067     <div class="padding"></div>
1068
1069     <div class="entry">
1070       <div class="title">
1071         <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>
1072       </div>
1073       <div class="date">
1074          2nd February 2013
1075       </div>
1076       <div class="body">
1077         <p>My
1078 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_backport_bitcoin_qt_version_0_7_2_2_to_Debian_Squeeze.html">last
1079 bitcoin related blog post</a> mentioned that the new
1080 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/bitcoin">bitcoin package</a> for
1081 Debian was waiting in NEW.  It was accepted by the Debian ftp-masters
1082 2013-01-19, and have been available in unstable since then.  It was
1083 automatically copied to Ubuntu, and is available in their Raring
1084 version too.</p>
1085
1086 <p>But there is a strange problem with the build that block this new
1087 version from being available on the i386 and kfreebsd-i386
1088 architectures.  For some strange reason, the autobuilders in Debian
1089 for these architectures fail to run the test suite on these
1090 architectures (<a href="http://bugs.debian.org/672524">BTS #672524</a>).
1091 We are so far unable to reproduce it when building it manually, and
1092 no-one have been able to propose a fix.  If you got an idea what is
1093 failing, please let us know via the BTS.</p>
1094
1095 <p>One feature that is annoying me with of the bitcoin client, because
1096 I often run low on disk space, is the fact that the client will exit
1097 if it run short on space (<a href="http://bugs.debian.org/696715">BTS
1098 #696715</a>).  So make sure you have enough disk space when you run
1099 it. :)</p>
1100
1101 <p>As usual, if you use bitcoin and want to show your support of my
1102 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
1103 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b&label=PetterReinholdtsenBlog">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
1104
1105       </div>
1106       <div class="tags">
1107
1108
1109         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>.
1110
1111
1112       </div>
1113     </div>
1114     <div class="padding"></div>
1115
1116     <div class="entry">
1117       <div class="title">
1118         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Welcome_to_the_world__Isenkram_.html">Welcome to the world, Isenkram!</a>
1119       </div>
1120       <div class="date">
1121         22nd January 2013
1122       </div>
1123       <div class="body">
1124         <p>Yesterday, I
1125 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/First_prototype_ready_making_hardware_easier_to_use_in_Debian.html">asked
1126 for testers</a> for my prototype for making Debian better at handling
1127 pluggable hardware devices, which I
1128 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lets_make_hardware_dongles_easier_to_use_in_Debian.html">set
1129 out to create</a> earlier this month.  Several valuable testers showed
1130 up, and caused me to really want to to open up the development to more
1131 people.  But before I did this, I want to come up with a sensible name
1132 for this project.  Today I finally decided on a new name, and I have
1133 renamed the project from hw-support-handler to this new name.  In the
1134 process, I moved the source to git and made it available as a
1135 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/gitweb/?p=collab-maint/isenkram.git">collab-maint</a>
1136 repository in Debian.  The new name?  It is <strong>Isenkram</strong>.
1137 To fetch and build the latest version of the source, use</p>
1138
1139 <pre>
1140 git clone http://anonscm.debian.org/git/collab-maint/isenkram.git
1141 cd isenkram && git-buildpackage -us -uc
1142 </pre>
1143
1144 <p>I have not yet adjusted all files to use the new name yet.  If you
1145 want to hack on the source or improve the package, please go ahead.
1146 But please talk to me first on IRC or via email before you do major
1147 changes, to make sure we do not step on each others toes. :)</p>
1148
1149 <p>If you wonder what 'isenkram' is, it is a Norwegian word for iron
1150 stuff, typically meaning tools, nails, screws, etc.  Typical hardware
1151 stuff, in other words.  I've been told it is the Norwegian variant of
1152 the German word eisenkram, for those that are familiar with that
1153 word.</p>
1154
1155 <p><strong>Update 2013-01-26</strong>: Added -us -us to build
1156 instructions, to avoid confusing people with an error from the signing
1157 process.</p>
1158
1159 <p><strong>Update 2013-01-27</strong>: Switch to HTTP URL for the git
1160 clone argument to avoid the need for authentication.</p>
1161
1162       </div>
1163       <div class="tags">
1164
1165
1166         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>.
1167
1168
1169       </div>
1170     </div>
1171     <div class="padding"></div>
1172
1173     <div class="entry">
1174       <div class="title">
1175         <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>
1176       </div>
1177       <div class="date">
1178         21st January 2013
1179       </div>
1180       <div class="body">
1181         <p>Early this month I set out to try to
1182 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lets_make_hardware_dongles_easier_to_use_in_Debian.html">improve
1183 the Debian support for pluggable hardware devices</a>.  Now my
1184 prototype is working, and it is ready for a larger audience.  To test
1185 it, fetch the
1186 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/">source
1187 from the Debian Edu subversion repository</a>, build and install the
1188 package.  You might have to log out and in again activate the
1189 autostart script.</p>
1190
1191 <p>The design is simple:</p>
1192
1193 <ul>
1194
1195 <li>Add desktop entry in /usr/share/autostart/ causing a program
1196 hw-support-handlerd to start when the user log in.</li>
1197
1198 <li>This program listen for kernel events about new hardware (directly
1199 from the kernel like udev does), not using HAL dbus events as I
1200 initially did.</li>
1201
1202 <li>When new hardware is inserted, look up the hardware modalias in
1203 the APT database, a database
1204 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/modaliases?view=markup">available
1205 via HTTP</a> and a database available as part of the package.</li>
1206
1207 <li>If a package is mapped to the hardware in question, the package
1208 isn't installed yet and this is the first time the hardware was
1209 plugged in, show a desktop notification suggesting to install the
1210 package or packages.</li>
1211
1212 <li>If the user click on the 'install package now' button, ask
1213 aptdaemon via the PackageKit API to install the requrired package.</li>
1214
1215 <li>aptdaemon ask for root password or sudo password, and install the
1216 package while showing progress information in a window.</li>
1217
1218 </ul>
1219
1220 <p>I still need to come up with a better name for the system.  Here
1221 are some screen shots showing the prototype in action.  First the
1222 notification, then the password request, and finally the request to
1223 approve all the dependencies.  Sorry for the Norwegian Bokmål GUI.</p>
1224
1225 <p><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-01-21-hw-support-1-notification.png">
1226 <br><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-01-21-hw-support-2-password.png">
1227 <br><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-01-21-hw-support-3-dependencies.png">
1228 <br><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-01-21-hw-support-4-installing.png">
1229 <br><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-01-21-hw-support-5-installing-details.png" width="70%"></p>
1230
1231 <p>The prototype still need to be improved with longer timeouts, but
1232 is already useful.  The database of hardware to package mappings also
1233 need more work.  It is currently compatible with the Ubuntu way of
1234 storing such information in the package control file, but could be
1235 changed to use other formats instead or in addition to the current
1236 method.  I've dropped the use of discover for this mapping, as the
1237 modalias approach is more flexible and easier to use on Linux as long
1238 as the Linux kernel expose its modalias strings directly.</p>
1239
1240 <p><strong>Update 2013-01-21 16:50</strong>: Due to popular demand,
1241 here is the command required to check out and build the source: Use
1242 '<tt>svn checkout
1243 svn://svn.debian.org/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/; cd
1244 hw-support-handler; debuild</tt>'.  If you lack debuild, install the
1245 devscripts package.</p>
1246
1247 <p><strong>Update 2013-01-23 12:00</strong>: The project is now
1248 renamed to Isenkram and the source moved from the Debian Edu
1249 subversion repository to a Debian collab-maint git repository.  See
1250 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Welcome_to_the_world__Isenkram_.html">build
1251 instructions</a> for details.</p>
1252
1253       </div>
1254       <div class="tags">
1255
1256
1257         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>.
1258
1259
1260       </div>
1261     </div>
1262     <div class="padding"></div>
1263
1264     <div class="entry">
1265       <div class="title">
1266         <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>
1267       </div>
1268       <div class="date">
1269         19th January 2013
1270       </div>
1271       <div class="body">
1272         <p>This Christmas my trusty old laptop died.  It died quietly and
1273 suddenly in bed.  With a quiet whimper, it went completely quiet and
1274 black.  The power button was no longer able to turn it on.  It was a
1275 IBM Thinkpad X41, and the best laptop I ever had.  Better than both
1276 Thinkpads X30, X31, X40, X60, X61 and X61S.  Far better than the
1277 Compaq I had before that.  Now I need to find a replacement.  To keep
1278 going during Christmas, I moved the one year old SSD disk to my old
1279 X40 where it fitted (only one I had left that could use it), but it is
1280 not a durable solution.
1281
1282 <p>My laptop needs are fairly modest.  This is my wishlist from when I
1283 got a new one more than 10 years ago.  It still holds true.:)</p>
1284
1285 <ul>
1286
1287 <li>Lightweight (around 1 kg) and small volume (preferably smaller
1288   than A4).</li>
1289 <li>Robust, it will be in my backpack every day.</li>
1290 <li>Three button mouse and a mouse pin instead of touch pad.</li>
1291 <li>Long battery life time.  Preferable a week.</li>
1292 <li>Internal WIFI network card.</li>
1293 <li>Internal Twisted Pair network card.</li>
1294 <li>Some USB slots (2-3 is plenty)</li>
1295 <li>Good keyboard - similar to the Thinkpad.</li>
1296 <li>Video resolution at least 1024x768, with size around 12" (A4 paper
1297 size).</li>
1298 <li>Hardware supported by Debian Stable, ie the default kernel and
1299   X.org packages.</li>
1300 <li>Quiet, preferably fan free (or at least not using the fan most of
1301   the time).
1302
1303 </ul>
1304
1305 <p>You will notice that there are no RAM and CPU requirements in the
1306 list.  The reason is simply that the specifications on laptops the
1307 last 10-15 years have been sufficient for my needs, and I have to look
1308 at other features to choose my laptop.  But are there still made as
1309 robust laptops as my X41?  The Thinkpad X60/X61 proved to be less
1310 robust, and Thinkpads seem to be heading in the wrong direction since
1311 Lenovo took over.  But I've been told that X220 and X1 Carbon might
1312 still be useful.</p>
1313
1314 <p>Perhaps I should rethink my needs, and look for a pad with an
1315 external keyboard?  I'll have to check the
1316 <a href="http://www.linux-laptop.net/">Linux Laptops site</a> for
1317 well-supported laptops, or perhaps just buy one preinstalled from one
1318 of the vendors listed on the <a href="http://linuxpreloaded.com/">Linux
1319 Pre-loaded site</a>.</p>
1320
1321       </div>
1322       <div class="tags">
1323
1324
1325         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>.
1326
1327
1328       </div>
1329     </div>
1330     <div class="padding"></div>
1331
1332     <div class="entry">
1333       <div class="title">
1334         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_find_a_browser_plugin_supporting_a_given_MIME_type.html">How to find a browser plugin supporting a given MIME type</a>
1335       </div>
1336       <div class="date">
1337         18th January 2013
1338       </div>
1339       <div class="body">
1340         <p>Some times I try to figure out which Iceweasel browser plugin to
1341 install to get support for a given MIME type.  Thanks to
1342 <a href="https://wiki.ubuntu.com/MozillaTeam/Plugins">specifications
1343 done by Ubuntu</a> and Mozilla, it is possible to do this in Debian.
1344 Unfortunately, not very many packages provide the needed meta
1345 information, Anyway, here is a small script to look up all browser
1346 plugin packages announcing ther MIME support using this specification:</p>
1347
1348 <pre>
1349 #!/usr/bin/python
1350 import sys
1351 import apt
1352 def pkgs_handling_mimetype(mimetype):
1353     cache = apt.Cache()
1354     cache.open(None)
1355     thepkgs = []
1356     for pkg in cache:
1357         version = pkg.candidate
1358         if version is None:
1359             version = pkg.installed
1360         if version is None:
1361             continue
1362         record = version.record
1363         if not record.has_key('Npp-MimeType'):
1364             continue
1365         mime_types = record['Npp-MimeType'].split(',')
1366         for t in mime_types:
1367             t = t.rstrip().strip()
1368             if t == mimetype:
1369                 thepkgs.append(pkg.name)
1370     return thepkgs
1371 mimetype = "audio/ogg"
1372 if 1 < len(sys.argv):
1373     mimetype = sys.argv[1]
1374 print "Browser plugin packages supporting %s:" % mimetype
1375 for pkg in pkgs_handling_mimetype(mimetype):
1376     print "  %s" %pkg
1377 </pre>
1378
1379 <p>It can be used like this to look up a given MIME type:</p>
1380
1381 <pre>
1382 % ./apt-find-browserplug-for-mimetype
1383 Browser plugin packages supporting audio/ogg:
1384   gecko-mediaplayer
1385 % ./apt-find-browserplug-for-mimetype application/x-shockwave-flash
1386 Browser plugin packages supporting application/x-shockwave-flash:
1387   browser-plugin-gnash
1388 %
1389 </pre>
1390
1391 <p>In Ubuntu this mechanism is combined with support in the browser
1392 itself to query for plugins and propose to install the needed
1393 packages.  It would be great if Debian supported such feature too.  Is
1394 anyone working on adding it?</p>
1395
1396 <p><strong>Update 2013-01-18 14:20</strong>: The Debian BTS
1397 request for icweasel support for this feature is
1398 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/484010">#484010</a> from 2008 (and
1399 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/698426">#698426</a> from today).  Lack
1400 of manpower and wish for a different design is the reason thus feature
1401 is not yet in iceweasel from Debian.</p>
1402
1403       </div>
1404       <div class="tags">
1405
1406
1407         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>.
1408
1409
1410       </div>
1411     </div>
1412     <div class="padding"></div>
1413
1414     <div class="entry">
1415       <div class="title">
1416         <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>
1417       </div>
1418       <div class="date">
1419         16th January 2013
1420       </div>
1421       <div class="body">
1422         <p>The <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/AppStreamDebianProposal">DEP-11
1423 proposal to add AppStream information to the Debian archive</a>, is a
1424 proposal to make it possible for a Desktop application to propose to
1425 the user some package to install to gain support for a given MIME
1426 type, font, library etc. that is currently missing.  With such
1427 mechanism in place, it would be possible for the desktop to
1428 automatically propose and install leocad if some LDraw file is
1429 downloaded by the browser.</p>
1430
1431 <p>To get some idea about the current content of the archive, I decided
1432 to write a simple program to extract all .desktop files from the
1433 Debian archive and look up the claimed MIME support there.  The result
1434 can be found on the
1435 <a href="http://ftp.skolelinux.org/pub/AppStreamTest">Skolelinux FTP
1436 site</a>.  Using the collected information, it become possible to
1437 answer the question in the title.  Here are the 20 most supported MIME
1438 types in Debian stable (Squeeze), testing (Wheezy) and unstable (Sid).
1439 The complete list is available from the link above.</p>
1440
1441 <p><strong>Debian Stable:</strong></p>
1442
1443 <pre>
1444   count MIME type
1445   ----- -----------------------
1446      32 text/plain
1447      30 audio/mpeg
1448      29 image/png
1449      28 image/jpeg
1450      27 application/ogg
1451      26 audio/x-mp3
1452      25 image/tiff
1453      25 image/gif
1454      22 image/bmp
1455      22 audio/x-wav
1456      20 audio/x-flac
1457      19 audio/x-mpegurl
1458      18 video/x-ms-asf
1459      18 audio/x-musepack
1460      18 audio/x-mpeg
1461      18 application/x-ogg
1462      17 video/mpeg
1463      17 audio/x-scpls
1464      17 audio/ogg
1465      16 video/x-ms-wmv
1466 </pre>
1467
1468 <p><strong>Debian Testing:</strong></p>
1469
1470 <pre>
1471   count MIME type
1472   ----- -----------------------
1473      33 text/plain
1474      32 image/png
1475      32 image/jpeg
1476      29 audio/mpeg
1477      27 image/gif
1478      26 image/tiff
1479      26 application/ogg
1480      25 audio/x-mp3
1481      22 image/bmp
1482      21 audio/x-wav
1483      19 audio/x-mpegurl
1484      19 audio/x-mpeg
1485      18 video/mpeg
1486      18 audio/x-scpls
1487      18 audio/x-flac
1488      18 application/x-ogg
1489      17 video/x-ms-asf
1490      17 text/html
1491      17 audio/x-musepack
1492      16 image/x-xbitmap
1493 </pre>
1494
1495 <p><strong>Debian Unstable:</strong></p>
1496
1497 <pre>
1498   count MIME type
1499   ----- -----------------------
1500      31 text/plain
1501      31 image/png
1502      31 image/jpeg
1503      29 audio/mpeg
1504      28 application/ogg
1505      27 image/gif
1506      26 image/tiff
1507      26 audio/x-mp3
1508      23 audio/x-wav
1509      22 image/bmp
1510      21 audio/x-flac
1511      20 audio/x-mpegurl
1512      19 audio/x-mpeg
1513      18 video/x-ms-asf
1514      18 video/mpeg
1515      18 audio/x-scpls
1516      18 application/x-ogg
1517      17 audio/x-musepack
1518      16 video/x-ms-wmv
1519      16 video/x-msvideo
1520 </pre>
1521
1522 <p>I am told that PackageKit can provide an API to access the kind of
1523 information mentioned in DEP-11.  I have not yet had time to look at
1524 it, but hope the PackageKit people in Debian are on top of these
1525 issues.</p>
1526
1527 <p><strong>Update 2013-01-16 13:35</strong>: Updated numbers after
1528 discovering a typo in my script.</p>
1529
1530       </div>
1531       <div class="tags">
1532
1533
1534         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>.
1535
1536
1537       </div>
1538     </div>
1539     <div class="padding"></div>
1540
1541     <div class="entry">
1542       <div class="title">
1543         <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>
1544       </div>
1545       <div class="date">
1546         15th January 2013
1547       </div>
1548       <div class="body">
1549         <p>Yesterday, I wrote about the
1550 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Modalias_strings___a_practical_way_to_map__stuff__to_hardware.html">modalias
1551 values provided by the Linux kernel</a> following my hope for
1552 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lets_make_hardware_dongles_easier_to_use_in_Debian.html">better
1553 dongle support in Debian</a>.  Using this knowledge, I have tested how
1554 modalias values attached to package names can be used to map packages
1555 to hardware.  This allow the system to look up and suggest relevant
1556 packages when I plug in some new hardware into my machine, and replace
1557 discover and discover-data as the database used to map hardware to
1558 packages.</p>
1559
1560 <p>I create a modaliases file with entries like the following,
1561 containing package name, kernel module name (if relevant, otherwise
1562 the package name) and globs matching the relevant hardware
1563 modalias.</p>
1564
1565 <p><blockquote>
1566 Package: package-name
1567 <br>Modaliases: module(modaliasglob, modaliasglob, modaliasglob)</p>
1568 </blockquote></p>
1569
1570 <p>It is fairly trivial to write code to find the relevant packages
1571 for a given modalias value using this file.</p>
1572
1573 <p>An entry like this would suggest the video and picture application
1574 cheese for many USB web cameras (interface bus class 0E01):</p>
1575
1576 <p><blockquote>
1577 Package: cheese
1578 <br>Modaliases: cheese(usb:v*p*d*dc*dsc*dp*ic0Eisc01ip*)</p>
1579 </blockquote></p>
1580
1581 <p>An entry like this would suggest the pcmciautils package when a
1582 CardBus bridge (bus class 0607) PCI device is present:</p>
1583
1584 <p><blockquote>
1585 Package: pcmciautils
1586 <br>Modaliases: pcmciautils(pci:v*d*sv*sd*bc06sc07i*)
1587 </blockquote></p>
1588
1589 <p>An entry like this would suggest the package colorhug-client when
1590 plugging in a ColorHug with USB IDs 04D8:F8DA:</p>
1591
1592 <p><blockquote>
1593 Package: colorhug-client
1594 <br>Modaliases: colorhug-client(usb:v04D8pF8DAd*)</p>
1595 </blockquote></p>
1596
1597 <p>I believe the format is compatible with the format of the Packages
1598 file in the Debian archive.  Ubuntu already uses their Packages file
1599 to store their mappings from packages to hardware.</p>
1600
1601 <p>By adding a XB-Modaliases: header in debian/control, any .deb can
1602 announce the hardware it support in a way my prototype understand.
1603 This allow those publishing packages in an APT source outside the
1604 Debian archive as well as those backporting packages to make sure the
1605 hardware mapping are included in the package meta information.  I've
1606 tested such header in the pymissile package, and its modalias mapping
1607 is working as it should with my prototype.  It even made it to Ubuntu
1608 Raring.</p>
1609
1610 <p>To test if it was possible to look up supported hardware using only
1611 the shell tools available in the Debian installer, I wrote a shell
1612 implementation of the lookup code.  The idea is to create files for
1613 each modalias and let the shell do the matching.  Please check out and
1614 try the
1615 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/hw-support-lookup?view=co">hw-support-lookup</a>
1616 shell script.  It run without any extra dependencies and fetch the
1617 hardware mappings from the Debian archive and the subversion
1618 repository where I currently work on my prototype.</p>
1619
1620 <p>When I use it on a machine with a yubikey inserted, it suggest to
1621 install yubikey-personalization:</p>
1622
1623 <p><blockquote>
1624 % ./hw-support-lookup
1625 <br>yubikey-personalization
1626 <br>%
1627 </blockquote></p>
1628
1629 <p>When I run it on my Thinkpad X40 with a PCMCIA/CardBus slot, it
1630 propose to install the pcmciautils package:</p>
1631
1632 <p><blockquote>
1633 % ./hw-support-lookup
1634 <br>pcmciautils
1635 <br>%
1636 </blockquote></p>
1637
1638 <p>If you know of any hardware-package mapping that should be added to
1639 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/modaliases?view=co">my
1640 database</a>, please tell me about it.</p>
1641
1642 <p>It could be possible to generate several of the mappings between
1643 packages and hardware.  One source would be to look at packages with
1644 kernel modules, ie packages with *.ko files in /lib/modules/, and
1645 extract their modalias information.  Another would be to look at
1646 packages with udev rules, ie packages with files in
1647 /lib/udev/rules.d/, and extract their vendor/model information to
1648 generate a modalias matching rule.  I have not tested any of these to
1649 see if it work.</p>
1650
1651 <p>If you want to help implementing a system to let us propose what
1652 packages to install when new hardware is plugged into a Debian
1653 machine, please send me an email or talk to me on
1654 <a href="irc://irc.debian.org/%23debian-devel">#debian-devel</a>.</p>
1655
1656       </div>
1657       <div class="tags">
1658
1659
1660         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram">isenkram</a>.
1661
1662
1663       </div>
1664     </div>
1665     <div class="padding"></div>
1666
1667     <div class="entry">
1668       <div class="title">
1669         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Modalias_strings___a_practical_way_to_map__stuff__to_hardware.html">Modalias strings - a practical way to map "stuff" to hardware</a>
1670       </div>
1671       <div class="date">
1672         14th January 2013
1673       </div>
1674       <div class="body">
1675         <p>While looking into how to look up Debian packages based on hardware
1676 information, to find the packages that support a given piece of
1677 hardware, I refreshed my memory regarding modalias values, and decided
1678 to document the details.  Here are my findings so far, also available
1679 in
1680 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/">the
1681 Debian Edu subversion repository</a>:
1682
1683 <p><strong>Modalias decoded</strong></p>
1684
1685 <p>This document try to explain what the different types of modalias
1686 values stands for.  It is in part based on information from
1687 &lt;URL: <a href="https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Modalias">https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Modalias</a> &gt;,
1688 &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;,
1689 &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
1690 &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;.
1691
1692 <p>The modalias entries for a given Linux machine can be found using
1693 this shell script:</p>
1694
1695 <pre>
1696 find /sys -name modalias -print0 | xargs -0 cat | sort -u
1697 </pre>
1698
1699 <p>The supported modalias globs for a given kernel module can be found
1700 using modinfo:</p>
1701
1702 <pre>
1703 % /sbin/modinfo psmouse | grep alias:
1704 alias:          serio:ty05pr*id*ex*
1705 alias:          serio:ty01pr*id*ex*
1706 %
1707 </pre>
1708
1709 <p><strong>PCI subtype</strong></p>
1710
1711 <p>A typical PCI entry can look like this.  This is an Intel Host
1712 Bridge memory controller:</p>
1713
1714 <p><blockquote>
1715 pci:v00008086d00002770sv00001028sd000001ADbc06sc00i00
1716 </blockquote></p>
1717
1718 <p>This represent these values:</p>
1719
1720 <pre>
1721  v   00008086  (vendor)
1722  d   00002770  (device)
1723  sv  00001028  (subvendor)
1724  sd  000001AD  (subdevice)
1725  bc  06        (bus class)
1726  sc  00        (bus subclass)
1727  i   00        (interface)
1728 </pre>
1729
1730 <p>The vendor/device values are the same values outputted from 'lspci
1731 -n' as 8086:2770.  The bus class/subclass is also shown by lspci as
1732 0600.  The 0600 class is a host bridge.  Other useful bus values are
1733 0300 (VGA compatible card) and 0200 (Ethernet controller).</p>
1734
1735 <p>Not sure how to figure out the interface value, nor what it
1736 means.</p>
1737
1738 <p><strong>USB subtype</strong></p>
1739
1740 <p>Some typical USB entries can look like this.  This is an internal
1741 USB hub in a laptop:</p>
1742
1743 <p><blockquote>
1744 usb:v1D6Bp0001d0206dc09dsc00dp00ic09isc00ip00
1745 </blockquote></p>
1746
1747 <p>Here is the values included in this alias:</p>
1748
1749 <pre>
1750  v    1D6B  (device vendor)
1751  p    0001  (device product)
1752  d    0206  (bcddevice)
1753  dc     09  (device class)
1754  dsc    00  (device subclass)
1755  dp     00  (device protocol)
1756  ic     09  (interface class)
1757  isc    00  (interface subclass)
1758  ip     00  (interface protocol)
1759 </pre>
1760
1761 <p>The 0900 device class/subclass means hub.  Some times the relevant
1762 class is in the interface class section.  For a simple USB web camera,
1763 these alias entries show up:</p>
1764
1765 <p><blockquote>
1766 usb:v0AC8p3420d5000dcEFdsc02dp01ic01isc01ip00
1767 <br>usb:v0AC8p3420d5000dcEFdsc02dp01ic01isc02ip00
1768 <br>usb:v0AC8p3420d5000dcEFdsc02dp01ic0Eisc01ip00
1769 <br>usb:v0AC8p3420d5000dcEFdsc02dp01ic0Eisc02ip00
1770 </blockquote></p>
1771
1772 <p>Interface class 0E01 is video control, 0E02 is video streaming (aka
1773 camera), 0101 is audio control device and 0102 is audio streaming (aka
1774 microphone).  Thus this is a camera with microphone included.</p>
1775
1776 <p><strong>ACPI subtype</strong></p>
1777
1778 <p>The ACPI type is used for several non-PCI/USB stuff.  This is an IR
1779 receiver in a Thinkpad X40:</p>
1780
1781 <p><blockquote>
1782 acpi:IBM0071:PNP0511:
1783 </blockquote></p>
1784
1785 <p>The values between the colons are IDs.</p>
1786
1787 <p><strong>DMI subtype</strong></p>
1788
1789 <p>The DMI table contain lots of information about the computer case
1790 and model.  This is an entry for a IBM Thinkpad X40, fetched from
1791 /sys/devices/virtual/dmi/id/modalias:</p>
1792
1793 <p><blockquote>
1794 dmi:bvnIBM:bvr1UETB6WW(1.66):bd06/15/2005:svnIBM:pn2371H4G:pvrThinkPadX40:rvnIBM:rn2371H4G:rvrNotAvailable:cvnIBM:ct10:cvrNotAvailable:
1795 </blockquote></p>
1796
1797 <p>The values present are</p>
1798
1799 <pre>
1800  bvn  IBM            (BIOS vendor)
1801  bvr  1UETB6WW(1.66) (BIOS version)
1802  bd   06/15/2005     (BIOS date)
1803  svn  IBM            (system vendor)
1804  pn   2371H4G        (product name)
1805  pvr  ThinkPadX40    (product version)
1806  rvn  IBM            (board vendor)
1807  rn   2371H4G        (board name)
1808  rvr  NotAvailable   (board version)
1809  cvn  IBM            (chassis vendor)
1810  ct   10             (chassis type)
1811  cvr  NotAvailable   (chassis version)
1812 </pre>
1813
1814 <p>The chassis type 10 is Notebook.  Other interesting values can be
1815 found in the dmidecode source:</p>
1816
1817 <pre>
1818   3 Desktop
1819   4 Low Profile Desktop
1820   5 Pizza Box
1821   6 Mini Tower
1822   7 Tower
1823   8 Portable
1824   9 Laptop
1825  10 Notebook
1826  11 Hand Held
1827  12 Docking Station
1828  13 All In One
1829  14 Sub Notebook
1830  15 Space-saving
1831  16 Lunch Box
1832  17 Main Server Chassis
1833  18 Expansion Chassis
1834  19 Sub Chassis
1835  20 Bus Expansion Chassis
1836  21 Peripheral Chassis
1837  22 RAID Chassis
1838  23 Rack Mount Chassis
1839  24 Sealed-case PC
1840  25 Multi-system
1841  26 CompactPCI
1842  27 AdvancedTCA
1843  28 Blade
1844  29 Blade Enclosing
1845 </pre>
1846
1847 <p>The chassis type values are not always accurately set in the DMI
1848 table.  For example my home server is a tower, but the DMI modalias
1849 claim it is a desktop.</p>
1850
1851 <p><strong>SerIO subtype</strong></p>
1852
1853 <p>This type is used for PS/2 mouse plugs.  One example is from my
1854 test machine:</p>
1855
1856 <p><blockquote>
1857 serio:ty01pr00id00ex00
1858 </blockquote></p>
1859
1860 <p>The values present are</p>
1861
1862 <pre>
1863   ty  01  (type)
1864   pr  00  (prototype)
1865   id  00  (id)
1866   ex  00  (extra)
1867 </pre>
1868
1869 <p>This type is supported by the psmouse driver.  I am not sure what
1870 the valid values are.</p>
1871
1872 <p><strong>Other subtypes</strong></p>
1873
1874 <p>There are heaps of other modalias subtypes according to
1875 file2alias.c.  There is the rest of the list from that source: amba,
1876 ap, bcma, ccw, css, eisa, hid, i2c, ieee1394, input, ipack, isapnp,
1877 mdio, of, parisc, pcmcia, platform, scsi, sdio, spi, ssb, vio, virtio,
1878 vmbus, x86cpu and zorro.  I did not spend time documenting all of
1879 these, as they do not seem relevant for my intended use with mapping
1880 hardware to packages when new stuff is inserted during run time.</p>
1881
1882 <p><strong>Looking up kernel modules using modalias values</strong></p>
1883
1884 <p>To check which kernel modules provide support for a given modalias,
1885 one can use the following shell script:</p>
1886
1887 <pre>
1888   for id in $(find /sys -name modalias -print0 | xargs -0 cat | sort -u); do \
1889     echo "$id" ; \
1890     /sbin/modprobe --show-depends "$id"|sed 's/^/  /' ; \
1891   done
1892 </pre>
1893
1894 <p>The output can look like this (only the first few entries as the
1895 list is very long on my test machine):</p>
1896
1897 <pre>
1898   acpi:ACPI0003:
1899     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/drivers/acpi/ac.ko
1900   acpi:device:
1901   FATAL: Module acpi:device: not found.
1902   acpi:IBM0068:
1903     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/drivers/char/nvram.ko
1904     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/drivers/leds/led-class.ko
1905     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/net/rfkill/rfkill.ko
1906     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/drivers/platform/x86/thinkpad_acpi.ko
1907   acpi:IBM0071:PNP0511:
1908     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/lib/crc-ccitt.ko
1909     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/net/irda/irda.ko
1910     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/drivers/net/irda/nsc-ircc.ko
1911   [...]
1912 </pre>
1913
1914 <p>If you want to help implementing a system to let us propose what
1915 packages to install when new hardware is plugged into a Debian
1916 machine, please send me an email or talk to me on
1917 <a href="irc://irc.debian.org/%23debian-devel">#debian-devel</a>.</p>
1918
1919 <p><strong>Update 2013-01-15:</strong> Rewrite "cat $(find ...)" to
1920 "find ... -print0 | xargs -0 cat" to make sure it handle directories
1921 in /sys/ with space in them.</p>
1922
1923       </div>
1924       <div class="tags">
1925
1926
1927         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>.
1928
1929
1930       </div>
1931     </div>
1932     <div class="padding"></div>
1933
1934     <div class="entry">
1935       <div class="title">
1936         <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>
1937       </div>
1938       <div class="date">
1939         10th January 2013
1940       </div>
1941       <div class="body">
1942         <p>As part of my investigation on how to improve the support in Debian
1943 for hardware dongles, I dug up my old Mark and Spencer USB Rocket
1944 Launcher and updated the Debian package
1945 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/pymissile">pymissile</a> to make
1946 sure udev will fix the device permissions when it is plugged in.  I
1947 also added a "Modaliases" header to test it in the Debian archive and
1948 hopefully make the package be proposed by jockey in Ubuntu when a user
1949 plug in his rocket launcher.  In the process I moved the source to a
1950 git repository under collab-maint, to make it easier for any DD to
1951 contribute.  <a href="http://code.google.com/p/pymissile/">Upstream</a>
1952 is not very active, but the software still work for me even after five
1953 years of relative silence.  The new git repository is not listed in
1954 the uploaded package yet, because I want to test the other changes a
1955 bit more before I upload the new version.  If you want to check out
1956 the new version with a .desktop file included, visit the
1957 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/gitweb/?p=collab-maint/pymissile.git">gitweb
1958 view</a> or use "<tt>git clone
1959 git://anonscm.debian.org/collab-maint/pymissile.git</tt>".</p>
1960
1961       </div>
1962       <div class="tags">
1963
1964
1965         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>.
1966
1967
1968       </div>
1969     </div>
1970     <div class="padding"></div>
1971
1972     <div class="entry">
1973       <div class="title">
1974         <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>
1975       </div>
1976       <div class="date">
1977          9th January 2013
1978       </div>
1979       <div class="body">
1980         <p>One thing that annoys me with Debian and Linux distributions in
1981 general, is that there is a great package management system with the
1982 ability to automatically install software packages by downloading them
1983 from the distribution mirrors, but no way to get it to automatically
1984 install the packages I need to use the hardware I plug into my
1985 machine.  Even if the package to use it is easily available from the
1986 Linux distribution.  When I plug in a LEGO Mindstorms NXT, it could
1987 suggest to automatically install the python-nxt, nbc and t2n packages
1988 I need to talk to it.  When I plug in a Yubikey, it could propose the
1989 yubikey-personalization package.  The information required to do this
1990 is available, but no-one have pulled all the pieces together.</p>
1991
1992 <p>Some years ago, I proposed to
1993 <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2010/05/msg01206.html">use
1994 the discover subsystem to implement this</a>.  The idea is fairly
1995 simple:
1996
1997 <ul>
1998
1999 <li>Add a desktop entry in /usr/share/autostart/ pointing to a program
2000   starting when a user log in.</li>
2001
2002 <li>Set this program up to listen for kernel events emitted when new
2003   hardware is inserted into the computer.</li>
2004
2005 <li>When new hardware is inserted, look up the hardware ID in a
2006   database mapping to packages, and take note of any non-installed
2007   packages.</li>
2008
2009 <li>Show a message to the user proposing to install the discovered
2010   package, and make it easy to install it.</li>
2011
2012 </ul>
2013
2014 <p>I am not sure what the best way to implement this is, but my
2015 initial idea was to use dbus events to discover new hardware, the
2016 discover database to find packages and
2017 <a href="http://www.packagekit.org/">PackageKit</a> to install
2018 packages.</p>
2019
2020 <p>Yesterday, I found time to try to implement this idea, and the
2021 draft package is now checked into
2022 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/">the
2023 Debian Edu subversion repository</a>.  In the process, I updated the
2024 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/d/discover-data.html">discover-data</a>
2025 package to map the USB ids of LEGO Mindstorms and Yubikey devices to
2026 the relevant packages in Debian, and uploaded a new version
2027 2.2013.01.09 to unstable.  I also discovered that the current
2028 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/d/discover.html">discover</a>
2029 package in Debian no longer discovered any USB devices, because
2030 /proc/bus/usb/devices is no longer present.  I ported it to use
2031 libusb as a fall back option to get it working.  The fixed package
2032 version 2.1.2-6 is now in experimental (didn't upload it to unstable
2033 because of the freeze).</p>
2034
2035 <p>With this prototype in place, I can insert my Yubikey, and get this
2036 desktop notification to show up (only once, the first time it is
2037 inserted):</p>
2038
2039 <p align="center"><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-01-09-hw-autoinstall.png"></p>
2040
2041 <p>For this prototype to be really useful, some way to automatically
2042 install the proposed packages by pressing the "Please install
2043 program(s)" button should to be implemented.</p>
2044
2045 <p>If this idea seem useful to you, and you want to help make it
2046 happen, please help me update the discover-data database with mappings
2047 from hardware to Debian packages.  Check if 'discover-pkginstall -l'
2048 list the package you would like to have installed when a given
2049 hardware device is inserted into your computer, and report bugs using
2050 reportbug if it isn't.  Or, if you know of a better way to provide
2051 such mapping, please let me know.</p>
2052
2053 <p>This prototype need more work, and there are several questions that
2054 should be considered before it is ready for production use.  Is dbus
2055 the correct way to detect new hardware?  At the moment I look for HAL
2056 dbus events on the system bus, because that is the events I could see
2057 on my Debian Squeeze KDE desktop.  Are there better events to use?
2058 How should the user be notified?  Is the desktop notification
2059 mechanism the best option, or should the background daemon raise a
2060 popup instead?  How should packages be installed?  When should they
2061 not be installed?</p>
2062
2063 <p>If you want to help getting such feature implemented in Debian,
2064 please send me an email. :)</p>
2065
2066       </div>
2067       <div class="tags">
2068
2069
2070         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>.
2071
2072
2073       </div>
2074     </div>
2075     <div class="padding"></div>
2076
2077     <div class="entry">
2078       <div class="title">
2079         <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>
2080       </div>
2081       <div class="date">
2082          2nd January 2013
2083       </div>
2084       <div class="body">
2085         <p>During Christmas, I have worked a bit on the Debian support for
2086 <a href="http://mindstorms.lego.com/en-us/Default.aspx">LEGO Mindstorm
2087 NXT</a>.  My son and I have played a bit with my NXT set, and I
2088 discovered I had to build all the tools myself because none were
2089 already in Debian Squeeze.  If Debian support for LEGO is something
2090 you care about, please join me on the IRC channel
2091 <a href="irc://irc.debian.org/%23debian-lego">#debian-lego</a> (server
2092 irc.debian.org).  There is a lot that could be done to improve the
2093 Debian support for LEGO designers.  For example both CAD software
2094 and Mindstorm compilers are missing. :)</p>
2095
2096 <p>Update 2012-01-03: A
2097 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/LegoDesigners">project page</a>
2098 including links to Lego related packages is now available.</p>
2099
2100       </div>
2101       <div class="tags">
2102
2103
2104         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>.
2105
2106
2107       </div>
2108     </div>
2109     <div class="padding"></div>
2110
2111     <div class="entry">
2112       <div class="title">
2113         <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>
2114       </div>
2115       <div class="date">
2116         25th December 2012
2117       </div>
2118       <div class="body">
2119         <p>Let me start by wishing you all marry Christmas and a happy new
2120 year!  I hope next year will prove to be a good year.</p>
2121
2122 <p><a href="http://www.bitcoin.org/">Bitcoin</a>, the digital
2123 decentralised "currency" that allow people to transfer bitcoins
2124 between each other with minimal overhead, is a very interesting
2125 experiment.  And as I wrote a few days ago, the bitcoin situation in
2126 <a href="http://www.debian.org/">Debian</a> is about to improve a bit.
2127 The <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/bitcoin">new debian source
2128 package</a> (version 0.7.2-2) was uploaded yesterday, and is waiting
2129 in <a href="http://ftp-master.debian.org/new.html">the NEW queue</A>
2130 for one of the ftpmasters to approve the new bitcoin-qt package
2131 name.</p>
2132
2133 <p>And thanks to the great work of Jonas and the rest of the bitcoin
2134 team in Debian, you can easily test the package in Debian Squeeze
2135 using the following steps to get a set of working packages:</p>
2136
2137 <blockquote><pre>
2138 git clone git://git.debian.org/git/collab-maint/bitcoin
2139 cd bitcoin
2140 DEB_MAINTAINER_MODE=1 DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS=noupnp fakeroot debian/rules clean
2141 DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS=noupnp git-buildpackage --git-ignore-new
2142 </pre></blockquote>
2143
2144 <p>You might have to install some build dependencies as well.  The
2145 list of commands should give you two packages, bitcoind and
2146 bitcoin-qt, ready for use in a Squeeze environment.  Note that the
2147 client will download the complete set of bitcoin "blocks", which need
2148 around 5.6 GiB of data on my machine at the moment.  Make sure your
2149 ~/.bitcoin/ directory have lots of spare room if you want to download
2150 all the blocks.  The client will warn if the disk is getting full, so
2151 there is not really a problem if you got too little room, but you will
2152 not be able to get all the features out of the client.</p>
2153
2154 <p>As usual, if you use bitcoin and want to show your support of my
2155 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
2156 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b&label=PetterReinholdtsenBlog">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
2157
2158       </div>
2159       <div class="tags">
2160
2161
2162         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>.
2163
2164
2165       </div>
2166     </div>
2167     <div class="padding"></div>
2168
2169     <div class="entry">
2170       <div class="title">
2171         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/A_word_on_bitcoin_support_in_Debian.html">A word on bitcoin support in Debian</a>
2172       </div>
2173       <div class="date">
2174         21st December 2012
2175       </div>
2176       <div class="body">
2177         <p>It has been a while since I wrote about
2178 <a href="http://www.bitcoin.org/">bitcoin</a>, the decentralised
2179 peer-to-peer based crypto-currency, and the reason is simply that I
2180 have been busy elsewhere.  But two days ago, I started looking at the
2181 state of <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/bitcoin">bitcoin in
2182 Debian</a> again to try to recover my old bitcoin wallet.  The package
2183 is now maintained by a
2184 <a href="https://alioth.debian.org/projects/pkg-bitcoin/">team of
2185 people</a>, and the grunt work had already been done by this team.  We
2186 owe a huge thank you to all these team members. :)
2187 But I was sad to discover that the bitcoin client is missing in
2188 Wheezy.  It is only available in Sid (and an outdated client from
2189 backports).  The client had several RC bugs registered in BTS blocking
2190 it from entering testing.  To try to help the team and improve the
2191 situation, I spent some time providing patches and triaging the bug
2192 reports.  I also had a look at the bitcoin package available from Matt
2193 Corallo in a
2194 <a href="https://launchpad.net/~bitcoin/+archive/bitcoin">PPA for
2195 Ubuntu</a>, and moved the useful pieces from that version into the
2196 Debian package.</p>
2197
2198 <p>After checking with the main package maintainer Jonas Smedegaard on
2199 IRC, I pushed several patches into the collab-maint git repository to
2200 improve the package.  It now contains fixes for the RC issues (not from
2201 me, but fixed by Scott Howard), build rules for a Qt GUI client
2202 package, konqueror support for the bitcoin: URI and bash completion
2203 setup.  As I work on Debian Squeeze, I also created
2204 <a href="http://lists.alioth.debian.org/pipermail/pkg-bitcoin-devel/Week-of-Mon-20121217/000041.html">a
2205 patch to backport</a> the latest version.  Jonas is going to look at
2206 it and try to integrate it into the git repository before uploading a
2207 new version to unstable.
2208
2209 <p>I would very much like bitcoin to succeed, to get rid of the
2210 centralized control currently exercised in the monetary system.  I
2211 find it completely unacceptable that the USA government is collecting
2212 transaction data for almost all international money transfers (most are done in USD and transaction logs shipped to the spooks), and
2213 that the major credit card companies can block legal money
2214 transactions to Wikileaks.  But for bitcoin to succeed, more people
2215 need to use bitcoins, and more people need to accept bitcoins when
2216 they sell products and services.  Improving the bitcoin support in
2217 Debian is a small step in the right direction, but not enough.
2218 Unfortunately the user experience when browsing the web and wanting to
2219 pay with bitcoin is still not very good.  The bitcoin: URI is a step
2220 in the right direction, but need to work in most or every browser in
2221 use.  Also the bitcoin-qt client is too heavy to fire up to do a
2222 quick transaction.  I believe there are other clients available, but
2223 have not tested them.</p>
2224
2225 <p>My
2226 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Now_accepting_bitcoins___anonymous_and_distributed_p2p_crypto_money.html">experiment
2227 with bitcoins</a> showed that at least some of my readers use bitcoin.
2228 I received 20.15 BTC so far on the address I provided in my blog two
2229 years ago, as can be
2230 <a href="http://blockexplorer.com/address/15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">seen
2231 on the blockexplorer service</a>.  Thank you everyone for your
2232 donation.  The blockexplorer service demonstrates quite well that
2233 bitcoin is not quite anonymous and untracked. :) I wonder if the
2234 number of users have gone up since then.  If you use bitcoin and want
2235 to show your support of my activity, please send Bitcoin donations to
2236 the same address as last time,
2237 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b&label=PetterReinholdtsenBlog">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
2238
2239       </div>
2240       <div class="tags">
2241
2242
2243         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>.
2244
2245
2246       </div>
2247     </div>
2248     <div class="padding"></div>
2249
2250     <div class="entry">
2251       <div class="title">
2252         <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>
2253       </div>
2254       <div class="date">
2255          7th September 2012
2256       </div>
2257       <div class="body">
2258         <p>As I
2259 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Song_book_for_Computer_Scientists.html">mentioned
2260 this summer</a>, I have created a Computer Science song book a few
2261 years ago, and today I finally found time to create a public
2262 <a href="https://gitorious.org/pere-cs-songbook/pere-cs-songbook">Gitorious
2263 repository for the project</a>.</p>
2264
2265 <p>If you want to help out, please clone the source and submit patches
2266 to the HTML version.  To generate the PDF and PostScript version,
2267 please use prince XML, or let me know about a useful free software
2268 processor capable of creating a good looking PDF from the HTML.</p>
2269
2270 <p>Want to sing?  You can still find the song book in HTML, PDF and
2271 PostScript formats at
2272 <a href="http://www.hungry.com/~pere/cs-songbook/">Petter's Computer
2273 Science Songbook</a>.</p>
2274
2275       </div>
2276       <div class="tags">
2277
2278
2279         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>.
2280
2281
2282       </div>
2283     </div>
2284     <div class="padding"></div>
2285
2286     <div class="entry">
2287       <div class="title">
2288         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Gratulerer_med_19__rsdagen__Debian_.html">Gratulerer med 19-årsdagen, Debian!</a>
2289       </div>
2290       <div class="date">
2291         16th August 2012
2292       </div>
2293       <div class="body">
2294         <p>I dag fyller
2295 <a href="http://www.debian.org/News/2012/20120813">Debian-prosjektet 19
2296 år</a>.  Jeg har fulgt det de siste 12 årene, og er veldig glad for å kunne
2297 si gratulerer med dagen, Debian!</p>
2298
2299       </div>
2300       <div class="tags">
2301
2302
2303         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>.
2304
2305
2306       </div>
2307     </div>
2308     <div class="padding"></div>
2309
2310     <div class="entry">
2311       <div class="title">
2312         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Song_book_for_Computer_Scientists.html">Song book for Computer Scientists</a>
2313       </div>
2314       <div class="date">
2315         24th June 2012
2316       </div>
2317       <div class="body">
2318         <p>Many years ago, while studying Computer Science at the
2319 <a href="http://www.uit.no/">University of Tromsø</a>, I started
2320 collecting computer related songs for use at parties.  The original
2321 version was written in LaTeX, but a few years ago I got help from
2322 Håkon W. Lie, one of the inventors of W3C CSS, to convert it to HTML
2323 while keeping the ability to create a nice book in PDF format.  I have
2324 not had time to maintain the book for a while now, and guess I should
2325 put it up on some public version control repository where others can
2326 help me extend and update the book.  If anyone is volunteering to help
2327 me with this, send me an email.  Also let me know if there are songs
2328 missing in my book.</p>
2329
2330 <p>I have not mentioned the book on my blog so far, and it occured to
2331 me today that I really should let all my readers share the joys of
2332 singing out load about programming, computers and computer networks.
2333 Especially now that <a href="http://debconf12.debconf.org/">Debconf
2334 12</a> is about to start (and I am not going).  Want to sing?  Check
2335 out <a href="http://www.hungry.com/~pere/cs-songbook/">Petter's
2336 Computer Science Songbook</a>.
2337
2338       </div>
2339       <div class="tags">
2340
2341
2342         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>.
2343
2344
2345       </div>
2346     </div>
2347     <div class="padding"></div>
2348
2349     <div class="entry">
2350       <div class="title">
2351         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Automatically_upgrading_server_firmware_on_Dell_PowerEdge.html">Automatically upgrading server firmware on Dell PowerEdge</a>
2352       </div>
2353       <div class="date">
2354         21st November 2011
2355       </div>
2356       <div class="body">
2357         <p>At work we have heaps of servers.  I believe the total count is
2358 around 1000 at the moment.  To be able to get help from the vendors
2359 when something go wrong, we want to keep the firmware on the servers
2360 up to date.  If the firmware isn't the latest and greatest, the
2361 vendors typically refuse to start debugging any problems until the
2362 firmware is upgraded.  So before every reboot, we want to upgrade the
2363 firmware, and we would really like everyone handling servers at the
2364 university to do this themselves when they plan to reboot a machine.
2365 For that to happen we at the unix server admin group need to provide
2366 the tools to do so.</p>
2367
2368 <p>To make firmware upgrading easier, I am working on a script to
2369 fetch and install the latest firmware for the servers we got.  Most of
2370 our hardware are from Dell and HP, so I have focused on these servers
2371 so far.  This blog post is about the Dell part.</P>
2372
2373 <p>On the Dell FTP site I was lucky enough to find
2374 <a href="ftp://ftp.us.dell.com/catalog/Catalog.xml.gz">an XML file</a>
2375 with firmware information for all 11th generation servers, listing
2376 which firmware should be used on a given model and where on the FTP
2377 site I can find it.  Using a simple perl XML parser I can then
2378 download the shell scripts Dell provides to do firmware upgrades from
2379 within Linux and reboot when all the firmware is primed and ready to
2380 be activated on the first reboot.</p>
2381
2382 <p>This is the Dell related fragment of the perl code I am working on.
2383 Are there anyone working on similar tools for firmware upgrading all
2384 servers at a site?  Please get in touch and lets share resources.</p>
2385
2386 <p><pre>
2387 #!/usr/bin/perl
2388 use strict;
2389 use warnings;
2390 use File::Temp qw(tempdir);
2391 BEGIN {
2392     # Install needed RHEL packages if missing
2393     my %rhelmodules = (
2394         'XML::Simple' => 'perl-XML-Simple',
2395         );
2396     for my $module (keys %rhelmodules) {
2397         eval "use $module;";
2398         if ($@) {
2399             my $pkg = $rhelmodules{$module};
2400             system("yum install -y $pkg");
2401             eval "use $module;";
2402         }
2403     }
2404 }
2405 my $errorsto = 'pere@hungry.com';
2406
2407 upgrade_dell();
2408
2409 exit 0;
2410
2411 sub run_firmware_script {
2412     my ($opts, $script) = @_;
2413     unless ($script) {
2414         print STDERR "fail: missing script name\n";
2415         exit 1
2416     }
2417     print STDERR "Running $script\n\n";
2418
2419     if (0 == system("sh $script $opts")) { # FIXME correct exit code handling
2420         print STDERR "success: firmware script ran succcessfully\n";
2421     } else {
2422         print STDERR "fail: firmware script returned error\n";
2423     }
2424 }
2425
2426 sub run_firmware_scripts {
2427     my ($opts, @dirs) = @_;
2428     # Run firmware packages
2429     for my $dir (@dirs) {
2430         print STDERR "info: Running scripts in $dir\n";
2431         opendir(my $dh, $dir) or die "Unable to open directory $dir: $!";
2432         while (my $s = readdir $dh) {
2433             next if $s =~ m/^\.\.?/;
2434             run_firmware_script($opts, "$dir/$s");
2435         }
2436         closedir $dh;
2437     }
2438 }
2439
2440 sub download {
2441     my $url = shift;
2442     print STDERR "info: Downloading $url\n";
2443     system("wget --quiet \"$url\"");
2444 }
2445
2446 sub upgrade_dell {
2447     my @dirs;
2448     my $product = `dmidecode -s system-product-name`;
2449     chomp $product;
2450
2451     if ($product =~ m/PowerEdge/) {
2452
2453         # on RHEL, these pacakges are needed by the firwmare upgrade scripts
2454         system('yum install -y compat-libstdc++-33.i686 libstdc++.i686 libxml2.i686 procmail');
2455
2456         my $tmpdir = tempdir(
2457             CLEANUP => 1
2458             );
2459         chdir($tmpdir);
2460         fetch_dell_fw('catalog/Catalog.xml.gz');
2461         system('gunzip Catalog.xml.gz');
2462         my @paths = fetch_dell_fw_list('Catalog.xml');
2463         # -q is quiet, disabling interactivity and reducing console output
2464         my $fwopts = "-q";
2465         if (@paths) {
2466             for my $url (@paths) {
2467                 fetch_dell_fw($url);
2468             }
2469             run_firmware_scripts($fwopts, $tmpdir);
2470         } else {
2471             print STDERR "error: Unsupported Dell model '$product'.\n";
2472             print STDERR "error: Please report to $errorsto.\n";
2473         }
2474         chdir('/');
2475     } else {
2476         print STDERR "error: Unsupported Dell model '$product'.\n";
2477         print STDERR "error: Please report to $errorsto.\n";
2478     }
2479 }
2480
2481 sub fetch_dell_fw {
2482     my $path = shift;
2483     my $url = "ftp://ftp.us.dell.com/$path";
2484     download($url);
2485 }
2486
2487 # Using ftp://ftp.us.dell.com/catalog/Catalog.xml.gz, figure out which
2488 # firmware packages to download from Dell.  Only work for Linux
2489 # machines and 11th generation Dell servers.
2490 sub fetch_dell_fw_list {
2491     my $filename = shift;
2492
2493     my $product = `dmidecode -s system-product-name`;
2494     chomp $product;
2495     my ($mybrand, $mymodel) = split(/\s+/, $product);
2496
2497     print STDERR "Finding firmware bundles for $mybrand $mymodel\n";
2498
2499     my $xml = XMLin($filename);
2500     my @paths;
2501     for my $bundle (@{$xml->{SoftwareBundle}}) {
2502         my $brand = $bundle->{TargetSystems}->{Brand}->{Display}->{content};
2503         my $model = $bundle->{TargetSystems}->{Brand}->{Model}->{Display}->{content};
2504         my $oscode;
2505         if ("ARRAY" eq ref $bundle->{TargetOSes}->{OperatingSystem}) {
2506             $oscode = $bundle->{TargetOSes}->{OperatingSystem}[0]->{osCode};
2507         } else {
2508             $oscode = $bundle->{TargetOSes}->{OperatingSystem}->{osCode};
2509         }
2510         if ($mybrand eq $brand && $mymodel eq $model && "LIN" eq $oscode)
2511         {
2512             @paths = map { $_->{path} } @{$bundle->{Contents}->{Package}};
2513         }
2514     }
2515     for my $component (@{$xml->{SoftwareComponent}}) {
2516         my $componenttype = $component->{ComponentType}->{value};
2517
2518         # Drop application packages, only firmware and BIOS
2519         next if 'APAC' eq $componenttype;
2520
2521         my $cpath = $component->{path};
2522         for my $path (@paths) {
2523             if ($cpath =~ m%/$path$%) {
2524                 push(@paths, $cpath);
2525             }
2526         }
2527     }
2528     return @paths;
2529 }
2530 </pre>
2531
2532 <p>The code is only tested on RedHat Enterprise Linux, but I suspect
2533 it could work on other platforms with some tweaking.  Anyone know a
2534 index like Catalog.xml is available from HP for HP servers?  At the
2535 moment I maintain a similar list manually and it is quickly getting
2536 outdated.</p>
2537
2538       </div>
2539       <div class="tags">
2540
2541
2542         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>.
2543
2544
2545       </div>
2546     </div>
2547     <div class="padding"></div>
2548
2549     <div class="entry">
2550       <div class="title">
2551         <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>
2552       </div>
2553       <div class="date">
2554          4th August 2011
2555       </div>
2556       <div class="body">
2557         <p>Wouter Verhelst have some
2558 <a href="http://grep.be/blog/en/retorts/pere_kubuntu_boot">interesting
2559 comments and opinions</a> on my blog post on
2560 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/What_should_start_from__etc_rcS_d__in_Debian____almost_nothing.html">the
2561 need to clean up /etc/rcS.d/ in Debian</a> and my blog post about
2562 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/What_is_missing_in_the_Debian_desktop__or_why_my_parents_use_Kubuntu.html">the
2563 default KDE desktop in Debian</a>.  I only have time to address one
2564 small piece of his comment now, and though it best to address the
2565 misunderstanding he bring forward:</p>
2566
2567 <p><blockquote>
2568 Currently, a system admin has four options: [...] boot to a
2569 single-user system (by adding 'single' to the kernel command line;
2570 this runs rcS and rc1 scripts)
2571 </blockquote></p>
2572
2573 <p>This make me believe Wouter believe booting into single user mode
2574 and booting into runlevel 1 is the same.  I am not surprised he
2575 believe this, because it would make sense and is a quite sensible
2576 thing to believe.  But because the boot in Debian is slightly broken,
2577 runlevel 1 do not work properly and it isn't the same as single user
2578 mode.  I'll try to explain what is actually happing, but it is a bit
2579 hard to explain.</p>
2580
2581 <p>Single user mode is defined like this in /etc/inittab:
2582 "<tt>~~:S:wait:/sbin/sulogin</tt>".  This means the only thing that is
2583 executed in single user mode is sulogin.  Single user mode is a boot
2584 state "between" the runlevels, and when booting into single user mode,
2585 only the scripts in /etc/rcS.d/ are executed before the init process
2586 enters the single user state.  When switching to runlevel 1, the state
2587 is in fact not ending in runlevel 1, but it passes through runlevel 1
2588 and end up in the single user mode (see /etc/rc1.d/S03single, which
2589 runs "init -t1 S" to switch to single user mode at the end of runlevel
2590 1.  It is confusing that the 'S' (single user) init mode is not the
2591 mode enabled by /etc/rcS.d/ (which is more like the initial boot
2592 mode).</p>
2593
2594 <p>This summary might make it clearer.  When booting for the first
2595 time into single user mode, the following commands are executed:
2596 "<tt>/etc/init.d/rc S; /sbin/sulogin</tt>".  When booting into
2597 runlevel 1, the following commands are executed: "<tt>/etc/init.d/rc
2598 S; /etc/init.d/rc 1; /sbin/sulogin</tt>".  A problem show up when
2599 trying to continue after visiting single user mode.  Not all services
2600 are started again as they should, causing the machine to end up in an
2601 unpredicatble state.  This is why Debian admins recommend rebooting
2602 after visiting single user mode.</p>
2603
2604 <p>A similar problem with runlevel 1 is caused by the amount of
2605 scripts executed from /etc/rcS.d/.  When switching from say runlevel 2
2606 to runlevel 1, the services started from /etc/rcS.d/ are not properly
2607 stopped when passing through the scripts in /etc/rc1.d/, and not
2608 started again when switching away from runlevel 1 to the runlevels
2609 2-5.  I believe the problem is best fixed by moving all the scripts
2610 out of /etc/rcS.d/ that are not <strong>required</strong> to get a
2611 functioning single user mode during boot.</p>
2612
2613 <p>I have spent several years investigating the Debian boot system,
2614 and discovered this problem a few years ago.  I suspect it originates
2615 from when sysvinit was introduced into Debian, a long time ago.</p>
2616
2617       </div>
2618       <div class="tags">
2619
2620
2621         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>.
2622
2623
2624       </div>
2625     </div>
2626     <div class="padding"></div>
2627
2628     <div class="entry">
2629       <div class="title">
2630         <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>
2631       </div>
2632       <div class="date">
2633         30th July 2011
2634       </div>
2635       <div class="body">
2636         <p>In the Debian boot system, several packages include scripts that
2637 are started from /etc/rcS.d/.  In fact, there is a bite more of them
2638 than make sense, and this causes a few problems.  What kind of
2639 problems, you might ask.  There are at least two problems.  The first
2640 is that it is not possible to recover a machine after switching to
2641 runlevel 1.  One need to actually reboot to get the machine back to
2642 the expected state.  The other is that single user boot will sometimes
2643 run into problems because some of the subsystems are activated before
2644 the root login is presented, causing problems when trying to recover a
2645 machine from a problem in that subsystem.  A minor additional point is
2646 that moving more scripts out of rcS.d/ and into the other rc#.d/
2647 directories will increase the amount of scripts that can run in
2648 parallel during boot, and thus decrease the boot time.</p>
2649
2650 <p>So, which scripts should start from rcS.d/.  In short, only the
2651 scripts that _have_ to execute before the root login prompt is
2652 presented during a single user boot should go there.  Everything else
2653 should go into the numeric runlevels.  This means things like
2654 lm-sensors, fuse and x11-common should not run from rcS.d, but from
2655 the numeric runlevels.  Today in Debian, there are around 115 init.d
2656 scripts that are started from rcS.d/, and most of them should be moved
2657 out.  Do your package have one of them?  Please help us make single
2658 user and runlevel 1 better by moving it.</p>
2659
2660 <p>Scripts setting up the screen, keyboard, system partitions
2661 etc. should still be started from rcS.d/, but there is for example no
2662 need to have the network enabled before the single user login prompt
2663 is presented.</p>
2664
2665 <p>As always, things are not so easy to fix as they sound.  To keep
2666 Debian systems working while scripts migrate and during upgrades, the
2667 scripts need to be moved from rcS.d/ to rc2.d/ in reverse dependency
2668 order, ie the scripts that nothing in rcS.d/ depend on can be moved,
2669 and the next ones can only be moved when their dependencies have been
2670 moved first.  This migration must be done sequentially while we ensure
2671 that the package system upgrade packages in the right order to keep
2672 the system state correct.  This will require some coordination when it
2673 comes to network related packages, but most of the packages with
2674 scripts that should migrate do not have anything in rcS.d/ depending
2675 on them.  Some packages have already been updated, like the sudo
2676 package, while others are still left to do.  I wish I had time to work
2677 on this myself, but real live constrains make it unlikely that I will
2678 find time to push this forward.</p>
2679
2680       </div>
2681       <div class="tags">
2682
2683
2684         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>.
2685
2686
2687       </div>
2688     </div>
2689     <div class="padding"></div>
2690
2691     <div class="entry">
2692       <div class="title">
2693         <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>
2694       </div>
2695       <div class="date">
2696         29th July 2011
2697       </div>
2698       <div class="body">
2699         <p>While at Debconf11, I have several times during discussions
2700 mentioned the issues I believe should be improved in Debian for its
2701 desktop to be useful for more people.  The use case for this is my
2702 parents, which are currently running Kubuntu which solve the
2703 issues.</p>
2704
2705 <p>I suspect these four missing features are not very hard to
2706 implement.  After all, they are present in Ubuntu, so if we wanted to
2707 do this in Debian we would have a source.</p>
2708
2709 <ol>
2710
2711 <li><strong>Simple GUI based upgrade of packages.</strong> When there
2712 are new packages available for upgrades, a icon in the KDE status bar
2713 indicate this, and clicking on it will activate the simple upgrade
2714 tool to handle it.  I have no problem guiding both of my parents
2715 through the process over the phone.  If a kernel reboot is required,
2716 this too is indicated by the status bars and the upgrade tool.  Last
2717 time I checked, nothing with the same features was working in KDE in
2718 Debian.</li>
2719
2720 <li><strong>Simple handling of missing Firefox browser
2721 plugins.</strong> When the browser encounter a MIME type it do not
2722 currently have a handler for, it will ask the user if the system
2723 should search for a package that would add support for this MIME type,
2724 and if the user say yes, the APT sources will be searched for packages
2725 advertising the MIME type in their control file (visible in the
2726 Packages file in the APT archive).  If one or more packages are found,
2727 it is a simple click of the mouse to add support for the missing mime
2728 type.  If the package require the user to accept some non-free
2729 license, this is explained to the user.  The entire process make it
2730 more clear to the user why something do not work in the browser, and
2731 make the chances higher for the user to blame the web page authors and
2732 not the browser for any missing features.</li>
2733
2734 <li><strong>Simple handling of missing multimedia codec/format
2735 handlers.</strong> When the media players encounter a format or codec
2736 it is not supporting, a dialog pop up asking the user if the system
2737 should search for a package that would add support for it.  This
2738 happen with things like MP3, Windows Media or H.264.  The selection
2739 and installation procedure is very similar to the Firefox browser
2740 plugin handling.  This is as far as I know implemented using a
2741 gstreamer hook.  The end result is that the user easily get access to
2742 the codecs that are present from the APT archives available, while
2743 explaining more on why a given format is unsupported by Ubuntu.</li>
2744
2745 <li><strong>Better browser handling of some MIME types.</strong> When
2746 displaying a text/plain file in my Debian browser, it will propose to
2747 start emacs to show it.  If I remember correctly, when doing the same
2748 in Kunbutu it show the file as a text file in the browser.  At least I
2749 know Opera will show text files within the browser.  I much prefer the
2750 latter behaviour.</li>
2751
2752 </ol>
2753
2754 <p>There are other nice features as well, like the simplified suite
2755 upgrader, but given that I am the one mostly doing the dist-upgrade,
2756 it do not matter much.</p>
2757
2758 <p>I really hope we could get these features in place for the next
2759 Debian release.  It would require the coordinated effort of several
2760 maintainers, but would make the end user experience a lot better.</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>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/multimedia">multimedia</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/web">web</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/Perl_modules_used_by_FixMyStreet_which_are_missing_in_Debian_Squeeze.html">Perl modules used by FixMyStreet which are missing in Debian/Squeeze</a>
2776       </div>
2777       <div class="date">
2778         26th July 2011
2779       </div>
2780       <div class="body">
2781         <p>The Norwegian <a href="http://www.fiksgatami.no/">FiksGataMi</A>
2782 site is build on Debian/Squeeze, and this platform was chosen because
2783 I am most familiar with Debian (being a Debian Developer for around 10
2784 years) because it is the latest stable Debian release which should get
2785 security support for a few years.</p>
2786
2787 <p>The web service is written in Perl, and depend on some perl modules
2788 that are missing in Debian at the moment.  It would be great if these
2789 modules were added to the Debian archive, allowing anyone to set up
2790 their own <a href="http://www.fixmystreet.com">FixMyStreet</a> clone
2791 in their own country using only Debian packages.  The list of modules
2792 missing in Debian/Squeeze isn't very long, and I hope the perl group
2793 will find time to package the 12 modules Catalyst::Plugin::SmartURI,
2794 Catalyst::Plugin::Unicode::Encoding, Catalyst::View::TT, Devel::Hide,
2795 Sort::Key, Statistics::Distributions, Template::Plugin::Comma,
2796 Template::Plugin::DateTime::Format, Term::Size::Any, Term::Size::Perl,
2797 URI::SmartURI and Web::Scraper to make the maintenance of FixMyStreet
2798 easier in the future.</p>
2799
2800 <p>Thanks to the great tools in Debian, getting the missing modules
2801 installed on my server was a simple call to 'cpan2deb Module::Name'
2802 and 'dpkg -i' to install the resulting package.  But this leave me
2803 with the responsibility of tracking security problems, which I really
2804 do not have time for.</p>
2805
2806       </div>
2807       <div class="tags">
2808
2809
2810         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>.
2811
2812
2813       </div>
2814     </div>
2815     <div class="padding"></div>
2816
2817     <div class="entry">
2818       <div class="title">
2819         <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>
2820       </div>
2821       <div class="date">
2822          3rd April 2011
2823       </div>
2824       <div class="body">
2825         <p>Here is a small update for my English readers.  Most of my blog
2826 posts have been in Norwegian the last few weeks, so here is a short
2827 update in English.</p>
2828
2829 <p>The kids still keep me too busy to get much free software work
2830 done, but I did manage to organise a project to get a Norwegian port
2831 of the British service
2832 <a href="http://www.fixmystreet.com/">FixMyStreet</a> up and running,
2833 and it has been running for a month now.  The entire project has been
2834 organised by me and two others.  Around Christmas we gathered sponsors
2835 to fund the development work.  In January I drafted a contract with
2836 <a href="http://www.mysociety.org/">mySociety</a> on what to develop,
2837 and in February the development took place.  Most of it involved
2838 converting the source to use GPS coordinates instead of British
2839 easting/northing, and the resulting code should be a lot easier to get
2840 running in any country by now.  The Norwegian
2841 <a href="http://www.fiksgatami.no/">FiksGataMi</a> is using
2842 <a href="http://www.openstreetmap.org/">OpenStreetmap</a> as the map
2843 source and the source for administrative borders in Norway, and
2844 support for this had to be added/fixed.</p>
2845
2846 <p>The Norwegian version went live March 3th, and we spent the weekend
2847 polishing the system before we announced it March 7th.  The system is
2848 running on a KVM instance of Debian/Squeeze, and has seen almost 3000
2849 problem reports in a few weeks.  Soon we hope to announce the Android
2850 and iPhone versions making it even easier to report problems with the
2851 public infrastructure.</p>
2852
2853 <p>Perhaps something to consider for those of you in countries without
2854 such service?</p>
2855
2856       </div>
2857       <div class="tags">
2858
2859
2860         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>.
2861
2862
2863       </div>
2864     </div>
2865     <div class="padding"></div>
2866
2867     <div class="entry">
2868       <div class="title">
2869         <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>
2870       </div>
2871       <div class="date">
2872         28th January 2011
2873       </div>
2874       <div class="body">
2875         <p>The last few days I have looked at ways to track open security
2876 issues here at my work with the University of Oslo.  My idea is that
2877 it should be possible to use the information about security issues
2878 available on the Internet, and check our locally
2879 maintained/distributed software against this information.  It should
2880 allow us to verify that no known security issues are forgotten.  The
2881 CVE database listing vulnerabilities seem like a great central point,
2882 and by using the package lists from Debian mapped to CVEs provided by
2883 the testing security team, I believed it should be possible to figure
2884 out which security holes were present in our free software
2885 collection.</p>
2886
2887 <p>After reading up on the topic, it became obvious that the first
2888 building block is to be able to name software packages in a unique and
2889 consistent way across data sources.  I considered several ways to do
2890 this, for example coming up with my own naming scheme like using URLs
2891 to project home pages or URLs to the Freshmeat entries, or using some
2892 existing naming scheme.  And it seem like I am not the first one to
2893 come across this problem, as MITRE already proposed and implemented a
2894 solution.  Enter the <a href="http://cpe.mitre.org/index.html">Common
2895 Platform Enumeration</a> dictionary, a vocabulary for referring to
2896 software, hardware and other platform components.  The CPE ids are
2897 mapped to CVEs in the <a href="http://web.nvd.nist.gov/">National
2898 Vulnerability Database</a>, allowing me to look up know security
2899 issues for any CPE name.  With this in place, all I need to do is to
2900 locate the CPE id for the software packages we use at the university.
2901 This is fairly trivial (I google for 'cve cpe $package' and check the
2902 NVD entry if a CVE for the package exist).</p>
2903
2904 <p>To give you an example.  The GNU gzip source package have the CPE
2905 name cpe:/a:gnu:gzip.  If the old version 1.3.3 was the package to
2906 check out, one could look up
2907 <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
2908 in NVD</a> and get a list of 6 security holes with public CVE entries.
2909 The most recent one is
2910 <a href="http://web.nvd.nist.gov/view/vuln/detail?vulnId=CVE-2010-0001">CVE-2010-0001</a>,
2911 and at the bottom of the NVD page for this vulnerability the complete
2912 list of affected versions is provided.</p>
2913
2914 <p>The NVD database of CVEs is also available as a XML dump, allowing
2915 for offline processing of issues.  Using this dump, I've written a
2916 small script taking a list of CPEs as input and list all CVEs
2917 affecting the packages represented by these CPEs.  One give it CPEs
2918 with version numbers as specified above and get a list of open
2919 security issues out.</p>
2920
2921 <p>Of course for this approach to be useful, the quality of the NVD
2922 information need to be high.  For that to happen, I believe as many as
2923 possible need to use and contribute to the NVD database.  I notice
2924 RHEL is providing
2925 <a href="https://www.redhat.com/security/data/metrics/rhsamapcpe.txt">a
2926 map from CVE to CPE</a>, indicating that they are using the CPE
2927 information.  I'm not aware of Debian and Ubuntu doing the same.</p>
2928
2929 <p>To get an idea about the quality for free software, I spent some
2930 time making it possible to compare the CVE database from Debian with
2931 the CVE database in NVD.  The result look fairly good, but there are
2932 some inconsistencies in NVD (same software package having several
2933 CPEs), and some inaccuracies (NVD not mentioning buggy packages that
2934 Debian believe are affected by a CVE).  Hope to find time to improve
2935 the quality of NVD, but that require being able to get in touch with
2936 someone maintaining it.  So far my three emails with questions and
2937 corrections have not seen any reply, but I hope contact can be
2938 established soon.</p>
2939
2940 <p>An interesting application for CPEs is cross platform package
2941 mapping.  It would be useful to know which packages in for example
2942 RHEL, OpenSuSe and Mandriva are missing from Debian and Ubuntu, and
2943 this would be trivial if all linux distributions provided CPE entries
2944 for their packages.</p>
2945
2946       </div>
2947       <div class="tags">
2948
2949
2950         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>.
2951
2952
2953       </div>
2954     </div>
2955     <div class="padding"></div>
2956
2957     <div class="entry">
2958       <div class="title">
2959         <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>
2960       </div>
2961       <div class="date">
2962         23rd January 2011
2963       </div>
2964       <div class="body">
2965         <p>In the
2966 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/discover-data">discover-data</a>
2967 package in Debian, there is a script to report useful information
2968 about the running hardware for use when people report missing
2969 information.  One part of this script that I find very useful when
2970 debugging hardware problems, is the part mapping loaded kernel module
2971 to the PCI device it claims.  It allow me to quickly see if the kernel
2972 module I expect is driving the hardware I am struggling with.  To see
2973 the output, make sure discover-data is installed and run
2974 <tt>/usr/share/bug/discover-data 3>&1</tt>.  The relevant output on
2975 one of my machines like this:</p>
2976
2977 <pre>
2978 loaded modules:
2979 10de:03eb i2c_nforce2
2980 10de:03f1 ohci_hcd
2981 10de:03f2 ehci_hcd
2982 10de:03f0 snd_hda_intel
2983 10de:03ec pata_amd
2984 10de:03f6 sata_nv
2985 1022:1103 k8temp
2986 109e:036e bttv
2987 109e:0878 snd_bt87x
2988 11ab:4364 sky2
2989 </pre>
2990
2991 <p>The code in question look like this, slightly modified for
2992 readability and to drop the output to file descriptor 3:</p>
2993
2994 <pre>
2995 if [ -d /sys/bus/pci/devices/ ] ; then
2996     echo loaded pci modules:
2997     (
2998         cd /sys/bus/pci/devices/
2999         for address in * ; do
3000             if [ -d "$address/driver/module" ] ; then
3001                 module=`cd $address/driver/module ; pwd -P | xargs basename`
3002                 if grep -q "^$module " /proc/modules ; then
3003                     address=$(echo $address |sed s/0000://)
3004                     id=`lspci -n -s $address | tail -n 1 | awk '{print $3}'`
3005                     echo "$id $module"
3006                 fi
3007             fi
3008         done
3009     )
3010     echo
3011 fi
3012 </pre>
3013
3014 <p>Similar code could be used to extract USB device module
3015 mappings:</p>
3016
3017 <pre>
3018 if [ -d /sys/bus/usb/devices/ ] ; then
3019     echo loaded usb modules:
3020     (
3021         cd /sys/bus/usb/devices/
3022         for address in * ; do
3023             if [ -d "$address/driver/module" ] ; then
3024                 module=`cd $address/driver/module ; pwd -P | xargs basename`
3025                 if grep -q "^$module " /proc/modules ; then
3026                     address=$(echo $address |sed s/0000://)
3027                     id=$(lsusb -s $address | tail -n 1 | awk '{print $6}')
3028                     if [ "$id" ] ; then
3029                         echo "$id $module"
3030                     fi
3031                 fi
3032             fi
3033         done
3034     )
3035     echo
3036 fi
3037 </pre>
3038
3039 <p>This might perhaps be something to include in other tools as
3040 well.</p>
3041
3042       </div>
3043       <div class="tags">
3044
3045
3046         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>.
3047
3048
3049       </div>
3050     </div>
3051     <div class="padding"></div>
3052
3053     <div class="entry">
3054       <div class="title">
3055         <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>
3056       </div>
3057       <div class="date">
3058         22nd December 2010
3059       </div>
3060       <div class="body">
3061         <p>The last few days I have spent at work here at the <a
3062 href="http://www.uio.no/">University of Oslo</a> testing if the new
3063 batch of computers will work with Linux.  Every year for the last few
3064 years the university have organised shared bid of a few thousand
3065 computers, and this year HP won the bid.  Two different desktops and
3066 five different laptops are on the list this year.  We in the UNIX
3067 group want to know which one of these computers work well with RHEL
3068 and Ubuntu, the two Linux distributions we currently handle at the
3069 university.</p>
3070
3071 <p>My test method is simple, and I share it here to get feedback and
3072 perhaps inspire others to test hardware as well.  To test, I PXE
3073 install the OS version of choice, and log in as my normal user and run
3074 a few applications and plug in selected pieces of hardware.  When
3075 something fail, I make a note about this in the test matrix and move
3076 on.  If I have some spare time I try to report the bug to the OS
3077 vendor, but as I only have the machines for a short time, I rarely
3078 have the time to do this for all the problems I find.</p>
3079
3080 <p>Anyway, to get to the point of this post.  Here is the simple tests
3081 I perform on a new model.</p>
3082
3083 <ul>
3084
3085 <li>Is PXE installation working?  I'm testing with RHEL6, Ubuntu Lucid
3086 and Ubuntu Maverik at the moment.  If I feel like it, I also test with
3087 RHEL5 and Debian Edu/Squeeze.</li>
3088
3089 <li>Is X.org working?  If the graphical login screen show up after
3090 installation, X.org is working.</li>
3091
3092 <li>Is hardware accelerated OpenGL working?  Running glxgears (in
3093 package mesa-utils on Ubuntu) and writing down the frames per second
3094 reported by the program.</li>
3095
3096 <li>Is sound working?  With Gnome and KDE, a sound is played when
3097 logging in, and if I can hear this the test is successful.  If there
3098 are several audio exits on the machine, I try them all and check if
3099 the Gnome/KDE audio mixer can control where to send the sound.  I
3100 normally test this by playing
3101 <a href="http://www.nuug.no/aktiviteter/20101012-chef/ ">a HTML5
3102 video</a> in Firefox/Iceweasel.</li>
3103
3104 <li>Is the USB subsystem working?  I test this by plugging in a USB
3105 memory stick and see if Gnome/KDE notices this.</li>
3106
3107 <li>Is the CD/DVD player working?  I test this by inserting any CD/DVD
3108 I have lying around, and see if Gnome/KDE notices this.</li>
3109
3110 <li>Is any built in camera working?  Test using cheese, and see if a
3111 picture from the v4l device show up.</li>
3112
3113 <li>Is bluetooth working?  Use the Gnome/KDE browsing tool to see if
3114 any bluetooth devices are discovered.  In my office, I normally see a
3115 few.</li>
3116
3117 <li>For laptops, is the SD or Compaq Flash reader working.  I have
3118 memory modules lying around, and stick them in and see if Gnome/KDE
3119 notice this.</li>
3120
3121 <li>For laptops, is suspend/hibernate working?  I'm testing if the
3122 special button work, and if the laptop continue to work after
3123 resume.</li>
3124
3125 <li>For laptops, is the extra buttons working, like audio level,
3126 adjusting background light, switching on/off external video output,
3127 switching on/off wifi, bluetooth, etc?  The set of buttons differ from
3128 laptop to laptop, so I just write down which are working and which are
3129 not.</li>
3130
3131 <li>Some laptops have smart card readers, finger print readers,
3132 acceleration sensors etc.  I rarely test these, as I do not know how
3133 to quickly test if they are working or not, so I only document their
3134 existence.</li>
3135
3136 </ul>
3137
3138 <p>By now I suspect you are really curious what the test results are
3139 for the HP machines I am testing.  I'm not done yet, so I will report
3140 the test results later.  For now I can report that HP 8100 Elite work
3141 fine, and hibernation fail with HP EliteBook 8440p on Ubuntu Lucid,
3142 and audio fail on RHEL6.  Ubuntu Maverik worked with 8440p.  As you
3143 can see, I have most machines left to test.  One interesting
3144 observation is that Ubuntu Lucid has almost twice the frame rate than
3145 RHEL6 with glxgears.  No idea why.</p>
3146
3147       </div>
3148       <div class="tags">
3149
3150
3151         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>.
3152
3153
3154       </div>
3155     </div>
3156     <div class="padding"></div>
3157
3158     <div class="entry">
3159       <div class="title">
3160         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Some_thoughts_on_BitCoins.html">Some thoughts on BitCoins</a>
3161       </div>
3162       <div class="date">
3163         11th December 2010
3164       </div>
3165       <div class="body">
3166         <p>As I continue to explore
3167 <a href="http://www.bitcoin.org/">BitCoin</a>, I've starting to wonder
3168 what properties the system have, and how it will be affected by laws
3169 and regulations here in Norway.  Here are some random notes.</p>
3170
3171 <p>One interesting thing to note is that since the transactions are
3172 verified using a peer to peer network, all details about a transaction
3173 is known to everyone.  This means that if a BitCoin address has been
3174 published like I did with mine in my initial post about BitCoin, it is
3175 possible for everyone to see how many BitCoins have been transfered to
3176 that address.  There is even a web service to look at the details for
3177 all transactions.  There I can see that my address
3178 <a href="http://blockexplorer.com/address/15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a>
3179 have received 16.06 Bitcoin, the
3180 <a href="http://blockexplorer.com/address/1LfdGnGuWkpSJgbQySxxCWhv8MHqvwst3">1LfdGnGuWkpSJgbQySxxCWhv8MHqvwst3</a>
3181 address of Simon Phipps have received 181.97 BitCoin and the address
3182 <a href="http://blockexplorer.com/address/1MCwBbhNGp5hRm5rC1Aims2YFRe2SXPYKt">1MCwBbhNGp5hRm5rC1Aims2YFRe2SXPYKt</A>
3183 of EFF have received 2447.38 BitCoins so far.  Thank you to each and
3184 every one of you that donated bitcoins to support my activity. The
3185 fact that anyone can see how much money was transfered to a given
3186 address make it more obvious why the BitCoin community recommend to
3187 generate and hand out a new address for each transaction.  I'm told
3188 there is no way to track which addresses belong to a given person or
3189 organisation without the person or organisation revealing it
3190 themselves, as Simon, EFF and I have done.</p>
3191
3192 <p>In Norway, and in most other countries, there are laws and
3193 regulations limiting how much money one can transfer across the border
3194 without declaring it.  There are money laundering, tax and accounting
3195 laws and regulations I would expect to apply to the use of BitCoin.
3196 If the Skolelinux foundation
3197 (<a href="http://linuxiskolen.no/slxdebianlabs/donations.html">SLX
3198 Debian Labs</a>) were to accept donations in BitCoin in addition to
3199 normal bank transfers like EFF is doing, how should this be accounted?
3200 Given that it is impossible to know if money can cross the border or
3201 not, should everything or nothing be declared?  What exchange rate
3202 should be used when calculating taxes?  Would receivers have to pay
3203 income tax if the foundation were to pay Skolelinux contributors in
3204 BitCoin?  I have no idea, but it would be interesting to know.</p>
3205
3206 <p>For a currency to be useful and successful, it must be trusted and
3207 accepted by a lot of users.  It must be possible to get easy access to
3208 the currency (as a wage or using currency exchanges), and it must be
3209 easy to spend it.  At the moment BitCoin seem fairly easy to get
3210 access to, but there are very few places to spend it.  I am not really
3211 a regular user of any of the vendor types currently accepting BitCoin,
3212 so I wonder when my kind of shop would start accepting BitCoins.  I
3213 would like to buy electronics, travels and subway tickets, not herbs
3214 and books. :) The currency is young, and this will improve over time
3215 if it become popular, but I suspect regular banks will start to lobby
3216 to get BitCoin declared illegal if it become popular.  I'm sure they
3217 will claim it is helping fund terrorism and money laundering (which
3218 probably would be true, as is any currency in existence), but I
3219 believe the problems should be solved elsewhere and not by blaming
3220 currencies.</p>
3221
3222 <p>The process of creating new BitCoins is called mining, and it is
3223 CPU intensive process that depend on a bit of luck as well (as one is
3224 competing against all the other miners currently spending CPU cycles
3225 to see which one get the next lump of cash).  The "winner" get 50
3226 BitCoin when this happen.  Yesterday I came across the obvious way to
3227 join forces to increase ones changes of getting at least some coins,
3228 by coordinating the work on mining BitCoins across several machines
3229 and people, and sharing the result if one is lucky and get the 50
3230 BitCoins.  Check out
3231 <a href="http://www.bluishcoder.co.nz/bitcoin-pool/">BitCoin Pool</a>
3232 if this sounds interesting.  I have not had time to try to set up a
3233 machine to participate there yet, but have seen that running on ones
3234 own for a few days have not yield any BitCoins througth mining
3235 yet.</p>
3236
3237 <p>Update 2010-12-15: Found an <a
3238 href="http://inertia.posterous.com/reply-to-the-underground-economist-why-bitcoi">interesting
3239 criticism</a> of bitcoin.  Not quite sure how valid it is, but thought
3240 it was interesting to read.  The arguments presented seem to be
3241 equally valid for gold, which was used as a currency for many years.</p>
3242
3243       </div>
3244       <div class="tags">
3245
3246
3247         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>.
3248
3249
3250       </div>
3251     </div>
3252     <div class="padding"></div>
3253
3254     <div class="entry">
3255       <div class="title">
3256         <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>
3257       </div>
3258       <div class="date">
3259         10th December 2010
3260       </div>
3261       <div class="body">
3262         <p>With this weeks lawless
3263 <a href="http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2010/12/06/wikileaks/index.html">governmental
3264 attacks</a> on Wikileak and
3265 <a href="http://www.salon.com/technology/dan_gillmor/2010/12/06/war_on_speech">free
3266 speech</a>, it has become obvious that PayPal, visa and mastercard can
3267 not be trusted to handle money transactions.
3268 A blog post from
3269 <a href="http://webmink.com/2010/12/06/now-accepting-bitcoin/">Simon
3270 Phipps on bitcoin</a> reminded me about a project that a friend of
3271 mine mentioned earlier.  I decided to follow Simon's example, and get
3272 involved with <a href="http://www.bitcoin.org/">BitCoin</a>.  I got
3273 some help from my friend to get it all running, and he even handed me
3274 some bitcoins to get started.  I even donated a few bitcoins to Simon
3275 for helping me remember BitCoin.</p>
3276
3277 <p>So, what is bitcoins, you probably wonder?  It is a digital
3278 crypto-currency, decentralised and handled using peer-to-peer
3279 networks.  It allows anonymous transactions and prohibits central
3280 control over the transactions, making it impossible for governments
3281 and companies alike to block donations and other transactions.  The
3282 source is free software, and while the key dependency wxWidgets 2.9
3283 for the graphical user interface is missing in Debian, the command
3284 line client builds just fine.  Hopefully Jonas
3285 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/578157">will get the package into
3286 Debian</a> soon.</p>
3287
3288 <p>Bitcoins can be converted to other currencies, like USD and EUR.
3289 There are <a href="http://www.bitcoin.org/trade">companies accepting
3290 bitcoins</a> when selling services and goods, and there are even
3291 currency "stock" markets where the exchange rate is decided.  There
3292 are not many users so far, but the concept seems promising.  If you
3293 want to get started and lack a friend with any bitcoins to spare,
3294 you can even get
3295 <a href="https://freebitcoins.appspot.com/">some for free</a> (0.05
3296 bitcoin at the time of writing).  Use
3297 <a href="http://www.bitcoinwatch.com/">BitcoinWatch</a> to keep an eye
3298 on the current exchange rates.</p>
3299
3300 <p>As an experiment, I have decided to set up bitcoind on one of my
3301 machines.  If you want to support my activity, please send Bitcoin
3302 donations to the address
3303 <b>15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</b>.  Thank you!</p>
3304
3305       </div>
3306       <div class="tags">
3307
3308
3309         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>.
3310
3311
3312       </div>
3313     </div>
3314     <div class="padding"></div>
3315
3316     <div class="entry">
3317       <div class="title">
3318         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Why_isn_t_Debian_Edu_using_VLC_.html">Why isn't Debian Edu using VLC?</a>
3319       </div>
3320       <div class="date">
3321         27th November 2010
3322       </div>
3323       <div class="body">
3324         <p>In the latest issue of Linux Journal, the readers choices were
3325 presented, and the winner among the multimedia player were VLC.
3326 Personally, I like VLC, and it is my player of choice when I first try
3327 to play a video file or stream.  Only if VLC fail will I drag out
3328 gmplayer to see if it can do better.  The reason is mostly the failure
3329 model and trust.  When VLC fail, it normally pop up a error message
3330 reporting the problem.  When mplayer fail, it normally segfault or
3331 just hangs.  The latter failure mode drain my trust in the program.<p>
3332
3333 <p>But even if VLC is my player of choice, we have choosen to use
3334 mplayer in <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian
3335 Edu/Skolelinux</a>.  The reason is simple.  We need a good browser
3336 plugin to play web videos seamlessly, and the VLC browser plugin is
3337 not very good.  For example, it lack in-line control buttons, so there
3338 is no way for the user to pause the video.  Also, when I
3339 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/BrowserMultimedia">last
3340 tested the browser plugins</a> available in Debian, the VLC plugin
3341 failed on several video pages where mplayer based plugins worked.  If
3342 the browser plugin for VLC was as good as the gecko-mediaplayer
3343 package (which uses mplayer), we would switch.</P>
3344
3345 <p>While VLC is a good player, its user interface is slightly
3346 annoying.  The most annoying feature is its inconsistent use of
3347 keyboard shortcuts.  When the player is in full screen mode, its
3348 shortcuts are different from when it is playing the video in a window.
3349 For example, space only work as pause when in full screen mode.  I
3350 wish it had consisten shortcuts and that space also would work when in
3351 window mode.  Another nice shortcut in gmplayer is [enter] to restart
3352 the current video.  It is very nice when playing short videos from the
3353 web and want to restart it when new people arrive to have a look at
3354 what is going on.</p>
3355
3356       </div>
3357       <div class="tags">
3358
3359
3360         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>.
3361
3362
3363       </div>
3364     </div>
3365     <div class="padding"></div>
3366
3367     <div class="entry">
3368       <div class="title">
3369         <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>
3370       </div>
3371       <div class="date">
3372         22nd November 2010
3373       </div>
3374       <div class="body">
3375         <p>Michael Biebl suggested to me on IRC, that I changed my automated
3376 upgrade testing of the
3377 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/~pere/debian-upgrade-testing/">Lenny
3378 Gnome and KDE Desktop</a> to do <tt>apt-get autoremove</tt> when using apt-get.
3379 This seem like a very good idea, so I adjusted by test scripts and
3380 can now present the updated result from today:</p>
3381
3382 <p>This is for Gnome:</p>
3383
3384 <p>Installed using apt-get, missing with aptitude</p>
3385
3386 <blockquote><p>
3387   apache2.2-bin
3388   aptdaemon
3389   baobab
3390   binfmt-support
3391   browser-plugin-gnash
3392   cheese-common
3393   cli-common
3394   cups-pk-helper
3395   dmz-cursor-theme
3396   empathy
3397   empathy-common
3398   freedesktop-sound-theme
3399   freeglut3
3400   gconf-defaults-service
3401   gdm-themes
3402   gedit-plugins
3403   geoclue
3404   geoclue-hostip
3405   geoclue-localnet
3406   geoclue-manual
3407   geoclue-yahoo
3408   gnash
3409   gnash-common
3410   gnome
3411   gnome-backgrounds
3412   gnome-cards-data
3413   gnome-codec-install
3414   gnome-core
3415   gnome-desktop-environment
3416   gnome-disk-utility
3417   gnome-screenshot
3418   gnome-search-tool
3419   gnome-session-canberra
3420   gnome-system-log
3421   gnome-themes-extras
3422   gnome-themes-more
3423   gnome-user-share
3424   gstreamer0.10-fluendo-mp3
3425   gstreamer0.10-tools
3426   gtk2-engines
3427   gtk2-engines-pixbuf
3428   gtk2-engines-smooth
3429   hamster-applet
3430   libapache2-mod-dnssd
3431   libapr1
3432   libaprutil1
3433   libaprutil1-dbd-sqlite3
3434   libaprutil1-ldap
3435   libart2.0-cil
3436   libboost-date-time1.42.0
3437   libboost-python1.42.0
3438   libboost-thread1.42.0
3439   libchamplain-0.4-0
3440   libchamplain-gtk-0.4-0
3441   libcheese-gtk18
3442   libclutter-gtk-0.10-0
3443   libcryptui0
3444   libdiscid0
3445   libelf1
3446   libepc-1.0-2
3447   libepc-common
3448   libepc-ui-1.0-2
3449   libfreerdp-plugins-standard
3450   libfreerdp0
3451   libgconf2.0-cil
3452   libgdata-common
3453   libgdata7
3454   libgdu-gtk0
3455   libgee2
3456   libgeoclue0
3457   libgexiv2-0
3458   libgif4
3459   libglade2.0-cil
3460   libglib2.0-cil
3461   libgmime2.4-cil
3462   libgnome-vfs2.0-cil
3463   libgnome2.24-cil
3464   libgnomepanel2.24-cil
3465   libgpod-common
3466   libgpod4
3467   libgtk2.0-cil
3468   libgtkglext1
3469   libgtksourceview2.0-common
3470   libmono-addins-gui0.2-cil
3471   libmono-addins0.2-cil
3472   libmono-cairo2.0-cil
3473   libmono-corlib2.0-cil
3474   libmono-i18n-west2.0-cil
3475   libmono-posix2.0-cil
3476   libmono-security2.0-cil
3477   libmono-sharpzip2.84-cil
3478   libmono-system2.0-cil
3479   libmtp8
3480   libmusicbrainz3-6
3481   libndesk-dbus-glib1.0-cil
3482   libndesk-dbus1.0-cil
3483   libopal3.6.8
3484   libpolkit-gtk-1-0
3485   libpt2.6.7
3486   libpython2.6
3487   librpm1
3488   librpmio1
3489   libsdl1.2debian
3490   libsrtp0
3491   libssh-4
3492   libtelepathy-farsight0
3493   libtelepathy-glib0
3494   libtidy-0.99-0
3495   media-player-info
3496   mesa-utils
3497   mono-2.0-gac
3498   mono-gac
3499   mono-runtime
3500   nautilus-sendto
3501   nautilus-sendto-empathy
3502   p7zip-full
3503   pkg-config
3504   python-aptdaemon
3505   python-aptdaemon-gtk
3506   python-axiom
3507   python-beautifulsoup
3508   python-bugbuddy
3509   python-clientform
3510   python-coherence
3511   python-configobj
3512   python-crypto
3513   python-cupshelpers
3514   python-elementtree
3515   python-epsilon
3516   python-evolution
3517   python-feedparser
3518   python-gdata
3519   python-gdbm
3520   python-gst0.10
3521   python-gtkglext1
3522   python-gtksourceview2
3523   python-httplib2
3524   python-louie
3525   python-mako
3526   python-markupsafe
3527   python-mechanize
3528   python-nevow
3529   python-notify
3530   python-opengl
3531   python-openssl
3532   python-pam
3533   python-pkg-resources
3534   python-pyasn1
3535   python-pysqlite2
3536   python-rdflib
3537   python-serial
3538   python-tagpy
3539   python-twisted-bin
3540   python-twisted-conch
3541   python-twisted-core
3542   python-twisted-web
3543   python-utidylib
3544   python-webkit
3545   python-xdg
3546   python-zope.interface
3547   remmina
3548   remmina-plugin-data
3549   remmina-plugin-rdp
3550   remmina-plugin-vnc
3551   rhythmbox-plugin-cdrecorder
3552   rhythmbox-plugins
3553   rpm-common
3554   rpm2cpio
3555   seahorse-plugins
3556   shotwell
3557   software-center
3558   system-config-printer-udev
3559   telepathy-gabble
3560   telepathy-mission-control-5
3561   telepathy-salut
3562   tomboy
3563   totem
3564   totem-coherence
3565   totem-mozilla
3566   totem-plugins
3567   transmission-common
3568   xdg-user-dirs
3569   xdg-user-dirs-gtk
3570   xserver-xephyr
3571 </p></blockquote>
3572
3573 <p>Installed using apt-get, removed with aptitude</p>
3574
3575 <blockquote><p>
3576   cheese
3577   ekiga
3578   eog
3579   epiphany-extensions
3580   evolution-exchange
3581   fast-user-switch-applet
3582   file-roller
3583   gcalctool
3584   gconf-editor
3585   gdm
3586   gedit
3587   gedit-common
3588   gnome-games
3589   gnome-games-data
3590   gnome-nettool
3591   gnome-system-tools
3592   gnome-themes
3593   gnuchess
3594   gucharmap
3595   guile-1.8-libs
3596   libavahi-ui0
3597   libdmx1
3598   libgalago3
3599   libgtk-vnc-1.0-0
3600   libgtksourceview2.0-0
3601   liblircclient0
3602   libsdl1.2debian-alsa
3603   libspeexdsp1
3604   libsvga1
3605   rhythmbox
3606   seahorse
3607   sound-juicer
3608   system-config-printer
3609   totem-common
3610   transmission-gtk
3611   vinagre
3612   vino
3613 </p></blockquote>
3614
3615 <p>Installed using aptitude, missing with apt-get</p>
3616
3617 <blockquote><p>
3618   gstreamer0.10-gnomevfs
3619 </p></blockquote>
3620
3621 <p>Installed using aptitude, removed with apt-get</p>
3622
3623 <blockquote><p>
3624 [nothing]
3625 </p></blockquote>
3626
3627 <p>This is for KDE:</p>
3628
3629 <p>Installed using apt-get, missing with aptitude</p>
3630
3631 <blockquote><p>
3632   ksmserver
3633 </p></blockquote>
3634
3635 <p>Installed using apt-get, removed with aptitude</p>
3636
3637 <blockquote><p>
3638   kwin
3639   network-manager-kde
3640 </p></blockquote>
3641
3642 <p>Installed using aptitude, missing with apt-get</p>
3643
3644 <blockquote><p>
3645   arts
3646   dolphin
3647   freespacenotifier
3648   google-gadgets-gst
3649   google-gadgets-xul
3650   kappfinder
3651   kcalc
3652   kcharselect
3653   kde-core
3654   kde-plasma-desktop
3655   kde-standard
3656   kde-window-manager
3657   kdeartwork
3658   kdeartwork-emoticons
3659   kdeartwork-style
3660   kdeartwork-theme-icon
3661   kdebase
3662   kdebase-apps
3663   kdebase-workspace
3664   kdebase-workspace-bin
3665   kdebase-workspace-data
3666   kdeeject
3667   kdelibs
3668   kdeplasma-addons
3669   kdeutils
3670   kdewallpapers
3671   kdf
3672   kfloppy
3673   kgpg
3674   khelpcenter4
3675   kinfocenter
3676   konq-plugins-l10n
3677   konqueror-nsplugins
3678   kscreensaver
3679   kscreensaver-xsavers
3680   ktimer
3681   kwrite
3682   libgle3
3683   libkde4-ruby1.8
3684   libkonq5
3685   libkonq5-templates
3686   libnetpbm10
3687   libplasma-ruby
3688   libplasma-ruby1.8
3689   libqt4-ruby1.8
3690   marble-data
3691   marble-plugins
3692   netpbm
3693   nuvola-icon-theme
3694   plasma-dataengines-workspace
3695   plasma-desktop
3696   plasma-desktopthemes-artwork
3697   plasma-runners-addons
3698   plasma-scriptengine-googlegadgets
3699   plasma-scriptengine-python
3700   plasma-scriptengine-qedje
3701   plasma-scriptengine-ruby
3702   plasma-scriptengine-webkit
3703   plasma-scriptengines
3704   plasma-wallpapers-addons
3705   plasma-widget-folderview
3706   plasma-widget-networkmanagement
3707   ruby
3708   sweeper
3709   update-notifier-kde
3710   xscreensaver-data-extra
3711   xscreensaver-gl
3712   xscreensaver-gl-extra
3713   xscreensaver-screensaver-bsod
3714 </p></blockquote>
3715
3716 <p>Installed using aptitude, removed with apt-get</p>
3717
3718 <blockquote><p>
3719   ark
3720   google-gadgets-common
3721   google-gadgets-qt
3722   htdig
3723   kate
3724   kdebase-bin
3725   kdebase-data
3726   kdepasswd
3727   kfind
3728   klipper
3729   konq-plugins
3730   konqueror
3731   ksysguard
3732   ksysguardd
3733   libarchive1
3734   libcln6
3735   libeet1
3736   libeina-svn-06
3737   libggadget-1.0-0b
3738   libggadget-qt-1.0-0b
3739   libgps19
3740   libkdecorations4
3741   libkephal4
3742   libkonq4
3743   libkonqsidebarplugin4a
3744   libkscreensaver5
3745   libksgrd4
3746   libksignalplotter4
3747   libkunitconversion4
3748   libkwineffects1a
3749   libmarblewidget4
3750   libntrack-qt4-1
3751   libntrack0
3752   libplasma-geolocation-interface4
3753   libplasmaclock4a
3754   libplasmagenericshell4
3755   libprocesscore4a
3756   libprocessui4a
3757   libqalculate5
3758   libqedje0a
3759   libqtruby4shared2
3760   libqzion0a
3761   libruby1.8
3762   libscim8c2a
3763   libsmokekdecore4-3
3764   libsmokekdeui4-3
3765   libsmokekfile3
3766   libsmokekhtml3
3767   libsmokekio3
3768   libsmokeknewstuff2-3
3769   libsmokeknewstuff3-3
3770   libsmokekparts3
3771   libsmokektexteditor3
3772   libsmokekutils3
3773   libsmokenepomuk3
3774   libsmokephonon3
3775   libsmokeplasma3
3776   libsmokeqtcore4-3
3777   libsmokeqtdbus4-3
3778   libsmokeqtgui4-3
3779   libsmokeqtnetwork4-3
3780   libsmokeqtopengl4-3
3781   libsmokeqtscript4-3
3782   libsmokeqtsql4-3
3783   libsmokeqtsvg4-3
3784   libsmokeqttest4-3
3785   libsmokeqtuitools4-3
3786   libsmokeqtwebkit4-3
3787   libsmokeqtxml4-3
3788   libsmokesolid3
3789   libsmokesoprano3
3790   libtaskmanager4a
3791   libtidy-0.99-0
3792   libweather-ion4a
3793   libxklavier16
3794   libxxf86misc1
3795   okteta
3796   oxygencursors
3797   plasma-dataengines-addons
3798   plasma-scriptengine-superkaramba
3799   plasma-widget-lancelot
3800   plasma-widgets-addons
3801   plasma-widgets-workspace
3802   polkit-kde-1
3803   ruby1.8
3804   systemsettings
3805   update-notifier-common
3806 </p></blockquote>
3807
3808 <p>Running apt-get autoremove made the results using apt-get and
3809 aptitude a bit more similar, but there are still quite a lott of
3810 differences.  I have no idea what packages should be installed after
3811 the upgrade, but hope those that do can have a look.</p>
3812
3813       </div>
3814       <div class="tags">
3815
3816
3817         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>.
3818
3819
3820       </div>
3821     </div>
3822     <div class="padding"></div>
3823
3824     <div class="entry">
3825       <div class="title">
3826         <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>
3827       </div>
3828       <div class="date">
3829         22nd November 2010
3830       </div>
3831       <div class="body">
3832         <p>Most of the computers in use by the
3833 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu/Skolelinux project</a>
3834 are virtual machines.  And they have been Xen machines running on a
3835 fairly old IBM eserver xseries 345 machine, and we wanted to migrate
3836 them to KVM on a newer Dell PowerEdge 2950 host machine.  This was a
3837 bit harder that it could have been, because we set up the Xen virtual
3838 machines to get the virtual partitions from LVM, which as far as I
3839 know is not supported by KVM.  So to migrate, we had to convert
3840 several LVM logical volumes to partitions on a virtual disk file.</p>
3841
3842 <p>I found
3843 <a href="http://searchnetworking.techtarget.com.au/articles/35011-Six-steps-for-migrating-Xen-virtual-machines-to-KVM">a
3844 nice recipe</a> to do this, and wrote the following script to do the
3845 migration.  It uses qemu-img from the qemu package to make the disk
3846 image, parted to partition it, losetup and kpartx to present the disk
3847 image partions as devices, and dd to copy the data.  I NFS mounted the
3848 new servers storage area on the old server to do the migration.</p>
3849
3850 <pre>
3851 #!/bin/sh
3852
3853 # Based on
3854 # http://searchnetworking.techtarget.com.au/articles/35011-Six-steps-for-migrating-Xen-virtual-machines-to-KVM
3855
3856 set -e
3857 set -x
3858
3859 if [ -z "$1" ] ; then
3860     echo "Usage: $0 &lt;hostname&gt;"
3861     exit 1
3862 else
3863     host="$1"
3864 fi
3865
3866 if [ ! -e /dev/vg_data/$host-disk ] ; then
3867     echo "error: unable to find LVM volume for $host"
3868     exit 1
3869 fi
3870
3871 # Partitions need to be a bit bigger than the LVM LVs.  not sure why.
3872 disksize=$( lvs --units m | grep $host-disk | awk '{sum = sum + $4} END { print int(sum * 1.05) }')
3873 swapsize=$( lvs --units m | grep $host-swap | awk '{sum = sum + $4} END { print int(sum * 1.05) }')
3874 totalsize=$(( ( $disksize + $swapsize ) ))
3875
3876 img=$host.img
3877 #dd if=/dev/zero of=$img bs=1M count=$(( $disksize + $swapsize ))
3878 qemu-img create $img ${totalsize}MMaking room on the Debian Edu/Sqeeze DVD
3879
3880 parted $img mklabel msdos
3881 parted $img mkpart primary linux-swap 0 $disksize
3882 parted $img mkpart primary ext2 $disksize $totalsize
3883 parted $img set 1 boot on
3884
3885 modprobe dm-mod
3886 losetup /dev/loop0 $img
3887 kpartx -a /dev/loop0
3888
3889 dd if=/dev/vg_data/$host-disk of=/dev/mapper/loop0p1 bs=1M
3890 fsck.ext3 -f /dev/mapper/loop0p1 || true
3891 mkswap /dev/mapper/loop0p2
3892
3893 kpartx -d /dev/loop0
3894 losetup -d /dev/loop0
3895 </pre>
3896
3897 <p>The script is perhaps so simple that it is not copyrightable, but
3898 if it is, it is licenced using GPL v2 or later at your discretion.</p>
3899
3900 <p>After doing this, I booted a Debian CD in rescue mode in KVM with
3901 the new disk image attached, installed grub-pc and linux-image-686 and
3902 set up grub to boot from the disk image.  After this, the KVM machines
3903 seem to work just fine.</p>
3904
3905       </div>
3906       <div class="tags">
3907
3908
3909         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>.
3910
3911
3912       </div>
3913     </div>
3914     <div class="padding"></div>
3915
3916     <div class="entry">
3917       <div class="title">
3918         <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>
3919       </div>
3920       <div class="date">
3921         20th November 2010
3922       </div>
3923       <div class="body">
3924         <p>I'm still running upgrade testing of the
3925 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/~pere/debian-upgrade-testing/">Lenny
3926 Gnome and KDE Desktop</a>, but have not had time to spend on reporting the
3927 status.  Here is a short update based on a test I ran 20101118.</p>
3928
3929 <p>I still do not know what a correct migration should look like, so I
3930 report any differences between apt and aptitude and hope someone else
3931 can see if anything should be changed.</p>
3932
3933 <p>This is for Gnome:</p>
3934
3935 <p>Installed using apt-get, missing with aptitude</p>
3936
3937 <blockquote><p>
3938   apache2.2-bin aptdaemon at-spi baobab binfmt-support
3939   browser-plugin-gnash cheese-common cli-common cpp-4.3 cups-pk-helper
3940   dmz-cursor-theme empathy empathy-common finger
3941   freedesktop-sound-theme freeglut3 gconf-defaults-service gdm-themes
3942   gedit-plugins geoclue geoclue-hostip geoclue-localnet geoclue-manual
3943   geoclue-yahoo gnash gnash-common gnome gnome-backgrounds
3944   gnome-cards-data gnome-codec-install gnome-core
3945   gnome-desktop-environment gnome-disk-utility gnome-screenshot
3946   gnome-search-tool gnome-session-canberra gnome-spell
3947   gnome-system-log gnome-themes-extras gnome-themes-more
3948   gnome-user-share gs-common gstreamer0.10-fluendo-mp3
3949   gstreamer0.10-tools gtk2-engines gtk2-engines-pixbuf
3950   gtk2-engines-smooth hal-info hamster-applet libapache2-mod-dnssd
3951   libapr1 libaprutil1 libaprutil1-dbd-sqlite3 libaprutil1-ldap
3952   libart2.0-cil libatspi1.0-0 libboost-date-time1.42.0
3953   libboost-python1.42.0 libboost-thread1.42.0 libchamplain-0.4-0
3954   libchamplain-gtk-0.4-0 libcheese-gtk18 libclutter-gtk-0.10-0
3955   libcryptui0 libcupsys2 libdiscid0 libeel2-data libelf1 libepc-1.0-2
3956   libepc-common libepc-ui-1.0-2 libfreerdp-plugins-standard
3957   libfreerdp0 libgail-common libgconf2.0-cil libgdata-common libgdata7
3958   libgdl-1-common libgdu-gtk0 libgee2 libgeoclue0 libgexiv2-0 libgif4
3959   libglade2.0-cil libglib2.0-cil libgmime2.4-cil libgnome-vfs2.0-cil
3960   libgnome2.24-cil libgnomepanel2.24-cil libgnomeprint2.2-data
3961   libgnomeprintui2.2-common libgnomevfs2-bin libgpod-common libgpod4
3962   libgtk2.0-cil libgtkglext1 libgtksourceview-common
3963   libgtksourceview2.0-common libmono-addins-gui0.2-cil
3964   libmono-addins0.2-cil libmono-cairo2.0-cil libmono-corlib2.0-cil
3965   libmono-i18n-west2.0-cil libmono-posix2.0-cil
3966   libmono-security2.0-cil libmono-sharpzip2.84-cil
3967   libmono-system2.0-cil libmtp8 libmusicbrainz3-6
3968   libndesk-dbus-glib1.0-cil libndesk-dbus1.0-cil libopal3.6.8
3969   libpolkit-gtk-1-0 libpt-1.10.10-plugins-alsa
3970   libpt-1.10.10-plugins-v4l libpt2.6.7 libpython2.6 librpm1 librpmio1
3971   libsdl1.2debian libservlet2.4-java libsrtp0 libssh-4
3972   libtelepathy-farsight0 libtelepathy-glib0 libtidy-0.99-0
3973   libxalan2-java libxerces2-java media-player-info mesa-utils
3974   mono-2.0-gac mono-gac mono-runtime nautilus-sendto
3975   nautilus-sendto-empathy openoffice.org-writer2latex
3976   openssl-blacklist p7zip p7zip-full pkg-config python-4suite-xml
3977   python-aptdaemon python-aptdaemon-gtk python-axiom
3978   python-beautifulsoup python-bugbuddy python-clientform
3979   python-coherence python-configobj python-crypto python-cupshelpers
3980   python-cupsutils python-eggtrayicon python-elementtree
3981   python-epsilon python-evolution python-feedparser python-gdata
3982   python-gdbm python-gst0.10 python-gtkglext1 python-gtkmozembed
3983   python-gtksourceview2 python-httplib2 python-louie python-mako
3984   python-markupsafe python-mechanize python-nevow python-notify
3985   python-opengl python-openssl python-pam python-pkg-resources
3986   python-pyasn1 python-pysqlite2 python-rdflib python-serial
3987   python-tagpy python-twisted-bin python-twisted-conch
3988   python-twisted-core python-twisted-web python-utidylib python-webkit
3989   python-xdg python-zope.interface remmina remmina-plugin-data
3990   remmina-plugin-rdp remmina-plugin-vnc rhythmbox-plugin-cdrecorder
3991   rhythmbox-plugins rpm-common rpm2cpio seahorse-plugins shotwell
3992   software-center svgalibg1 system-config-printer-udev
3993   telepathy-gabble telepathy-mission-control-5 telepathy-salut tomboy
3994   totem totem-coherence totem-mozilla totem-plugins
3995   transmission-common xdg-user-dirs xdg-user-dirs-gtk xserver-xephyr
3996   zip
3997 </p></blockquote>
3998
3999 Installed using apt-get, removed with aptitude
4000
4001 <blockquote><p>
4002   arj bluez-utils cheese dhcdbd djvulibre-desktop ekiga eog
4003   epiphany-extensions epiphany-gecko evolution-exchange
4004   fast-user-switch-applet file-roller gcalctool gconf-editor gdm gedit
4005   gedit-common gnome-app-install gnome-games gnome-games-data
4006   gnome-nettool gnome-system-tools gnome-themes gnome-utils
4007   gnome-vfs-obexftp gnome-volume-manager gnuchess gucharmap
4008   guile-1.8-libs hal libavahi-compat-libdnssd1 libavahi-core5
4009   libavahi-ui0 libbind9-50 libbluetooth2 libcamel1.2-11 libcdio7
4010   libcucul0 libcurl3 libdirectfb-1.0-0 libdmx1 libdvdread3
4011   libedata-cal1.2-6 libedataserver1.2-9 libeel2-2.20 libepc-1.0-1
4012   libepc-ui-1.0-1 libexchange-storage1.2-3 libfaad0 libgadu3
4013   libgalago3 libgd2-noxpm libgda3-3 libgda3-common libggz2 libggzcore9
4014   libggzmod4 libgksu1.2-0 libgksuui1.0-1 libgmyth0 libgnome-desktop-2
4015   libgnome-pilot2 libgnomecups1.0-1 libgnomeprint2.2-0
4016   libgnomeprintui2.2-0 libgpod3 libgraphviz4 libgtk-vnc-1.0-0
4017   libgtkhtml2-0 libgtksourceview1.0-0 libgtksourceview2.0-0
4018   libgucharmap6 libhesiod0 libicu38 libisccc50 libisccfg50 libiw29
4019   libjaxp1.3-java-gcj libkpathsea4 liblircclient0 libltdl3 liblwres50
4020   libmagick++10 libmagick10 libmalaga7 libmozjs1d libmpfr1ldbl libmtp7
4021   libmysqlclient15off libnautilus-burn4 libneon27 libnm-glib0
4022   libnm-util0 libopal-2.2 libosp5 libparted1.8-10 libpisock9
4023   libpisync1 libpoppler-glib3 libpoppler3 libpt-1.10.10 libraw1394-8
4024   libsdl1.2debian-alsa libsensors3 libsexy2 libsmbios2 libsoup2.2-8
4025   libspeexdsp1 libssh2-1 libsuitesparse-3.1.0 libsvga1
4026   libswfdec-0.6-90 libtalloc1 libtotem-plparser10 libtrackerclient0
4027   libvoikko1 libxalan2-java-gcj libxerces2-java-gcj libxklavier12
4028   libxtrap6 libxxf86misc1 libzephyr3 mysql-common rhythmbox seahorse
4029   sound-juicer swfdec-gnome system-config-printer totem-common
4030   totem-gstreamer transmission-gtk vinagre vino w3c-dtd-xhtml wodim
4031 </p></blockquote>
4032
4033 <p>Installed using aptitude, missing with apt-get</p>
4034
4035 <blockquote><p>
4036   gstreamer0.10-gnomevfs
4037 </p></blockquote>
4038
4039 <p>Installed using aptitude, removed with apt-get</p>
4040
4041 <blockquote><p>
4042 [nothing]
4043 </p></blockquote>
4044
4045 <p>This is for KDE:</p>
4046
4047 <p>Installed using apt-get, missing with aptitude</p>
4048
4049 <blockquote><p>
4050   autopoint bomber bovo cantor cantor-backend-kalgebra cpp-4.3 dcoprss
4051   edict espeak espeak-data eyesapplet fifteenapplet finger gettext
4052   ghostscript-x git gnome-audio gnugo granatier gs-common
4053   gstreamer0.10-pulseaudio indi kaddressbook-plugins kalgebra
4054   kalzium-data kanjidic kapman kate-plugins kblocks kbreakout kbstate
4055   kde-icons-mono kdeaccessibility kdeaddons-kfile-plugins
4056   kdeadmin-kfile-plugins kdeartwork-misc kdeartwork-theme-window
4057   kdeedu kdeedu-data kdeedu-kvtml-data kdegames kdegames-card-data
4058   kdegames-mahjongg-data kdegraphics-kfile-plugins kdelirc
4059   kdemultimedia-kfile-plugins kdenetwork-kfile-plugins
4060   kdepim-kfile-plugins kdepim-kio-plugins kdessh kdetoys kdewebdev
4061   kdiamond kdnssd kfilereplace kfourinline kgeography-data kigo
4062   killbots kiriki klettres-data kmoon kmrml knewsticker-scripts
4063   kollision kpf krosspython ksirk ksmserver ksquares kstars-data
4064   ksudoku kubrick kweather libasound2-plugins libboost-python1.42.0
4065   libcfitsio3 libconvert-binhex-perl libcrypt-ssleay-perl libdb4.6++
4066   libdjvulibre-text libdotconf1.0 liberror-perl libespeak1
4067   libfinance-quote-perl libgail-common libgsl0ldbl libhtml-parser-perl
4068   libhtml-tableextract-perl libhtml-tagset-perl libhtml-tree-perl
4069   libio-stringy-perl libkdeedu4 libkdegames5 libkiten4 libkpathsea5
4070   libkrossui4 libmailtools-perl libmime-tools-perl
4071   libnews-nntpclient-perl libopenbabel3 libportaudio2 libpulse-browse0
4072   libservlet2.4-java libspeechd2 libtiff-tools libtimedate-perl
4073   libunistring0 liburi-perl libwww-perl libxalan2-java libxerces2-java
4074   lirc luatex marble networkstatus noatun-plugins
4075   openoffice.org-writer2latex palapeli palapeli-data parley
4076   parley-data poster psutils pulseaudio pulseaudio-esound-compat
4077   pulseaudio-module-x11 pulseaudio-utils quanta-data rocs rsync
4078   speech-dispatcher step svgalibg1 texlive-binaries texlive-luatex
4079   ttf-sazanami-gothic
4080 </p></blockquote>
4081
4082 <p>Installed using apt-get, removed with aptitude</p>
4083
4084 <blockquote><p>
4085   amor artsbuilder atlantik atlantikdesigner blinken bluez-utils cvs
4086   dhcdbd djvulibre-desktop imlib-base imlib11 kalzium kanagram kandy
4087   kasteroids katomic kbackgammon kbattleship kblackbox kbounce kbruch
4088   kcron kdat kdemultimedia-kappfinder-data kdeprint kdict kdvi kedit
4089   keduca kenolaba kfax kfaxview kfouleggs kgeography kghostview
4090   kgoldrunner khangman khexedit kiconedit kig kimagemapeditor
4091   kitchensync kiten kjumpingcube klatin klettres klickety klines
4092   klinkstatus kmag kmahjongg kmailcvt kmenuedit kmid kmilo kmines
4093   kmousetool kmouth kmplot knetwalk kodo kolf kommander konquest kooka
4094   kpager kpat kpdf kpercentage kpilot kpoker kpovmodeler krec
4095   kregexpeditor kreversi ksame ksayit kshisen ksig ksim ksirc ksirtet
4096   ksmiletris ksnake ksokoban kspaceduel kstars ksvg ksysv kteatime
4097   ktip ktnef ktouch ktron kttsd ktuberling kturtle ktux kuickshow
4098   kverbos kview kviewshell kvoctrain kwifimanager kwin kwin4 kwordquiz
4099   kworldclock kxsldbg libakode2 libarts1-akode libarts1-audiofile
4100   libarts1-mpeglib libarts1-xine libavahi-compat-libdnssd1
4101   libavahi-core5 libavc1394-0 libbind9-50 libbluetooth2
4102   libboost-python1.34.1 libcucul0 libcurl3 libcvsservice0
4103   libdirectfb-1.0-0 libdjvulibre21 libdvdread3 libfaad0 libfreebob0
4104   libgd2-noxpm libgraphviz4 libgsmme1c2a libgtkhtml2-0 libicu38
4105   libiec61883-0 libindex0 libisccc50 libisccfg50 libiw29
4106   libjaxp1.3-java-gcj libk3b3 libkcal2b libkcddb1 libkdeedu3
4107   libkdegames1 libkdepim1a libkgantt0 libkleopatra1 libkmime2
4108   libkpathsea4 libkpimexchange1 libkpimidentities1 libkscan1
4109   libksieve0 libktnef1 liblockdev1 libltdl3 liblwres50 libmagick10
4110   libmimelib1c2a libmodplug0c2 libmozjs1d libmpcdec3 libmpfr1ldbl
4111   libneon27 libnm-util0 libopensync0 libpisock9 libpoppler-glib3
4112   libpoppler-qt2 libpoppler3 libraw1394-8 librss1 libsensors3
4113   libsmbios2 libssh2-1 libsuitesparse-3.1.0 libswfdec-0.6-90
4114   libtalloc1 libxalan2-java-gcj libxerces2-java-gcj libxtrap6 lskat
4115   mpeglib network-manager-kde noatun pmount tex-common texlive-base
4116   texlive-common texlive-doc-base texlive-fonts-recommended tidy
4117   ttf-dustin ttf-kochi-gothic ttf-sjfonts
4118 </p></blockquote>
4119
4120 <p>Installed using aptitude, missing with apt-get</p>
4121
4122 <blockquote><p>
4123   dolphin kde-core kde-plasma-desktop kde-standard kde-window-manager
4124   kdeartwork kdebase kdebase-apps kdebase-workspace
4125   kdebase-workspace-bin kdebase-workspace-data kdeutils kscreensaver
4126   kscreensaver-xsavers libgle3 libkonq5 libkonq5-templates libnetpbm10
4127   netpbm plasma-widget-folderview plasma-widget-networkmanagement
4128   xscreensaver-data-extra xscreensaver-gl xscreensaver-gl-extra
4129   xscreensaver-screensaver-bsod
4130 </p></blockquote>
4131
4132 <p>Installed using aptitude, removed with apt-get</p>
4133
4134 <blockquote><p>
4135   kdebase-bin konq-plugins konqueror
4136 </p></blockquote>
4137
4138       </div>
4139       <div class="tags">
4140
4141
4142         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>.
4143
4144
4145       </div>
4146     </div>
4147     <div class="padding"></div>
4148
4149     <div class="entry">
4150       <div class="title">
4151         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Gnash_buildbot_slave_and_Debian_kfreebsd.html">Gnash buildbot slave and Debian kfreebsd</a>
4152       </div>
4153       <div class="date">
4154         20th November 2010
4155       </div>
4156       <div class="body">
4157         <p>Answering
4158 <a href="http://www.listware.net/201011/gnash-dev/67431-gnash-dev-buildbot-looking-for-slaves.html">the
4159 call from the Gnash project</a> for
4160 <a href="http://www.gnashdev.org:8010">buildbot</a> slaves to test the
4161 current source, I have set up a virtual KVM machine on the Debian
4162 Edu/Skolelinux virtualization host to test the git source on
4163 Debian/Squeeze.  I hope this can help the developers in getting new
4164 releases out more often.</p>
4165
4166 <p>As the developers want less main-stream build platforms tested to,
4167 I have considered setting up a <a
4168 href="http://www.debian.org/ports/kfreebsd-gnu/">Debian/kfreebsd</a>
4169 machine as well.  I have also considered using the kfreebsd
4170 architecture in Debian as a file server in NUUG to get access to the 5
4171 TB zfs volume we currently use to store DV video.  Because of this, I
4172 finally got around to do a test installation of Debian/Squeeze with
4173 kfreebsd.  Installation went fairly smooth, thought I noticed some
4174 visual glitches in the cdebconf dialogs (black cursor left on the
4175 screen at random locations).  Have not gotten very far with the
4176 testing.  Noticed cfdisk did not work, but fdisk did so it was not a
4177 fatal problem.  Have to spend some more time on it to see if it is
4178 useful as a file server for NUUG.  Will try to find time to set up a
4179 gnash buildbot slave on the Debian Edu/Skolelinux this weekend.</p>
4180
4181       </div>
4182       <div class="tags">
4183
4184
4185         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>.
4186
4187
4188       </div>
4189     </div>
4190     <div class="padding"></div>
4191
4192     <div class="entry">
4193       <div class="title">
4194         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_in_3D.html">Debian in 3D</a>
4195       </div>
4196       <div class="date">
4197          9th November 2010
4198       </div>
4199       <div class="body">
4200         <p><img src="http://thingiverse-production.s3.amazonaws.com/renders/23/e0/c4/f9/2b/debswagtdose_preview_medium.jpg"></p>
4201
4202 <p>3D printing is just great.  I just came across this Debian logo in
4203 3D linked in from
4204 <a href="http://blog.thingiverse.com/2010/11/09/participatory-branding/">the
4205 thingiverse blog</a>.</p>
4206
4207       </div>
4208       <div class="tags">
4209
4210
4211         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>.
4212
4213
4214       </div>
4215     </div>
4216     <div class="padding"></div>
4217
4218     <div class="entry">
4219       <div class="title">
4220         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Software_updates_2010_10_24.html">Software updates 2010-10-24</a>
4221       </div>
4222       <div class="date">
4223         24th October 2010
4224       </div>
4225       <div class="body">
4226         <p>Some updates.</p>
4227
4228 <p>My <a href="http://pledgebank.com/gnash-avm2">gnash pledge</a> to
4229 raise money for the project is going well.  The lower limit of 10
4230 signers was reached in 24 hours, and so far 13 people have signed it.
4231 More signers and more funding is most welcome, and I am really curious
4232 how far we can get before the time limit of December 24 is reached.
4233 :)</p>
4234
4235 <p>On the #gnash IRC channel on irc.freenode.net, I was just tipped
4236 about what appear to be a great code coverage tool capable of
4237 generating code coverage stats without any changes to the source code.
4238 It is called
4239 <a href="http://simonkagstrom.github.com/kcov/index.html">kcov</a>,
4240 and can be used using <tt>kcov &lt;directory&gt; &lt;binary&gt;</tt>.
4241 It is missing in Debian, but the git source built just fine in Squeeze
4242 after I installed libelf-dev, libdwarf-dev, pkg-config and
4243 libglib2.0-dev.  Failed to build in Lenny, but suspect that is
4244 solvable.  I hope kcov make it into Debian soon.</p>
4245
4246 <p>Finally found time to wrap up the release notes for <a
4247 href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-edu-announce/2010/10/msg00002.html">a
4248 new alpha release of Debian Edu</a>, and just published the second
4249 alpha test release of the Squeeze based Debian Edu /
4250 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Skolelinux</a>
4251 release.  Give it a try if you need a complete linux solution for your
4252 school, including central infrastructure server, workstations, thin
4253 client servers and diskless workstations.  A nice touch added
4254 yesterday is RDP support on the thin client servers, for windows
4255 clients to get a Linux desktop on request.</p>
4256
4257       </div>
4258       <div class="tags">
4259
4260
4261         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>.
4262
4263
4264       </div>
4265     </div>
4266     <div class="padding"></div>
4267
4268     <div class="entry">
4269       <div class="title">
4270         <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>
4271       </div>
4272       <div class="date">
4273          4th September 2010
4274       </div>
4275       <div class="body">
4276         <p>In the <a href="http://popcon.debian.org/unknown/by_vote">Debian
4277 popularity-contest numbers</a>, the adobe-flashplugin package the
4278 second most popular used package that is missing in Debian.  The sixth
4279 most popular is flashplayer-mozilla.  This is a clear indication that
4280 working flash is important for Debian users.  Around 10 percent of the
4281 users submitting data to popcon.debian.org have this package
4282 installed.</p>
4283
4284 <p>In the report written by Lars Risan in August 2008
4285 («<a href="http://wiki.skolelinux.no/Dokumentasjon/Rapporter?action=AttachFile&do=view&target=Skolelinux_i_bruk_rapport_1.0.pdf">Skolelinux
4286 i bruk – Rapport for Hurum kommune, Universitetet i Agder og
4287 stiftelsen SLX Debian Labs</a>»), one of the most important problems
4288 schools experienced with <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian
4289 Edu/Skolelinux</a> was the lack of working Flash.  A lot of educational
4290 web sites require Flash to work, and lacking working Flash support in
4291 the web browser and the problems with installing it was perceived as a
4292 good reason to stay with Windows.</p>
4293
4294 <p>I once saw a funny and sad comment in a web forum, where Linux was
4295 said to be the retarded cousin that did not really understand
4296 everything you told him but could work fairly well.  This was a
4297 comment regarding the problems Linux have with proprietary formats and
4298 non-standard web pages, and is sad because it exposes a fairly common
4299 understanding of whose fault it is if web pages that only work in for
4300 example Internet Explorer 6 fail to work on Firefox, and funny because
4301 it explain very well how annoying it is for users when Linux
4302 distributions do not work with the documents they receive or the web
4303 pages they want to visit.</p>
4304
4305 <p>This is part of the reason why I believe it is important for Debian
4306 and Debian Edu to have a well working Flash implementation in the
4307 distribution, to get at least popular sites as Youtube and Google
4308 Video to working out of the box.  For Squeeze, Debian have the chance
4309 to include the latest version of Gnash that will make this happen, as
4310 the new release 0.8.8 was published a few weeks ago and is resting in
4311 unstable.  The new version work with more sites that version 0.8.7.
4312 The Gnash maintainers have asked for a freeze exception, but the
4313 release team have not had time to reply to it yet.  I hope they agree
4314 with me that Flash is important for the Debian desktop users, and thus
4315 accept the new package into Squeeze.</p>
4316
4317       </div>
4318       <div class="tags">
4319
4320
4321         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>.
4322
4323
4324       </div>
4325     </div>
4326     <div class="padding"></div>
4327
4328     <div class="entry">
4329       <div class="title">
4330         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Circular_package_dependencies_harms_apt_recovery.html">Circular package dependencies harms apt recovery</a>
4331       </div>
4332       <div class="date">
4333         27th July 2010
4334       </div>
4335       <div class="body">
4336         <p>I discovered this while doing
4337 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Automatic_upgrade_testing_from_Lenny_to_Squeeze.html">automated
4338 testing of upgrades from Debian Lenny to Squeeze</a>.  A few packages
4339 in Debian still got circular dependencies, and it is often claimed
4340 that apt and aptitude should be able to handle this just fine, but
4341 some times these dependency loops causes apt to fail.</p>
4342
4343 <p>An example is from todays
4344 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/~pere/debian-upgrade-testing//test-20100727-lenny-squeeze-kde-aptitude.txt">upgrade
4345 of KDE using aptitude</a>.  In it, a bug in kdebase-workspace-data
4346 causes perl-modules to fail to upgrade.  The cause is simple.  If a
4347 package fail to unpack, then only part of packages with the circular
4348 dependency might end up being unpacked when unpacking aborts, and the
4349 ones already unpacked will fail to configure in the recovery phase
4350 because its dependencies are unavailable.</p>
4351
4352 <p>In this log, the problem manifest itself with this error:</p>
4353
4354 <blockquote><pre>
4355 dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of perl-modules:
4356  perl-modules depends on perl (>= 5.10.1-1); however:
4357   Version of perl on system is 5.10.0-19lenny2.
4358 dpkg: error processing perl-modules (--configure):
4359  dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
4360 </pre></blockquote>
4361
4362 <p>The perl/perl-modules circular dependency is already
4363 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/527917">reported as a bug</a>, and will
4364 hopefully be solved as soon as possible, but it is not the only one,
4365 and each one of these loops in the dependency tree can cause similar
4366 failures.  Of course, they only occur when there are bugs in other
4367 packages causing the unpacking to fail, but it is rather nasty when
4368 the failure of one package causes the problem to become worse because
4369 of dependency loops.</p>
4370
4371 <p>Thanks to
4372 <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2010/06/msg00116.html">the
4373 tireless effort by Bill Allombert</a>, the number of circular
4374 dependencies
4375 <a href="http://debian.semistable.com/debgraph.out.html">left in Debian
4376 is dropping</a>, and perhaps it will reach zero one day. :)</p>
4377
4378 <p>Todays testing also exposed a bug in
4379 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/590605">update-notifier</a> and
4380 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/590604">different behaviour</a> between
4381 apt-get and aptitude, the latter possibly caused by some circular
4382 dependency.  Reported both to BTS to try to get someone to look at
4383 it.</p>
4384
4385       </div>
4386       <div class="tags">
4387
4388
4389         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>.
4390
4391
4392       </div>
4393     </div>
4394     <div class="padding"></div>
4395
4396     <div class="entry">
4397       <div class="title">
4398         <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>
4399       </div>
4400       <div class="date">
4401         17th July 2010
4402       </div>
4403       <div class="body">
4404         <p>This is a
4405 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Time_for_new__LDAP_schemas_replacing_RFC_2307_.html">followup</a>
4406 on my
4407 <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
4408 work</a> on
4409 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Combining_PowerDNS_and_ISC_DHCP_LDAP_objects.html">merging
4410 all</a> the computer related LDAP objects in Debian Edu.</p>
4411
4412 <p>As a step to try to see if it possible to merge the DNS and DHCP
4413 LDAP objects, I have had a look at how the packages pdns-backend-ldap
4414 and dhcp3-server-ldap in Debian use the LDAP server.  The two
4415 implementations are quite different in how they use LDAP.</p>
4416
4417 To get this information, I started slapd with debugging enabled and
4418 dumped the debug output to a file to get the LDAP searches performed
4419 on a Debian Edu main-server.  Here is a summary.
4420
4421 <p><strong>powerdns</strong></p>
4422
4423 <a href="http://www.linuxnetworks.de/doc/index.php/PowerDNS_LDAP_Backend">Clues
4424 on how to</a> set up PowerDNS to use a LDAP backend is available on
4425 the web.
4426
4427 <p>PowerDNS have two modes of operation using LDAP as its backend.
4428 One "strict" mode where the forward and reverse DNS lookups are done
4429 using the same LDAP objects, and a "tree" mode where the forward and
4430 reverse entries are in two different subtrees in LDAP with a structure
4431 based on the DNS names, as in tjener.intern and
4432 2.2.0.10.in-addr.arpa.</p>
4433
4434 <p>In tree mode, the server is set up to use a LDAP subtree as its
4435 base, and uses a "base" scoped search for the DNS name by adding
4436 "dc=tjener,dc=intern," to the base with a filter for
4437 "(associateddomain=tjener.intern)" for the forward entry and
4438 "dc=2,dc=2,dc=0,dc=10,dc=in-addr,dc=arpa," with a filter for
4439 "(associateddomain=2.2.0.10.in-addr.arpa)" for the reverse entry.  For
4440 forward entries, it is looking for attributes named dnsttl, arecord,
4441 nsrecord, cnamerecord, soarecord, ptrrecord, hinforecord, mxrecord,
4442 txtrecord, rprecord, afsdbrecord, keyrecord, aaaarecord, locrecord,
4443 srvrecord, naptrrecord, kxrecord, certrecord, dsrecord, sshfprecord,
4444 ipseckeyrecord, rrsigrecord, nsecrecord, dnskeyrecord, dhcidrecord,
4445 spfrecord and modifytimestamp.  For reverse entries it is looking for
4446 the attributes dnsttl, arecord, nsrecord, cnamerecord, soarecord,
4447 ptrrecord, hinforecord, mxrecord, txtrecord, rprecord, aaaarecord,
4448 locrecord, srvrecord, naptrrecord and modifytimestamp.  The equivalent
4449 ldapsearch commands could look like this:</p>
4450
4451 <blockquote><pre>
4452 ldapsearch -h ldap \
4453   -b dc=tjener,dc=intern,ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no \
4454   -s base -x '(associateddomain=tjener.intern)' dNSTTL aRecord nSRecord \
4455   cNAMERecord sOARecord pTRRecord hInfoRecord mXRecord tXTRecord \
4456   rPRecord aFSDBRecord KeyRecord aAAARecord lOCRecord sRVRecord \
4457   nAPTRRecord kXRecord certRecord dSRecord sSHFPRecord iPSecKeyRecord \
4458   rRSIGRecord nSECRecord dNSKeyRecord dHCIDRecord sPFRecord modifyTimestamp
4459
4460 ldapsearch -h ldap \
4461   -b dc=2,dc=2,dc=0,dc=10,dc=in-addr,dc=arpa,ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no \
4462   -s base -x '(associateddomain=2.2.0.10.in-addr.arpa)'
4463   dnsttl, arecord, nsrecord, cnamerecord soarecord ptrrecord \
4464   hinforecord mxrecord txtrecord rprecord aaaarecord locrecord \
4465   srvrecord naptrrecord modifytimestamp
4466 </pre></blockquote>
4467
4468 <p>In Debian Edu/Lenny, the PowerDNS tree mode is used with
4469 ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no as the base, and these are two
4470 example LDAP objects used there.  In addition to these objects, the
4471 parent objects all th way up to ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
4472 also exist.</p>
4473
4474 <blockquote><pre>
4475 dn: dc=tjener,dc=intern,ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
4476 objectclass: top
4477 objectclass: dnsdomain
4478 objectclass: domainrelatedobject
4479 dc: tjener
4480 arecord: 10.0.2.2
4481 associateddomain: tjener.intern
4482
4483 dn: dc=2,dc=2,dc=0,dc=10,dc=in-addr,dc=arpa,ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
4484 objectclass: top
4485 objectclass: dnsdomain2
4486 objectclass: domainrelatedobject
4487 dc: 2
4488 ptrrecord: tjener.intern
4489 associateddomain: 2.2.0.10.in-addr.arpa
4490 </pre></blockquote>
4491
4492 <p>In strict mode, the server behaves differently.  When looking for
4493 forward DNS entries, it is doing a "subtree" scoped search with the
4494 same base as in the tree mode for a object with filter
4495 "(associateddomain=tjener.intern)" and requests the attributes dnsttl,
4496 arecord, nsrecord, cnamerecord, soarecord, ptrrecord, hinforecord,
4497 mxrecord, txtrecord, rprecord, aaaarecord, locrecord, srvrecord,
4498 naptrrecord and modifytimestamp.  For reverse entires it also do a
4499 subtree scoped search but this time the filter is "(arecord=10.0.2.2)"
4500 and the requested attributes are associateddomain, dnsttl and
4501 modifytimestamp.  In short, in strict mode the objects with ptrrecord
4502 go away, and the arecord attribute in the forward object is used
4503 instead.</p>
4504
4505 <p>The forward and reverse searches can be simulated using ldapsearch
4506 like this:</p>
4507
4508 <blockquote><pre>
4509 ldapsearch -h ldap -b ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no -s sub -x \
4510   '(associateddomain=tjener.intern)' dNSTTL aRecord nSRecord \
4511   cNAMERecord sOARecord pTRRecord hInfoRecord mXRecord tXTRecord \
4512   rPRecord aFSDBRecord KeyRecord aAAARecord lOCRecord sRVRecord \
4513   nAPTRRecord kXRecord certRecord dSRecord sSHFPRecord iPSecKeyRecord \
4514   rRSIGRecord nSECRecord dNSKeyRecord dHCIDRecord sPFRecord modifyTimestamp
4515
4516 ldapsearch -h ldap -b ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no -s sub -x \
4517   '(arecord=10.0.2.2)' associateddomain dnsttl modifytimestamp
4518 </pre></blockquote>
4519
4520 <p>In addition to the forward and reverse searches , there is also a
4521 search for SOA records, which behave similar to the forward and
4522 reverse lookups.</p>
4523
4524 <p>A thing to note with the PowerDNS behaviour is that it do not
4525 specify any objectclass names, and instead look for the attributes it
4526 need to generate a DNS reply.  This make it able to work with any
4527 objectclass that provide the needed attributes.</p>
4528
4529 <p>The attributes are normally provided in the cosine (RFC 1274) and
4530 dnsdomain2 schemas.  The latter is used for reverse entries like
4531 ptrrecord and recent DNS additions like aaaarecord and srvrecord.</p>
4532
4533 <p>In Debian Edu, we have created DNS objects using the object classes
4534 dcobject (for dc), dnsdomain or dnsdomain2 (structural, for the DNS
4535 attributes) and domainrelatedobject (for associatedDomain).  The use
4536 of structural object classes make it impossible to combine these
4537 classes with the object classes used by DHCP.</p>
4538
4539 <p>There are other schemas that could be used too, for example the
4540 dnszone structural object class used by Gosa and bind-sdb for the DNS
4541 attributes combined with the domainrelatedobject object class, but in
4542 this case some unused attributes would have to be included as well
4543 (zonename and relativedomainname).</p>
4544
4545 <p>My proposal for Debian Edu would be to switch PowerDNS to strict
4546 mode and not use any of the existing objectclasses (dnsdomain,
4547 dnsdomain2 and dnszone) when one want to combine the DNS information
4548 with DHCP information, and instead create a auxiliary object class
4549 defined something like this (using the attributes defined for
4550 dnsdomain and dnsdomain2 or dnszone):</p>
4551
4552 <blockquote><pre>
4553 objectclass ( some-oid NAME 'dnsDomainAux'
4554     SUP top
4555     AUXILIARY
4556     MAY ( ARecord $ MDRecord $ MXRecord $ NSRecord $ SOARecord $ CNAMERecord $
4557           DNSTTL $ DNSClass $ PTRRecord $ HINFORecord $ MINFORecord $
4558           TXTRecord $ SIGRecord $ KEYRecord $ AAAARecord $ LOCRecord $
4559           NXTRecord $ SRVRecord $ NAPTRRecord $ KXRecord $ CERTRecord $
4560           A6Record $ DNAMERecord
4561     ))
4562 </pre></blockquote>
4563
4564 <p>This will allow any object to become a DNS entry when combined with
4565 the domainrelatedobject object class, and allow any entity to include
4566 all the attributes PowerDNS wants.  I've sent an email to the PowerDNS
4567 developers asking for their view on this schema and if they are
4568 interested in providing such schema with PowerDNS, and I hope my
4569 message will be accepted into their mailing list soon.</p>
4570
4571 <p><strong>ISC dhcp</strong></p>
4572
4573 <p>The DHCP server searches for specific objectclass and requests all
4574 the object attributes, and then uses the attributes it want.  This
4575 make it harder to figure out exactly what attributes are used, but
4576 thanks to the working example in Debian Edu I can at least get an idea
4577 what is needed without having to read the source code.</p>
4578
4579 <p>In the DHCP server configuration, the LDAP base to use and the
4580 search filter to use to locate the correct dhcpServer entity is
4581 stored.  These are the relevant entries from
4582 /etc/dhcp3/dhcpd.conf:</p>
4583
4584 <blockquote><pre>
4585 ldap-base-dn "dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no";
4586 ldap-dhcp-server-cn "dhcp";
4587 </pre></blockquote>
4588
4589 <p>The DHCP server uses this information to nest all the DHCP
4590 configuration it need.  The cn "dhcp" is located using the given LDAP
4591 base and the filter "(&(objectClass=dhcpServer)(cn=dhcp))".  The
4592 search result is this entry:</p>
4593
4594 <blockquote><pre>
4595 dn: cn=dhcp,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
4596 cn: dhcp
4597 objectClass: top
4598 objectClass: dhcpServer
4599 dhcpServiceDN: cn=DHCP Config,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
4600 </pre></blockquote>
4601
4602 <p>The content of the dhcpServiceDN attribute is next used to locate the
4603 subtree with DHCP configuration.  The DHCP configuration subtree base
4604 is located using a base scope search with base "cn=DHCP
4605 Config,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no" and filter
4606 "(&(objectClass=dhcpService)(|(dhcpPrimaryDN=cn=dhcp,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no)(dhcpSecondaryDN=cn=dhcp,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no)))".
4607 The search result is this entry:</p>
4608
4609 <blockquote><pre>
4610 dn: cn=DHCP Config,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
4611 cn: DHCP Config
4612 objectClass: top
4613 objectClass: dhcpService
4614 objectClass: dhcpOptions
4615 dhcpPrimaryDN: cn=dhcp, dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
4616 dhcpStatements: ddns-update-style none
4617 dhcpStatements: authoritative
4618 dhcpOption: smtp-server code 69 = array of ip-address
4619 dhcpOption: www-server code 72 = array of ip-address
4620 dhcpOption: wpad-url code 252 = text
4621 </pre></blockquote>
4622
4623 <p>Next, the entire subtree is processed, one level at the time.  When
4624 all the DHCP configuration is loaded, it is ready to receive requests.
4625 The subtree in Debian Edu contain objects with object classes
4626 top/dhcpService/dhcpOptions, top/dhcpSharedNetwork/dhcpOptions,
4627 top/dhcpSubnet, top/dhcpGroup and top/dhcpHost.  These provide options
4628 and information about netmasks, dynamic range etc.  Leaving out the
4629 details here because it is not relevant for the focus of my
4630 investigation, which is to see if it is possible to merge dns and dhcp
4631 related computer objects.</p>
4632
4633 <p>When a DHCP request come in, LDAP is searched for the MAC address
4634 of the client (00:00:00:00:00:00 in this example), using a subtree
4635 scoped search with "cn=DHCP Config,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no" as
4636 the base and "(&(objectClass=dhcpHost)(dhcpHWAddress=ethernet
4637 00:00:00:00:00:00))" as the filter.  This is what a host object look
4638 like:</p>
4639
4640 <blockquote><pre>
4641 dn: cn=hostname,cn=group1,cn=THINCLIENTS,cn=DHCP Config,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
4642 cn: hostname
4643 objectClass: top
4644 objectClass: dhcpHost
4645 dhcpHWAddress: ethernet 00:00:00:00:00:00
4646 dhcpStatements: fixed-address hostname
4647 </pre></blockquote>
4648
4649 <p>There is less flexiblity in the way LDAP searches are done here.
4650 The object classes need to have fixed names, and the configuration
4651 need to be stored in a fairly specific LDAP structure.  On the
4652 positive side, the invidiual dhcpHost entires can be anywhere without
4653 the DN pointed to by the dhcpServer entries.  The latter should make
4654 it possible to group all host entries in a subtree next to the
4655 configuration entries, and this subtree can also be shared with the
4656 DNS server if the schema proposed above is combined with the dhcpHost
4657 structural object class.
4658
4659 <p><strong>Conclusion</strong></p>
4660
4661 <p>The PowerDNS implementation seem to be very flexible when it come
4662 to which LDAP schemas to use.  While its "tree" mode is rigid when it
4663 come to the the LDAP structure, the "strict" mode is very flexible,
4664 allowing DNS objects to be stored anywhere under the base cn specified
4665 in the configuration.</p>
4666
4667 <p>The DHCP implementation on the other hand is very inflexible, both
4668 regarding which LDAP schemas to use and which LDAP structure to use.
4669 I guess one could implement ones own schema, as long as the
4670 objectclasses and attributes have the names used, but this do not
4671 really help when the DHCP subtree need to have a fairly fixed
4672 structure.</p>
4673
4674 <p>Based on the observed behaviour, I suspect a LDAP structure like
4675 this might work for Debian Edu:</p>
4676
4677 <blockquote><pre>
4678 ou=services
4679   cn=machine-info (dhcpService) - dhcpServiceDN points here
4680     cn=dhcp (dhcpServer)
4681     cn=dhcp-internal (dhcpSharedNetwork/dhcpOptions)
4682       cn=10.0.2.0 (dhcpSubnet)
4683         cn=group1 (dhcpGroup/dhcpOptions)
4684     cn=dhcp-thinclients (dhcpSharedNetwork/dhcpOptions)
4685       cn=192.168.0.0 (dhcpSubnet)
4686         cn=group1 (dhcpGroup/dhcpOptions)
4687     ou=machines - PowerDNS base points here
4688       cn=hostname (dhcpHost/domainrelatedobject/dnsDomainAux)
4689 </pre></blockquote>
4690
4691 <P>This is not tested yet.  If the DHCP server require the dhcpHost
4692 entries to be in the dhcpGroup subtrees, the entries can be stored
4693 there instead of a common machines subtree, and the PowerDNS base
4694 would have to be moved one level up to the machine-info subtree.</p>
4695
4696 <p>The combined object under the machines subtree would look something
4697 like this:</p>
4698
4699 <blockquote><pre>
4700 dn: dc=hostname,ou=machines,cn=machine-info,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
4701 dc: hostname
4702 objectClass: top
4703 objectClass: dhcpHost
4704 objectclass: domainrelatedobject
4705 objectclass: dnsDomainAux
4706 associateddomain: hostname.intern
4707 arecord: 10.11.12.13
4708 dhcpHWAddress: ethernet 00:00:00:00:00:00
4709 dhcpStatements: fixed-address hostname.intern
4710 </pre></blockquote>
4711
4712 </p>One could even add the LTSP configuration associated with a given
4713 machine, as long as the required attributes are available in a
4714 auxiliary object class.</p>
4715
4716       </div>
4717       <div class="tags">
4718
4719
4720         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>.
4721
4722
4723       </div>
4724     </div>
4725     <div class="padding"></div>
4726
4727     <div class="entry">
4728       <div class="title">
4729         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Combining_PowerDNS_and_ISC_DHCP_LDAP_objects.html">Combining PowerDNS and ISC DHCP LDAP objects</a>
4730       </div>
4731       <div class="date">
4732         14th July 2010
4733       </div>
4734       <div class="body">
4735         <p>For a while now, I have wanted to find a way to change the DNS and
4736 DHCP services in Debian Edu to use the same LDAP objects for a given
4737 computer, to avoid the possibility of having a inconsistent state for
4738 a computer in LDAP (as in DHCP but no DNS entry or the other way
4739 around) and make it easier to add computers to LDAP.</p>
4740
4741 <p>I've looked at how powerdns and dhcpd is using LDAP, and using this
4742 information finally found a solution that seem to work.</p>
4743
4744 <p>The old setup required three LDAP objects for a given computer.
4745 One forward DNS entry, one reverse DNS entry and one DHCP entry.  If
4746 we switch powerdns to use its strict LDAP method (ldap-method=strict
4747 in pdns-debian-edu.conf), the forward and reverse DNS entries are
4748 merged into one while making it impossible to transfer the reverse map
4749 to a slave DNS server.</p>
4750
4751 <p>If we also replace the object class used to get the DNS related
4752 attributes to one allowing these attributes to be combined with the
4753 dhcphost object class, we can merge the DNS and DHCP entries into one.
4754 I've written such object class in the dnsdomainaux.schema file (need
4755 proper OIDs, but that is a minor issue), and tested the setup.  It
4756 seem to work.</p>
4757
4758 <p>With this test setup in place, we can get away with one LDAP object
4759 for both DNS and DHCP, and even the LTSP configuration I suggested in
4760 an earlier email.  The combined LDAP object will look something like
4761 this:</p>
4762
4763 <blockquote><pre>
4764   dn: cn=hostname,cn=group1,cn=THINCLIENTS,cn=DHCP Config,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
4765   cn: hostname
4766   objectClass: dhcphost
4767   objectclass: domainrelatedobject
4768   objectclass: dnsdomainaux
4769   associateddomain: hostname.intern
4770   arecord: 10.11.12.13
4771   dhcphwaddress: ethernet 00:00:00:00:00:00
4772   dhcpstatements: fixed-address hostname
4773   ldapconfigsound: Y
4774 </pre></blockquote>
4775
4776 <p>The DNS server uses the associateddomain and arecord entries, while
4777 the DHCP server uses the dhcphwaddress and dhcpstatements entries
4778 before asking DNS to resolve the fixed-adddress.  LTSP will use
4779 dhcphwaddress or associateddomain and the ldapconfig* attributes.</p>
4780
4781 <p>I am not yet sure if I can get the DHCP server to look for its
4782 dhcphost in a different location, to allow us to put the objects
4783 outside the "DHCP Config" subtree, but hope to figure out a way to do
4784 that.  If I can't figure out a way to do that, we can still get rid of
4785 the hosts subtree and move all its content into the DHCP Config tree
4786 (which probably should be renamed to be more related to the new
4787 content.  I suspect cn=dnsdhcp,ou=services or something like that
4788 might be a good place to put it.</p>
4789
4790 <p>If you want to help out with implementing this for Debian Edu,
4791 please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.</p>
4792
4793       </div>
4794       <div class="tags">
4795
4796
4797         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>.
4798
4799
4800       </div>
4801     </div>
4802     <div class="padding"></div>
4803
4804     <div class="entry">
4805       <div class="title">
4806         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Idea_for_storing_LTSP_configuration_in_LDAP.html">Idea for storing LTSP configuration in LDAP</a>
4807       </div>
4808       <div class="date">
4809         11th July 2010
4810       </div>
4811       <div class="body">
4812         <p>Vagrant mentioned on IRC today that ltsp_config now support
4813 sourcing files from /usr/share/ltsp/ltsp_config.d/ on the thin
4814 clients, and that this can be used to fetch configuration from LDAP if
4815 Debian Edu choose to store configuration there.</p>
4816
4817 <p>Armed with this information, I got inspired and wrote a test module
4818 to get configuration from LDAP.  The idea is to look up the MAC
4819 address of the client in LDAP, and look for attributes on the form
4820 ltspconfigsetting=value, and use this to export SETTING=value to the
4821 LTSP clients.</p>
4822
4823 <p>The goal is to be able to store the LTSP configuration attributes
4824 in a "computer" LDAP object used by both DNS and DHCP, and thus
4825 allowing us to store all information about a computer in one place.</p>
4826
4827 <p>This is a untested draft implementation, and I welcome feedback on
4828 this approach.  A real LDAP schema for the ltspClientAux objectclass
4829 need to be written.  Comments, suggestions, etc?</p>
4830
4831 <blockquote><pre>
4832 # Store in /opt/ltsp/$arch/usr/share/ltsp/ltsp_config.d/ldap-config
4833 #
4834 # Fetch LTSP client settings from LDAP based on MAC address
4835 #
4836 # Uses ethernet address as stored in the dhcpHost objectclass using
4837 # the dhcpHWAddress attribute or ethernet address stored in the
4838 # ieee802Device objectclass with the macAddress attribute.
4839 #
4840 # This module is written to be schema agnostic, and only depend on the
4841 # existence of attribute names.
4842 #
4843 # The LTSP configuration variables are saved directly using a
4844 # ltspConfig prefix and uppercasing the rest of the attribute name.
4845 # To set the SERVER variable, set the ltspConfigServer attribute.
4846 #
4847 # Some LDAP schema should be created with all the relevant
4848 # configuration settings.  Something like this should work:
4849 #
4850 # objectclass ( 1.1.2.2 NAME 'ltspClientAux'
4851 #     SUP top
4852 #     AUXILIARY
4853 #     MAY ( ltspConfigServer $ ltsConfigSound $ ... )
4854
4855 LDAPSERVER=$(debian-edu-ldapserver)
4856 if [ "$LDAPSERVER" ] ; then
4857     LDAPBASE=$(debian-edu-ldapserver -b)
4858     for MAC in $(LANG=C ifconfig |grep -i hwaddr| awk '{print $5}'|sort -u) ; do
4859         filter="(|(dhcpHWAddress=ethernet $MAC)(macAddress=$MAC))"
4860         ldapsearch -h "$LDAPSERVER" -b "$LDAPBASE" -v -x "$filter" | \
4861             grep '^ltspConfig' | while read attr value ; do
4862             # Remove prefix and convert to upper case
4863             attr=$(echo $attr | sed 's/^ltspConfig//i' | tr a-z A-Z)
4864             # bass value on to clients
4865             eval "$attr=$value; export $attr"
4866         done
4867     done
4868 fi
4869 </pre></blockquote>
4870
4871 <p>I'm not sure this shell construction will work, because I suspect
4872 the while block might end up in a subshell causing the variables set
4873 there to not show up in ltsp-config, but if that is the case I am sure
4874 the code can be restructured to make sure the variables are passed on.
4875 I expect that can be solved with some testing. :)</p>
4876
4877 <p>If you want to help out with implementing this for Debian Edu,
4878 please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.</p>
4879
4880 <p>Update 2010-07-17: I am aware of another effort to store LTSP
4881 configuration in LDAP that was created around year 2000 by
4882 <a href="http://www.pcxperience.com/thinclient/documentation/ldap.html">PC
4883 Xperience, Inc., 2000</a>.  I found its
4884 <a href="http://people.redhat.com/alikins/ltsp/ldap/">files</a> on a
4885 personal home page over at redhat.com.</p>
4886
4887       </div>
4888       <div class="tags">
4889
4890
4891         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>.
4892
4893
4894       </div>
4895     </div>
4896     <div class="padding"></div>
4897
4898     <div class="entry">
4899       <div class="title">
4900         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/jXplorer__a_very_nice_LDAP_GUI.html">jXplorer, a very nice LDAP GUI</a>
4901       </div>
4902       <div class="date">
4903          9th July 2010
4904       </div>
4905       <div class="body">
4906         <p>Since
4907 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/LUMA__a_very_nice_LDAP_GUI.html">my
4908 last post</a> about available LDAP tools in Debian, I was told about a
4909 LDAP GUI that is even better than luma.  The java application
4910 <a href="http://jxplorer.org/">jXplorer</a> is claimed to be capable of
4911 moving LDAP objects and subtrees using drag-and-drop, and can
4912 authenticate using Kerberos.  I have only tested the Kerberos
4913 authentication, but do not have a LDAP setup allowing me to rewrite
4914 LDAP with my test user yet.  It is
4915 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/j/jxplorer.html">available in
4916 Debian</a> testing and unstable at the moment.  The only problem I
4917 have with it is how it handle errors.  If something go wrong, its
4918 non-intuitive behaviour require me to go through some query work list
4919 and remove the failing query.  Nothing big, but very annoying.</p>
4920
4921       </div>
4922       <div class="tags">
4923
4924
4925         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>.
4926
4927
4928       </div>
4929     </div>
4930     <div class="padding"></div>
4931
4932     <div class="entry">
4933       <div class="title">
4934         <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>
4935       </div>
4936       <div class="date">
4937          3rd July 2010
4938       </div>
4939       <div class="body">
4940         <p>Here is a short update on my <a
4941 href="http://people.skolelinux.org/~pere/debian-upgrade-testing/">my
4942 Debian Lenny->Squeeze upgrade testing</a>.  Here is a summary of the
4943 difference for Gnome when it is upgraded by apt-get and aptitude.  I'm
4944 not reporting the status for KDE, because the upgrade crashes when
4945 aptitude try because of missing conflicts
4946 (<a href="http://bugs.debian.org/584861">#584861</a> and
4947 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/585716">#585716</a>).</p>
4948
4949 <p>At the end of the upgrade test script, dpkg -l is executed to get a
4950 complete list of the installed packages.  Based on this I see these
4951 differences when I did a test run today.  As usual, I do not really
4952 know what the correct set of packages would be, but thought it best to
4953 publish the difference.</p>
4954
4955 <p>Installed using apt-get, missing with aptitude</p>
4956
4957 <blockquote><p>
4958   at-spi cpp-4.3 finger gnome-spell gstreamer0.10-gnomevfs
4959   libatspi1.0-0 libcupsys2 libeel2-data libgail-common libgdl-1-common
4960   libgnomeprint2.2-data libgnomeprintui2.2-common libgnomevfs2-bin
4961   libgtksourceview-common libpt-1.10.10-plugins-alsa
4962   libpt-1.10.10-plugins-v4l libservlet2.4-java libxalan2-java
4963   libxerces2-java openoffice.org-writer2latex openssl-blacklist p7zip
4964   python-4suite-xml python-eggtrayicon python-gtkhtml2
4965   python-gtkmozembed svgalibg1 xserver-xephyr zip
4966 </p></blockquote>
4967
4968 <p>Installed using apt-get, removed with aptitude</p>
4969
4970 <blockquote><p>
4971   bluez-utils dhcdbd djvulibre-desktop epiphany-gecko
4972   gnome-app-install gnome-mount gnome-vfs-obexftp gnome-volume-manager
4973   libao2 libavahi-compat-libdnssd1 libavahi-core5 libbind9-50
4974   libbluetooth2 libcamel1.2-11 libcdio7 libcucul0 libcurl3
4975   libdirectfb-1.0-0 libdvdread3 libedata-cal1.2-6 libedataserver1.2-9
4976   libeel2-2.20 libepc-1.0-1 libepc-ui-1.0-1 libexchange-storage1.2-3
4977   libfaad0 libgd2-noxpm libgda3-3 libgda3-common libggz2 libggzcore9
4978   libggzmod4 libgksu1.2-0 libgksuui1.0-1 libgmyth0 libgnome-desktop-2
4979   libgnome-pilot2 libgnomecups1.0-1 libgnomeprint2.2-0
4980   libgnomeprintui2.2-0 libgpod3 libgraphviz4 libgtkhtml2-0
4981   libgtksourceview1.0-0 libgucharmap6 libhesiod0 libicu38 libisccc50
4982   libisccfg50 libiw29 libkpathsea4 libltdl3 liblwres50 libmagick++10
4983   libmagick10 libmalaga7 libmtp7 libmysqlclient15off libnautilus-burn4
4984   libneon27 libnm-glib0 libnm-util0 libopal-2.2 libosp5
4985   libparted1.8-10 libpisock9 libpisync1 libpoppler-glib3 libpoppler3
4986   libpt-1.10.10 libraw1394-8 libsensors3 libsmbios2 libsoup2.2-8
4987   libssh2-1 libsuitesparse-3.1.0 libswfdec-0.6-90 libtalloc1
4988   libtotem-plparser10 libtrackerclient0 libvoikko1 libxalan2-java-gcj
4989   libxerces2-java-gcj libxklavier12 libxtrap6 libxxf86misc1 libzephyr3
4990   mysql-common swfdec-gnome totem-gstreamer wodim
4991 </p></blockquote>
4992
4993 <p>Installed using aptitude, missing with apt-get</p>
4994
4995 <blockquote><p>
4996   gnome gnome-desktop-environment hamster-applet python-gnomeapplet
4997   python-gnomekeyring python-wnck rhythmbox-plugins xorg
4998   xserver-xorg-input-all xserver-xorg-input-evdev
4999   xserver-xorg-input-kbd xserver-xorg-input-mouse
5000   xserver-xorg-input-synaptics xserver-xorg-video-all
5001   xserver-xorg-video-apm xserver-xorg-video-ark xserver-xorg-video-ati
5002   xserver-xorg-video-chips xserver-xorg-video-cirrus
5003   xserver-xorg-video-dummy xserver-xorg-video-fbdev
5004   xserver-xorg-video-glint xserver-xorg-video-i128
5005   xserver-xorg-video-i740 xserver-xorg-video-mach64
5006   xserver-xorg-video-mga xserver-xorg-video-neomagic
5007   xserver-xorg-video-nouveau xserver-xorg-video-nv
5008   xserver-xorg-video-r128 xserver-xorg-video-radeon
5009   xserver-xorg-video-radeonhd xserver-xorg-video-rendition
5010   xserver-xorg-video-s3 xserver-xorg-video-s3virge
5011   xserver-xorg-video-savage xserver-xorg-video-siliconmotion
5012   xserver-xorg-video-sis xserver-xorg-video-sisusb
5013   xserver-xorg-video-tdfx xserver-xorg-video-tga
5014   xserver-xorg-video-trident xserver-xorg-video-tseng
5015   xserver-xorg-video-vesa xserver-xorg-video-vmware
5016   xserver-xorg-video-voodoo
5017 </p></blockquote>
5018
5019 <p>Installed using aptitude, removed with apt-get</p>
5020
5021 <blockquote><p>
5022   deskbar-applet xserver-xorg xserver-xorg-core
5023   xserver-xorg-input-wacom xserver-xorg-video-intel
5024   xserver-xorg-video-openchrome
5025 </p></blockquote>
5026
5027 <p>I was told on IRC that the xorg-xserver package was
5028 <a href="http://git.debian.org/?p=pkg-xorg/xserver/xorg-server.git;a=commit;h=9c8080d06c457932d3bfec021c69ac000aa60120">changed
5029 in git</a> today to try to get apt-get to not remove xorg completely.
5030 No idea when it hits Squeeze, but when it does I hope it will reduce
5031 the difference somewhat.
5032
5033       </div>
5034       <div class="tags">
5035
5036
5037         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>.
5038
5039
5040       </div>
5041     </div>
5042     <div class="padding"></div>
5043
5044     <div class="entry">
5045       <div class="title">
5046         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/LUMA__a_very_nice_LDAP_GUI.html">LUMA, a very nice LDAP GUI</a>
5047       </div>
5048       <div class="date">
5049         28th June 2010
5050       </div>
5051       <div class="body">
5052         <p>The last few days I have been looking into the status of the LDAP
5053 directory in Debian Edu, and in the process I started to miss a GUI
5054 tool to browse the LDAP tree.  The only one I was able to find in
5055 Debian/Squeeze and Lenny is
5056 <a href="http://luma.sourceforge.net/">LUMA</a>, which has proved to
5057 be a great tool to get a overview of the current LDAP directory
5058 populated by default in Skolelinux.  Thanks to it, I have been able to
5059 find empty and obsolete subtrees, misplaced objects and duplicate
5060 objects.  It will be installed by default in Debian/Squeeze.  If you
5061 are working with LDAP, give it a go. :)</p>
5062
5063 <p>I did notice one problem with it I have not had time to report to
5064 the BTS yet.  There is no .desktop file in the package, so the tool do
5065 not show up in the Gnome and KDE menus, but only deep down in in the
5066 Debian submenu in KDE.  I hope that can be fixed before Squeeze is
5067 released.</p>
5068
5069 <p>I have not yet been able to get it to modify the tree yet.  I would
5070 like to move objects and remove subtrees directly in the GUI, but have
5071 not found a way to do that with LUMA yet.  So in the mean time, I use
5072 <a href="http://www.lichteblau.com/ldapvi/">ldapvi</a> for that.</p>
5073
5074 <p>If you have tips on other GUI tools for LDAP that might be useful
5075 in Debian Edu, please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.</p>
5076
5077 <p>Update 2010-06-29: Ross Reedstrom tipped us about the
5078 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/g/gq.html">gq</a> package as a
5079 useful GUI alternative.  It seem like a good tool, but is unmaintained
5080 in Debian and got a RC bug keeping it out of Squeeze.  Unless that
5081 changes, it will not be an option for Debian Edu based on Squeeze.</p>
5082
5083       </div>
5084       <div class="tags">
5085
5086
5087         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>.
5088
5089
5090       </div>
5091     </div>
5092     <div class="padding"></div>
5093
5094     <div class="entry">
5095       <div class="title">
5096         <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>
5097       </div>
5098       <div class="date">
5099         24th June 2010
5100       </div>
5101       <div class="body">
5102         <p>A while back, I
5103 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Time_for_new__LDAP_schemas_replacing_RFC_2307_.html">complained
5104 about the fact</a> that it is not possible with the provided schemas
5105 for storing DNS and DHCP information in LDAP to combine the two sets
5106 of information into one LDAP object representing a computer.</p>
5107
5108 <p>In the mean time, I discovered that a simple fix would be to make
5109 the dhcpHost object class auxiliary, to allow it to be combined with
5110 the dNSDomain object class, and thus forming one object for one
5111 computer when storing both DHCP and DNS information in LDAP.</p>
5112
5113 <p>If I understand this correctly, it is not safe to do this change
5114 without also changing the assigned number for the object class, and I
5115 do not know enough about LDAP schema design to do that properly for
5116 Debian Edu.</p>
5117
5118 <p>Anyway, for future reference, this is how I believe we could change
5119 the
5120 <a href="http://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-ietf-dhc-ldap-schema-00">DHCP
5121 schema</a> to solve at least part of the problem with the LDAP schemas
5122 available today from IETF.</p>
5123
5124 <pre>
5125 --- dhcp.schema    (revision 65192)
5126 +++ dhcp.schema    (working copy)
5127 @@ -376,7 +376,7 @@
5128  objectclass ( 2.16.840.1.113719.1.203.6.6
5129         NAME 'dhcpHost'
5130         DESC 'This represents information about a particular client'
5131 -       SUP top
5132 +       SUP top AUXILIARY
5133         MUST cn
5134         MAY  (dhcpLeaseDN $ dhcpHWAddress $ dhcpOptionsDN $ dhcpStatements $ dhcpComments $ dhcpOption)
5135         X-NDS_CONTAINMENT ('dhcpService' 'dhcpSubnet' 'dhcpGroup') )
5136 </pre>
5137
5138 <p>I very much welcome clues on how to do this properly for Debian
5139 Edu/Squeeze.  We provide the DHCP schema in our debian-edu-config
5140 package, and should thus be free to rewrite it as we see fit.</p>
5141
5142 <p>If you want to help out with implementing this for Debian Edu,
5143 please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.</p>
5144
5145       </div>
5146       <div class="tags">
5147
5148
5149         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>.
5150
5151
5152       </div>
5153     </div>
5154     <div class="padding"></div>
5155
5156     <div class="entry">
5157       <div class="title">
5158         <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>
5159       </div>
5160       <div class="date">
5161         16th June 2010
5162       </div>
5163       <div class="body">
5164         <p>A few times I have had the need to simulate the way tasksel
5165 installs packages during the normal debian-installer run.  Until now,
5166 I have ended up letting tasksel do the work, with the annoying problem
5167 of not getting any feedback at all when something fails (like a
5168 conffile question from dpkg or a download that fails), using code like
5169 this:
5170
5171 <blockquote><pre>
5172 export DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive
5173 tasksel --new-install
5174 </pre></blockquote>
5175
5176 This would invoke tasksel, let its automatic task selection pick the
5177 tasks to install, and continue to install the requested tasks without
5178 any output what so ever.
5179
5180 Recently I revisited this problem while working on the automatic
5181 package upgrade testing, because tasksel would some times hang without
5182 any useful feedback, and I want to see what is going on when it
5183 happen.  Then it occured to me, I can parse the output from tasksel
5184 when asked to run in test mode, and use that aptitude command line
5185 printed by tasksel then to simulate the tasksel run.  I ended up using
5186 code like this:
5187
5188 <blockquote><pre>
5189 export DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive
5190 cmd="$(in_target tasksel -t --new-install | sed 's/debconf-apt-progress -- //')"
5191 $cmd
5192 </pre></blockquote>
5193
5194 <p>The content of $cmd is typically something like "<tt>aptitude -q
5195 --without-recommends -o APT::Install-Recommends=no -y install
5196 ~t^desktop$ ~t^gnome-desktop$ ~t^laptop$ ~pstandard ~prequired
5197 ~pimportant</tt>", which will install the gnome desktop task, the
5198 laptop task and all packages with priority standard , required and
5199 important, just like tasksel would have done it during
5200 installation.</p>
5201
5202 <p>A better approach is probably to extend tasksel to be able to
5203 install packages without using debconf-apt-progress, for use cases
5204 like this.</p>
5205
5206       </div>
5207       <div class="tags">
5208
5209
5210         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>.
5211
5212
5213       </div>
5214     </div>
5215     <div class="padding"></div>
5216
5217     <div class="entry">
5218       <div class="title">
5219         <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>
5220       </div>
5221       <div class="date">
5222         13th June 2010
5223       </div>
5224       <div class="body">
5225         <p>My
5226 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Automatic_upgrade_testing_from_Lenny_to_Squeeze.html">testing
5227 of Debian upgrades</a> from Lenny to Squeeze continues, and I've
5228 finally made the upgrade logs available from
5229 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/debian-upgrade-testing/">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/debian-upgrade-testing/</a>.
5230 I am now testing dist-upgrade of Gnome and KDE in a chroot using both
5231 apt and aptitude, and found their differences interesting.  This time
5232 I will only focus on their removal plans.</p>
5233
5234 <p>After installing a Gnome desktop and the laptop task, apt-get wants
5235 to remove 72 packages when dist-upgrading from Lenny to Squeeze.  The
5236 surprising part is that it want to remove xorg and all
5237 xserver-xorg-video* drivers.  Clearly not a good choice, but I am not
5238 sure why.  When asking aptitude to do the same, it want to remove 129
5239 packages, but most of them are library packages I suspect are no
5240 longer needed.  Both of them want to remove bluetooth packages, which
5241 I do not know.  Perhaps these bluetooth packages are obsolete?</p>
5242
5243 <p>For KDE, apt-get want to remove 82 packages, among them kdebase
5244 which seem like a bad idea and xorg the same way as with Gnome. Asking
5245 aptitude for the same, it wants to remove 192 packages, none which are
5246 too surprising.</p>
5247
5248 <p>I guess the removal of xorg during upgrades should be investigated
5249 and avoided, and perhaps others as well.  Here are the complete list
5250 of planned removals.  The complete logs is available from the URL
5251 above.  Note if you want to repeat these tests, that the upgrade test
5252 for kde+apt-get hung in the tasksel setup because of dpkg asking
5253 conffile questions.  No idea why.  I worked around it by using
5254 '<tt>echo >> /proc/<em>pidofdpkg</em>/fd/0</tt>' to tell dpkg to
5255 continue.</p>
5256
5257 <p><b>apt-get gnome 72</b>
5258 <br>bluez-gnome cupsddk-drivers deskbar-applet gnome
5259   gnome-desktop-environment gnome-network-admin gtkhtml3.14
5260   iceweasel-gnome-support libavcodec51 libdatrie0 libgdl-1-0
5261   libgnomekbd2 libgnomekbdui2 libmetacity0 libslab0 libxcb-xlib0
5262   nautilus-cd-burner python-gnome2-desktop python-gnome2-extras
5263   serpentine swfdec-mozilla update-manager xorg xserver-xorg
5264   xserver-xorg-core xserver-xorg-input-all xserver-xorg-input-evdev
5265   xserver-xorg-input-kbd xserver-xorg-input-mouse
5266   xserver-xorg-input-synaptics xserver-xorg-input-wacom
5267   xserver-xorg-video-all xserver-xorg-video-apm xserver-xorg-video-ark
5268   xserver-xorg-video-ati xserver-xorg-video-chips
5269   xserver-xorg-video-cirrus xserver-xorg-video-cyrix
5270   xserver-xorg-video-dummy xserver-xorg-video-fbdev
5271   xserver-xorg-video-glint xserver-xorg-video-i128
5272   xserver-xorg-video-i740 xserver-xorg-video-imstt
5273   xserver-xorg-video-intel xserver-xorg-video-mach64
5274   xserver-xorg-video-mga xserver-xorg-video-neomagic
5275   xserver-xorg-video-nsc xserver-xorg-video-nv
5276   xserver-xorg-video-openchrome xserver-xorg-video-r128
5277   xserver-xorg-video-radeon xserver-xorg-video-radeonhd
5278   xserver-xorg-video-rendition xserver-xorg-video-s3
5279   xserver-xorg-video-s3virge xserver-xorg-video-savage
5280   xserver-xorg-video-siliconmotion xserver-xorg-video-sis
5281   xserver-xorg-video-sisusb xserver-xorg-video-tdfx
5282   xserver-xorg-video-tga xserver-xorg-video-trident
5283   xserver-xorg-video-tseng xserver-xorg-video-v4l
5284   xserver-xorg-video-vesa xserver-xorg-video-vga
5285   xserver-xorg-video-vmware xserver-xorg-video-voodoo xulrunner-1.9
5286   xulrunner-1.9-gnome-support</p>
5287
5288 <p><b>aptitude gnome 129</b>
5289
5290 <br>bluez-gnome bluez-utils cpp-4.3 cupsddk-drivers dhcdbd
5291   djvulibre-desktop finger gnome-app-install gnome-mount
5292   gnome-network-admin gnome-spell gnome-vfs-obexftp
5293   gnome-volume-manager gstreamer0.10-gnomevfs gtkhtml3.14 libao2
5294   libavahi-compat-libdnssd1 libavahi-core5 libavcodec51 libbluetooth2
5295   libcamel1.2-11 libcdio7 libcucul0 libcupsys2 libcurl3 libdatrie0
5296   libdirectfb-1.0-0 libdvdread3 libedataserver1.2-9 libeel2-2.20
5297   libeel2-data libepc-1.0-1 libepc-ui-1.0-1 libfaad0 libgail-common
5298   libgd2-noxpm libgda3-3 libgda3-common libgdl-1-0 libgdl-1-common
5299   libggz2 libggzcore9 libggzmod4 libgksu1.2-0 libgksuui1.0-1 libgmyth0
5300   libgnomecups1.0-1 libgnomekbd2 libgnomekbdui2 libgnomeprint2.2-0
5301   libgnomeprint2.2-data libgnomeprintui2.2-0 libgnomeprintui2.2-common
5302   libgnomevfs2-bin libgpod3 libgraphviz4 libgtkhtml2-0
5303   libgtksourceview-common libgtksourceview1.0-0 libgucharmap6
5304   libhesiod0 libicu38 libiw29 libkpathsea4 libltdl3 libmagick++10
5305   libmagick10 libmalaga7 libmetacity0 libmtp7 libmysqlclient15off
5306   libnautilus-burn4 libneon27 libnm-glib0 libnm-util0 libopal-2.2
5307   libosp5 libparted1.8-10 libpoppler-glib3 libpoppler3 libpt-1.10.10
5308   libpt-1.10.10-plugins-alsa libpt-1.10.10-plugins-v4l libraw1394-8
5309   libsensors3 libslab0 libsmbios2 libsoup2.2-8 libssh2-1
5310   libsuitesparse-3.1.0 libswfdec-0.6-90 libtalloc1 libtotem-plparser10
5311   libtrackerclient0 libxalan2-java libxalan2-java-gcj libxcb-xlib0
5312   libxerces2-java libxerces2-java-gcj libxklavier12 libxtrap6
5313   libxxf86misc1 libzephyr3 mysql-common nautilus-cd-burner
5314   openoffice.org-writer2latex openssl-blacklist p7zip
5315   python-4suite-xml python-eggtrayicon python-gnome2-desktop
5316   python-gnome2-extras python-gtkhtml2 python-gtkmozembed
5317   python-numeric python-sexy serpentine svgalibg1 swfdec-gnome
5318   swfdec-mozilla totem-gstreamer update-manager wodim
5319   xserver-xorg-video-cyrix xserver-xorg-video-imstt
5320   xserver-xorg-video-nsc xserver-xorg-video-v4l xserver-xorg-video-vga
5321   zip</p>
5322
5323 <p><b>apt-get kde 82</b>
5324
5325 <br>cupsddk-drivers karm kaudiocreator kcoloredit kcontrol kde kde-core
5326   kdeaddons kdeartwork kdebase kdebase-bin kdebase-bin-kde3
5327   kdebase-kio-plugins kdesktop kdeutils khelpcenter kicker
5328   kicker-applets knewsticker kolourpaint konq-plugins konqueror korn
5329   kpersonalizer kscreensaver ksplash libavcodec51 libdatrie0 libkiten1
5330   libxcb-xlib0 quanta superkaramba texlive-base-bin xorg xserver-xorg
5331   xserver-xorg-core xserver-xorg-input-all xserver-xorg-input-evdev
5332   xserver-xorg-input-kbd xserver-xorg-input-mouse
5333   xserver-xorg-input-synaptics xserver-xorg-input-wacom
5334   xserver-xorg-video-all xserver-xorg-video-apm xserver-xorg-video-ark
5335   xserver-xorg-video-ati xserver-xorg-video-chips
5336   xserver-xorg-video-cirrus xserver-xorg-video-cyrix
5337   xserver-xorg-video-dummy xserver-xorg-video-fbdev
5338   xserver-xorg-video-glint xserver-xorg-video-i128
5339   xserver-xorg-video-i740 xserver-xorg-video-imstt
5340   xserver-xorg-video-intel xserver-xorg-video-mach64
5341   xserver-xorg-video-mga xserver-xorg-video-neomagic
5342   xserver-xorg-video-nsc xserver-xorg-video-nv
5343   xserver-xorg-video-openchrome xserver-xorg-video-r128
5344   xserver-xorg-video-radeon xserver-xorg-video-radeonhd
5345   xserver-xorg-video-rendition xserver-xorg-video-s3
5346   xserver-xorg-video-s3virge xserver-xorg-video-savage
5347   xserver-xorg-video-siliconmotion xserver-xorg-video-sis
5348   xserver-xorg-video-sisusb xserver-xorg-video-tdfx
5349   xserver-xorg-video-tga xserver-xorg-video-trident
5350   xserver-xorg-video-tseng xserver-xorg-video-v4l
5351   xserver-xorg-video-vesa xserver-xorg-video-vga
5352   xserver-xorg-video-vmware xserver-xorg-video-voodoo xulrunner-1.9</p>
5353
5354 <p><b>aptitude kde 192</b>
5355 <br>bluez-utils cpp-4.3 cupsddk-drivers cvs dcoprss dhcdbd
5356   djvulibre-desktop dosfstools eyesapplet fifteenapplet finger gettext
5357   ghostscript-x imlib-base imlib11 indi kandy karm kasteroids
5358   kaudiocreator kbackgammon kbstate kcoloredit kcontrol kcron kdat
5359   kdeadmin-kfile-plugins kdeartwork-misc kdeartwork-theme-window
5360   kdebase-bin-kde3 kdebase-kio-plugins kdeedu-data
5361   kdegraphics-kfile-plugins kdelirc kdemultimedia-kappfinder-data
5362   kdemultimedia-kfile-plugins kdenetwork-kfile-plugins
5363   kdepim-kfile-plugins kdepim-kio-plugins kdeprint kdesktop kdessh
5364   kdict kdnssd kdvi kedit keduca kenolaba kfax kfaxview kfouleggs
5365   kghostview khelpcenter khexedit kiconedit kitchensync klatin
5366   klickety kmailcvt kmenuedit kmid kmilo kmoon kmrml kodo kolourpaint
5367   kooka korn kpager kpdf kpercentage kpf kpilot kpoker kpovmodeler
5368   krec kregexpeditor ksayit ksim ksirc ksirtet ksmiletris ksmserver
5369   ksnake ksokoban ksplash ksvg ksysv ktip ktnef kuickshow kverbos
5370   kview kviewshell kvoctrain kwifimanager kwin kwin4 kworldclock
5371   kxsldbg libakode2 libao2 libarts1-akode libarts1-audiofile
5372   libarts1-mpeglib libarts1-xine libavahi-compat-libdnssd1
5373   libavahi-core5 libavc1394-0 libavcodec51 libbluetooth2
5374   libboost-python1.34.1 libcucul0 libcurl3 libcvsservice0 libdatrie0
5375   libdirectfb-1.0-0 libdjvulibre21 libdvdread3 libfaad0 libfreebob0
5376   libgail-common libgd2-noxpm libgraphviz4 libgsmme1c2a libgtkhtml2-0
5377   libicu38 libiec61883-0 libindex0 libiw29 libk3b3 libkcal2b libkcddb1
5378   libkdeedu3 libkdepim1a libkgantt0 libkiten1 libkleopatra1 libkmime2
5379   libkpathsea4 libkpimexchange1 libkpimidentities1 libkscan1
5380   libksieve0 libktnef1 liblockdev1 libltdl3 libmagick10 libmimelib1c2a
5381   libmozjs1d libmpcdec3 libneon27 libnm-util0 libopensync0 libpisock9
5382   libpoppler-glib3 libpoppler-qt2 libpoppler3 libraw1394-8 libsmbios2
5383   libssh2-1 libsuitesparse-3.1.0 libtalloc1 libtiff-tools
5384   libxalan2-java libxalan2-java-gcj libxcb-xlib0 libxerces2-java
5385   libxerces2-java-gcj libxtrap6 mpeglib networkstatus
5386   openoffice.org-writer2latex pmount poster psutils quanta quanta-data
5387   superkaramba svgalibg1 tex-common texlive-base texlive-base-bin
5388   texlive-common texlive-doc-base texlive-fonts-recommended
5389   xserver-xorg-video-cyrix xserver-xorg-video-imstt
5390   xserver-xorg-video-nsc xserver-xorg-video-v4l xserver-xorg-video-vga
5391   xulrunner-1.9</p>
5392
5393
5394       </div>
5395       <div class="tags">
5396
5397
5398         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>.
5399
5400
5401       </div>
5402     </div>
5403     <div class="padding"></div>
5404
5405     <div class="entry">
5406       <div class="title">
5407         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Automatic_upgrade_testing_from_Lenny_to_Squeeze.html">Automatic upgrade testing from Lenny to Squeeze</a>
5408       </div>
5409       <div class="date">
5410         11th June 2010
5411       </div>
5412       <div class="body">
5413         <p>The last few days I have done some upgrade testing in Debian, to
5414 see if the upgrade from Lenny to Squeeze will go smoothly.  A few bugs
5415 have been discovered and reported in the process
5416 (<a href="http://bugs.debian.org/585410">#585410</a> in nagios3-cgi,
5417 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/584879">#584879</a> already fixed in
5418 enscript and <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/584861">#584861</a> in
5419 kdebase-workspace-data), and to get a more regular testing going on, I
5420 am working on a script to automate the test.</p>
5421
5422 <p>The idea is to create a Lenny chroot and use tasksel to install a
5423 Gnome or KDE desktop installation inside the chroot before upgrading
5424 it.  To ensure no services are started in the chroot, a policy-rc.d
5425 script is inserted.  To make sure tasksel believe it is to install a
5426 desktop on a laptop, the tasksel tests are replaced in the chroot
5427 (only acceptable because this is a throw-away chroot).</p>
5428
5429 <p>A naive upgrade from Lenny to Squeeze using aptitude dist-upgrade
5430 currently always fail because udev refuses to upgrade with the kernel
5431 in Lenny, so to avoid that problem the file /etc/udev/kernel-upgrade
5432 is created.  The bug report
5433 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/566000">#566000</a> make me suspect
5434 this problem do not trigger in a chroot, but I touch the file anyway
5435 to make sure the upgrade go well.  Testing on virtual and real
5436 hardware have failed me because of udev so far, and creating this file
5437 do the trick in such settings anyway.  This is a
5438 <a href="http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/debian-26/failed-dist-upgrade-due-to-udev-config_sysfs_deprecated-nonsense-804130/">known
5439 issue</a> and the current udev behaviour is intended by the udev
5440 maintainer because he lack the resources to rewrite udev to keep
5441 working with old kernels or something like that.  I really wish the
5442 udev upstream would keep udev backwards compatible, to avoid such
5443 upgrade problem, but given that they fail to do so, I guess
5444 documenting the way out of this mess is the best option we got for
5445 Debian Squeeze.</p>
5446
5447 <p>Anyway, back to the task at hand, testing upgrades.  This test
5448 script, which I call <tt>upgrade-test</tt> for now, is doing the
5449 trick:</p>
5450
5451 <blockquote><pre>
5452 #!/bin/sh
5453 set -ex
5454
5455 if [ "$1" ] ; then
5456     desktop=$1
5457 else
5458     desktop=gnome
5459 fi
5460
5461 from=lenny
5462 to=squeeze
5463
5464 exec &lt; /dev/null
5465 unset LANG
5466 mirror=http://ftp.skolelinux.org/debian
5467 tmpdir=chroot-$from-upgrade-$to-$desktop
5468 fuser -mv .
5469 debootstrap $from $tmpdir $mirror
5470 chroot $tmpdir aptitude update
5471 cat > $tmpdir/usr/sbin/policy-rc.d &lt;&lt;EOF
5472 #!/bin/sh
5473 exit 101
5474 EOF
5475 chmod a+rx $tmpdir/usr/sbin/policy-rc.d
5476 exit_cleanup() {
5477     umount $tmpdir/proc
5478 }
5479 mount -t proc proc $tmpdir/proc
5480 # Make sure proc is unmounted also on failure
5481 trap exit_cleanup EXIT INT
5482
5483 chroot $tmpdir aptitude -y install debconf-utils
5484
5485 # Make sure tasksel autoselection trigger.  It need the test scripts
5486 # to return the correct answers.
5487 echo tasksel tasksel/desktop multiselect $desktop | \
5488     chroot $tmpdir debconf-set-selections
5489
5490 # Include the desktop and laptop task
5491 for test in desktop laptop ; do
5492     echo > $tmpdir/usr/lib/tasksel/tests/$test &lt;&lt;EOF
5493 #!/bin/sh
5494 exit 2
5495 EOF
5496     chmod a+rx $tmpdir/usr/lib/tasksel/tests/$test
5497 done
5498
5499 DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive
5500 DEBIAN_PRIORITY=critical
5501 export DEBIAN_FRONTEND DEBIAN_PRIORITY
5502 chroot $tmpdir tasksel --new-install
5503
5504 echo deb $mirror $to main > $tmpdir/etc/apt/sources.list
5505 chroot $tmpdir aptitude update
5506 touch $tmpdir/etc/udev/kernel-upgrade
5507 chroot $tmpdir aptitude -y dist-upgrade
5508 fuser -mv
5509 </pre></blockquote>
5510
5511 <p>I suspect it would be useful to test upgrades with both apt-get and
5512 with aptitude, but I have not had time to look at how they behave
5513 differently so far.  I hope to get a cron job running to do the test
5514 regularly and post the result on the web.  The Gnome upgrade currently
5515 work, while the KDE upgrade fail because of the bug in
5516 kdebase-workspace-data</p>
5517
5518 <p>I am not quite sure what kind of extract from the huge upgrade logs
5519 (KDE 167 KiB, Gnome 516 KiB) it make sense to include in this blog
5520 post, so I will refrain from trying.  I can report that for Gnome,
5521 aptitude report 760 packages upgraded, 448 newly installed, 129 to
5522 remove and 1 not upgraded and 1024MB need to be downloaded while for
5523 KDE the same numbers are 702 packages upgraded, 507 newly installed,
5524 193 to remove and 0 not upgraded and 1117MB need to be downloaded</p>
5525
5526 <p>I am very happy to notice that the Gnome desktop + laptop upgrade
5527 is able to migrate to dependency based boot sequencing and parallel
5528 booting without a hitch.  Was unsure if there were still bugs with
5529 packages failing to clean up their obsolete init.d script during
5530 upgrades, and no such problem seem to affect the Gnome desktop+laptop
5531 packages.</p>
5532
5533       </div>
5534       <div class="tags">
5535
5536
5537         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>.
5538
5539
5540       </div>
5541     </div>
5542     <div class="padding"></div>
5543
5544     <div class="entry">
5545       <div class="title">
5546         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Upstart_or_sysvinit___as_init_d_scripts_see_it.html">Upstart or sysvinit - as init.d scripts see it</a>
5547       </div>
5548       <div class="date">
5549          6th June 2010
5550       </div>
5551       <div class="body">
5552         <p>If Debian is to migrate to upstart on Linux, I expect some init.d
5553 scripts to migrate (some of) their operations to upstart job while
5554 keeping the init.d for hurd and kfreebsd.  The packages with such
5555 needs will need a way to get their init.d scripts to behave
5556 differently when used with sysvinit and with upstart.  Because of
5557 this, I had a look at the environment variables set when a init.d
5558 script is running under upstart, and when it is not.</p>
5559
5560 <p>With upstart, I notice these environment variables are set when a
5561 script is started from rcS.d/ (ignoring some irrelevant ones like
5562 COLUMNS):</p>
5563
5564 <blockquote><pre>
5565 DEFAULT_RUNLEVEL=2
5566 previous=N
5567 PREVLEVEL=
5568 RUNLEVEL=
5569 runlevel=S
5570 UPSTART_EVENTS=startup
5571 UPSTART_INSTANCE=
5572 UPSTART_JOB=rc-sysinit
5573 </pre></blockquote>
5574
5575 <p>With sysvinit, these environment variables are set for the same
5576 script.</p>
5577
5578 <blockquote><pre>
5579 INIT_VERSION=sysvinit-2.88
5580 previous=N
5581 PREVLEVEL=N
5582 RUNLEVEL=S
5583 runlevel=S
5584 </pre></blockquote>
5585
5586 <p>The RUNLEVEL and PREVLEVEL environment variables passed on from
5587 sysvinit are not set by upstart.  Not sure if it is intentional or not
5588 to not be compatible with sysvinit in this regard.</p>
5589
5590 <p>For scripts needing to behave differently when upstart is used,
5591 looking for the UPSTART_JOB environment variable seem to be a good
5592 choice.</p>
5593
5594       </div>
5595       <div class="tags">
5596
5597
5598         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>.
5599
5600
5601       </div>
5602     </div>
5603     <div class="padding"></div>
5604
5605     <div class="entry">
5606       <div class="title">
5607         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/A_manual_for_standards_wars___.html">A manual for standards wars...</a>
5608       </div>
5609       <div class="date">
5610          6th June 2010
5611       </div>
5612       <div class="body">
5613         <p>Via the
5614 <a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/robweir/antic-atom/~3/QzU4RgoAGMg/weekly-links-10.html">blog
5615 of Rob Weir</a> I came across the very interesting essay named
5616 <a href="http://faculty.haas.berkeley.edu/shapiro/wars.pdf">The Art of
5617 Standards Wars</a> (PDF 25 pages).  I recommend it for everyone
5618 following the standards wars of today.</p>
5619
5620       </div>
5621       <div class="tags">
5622
5623
5624         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>.
5625
5626
5627       </div>
5628     </div>
5629     <div class="padding"></div>
5630
5631     <div class="entry">
5632       <div class="title">
5633         <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>
5634       </div>
5635       <div class="date">
5636          3rd June 2010
5637       </div>
5638       <div class="body">
5639         <p>When using sitesummary at a site to track machines, it is possible
5640 to get a list of the machine types in use thanks to the DMI
5641 information extracted from each machine.  The script to do so is
5642 included in the sitesummary package, and here is example output from
5643 the Skolelinux build servers:</p>
5644
5645 <blockquote><pre>
5646 maintainer:~# /usr/lib/sitesummary/hardware-model-summary
5647   vendor                    count
5648   Dell Computer Corporation     1
5649     PowerEdge 1750              1
5650   IBM                           1
5651     eserver xSeries 345 -[8670M1X]-     1
5652   Intel                         2
5653   [no-dmi-info]                 3
5654 maintainer:~#
5655 </pre></blockquote>
5656
5657 <p>The quality of the report depend on the quality of the DMI tables
5658 provided in each machine.  Here there are Intel machines without model
5659 information listed with Intel as vendor and no model, and virtual Xen
5660 machines listed as [no-dmi-info].  One can add -l as a command line
5661 option to list the individual machines.</p>
5662
5663 <p>A larger list is
5664 <a href="http://narvikskolen.no/sitesummary/">available from the the
5665 city of Narvik</a>, which uses Skolelinux on all their shools and also
5666 provide the basic sitesummary report publicly.  In their report there
5667 are ~1400 machines. I know they use both Ubuntu and Skolelinux on
5668 their machines, and as sitesummary is available in both distributions,
5669 it is trivial to get all of them to report to the same central
5670 collector.</p>
5671
5672       </div>
5673       <div class="tags">
5674
5675
5676         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>.
5677
5678
5679       </div>
5680     </div>
5681     <div class="padding"></div>
5682
5683     <div class="entry">
5684       <div class="title">
5685         <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>
5686       </div>
5687       <div class="date">
5688          1st June 2010
5689       </div>
5690       <div class="body">
5691         <p>It is strange to watch how a bug in Debian causing KDM to fail to
5692 start at boot when an NVidia video card is used is handled.  The
5693 problem seem to be that the nvidia X.org driver uses a long time to
5694 initialize, and this duration is longer than kdm is configured to
5695 wait.</p>
5696
5697 <p>I came across two bugs related to this issue,
5698 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/583312">#583312</a> initially filed
5699 against initscripts and passed on to nvidia-glx when it became obvious
5700 that the nvidia drivers were involved, and
5701 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/524751">#524751</a> initially filed against
5702 kdm and passed on to src:nvidia-graphics-drivers for unknown reasons.</p>
5703
5704 <p>To me, it seem that no-one is interested in actually solving the
5705 problem nvidia video card owners experience and make sure the Debian
5706 distribution work out of the box for these users.  The nvidia driver
5707 maintainers expect kdm to be set up to wait longer, while kdm expect
5708 the nvidia driver maintainers to fix the driver to start faster, and
5709 while they wait for each other I guess the users end up switching to a
5710 distribution that work for them.  I have no idea what the solution is,
5711 but I am pretty sure that waiting for each other is not it.</p>
5712
5713 <p>I wonder why we end up handling bugs this way.</p>
5714
5715       </div>
5716       <div class="tags">
5717
5718
5719         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>.
5720
5721
5722       </div>
5723     </div>
5724     <div class="padding"></div>
5725
5726     <div class="entry">
5727       <div class="title">
5728         <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>
5729       </div>
5730       <div class="date">
5731         27th May 2010
5732       </div>
5733       <div class="body">
5734         <p>A few days ago, parallel booting was enabled in Debian/testing.
5735 The feature seem to hold up pretty well, but three fairly serious
5736 issues are known and should be solved:
5737
5738 <p><ul>
5739
5740 <li>The wicd package seen to
5741 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/508289">break NFS mounting</a> and
5742 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/581586">network setup</a> when
5743 parallel booting is enabled.  No idea why, but the wicd maintainer
5744 seem to be on the case.</li>
5745
5746 <li>The nvidia X driver seem to
5747 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/583312">have a race condition</a>
5748 triggered more easily when parallel booting is in effect.  The
5749 maintainer is on the case.</li>
5750
5751 <li>The sysv-rc package fail to properly enable dependency based boot
5752 sequencing (the shutdown is broken) when old file-rc users
5753 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/575080">try to switch back</a> to
5754 sysv-rc.  One way to solve it would be for file-rc to create
5755 /etc/init.d/.legacy-bootordering, and another is to try to make
5756 sysv-rc more robust.  Will investigate some more and probably upload a
5757 workaround in sysv-rc to help those trying to move from file-rc to
5758 sysv-rc get a working shutdown.</li>
5759
5760 </ul></p>
5761
5762 <p>All in all not many surprising issues, and all of them seem
5763 solvable before Squeeze is released.  In addition to these there are
5764 some packages with bugs in their dependencies and run level settings,
5765 which I expect will be fixed in a reasonable time span.</p>
5766
5767 <p>If you report any problems with dependencies in init.d scripts to
5768 the BTS, please usertag the report to get it to show up at
5769 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/pkgreport.cgi?users=initscripts-ng-devel@lists.alioth.debian.org">the
5770 list of usertagged bugs related to this</a>.</p>
5771
5772 <p>Update: Correct bug number to file-rc issue.</p>
5773
5774       </div>
5775       <div class="tags">
5776
5777
5778         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>.
5779
5780
5781       </div>
5782     </div>
5783     <div class="padding"></div>
5784
5785     <div class="entry">
5786       <div class="title">
5787         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/More_flexible_firmware_handling_in_debian_installer.html">More flexible firmware handling in debian-installer</a>
5788       </div>
5789       <div class="date">
5790         22nd May 2010
5791       </div>
5792       <div class="body">
5793         <p>After a long break from debian-installer development, I finally
5794 found time today to return to the project.  Having to spend less time
5795 working dependency based boot in debian, as it is almost complete now,
5796 definitely helped freeing some time.</p>
5797
5798 <p>A while back, I ran into a problem while working on Debian Edu.  We
5799 include some firmware packages on the Debian Edu CDs, those needed to
5800 get disk and network controllers working.  Without having these
5801 firmware packages available during installation, it is impossible to
5802 install Debian Edu on the given machine, and because our target group
5803 are non-technical people, asking them to provide firmware packages on
5804 an external medium is a support pain.  Initially, I expected it to be
5805 enough to include the firmware packages on the CD to get
5806 debian-installer to find and use them.  This proved to be wrong.
5807 Next, I hoped it was enough to symlink the relevant firmware packages
5808 to some useful location on the CD (tried /cdrom/ and
5809 /cdrom/firmware/).  This also proved to not work, and at this point I
5810 found time to look at the debian-installer code to figure out what was
5811 going to work.</p>
5812
5813 <p>The firmware loading code is in the hw-detect package, and a closer
5814 look revealed that it would only look for firmware packages outside
5815 the installation media, so the CD was never checked for firmware
5816 packages.  It would only check USB sticks, floppies and other
5817 "external" media devices.  Today I changed it to also look in the
5818 /cdrom/firmware/ directory on the mounted CD or DVD, which should
5819 solve the problem I ran into with Debian edu.  I also changed it to
5820 look in /firmware/, to make sure the installer also find firmware
5821 provided in the initrd when booting the installer via PXE, to allow us
5822 to provide the same feature in the PXE setup included in Debian
5823 Edu.</p>
5824
5825 <p>To make sure firmware deb packages with a license questions are not
5826 activated without asking if the license is accepted, I extended
5827 hw-detect to look for preinst scripts in the firmware packages, and
5828 run these before activating the firmware during installation.  The
5829 license question is asked using debconf in the preinst, so this should
5830 solve the issue for the firmware packages I have looked at so far.</p>
5831
5832 <p>If you want to discuss the details of these features, please
5833 contact us on debian-boot@lists.debian.org.</p>
5834
5835       </div>
5836       <div class="tags">
5837
5838
5839         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>.
5840
5841
5842       </div>
5843     </div>
5844     <div class="padding"></div>
5845
5846     <div class="entry">
5847       <div class="title">
5848         <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>
5849       </div>
5850       <div class="date">
5851         14th May 2010
5852       </div>
5853       <div class="body">
5854         <p>Since this evening, parallel booting is the default in
5855 Debian/unstable for machines using dependency based boot sequencing.
5856 Apparently the testing of concurrent booting has been wider than
5857 expected, if I am to believe the
5858 <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2010/05/msg00122.html">input
5859 on debian-devel@</a>, and I concluded a few days ago to move forward
5860 with the feature this weekend, to give us some time to detect any
5861 remaining problems before Squeeze is frozen.  If serious problems are
5862 detected, it is simple to change the default back to sequential boot.
5863 The upload of the new sysvinit package also activate a new upstream
5864 version.</p>
5865
5866 More information about
5867 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/LSBInitScripts/DependencyBasedBoot">dependency
5868 based boot sequencing</a> is available from the Debian wiki.  It is
5869 currently possible to disable parallel booting when one run into
5870 problems caused by it, by adding this line to /etc/default/rcS:</p>
5871
5872 <blockquote><pre>
5873 CONCURRENCY=none
5874 </pre></blockquote>
5875
5876 <p>If you report any problems with dependencies in init.d scripts to
5877 the BTS, please usertag the report to get it to show up at
5878 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/pkgreport.cgi?users=initscripts-ng-devel@lists.alioth.debian.org">the
5879 list of usertagged bugs related to this</a>.</p>
5880
5881       </div>
5882       <div class="tags">
5883
5884
5885         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>.
5886
5887
5888       </div>
5889     </div>
5890     <div class="padding"></div>
5891
5892     <div class="entry">
5893       <div class="title">
5894         <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>
5895       </div>
5896       <div class="date">
5897         14th May 2010
5898       </div>
5899       <div class="body">
5900         <p>In the recent Debian Edu versions, the
5901 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/HowTo/SiteSummary">sitesummary
5902 system</a> is used to keep track of the machines in the school
5903 network.  Each machine will automatically report its status to the
5904 central server after boot and once per night.  The network setup is
5905 also reported, and using this information it is possible to get the
5906 MAC address of all network interfaces in the machines.  This is useful
5907 to update the DHCP configuration.</p>
5908
5909 <p>To give some idea how to use sitesummary, here is a one-liner to
5910 ist all MAC addresses of all machines reporting to sitesummary.  Run
5911 this on the collector host:</p>
5912
5913 <blockquote><pre>
5914 perl -MSiteSummary -e 'for_all_hosts(sub { print join(" ", get_macaddresses(shift)), "\n"; });'
5915 </pre></blockquote>
5916
5917 <p>This will list all MAC addresses assosiated with all machine, one
5918 line per machine and with space between the MAC addresses.</p>
5919
5920 <p>To allow system administrators easier job at adding static DHCP
5921 addresses for hosts, it would be possible to extend this to fetch
5922 machine information from sitesummary and update the DHCP and DNS
5923 tables in LDAP using this information.  Such tool is unfortunately not
5924 written yet.</p>
5925
5926       </div>
5927       <div class="tags">
5928
5929
5930         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>.
5931
5932
5933       </div>
5934     </div>
5935     <div class="padding"></div>
5936
5937     <div class="entry">
5938       <div class="title">
5939         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/systemd__an_interesting_alternative_to_upstart.html">systemd, an interesting alternative to upstart</a>
5940       </div>
5941       <div class="date">
5942         13th May 2010
5943       </div>
5944       <div class="body">
5945         <p>The last few days a new boot system called
5946 <a href="http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/systemd">systemd</a>
5947 has been
5948 <a href="http://0pointer.de/blog/projects/systemd.html">introduced</a>
5949
5950 to the free software world.  I have not yet had time to play around
5951 with it, but it seem to be a very interesting alternative to
5952 <a href="http://upstart.ubuntu.com/">upstart</a>, and might prove to be
5953 a good alternative for Debian when we are able to switch to an event
5954 based boot system.  Tollef is
5955 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/580814">in the process</a> of getting
5956 systemd into Debian, and I look forward to seeing how well it work.  I
5957 like the fact that systemd handles init.d scripts with dependency
5958 information natively, allowing them to run in parallel where upstart
5959 at the moment do not.</p>
5960
5961 <p>Unfortunately do systemd have the same problem as upstart regarding
5962 platform support.  It only work on recent Linux kernels, and also need
5963 some new kernel features enabled to function properly.  This means
5964 kFreeBSD and Hurd ports of Debian will need a port or a different boot
5965 system.  Not sure how that will be handled if systemd proves to be the
5966 way forward.</p>
5967
5968 <p>In the mean time, based on the
5969 <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2010/05/msg00122.html">input
5970 on debian-devel@</a> regarding parallel booting in Debian, I have
5971 decided to enable full parallel booting as the default in Debian as
5972 soon as possible (probably this weekend or early next week), to see if
5973 there are any remaining serious bugs in the init.d dependencies.  A
5974 new version of the sysvinit package implementing this change is
5975 already in experimental.  If all go well, Squeeze will be released
5976 with parallel booting enabled by default.</p>
5977
5978       </div>
5979       <div class="tags">
5980
5981
5982         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>.
5983
5984
5985       </div>
5986     </div>
5987     <div class="padding"></div>
5988
5989     <div class="entry">
5990       <div class="title">
5991         <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>
5992       </div>
5993       <div class="date">
5994          6th May 2010
5995       </div>
5996       <div class="body">
5997         <p>These days, the init.d script dependencies in Squeeze are quite
5998 complete, so complete that it is actually possible to run all the
5999 init.d scripts in parallell based on these dependencies.  If you want
6000 to test your Squeeze system, make sure
6001 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/LSBInitScripts/DependencyBasedBoot">dependency
6002 based boot sequencing</a> is enabled, and add this line to
6003 /etc/default/rcS:</p>
6004
6005 <blockquote><pre>
6006 CONCURRENCY=makefile
6007 </pre></blockquote>
6008
6009 <p>That is it.  It will cause sysv-rc to use the startpar tool to run
6010 scripts in parallel using the dependency information stored in
6011 /etc/init.d/.depend.boot, /etc/init.d/.depend.start and
6012 /etc/init.d/.depend.stop to order the scripts.  Startpar is configured
6013 to try to start the kdm and gdm scripts as early as possible, and will
6014 start the facilities required by kdm or gdm as early as possible to
6015 make this happen.</p>
6016
6017 <p>Give it a try, and see if you like the result.  If some services
6018 fail to start properly, it is most likely because they have incomplete
6019 init.d script dependencies in their startup script (or some of their
6020 dependent scripts have incomplete dependencies).  Report bugs and get
6021 the package maintainers to fix it. :)</p>
6022
6023 <p>Running scripts in parallel could be the default in Debian when we
6024 manage to get the init.d script dependencies complete and correct.  I
6025 expect we will get there in Squeeze+1, if we get manage to test and
6026 fix the remaining issues.</p>
6027
6028 <p>If you report any problems with dependencies in init.d scripts to
6029 the BTS, please usertag the report to get it to show up at
6030 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/pkgreport.cgi?users=initscripts-ng-devel@lists.alioth.debian.org">the
6031 list of usertagged bugs related to this</a>.</p>
6032
6033       </div>
6034       <div class="tags">
6035
6036
6037         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>.
6038
6039
6040       </div>
6041     </div>
6042     <div class="padding"></div>
6043
6044     <div class="entry">
6045       <div class="title">
6046         <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>
6047       </div>
6048       <div class="date">
6049         27th July 2009
6050       </div>
6051       <div class="body">
6052         <p>Since this evening, with the upload of sysvinit version 2.87dsf-2,
6053 and the upload of insserv version 1.12.0-10 yesterday, Debian unstable
6054 have been migrated to using dependency based boot sequencing.  This
6055 conclude work me and others have been doing for the last three days.
6056 It feels great to see this finally part of the default Debian
6057 installation.  Now we just need to weed out the last few problems that
6058 are bound to show up, to get everything ready for Squeeze.</p>
6059
6060 <p>The next step is migrating /sbin/init from sysvinit to upstart, and
6061 fixing the more fundamental problem of handing the event based
6062 non-predictable kernel in the early boot.</p>
6063
6064       </div>
6065       <div class="tags">
6066
6067
6068         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>.
6069
6070
6071       </div>
6072     </div>
6073     <div class="padding"></div>
6074
6075     <div class="entry">
6076       <div class="title">
6077         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Taking_over_sysvinit_development.html">Taking over sysvinit development</a>
6078       </div>
6079       <div class="date">
6080         22nd July 2009
6081       </div>
6082       <div class="body">
6083         <p>After several years of frustration with the lack of activity from
6084 the existing sysvinit upstream developer, I decided a few weeks ago to
6085 take over the package and become the new upstream.  The number of
6086 patches to track for the Debian package was becoming a burden, and the
6087 lack of synchronization between the distribution made it hard to keep
6088 the package up to date.</p>
6089
6090 <p>On the new sysvinit team is the SuSe maintainer Dr. Werner Fink,
6091 and my Debian co-maintainer Kel Modderman.  About 10 days ago, I made
6092 a new upstream tarball with version number 2.87dsf (for Debian, SuSe
6093 and Fedora), based on the patches currently in use in these
6094 distributions.  We Debian maintainers plan to move to this tarball as
6095 the new upstream as soon as we find time to do the merge.  Since the
6096 new tarball was created, we agreed with Werner at SuSe to make a new
6097 upstream project at <a href="http://savannah.nongnu.org/">Savannah</a>, and continue
6098 development there.  The project is registered and currently waiting
6099 for approval by the Savannah administrators, and as soon as it is
6100 approved, we will import the old versions from svn and continue
6101 working on the future release.</p>
6102
6103 <p>It is a bit ironic that this is done now, when some of the involved
6104 distributions are moving to upstart as a syvinit replacement.</p>
6105
6106       </div>
6107       <div class="tags">
6108
6109
6110         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>.
6111
6112
6113       </div>
6114     </div>
6115     <div class="padding"></div>
6116
6117     <div class="entry">
6118       <div class="title">
6119         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_boots_quicker_and_quicker.html">Debian boots quicker and quicker</a>
6120       </div>
6121       <div class="date">
6122         24th June 2009
6123       </div>
6124       <div class="body">
6125         <p>I spent Monday and tuesday this week in London with a lot of the
6126 people involved in the boot system on Debian and Ubuntu, to see if we
6127 could find more ways to speed up the boot system.  This was an Ubuntu
6128 funded
6129 <a href="https://wiki.ubuntu.com/FoundationsTeam/BootPerformance/DebianUbuntuSprint">developer
6130 gathering</a>. It was quite productive.  We also discussed the future
6131 of boot systems, and ways to handle the increasing number of boot
6132 issues introduced by the Linux kernel becoming more and more
6133 asynchronous and event base.  The Ubuntu approach using udev and
6134 upstart might be a good way forward.  Time will show.</p>
6135
6136 <p>Anyway, there are a few ways at the moment to speed up the boot
6137 process in Debian.  All of these should be applied to get a quick
6138 boot:</p>
6139
6140 <ul>
6141
6142 <li>Use dash as /bin/sh.</li>
6143
6144 <li>Disable the init.d/hwclock*.sh scripts and make sure the hardware
6145    clock is in UTC.</li>
6146
6147 <li>Install and activate the insserv package to enable
6148    <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/LSBInitScripts/DependencyBasedBoot">dependency
6149    based boot sequencing</a>, and enable concurrent booting.</li>
6150
6151 </ul>
6152
6153 These points are based on the Google summer of code work done by
6154 <a href="http://initscripts-ng.alioth.debian.org/soc2006-bootsystem/">Carlos
6155 Villegas</a>.
6156
6157 <p>Support for makefile-style concurrency during boot was uploaded to
6158 unstable yesterday.  When we tested it, we were able to cut 6 seconds
6159 from the boot sequence.  It depend on very correct dependency
6160 declaration in all init.d scripts, so I expect us to find edge cases
6161 where the dependences in some scripts are slightly wrong when we start
6162 using this.</p>
6163
6164 <p>On our IRC channel for this effort, #pkg-sysvinit, a new idea was
6165 introduced by Raphael Geissert today, one that could affect the
6166 startup speed as well.  Instead of starting some scripts concurrently
6167 from rcS.d/ and another set of scripts from rc2.d/, it would be
6168 possible to run a of them in the same process.  A quick way to test
6169 this would be to enable insserv and run 'mv /etc/rc2.d/S* /etc/rcS.d/;
6170 insserv'.  Will need to test if that work. :)</p>
6171
6172       </div>
6173       <div class="tags">
6174
6175
6176         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>.
6177
6178
6179       </div>
6180     </div>
6181     <div class="padding"></div>
6182
6183     <div class="entry">
6184       <div class="title">
6185         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/BSAs_p_stander_om_piratkopiering_m_ter_motstand.html">BSAs påstander om piratkopiering møter motstand</a>
6186       </div>
6187       <div class="date">
6188         17th May 2009
6189       </div>
6190       <div class="body">
6191         <p>Hvert år de siste årene har BSA, lobbyfronten til de store
6192 programvareselskapene som Microsoft og Apple, publisert en rapport der
6193 de gjetter på hvor mye piratkopiering påfører i tapte inntekter i
6194 ulike land rundt om i verden.  Resultatene er tendensiøse.  For noen
6195 dager siden kom
6196 <a href="http://global.bsa.org/globalpiracy2008/studies/globalpiracy2008.pdf">siste
6197 rapport</a>, og det er flere kritiske kommentarer publisert de siste
6198 dagene.  Et spesielt interessant kommentar fra Sverige,
6199 <a href="http://www.idg.se/2.1085/1.229795/bsa-hoftade-sverigesiffror">BSA
6200 höftade Sverigesiffror</a>, oppsummeres slik:</p>
6201
6202 <blockquote>
6203 I sin senaste rapport slår BSA fast att 25 procent av all mjukvara i
6204 Sverige är piratkopierad. Det utan att ha pratat med ett enda svenskt
6205 företag. "Man bör nog kanske inte se de här siffrorna som helt
6206 exakta", säger BSAs Sverigechef John Hugosson.
6207 </blockquote>
6208
6209 <p>Mon tro om de er like metodiske når de gjetter på andelen piratkopiering i Norge?  To andre kommentarer er <a
6210 href="http://www.vnunet.com/vnunet/comment/2242134/bsa-piracy-figures-shot-reality">BSA
6211 piracy figures need a shot of reality</a> og <a
6212 href="http://www.michaelgeist.ca/content/view/3958/125/">Does The WIPO
6213 Copyright Treaty Work?</a></p>
6214
6215 <p>Fant lenkene via <a
6216 href="http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/05/17/1632242">oppslag
6217 på Slashdot</a>.</p>
6218
6219       </div>
6220       <div class="tags">
6221
6222
6223         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>.
6224
6225
6226       </div>
6227     </div>
6228     <div class="padding"></div>
6229
6230     <div class="entry">
6231       <div class="title">
6232         <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>
6233       </div>
6234       <div class="date">
6235          7th May 2009
6236       </div>
6237       <div class="body">
6238         <p>Kom over
6239 <a href="http://news.cnet.com/8301-13505_3-10216873-16.html">interessante
6240 tall</a> fra IDG om utviklingen av linuxservermarkedet.  Fikk meg til
6241 å tenke på antall tjenermaskiner ved Universitetet i Oslo der jeg
6242 jobber til daglig.  En rask opptelling forteller meg at vi har 490
6243 (61%) fysiske unix-tjener (mest linux men også noen solaris) og 196
6244 (25%) windowstjenere, samt 112 (14%) virtuelle unix-tjenere.  Med den
6245 bakgrunnskunnskapen kan jeg godt tro at IDG er inne på noe.</p>
6246
6247       </div>
6248       <div class="tags">
6249
6250
6251         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>.
6252
6253
6254       </div>
6255     </div>
6256     <div class="padding"></div>
6257
6258     <div class="entry">
6259       <div class="title">
6260         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Kryptert_harddisk___naturligvis.html">Kryptert harddisk - naturligvis</a>
6261       </div>
6262       <div class="date">
6263          2nd May 2009
6264       </div>
6265       <div class="body">
6266         <p><a href="http://www.dagensit.no/trender/article1658676.ece">Dagens
6267 IT melder</a> at Intel hevder at det er dyrt å miste en datamaskin,
6268 når en tar tap av arbeidstid, fortrolige dokumenter,
6269 personopplysninger og alt annet det innebærer.  Det er ingen tvil om
6270 at det er en kostbar affære å miste sin datamaskin, og det er årsaken
6271 til at jeg har kryptert harddisken på både kontormaskinen og min
6272 bærbare.  Begge inneholder personopplysninger jeg ikke ønsker skal
6273 komme på avveie, den første informasjon relatert til jobben min ved
6274 Universitetet i Oslo, og den andre relatert til blant annet
6275 foreningsarbeide.  Kryptering av diskene gjør at det er lite
6276 sannsynlig at dophoder som kan finne på å rappe maskinene får noe ut
6277 av dem.  Maskinene låses automatisk etter noen minutter uten bruk,
6278 og en reboot vil gjøre at de ber om passord før de vil starte opp.
6279 Jeg bruker Debian på begge maskinene, og installasjonssystemet der
6280 gjør det trivielt å sette opp krypterte disker.  Jeg har LVM på toppen
6281 av krypterte partisjoner, slik at alt av datapartisjoner er kryptert.
6282 Jeg anbefaler alle å kryptere diskene på sine bærbare.  Kostnaden når
6283 det er gjort slik jeg gjør det er minimale, og gevinstene er
6284 betydelige.  En bør dog passe på passordet.  Hvis det går tapt, må
6285 maskinen reinstalleres og alt er tapt.</p>
6286
6287 <p>Krypteringen vil ikke stoppe kompetente angripere som f.eks. kjøler
6288 ned minnebrikkene før maskinen rebootes med programvare for å hente ut
6289 krypteringsnøklene.  Kostnaden med å forsvare seg mot slike angripere
6290 er for min del høyere enn gevinsten.  Jeg tror oddsene for at
6291 f.eks. etteretningsorganisasjoner har glede av å titte på mine
6292 maskiner er minimale, og ulempene jeg ville oppnå ved å forsøke å
6293 gjøre det vanskeligere for angripere med kompetanse og ressurser er
6294 betydelige.</p>
6295
6296       </div>
6297       <div class="tags">
6298
6299
6300         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>.
6301
6302
6303       </div>
6304     </div>
6305     <div class="padding"></div>
6306
6307     <div class="entry">
6308       <div class="title">
6309         <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>
6310       </div>
6311       <div class="date">
6312          2nd May 2009
6313       </div>
6314       <div class="body">
6315         <p>There are two software projects that have had huge influence on the
6316 quality of free software, and I wanted to mention both in case someone
6317 do not yet know them.</p>
6318
6319 <p>The first one is <a href="http://valgrind.org/">valgrind</a>, a
6320 tool to detect and expose errors in the memory handling of programs.
6321 It is easy to use, all one need to do is to run 'valgrind program',
6322 and it will report any problems on stdout.  It is even better if the
6323 program include debug information.  With debug information, it is able
6324 to report the source file name and line number where the problem
6325 occurs.  It can report things like 'reading past memory block in file
6326 X line N, the memory block was allocated in file Y, line M', and
6327 'using uninitialised value in control logic'.  This tool has made it
6328 trivial to investigate reproducible crash bugs in programs, and have
6329 reduced the number of this kind of bugs in free software a lot.
6330
6331 <p>The second one is
6332 <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coverity">Coverity</a> which is
6333 a source code checker.  It is able to process the source of a program
6334 and find problems in the logic without running the program.  It
6335 started out as the Stanford Checker and became well known when it was
6336 used to find bugs in the Linux kernel.  It is now a commercial tool
6337 and the company behind it is running
6338 <a href="http://www.scan.coverity.com/">a community service</a> for the
6339 free software community, where a lot of free software projects get
6340 their source checked for free.  Several thousand defects have been
6341 found and fixed so far.  It can find errors like 'lock L taken in file
6342 X line N is never released if exiting in line M', or 'the code in file
6343 Y lines O to P can never be executed'.  The projects included in the
6344 community service project have managed to get rid of a lot of
6345 reliability problems thanks to Coverity.</p>
6346
6347 <p>I believe tools like this, that are able to automatically find
6348 errors in the source, are vital to improve the quality of software and
6349 make sure we can get rid of the crashing and failing software we are
6350 surrounded by today.</p>
6351
6352       </div>
6353       <div class="tags">
6354
6355
6356         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>.
6357
6358
6359       </div>
6360     </div>
6361     <div class="padding"></div>
6362
6363     <div class="entry">
6364       <div class="title">
6365         <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>
6366       </div>
6367       <div class="date">
6368         28th April 2009
6369       </div>
6370       <div class="body">
6371         <p>Julien Blache
6372 <a href="http://blog.technologeek.org/2009/04/12/214">claim that no
6373 patch is better than a useless patch</a>.  I completely disagree, as a
6374 patch allow one to discuss a concrete and proposed solution, and also
6375 prove that the issue at hand is important enough for someone to spent
6376 time on fixing it.  No patch do not provide any of these positive
6377 properties.</p>
6378
6379       </div>
6380       <div class="tags">
6381
6382
6383         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>.
6384
6385
6386       </div>
6387     </div>
6388     <div class="padding"></div>
6389
6390     <div class="entry">
6391       <div class="title">
6392         <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>
6393       </div>
6394       <div class="date">
6395         30th March 2009
6396       </div>
6397       <div class="body">
6398         <p>Where I work at the University of Oslo, one decision stand out as a
6399 very good one to form a long lived computer infrastructure.  It is the
6400 simple one, lost by many in todays computer industry: Standardize on
6401 open network protocols and open exchange/storage formats, not applications.
6402 Applications come and go, while protocols and files tend to stay, and
6403 thus one want to make it easy to change application and vendor, while
6404 avoiding conversion costs and locking users to a specific platform or
6405 application.</p>
6406
6407 <p>This approach make it possible to replace the client applications
6408 independently of the server applications.  One can even allow users to
6409 use several different applications as long as they handle the selected
6410 protocol and format.  In the normal case, only one client application
6411 is recommended and users only get help if they choose to use this
6412 application, but those that want to deviate from the easy path are not
6413 blocked from doing so.</p>
6414
6415 <p>It also allow us to replace the server side without forcing the
6416 users to replace their applications, and thus allow us to select the
6417 best server implementation at any moment, when scale and resouce
6418 requirements change.</p>
6419
6420 <p>I strongly recommend standardizing - on open network protocols and
6421 open formats, but I would never recommend standardizing on a single
6422 application that do not use open network protocol or open formats.</p>
6423
6424       </div>
6425       <div class="tags">
6426
6427
6428         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>.
6429
6430
6431       </div>
6432     </div>
6433     <div class="padding"></div>
6434
6435     <div class="entry">
6436       <div class="title">
6437         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Returning_from_Skolelinux_developer_gathering.html">Returning from Skolelinux developer gathering</a>
6438       </div>
6439       <div class="date">
6440         29th March 2009
6441       </div>
6442       <div class="body">
6443         <p>I'm sitting on the train going home from this weekends Debian
6444 Edu/Skolelinux development gathering.  I got a bit done tuning the
6445 desktop, and looked into the dynamic service location protocol
6446 implementation avahi.  It look like it could be useful for us.  Almost
6447 30 people participated, and I believe it was a great environment to
6448 get to know the Skolelinux system.  Walter Bender, involved in the
6449 development of the Sugar educational platform, presented his stuff and
6450 also helped me improve my OLPC installation.  He also showed me that
6451 his Turtle Art application can be used in standalone mode, and we
6452 agreed that I would help getting it packaged for Debian.  As a
6453 standalone application it would be great for Debian Edu.  We also
6454 tried to get the video conferencing working with two OLPCs, but that
6455 proved to be too hard for us.  The application seem to need more work
6456 before it is ready for me.  I look forward to getting home and relax
6457 now. :)</p>
6458
6459       </div>
6460       <div class="tags">
6461
6462
6463         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>.
6464
6465
6466       </div>
6467     </div>
6468     <div class="padding"></div>
6469
6470     <div class="entry">
6471       <div class="title">
6472         <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>
6473       </div>
6474       <div class="date">
6475         29th March 2009
6476       </div>
6477       <div class="body">
6478         <p>The state of standardized LDAP schemas on Linux is far from
6479 optimal.  There is RFC 2307 documenting one way to store NIS maps in
6480 LDAP, and a modified version of this normally called RFC 2307bis, with
6481 some modifications to be compatible with Active Directory.  The RFC
6482 specification handle the content of a lot of system databases, but do
6483 not handle DNS zones and DHCP configuration.</p>
6484
6485 <p>In <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu/Skolelinux</a>,
6486 we would like to store information about users, SMB clients/hosts,
6487 filegroups, netgroups (users and hosts), DHCP and DNS configuration,
6488 and LTSP configuration in LDAP.  These objects have a lot in common,
6489 but with the current LDAP schemas it is not possible to have one
6490 object per entity.  For example, one need to have at least three LDAP
6491 objects for a given computer, one with the SMB related stuff, one with
6492 DNS information and another with DHCP information.  The schemas
6493 provided for DNS and DHCP are impossible to combine into one LDAP
6494 object.  In addition, it is impossible to implement quick queries for
6495 netgroup membership, because of the way NIS triples are implemented.
6496 It just do not scale.  I believe it is time for a few RFC
6497 specifications to cleam up this mess.</p>
6498
6499 <p>I would like to have one LDAP object representing each computer in
6500 the network, and this object can then keep the SMB (ie host key), DHCP
6501 (mac address/name) and DNS (name/IP address) settings in one place.
6502 It need to be efficently stored to make sure it scale well.</p>
6503
6504 <p>I would also like to have a quick way to map from a user or
6505 computer and to the net group this user or computer is a member.</p>
6506
6507 <p>Active Directory have done a better job than unix heads like myself
6508 in this regard, and the unix side need to catch up.  Time to start a
6509 new IETF work group?</p>
6510
6511       </div>
6512       <div class="tags">
6513
6514
6515         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>.
6516
6517
6518       </div>
6519     </div>
6520     <div class="padding"></div>
6521
6522     <div class="entry">
6523       <div class="title">
6524         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Endelig_er_Debian_Lenny_gitt_ut.html">Endelig er Debian Lenny gitt ut</a>
6525       </div>
6526       <div class="date">
6527         15th February 2009
6528       </div>
6529       <div class="body">
6530         <p>Endelig er <a href="http://www.debian.org/">Debian</a>
6531 <a href="http://www.debian.org/News/2009/20090214">Lenny</a> gitt ut.
6532 Et langt steg videre for Debian-prosjektet, og en rekke nye
6533 programpakker blir nå tilgjengelig for de av oss som bruker den
6534 stabile utgaven av Debian.  Neste steg er nå å få
6535 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Skolelinux</a> /
6536 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/">Debian Edu</a> ferdig
6537 oppdatert for den nye utgaven, slik at en oppdatert versjon kan
6538 slippes løs på skolene.  Takk til alle debian-utviklerne som har
6539 gjort dette mulig.  Endelig er f.eks. fungerende avhengighetsstyrt
6540 bootsekvens tilgjengelig i stabil utgave, vha pakken
6541 <tt>insserv</tt>.</p>
6542
6543       </div>
6544       <div class="tags">
6545
6546
6547         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>.
6548
6549
6550       </div>
6551     </div>
6552     <div class="padding"></div>
6553
6554     <div class="entry">
6555       <div class="title">
6556         <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>
6557       </div>
6558       <div class="date">
6559          7th December 2008
6560       </div>
6561       <div class="body">
6562         <p>This weekend we had a small developer gathering for Debian Edu in
6563 Oslo.  Most of Saturday was used for the general assemly for the
6564 member organization, but the rest of the weekend I used to tune the
6565 LTSP installation.  LTSP now work out of the box on the 10-network.
6566 Acer Aspire One proved to be a very nice thin client, with both
6567 screen, mouse and keybard in a small box.  Was working on getting the
6568 diskless workstation setup configured out of the box, but did not
6569 finish it before the weekend was up.</p>
6570
6571 <p>Did not find time to look at the 4 VGA cards in one box we got from
6572 the Brazilian group, so that will have to wait for the next
6573 development gathering.  Would love to have the Debian Edu installer
6574 automatically detect and configure a multiseat setup when it find one
6575 of these cards.</p>
6576
6577       </div>
6578       <div class="tags">
6579
6580
6581         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>.
6582
6583
6584       </div>
6585     </div>
6586     <div class="padding"></div>
6587
6588     <div class="entry">
6589       <div class="title">
6590         <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>
6591       </div>
6592       <div class="date">
6593         25th November 2008
6594       </div>
6595       <div class="body">
6596         <p>Recently I have spent some time evaluating the multimedia browser
6597 plugins available in Debian Lenny, to see which one we should use by
6598 default in Debian Edu.  We need an embedded video playing plugin with
6599 control buttons to pause or stop the video, and capable of streaming
6600 all the multimedia content available on the web.  The test results and
6601 notes are available on
6602 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/BrowserMultimedia">the
6603 Debian wiki</a>.  I was surprised how few of the plugins are able to
6604 fill this need.  My personal video player favorite, VLC, has a really
6605 bad plugin which fail on a lot of the test pages.  A lot of the MIME
6606 types I would expect to work with any free software player (like
6607 video/ogg), just do not work.  And simple formats like the
6608 audio/x-mplegurl format (m3u playlists), just isn't supported by the
6609 totem and vlc plugins.  I hope the situation will improve soon.  No
6610 wonder sites use the proprietary Adobe flash to play video.</p>
6611
6612 <p>For Lenny, we seem to end up with the mplayer plugin.  It seem to
6613 be the only one fitting our needs. :/</p>
6614
6615       </div>
6616       <div class="tags">
6617
6618
6619         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>.
6620
6621
6622       </div>
6623     </div>
6624     <div class="padding"></div>
6625
6626     <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>
6627     <div id="sidebar">
6628
6629
6630
6631 <h2>Archive</h2>
6632 <ul>
6633
6634 <li>2013
6635 <ul>
6636
6637 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/01/">January (11)</a></li>
6638
6639 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/02/">February (9)</a></li>
6640
6641 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/03/">March (9)</a></li>
6642
6643 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/04/">April (6)</a></li>
6644
6645 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/05/">May (9)</a></li>
6646
6647 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/06/">June (10)</a></li>
6648
6649 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/07/">July (7)</a></li>
6650
6651 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/08/">August (3)</a></li>
6652
6653 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/09/">September (2)</a></li>
6654
6655 </ul></li>
6656
6657 <li>2012
6658 <ul>
6659
6660 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/01/">January (7)</a></li>
6661
6662 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/02/">February (10)</a></li>
6663
6664 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/03/">March (17)</a></li>
6665
6666 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/04/">April (12)</a></li>
6667
6668 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/05/">May (12)</a></li>
6669
6670 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/06/">June (20)</a></li>
6671
6672 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/07/">July (17)</a></li>
6673
6674 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/08/">August (6)</a></li>
6675
6676 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/09/">September (9)</a></li>
6677
6678 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/10/">October (17)</a></li>
6679
6680 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/11/">November (10)</a></li>
6681
6682 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/12/">December (7)</a></li>
6683
6684 </ul></li>
6685
6686 <li>2011
6687 <ul>
6688
6689 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/01/">January (16)</a></li>
6690
6691 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/02/">February (6)</a></li>
6692
6693 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/03/">March (6)</a></li>
6694
6695 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/04/">April (7)</a></li>
6696
6697 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/05/">May (3)</a></li>
6698
6699 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/06/">June (2)</a></li>
6700
6701 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/07/">July (7)</a></li>
6702
6703 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/08/">August (6)</a></li>
6704
6705 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/09/">September (4)</a></li>
6706
6707 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/10/">October (2)</a></li>
6708
6709 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/11/">November (3)</a></li>
6710
6711 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/12/">December (1)</a></li>
6712
6713 </ul></li>
6714
6715 <li>2010
6716 <ul>
6717
6718 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/01/">January (2)</a></li>
6719
6720 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/02/">February (1)</a></li>
6721
6722 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/03/">March (3)</a></li>
6723
6724 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/04/">April (3)</a></li>
6725
6726 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/05/">May (9)</a></li>
6727
6728 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/06/">June (14)</a></li>
6729
6730 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/07/">July (12)</a></li>
6731
6732 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/08/">August (13)</a></li>
6733
6734 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/09/">September (7)</a></li>
6735
6736 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/10/">October (9)</a></li>
6737
6738 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/11/">November (13)</a></li>
6739
6740 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/12/">December (12)</a></li>
6741
6742 </ul></li>
6743
6744 <li>2009
6745 <ul>
6746
6747 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/01/">January (8)</a></li>
6748
6749 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/02/">February (8)</a></li>
6750
6751 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/03/">March (12)</a></li>
6752
6753 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/04/">April (10)</a></li>
6754
6755 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/05/">May (9)</a></li>
6756
6757 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/06/">June (3)</a></li>
6758
6759 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/07/">July (4)</a></li>
6760
6761 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/08/">August (3)</a></li>
6762
6763 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/09/">September (1)</a></li>
6764
6765 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/10/">October (2)</a></li>
6766
6767 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/11/">November (3)</a></li>
6768
6769 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/12/">December (3)</a></li>
6770
6771 </ul></li>
6772
6773 <li>2008
6774 <ul>
6775
6776 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2008/11/">November (5)</a></li>
6777
6778 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2008/12/">December (7)</a></li>
6779
6780 </ul></li>
6781
6782 </ul>
6783
6784
6785
6786 <h2>Tags</h2>
6787 <ul>
6788
6789  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/3d-printer">3d-printer (13)</a></li>
6790
6791  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/amiga">amiga (1)</a></li>
6792
6793  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/aros">aros (1)</a></li>
6794
6795  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bankid">bankid (4)</a></li>
6796
6797  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bitcoin">bitcoin (7)</a></li>
6798
6799  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bootsystem">bootsystem (12)</a></li>
6800
6801  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bsa">bsa (2)</a></li>
6802
6803  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian (85)</a></li>
6804
6805  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu (139)</a></li>
6806
6807  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/digistan">digistan (10)</a></li>
6808
6809  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/docbook">docbook (10)</a></li>
6810
6811  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/drivstoffpriser">drivstoffpriser (4)</a></li>
6812
6813  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english (214)</a></li>
6814
6815  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/fiksgatami">fiksgatami (21)</a></li>
6816
6817  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/fildeling">fildeling (12)</a></li>
6818
6819  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freeculture">freeculture (12)</a></li>
6820
6821  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freedombox">freedombox (1)</a></li>
6822
6823  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/frikanalen">frikanalen (11)</a></li>
6824
6825  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/intervju">intervju (37)</a></li>
6826
6827  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram">isenkram (7)</a></li>
6828
6829  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/kart">kart (18)</a></li>
6830
6831  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ldap">ldap (8)</a></li>
6832
6833  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/lenker">lenker (6)</a></li>
6834
6835  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ltsp">ltsp (1)</a></li>
6836
6837  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/multimedia">multimedia (25)</a></li>
6838
6839  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/norsk">norsk (235)</a></li>
6840
6841  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug (153)</a></li>
6842
6843  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/offentlig innsyn">offentlig innsyn (8)</a></li>
6844
6845  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/open311">open311 (2)</a></li>
6846
6847  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/opphavsrett">opphavsrett (44)</a></li>
6848
6849  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/personvern">personvern (66)</a></li>
6850
6851  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/raid">raid (1)</a></li>
6852
6853  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/reprap">reprap (11)</a></li>
6854
6855  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/rfid">rfid (2)</a></li>
6856
6857  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/robot">robot (7)</a></li>
6858
6859  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/rss">rss (1)</a></li>
6860
6861  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ruter">ruter (4)</a></li>
6862
6863  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/scraperwiki">scraperwiki (2)</a></li>
6864
6865  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet (30)</a></li>
6866
6867  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sitesummary">sitesummary (4)</a></li>
6868
6869  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/skepsis">skepsis (4)</a></li>
6870
6871  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/standard">standard (43)</a></li>
6872
6873  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/stavekontroll">stavekontroll (3)</a></li>
6874
6875  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/stortinget">stortinget (8)</a></li>
6876
6877  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance (17)</a></li>
6878
6879  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sysadmin">sysadmin (1)</a></li>
6880
6881  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/valg">valg (8)</a></li>
6882
6883  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/video">video (38)</a></li>
6884
6885  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/vitenskap">vitenskap (4)</a></li>
6886
6887  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/web">web (27)</a></li>
6888
6889 </ul>
6890
6891
6892     </div>
6893     <p style="text-align: right">
6894  Created by <a href="http://steve.org.uk/Software/chronicle">Chronicle v4.6</a>
6895 </p>
6896
6897   </body>
6898 </html>