blog/archive/2023/05/05.rss

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   4                 <title>Petter Reinholdtsen - Entries from May 2023</title>
   5                 <description>Entries from May 2023</description>
   6                 <link>https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/</link>
   7
   8
   9         <item>
  10                 <title>wmbusmeters, parse data from your utility meter - nice free software</title>
  11                 <link>https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/wmbusmeters__parse_data_from_your_utility_meter___nice_free_software.html</link>
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  13                 <pubDate>Fri, 19 May 2023 21:50:00 +0200</pubDate>
  14                 <description>&lt;p&gt;There is a European standard for reading utility meters like water,
  15 gas, electricity or heat distribution meters.  The
  16 &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meter-Bus&quot;&gt;Meter-Bus standard
  17 (EN 13757-2, EN 13757-3 and EN 13757–4)&lt;/a&gt; provide a cross vendor way
  18 to talk to and collect meter data.  I ran into this standard when I
  19 wanted to monitor some heat distribution meters, and managed to find
  20 free software that could do the job.  The meters in question broadcast
  21 encrypted messages with meter information via radio, and the hardest
  22 part was to track down the encryption keys from the vendor.  With this
  23 in place I could set up a MQTT gateway to submit the meter data for
  24 graphing.&lt;/p&gt;
  25
  26 &lt;p&gt;The free software systems in question,
  27 &lt;a href=&quot;https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/rtl-wmbus&quot;&gt;rtl-wmbus&lt;/a&gt; to
  28 read the messages from a software defined radio, and
  29 &lt;a href=&quot;https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/wmbusmeters&quot;&gt;wmbusmeters&lt;/a&gt; to
  30 decrypt and decode the content of the messages, is working very well
  31 and allowe me to get frequent updates from my meters.  I got in touch
  32 with upstream last year to see if there was any interest in publishing
  33 the packages via Debian.  I was very happy to learn that Fredrik
  34 Öhrström volunteered to maintain the packages, and I have since
  35 assisted him in getting Debian package build rules in place as well as
  36 sponsoring the packages into the Debian archive.  Sadly we completed
  37 it too late for them to become part of the next stable Debian release
  38 (Bookworm).  The wmbusmeters package just cleared the NEW queue.  It
  39 will need some work to fix a built problem, but I expect Fredrik will
  40 find a solution soon.&lt;/p&gt;
  41
  42 &lt;p&gt;If you got a infrastructure meter supporting the Meter Bus
  43 standard, I strongly recommend having a look at these nice
  44 packages.&lt;/p&gt;
  45
  46 &lt;p&gt;As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
  47 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
  48 &lt;b&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b&quot;&gt;15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/b&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
  49 </description>
  50         </item>
  51
  52         <item>
  53                 <title>The 2023 LinuxCNC Norwegian developer gathering</title>
  54                 <link>https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_2023_LinuxCNC_Norwegian_developer_gathering.html</link>
  55                 <guid isPermaLink="true">https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_2023_LinuxCNC_Norwegian_developer_gathering.html</guid>
  56                 <pubDate>Sun, 14 May 2023 20:30:00 +0200</pubDate>
  57                 <description>&lt;p&gt;The LinuxCNC project is making headway these days.  A lot of
  58 patches and issues have seen activity on
  59 &lt;a href=&quot;https://github.com/LinuxCNC/linuxcnc/&quot;&gt;the project github
  60 pages&lt;/a&gt; recently.  A few weeks ago there was a developer gathering
  61 over at the &lt;a href=&quot;https://tormach.com/&quot;&gt;Tormach&lt;/a&gt; headquarter in
  62 Wisconsin, and now we are planning a new gathering in Norway.  If you
  63 wonder what LinuxCNC is, lets quote Wikipedia:&lt;/p&gt;
  64
  65 &lt;blockquote&gt;
  66 &quot;LinuxCNC is a software system for numerical control of
  67 machines such as milling machines, lathes, plasma cutters, routers,
  68 cutting machines, robots and hexapods. It can control up to 9 axes or
  69 joints of a CNC machine using G-code (RS-274NGC) as input. It has
  70 several GUIs suited to specific kinds of usage (touch screen,
  71 interactive development).&quot;
  72 &lt;/blockquote&gt;
  73
  74 &lt;p&gt;The Norwegian developer gathering take place the weekend June 16th
  75 to 18th this year, and is open for everyone interested in contributing
  76 to LinuxCNC.  Up to date information about the gathering can be found
  77 in
  78 &lt;a href=&quot;https://sourceforge.net/p/emc/mailman/emc-developers/thread/sa64jp06nob.fsf%40hjemme.reinholdtsen.name/#msg37837251&quot;&gt;the
  79 developer mailing list thread&lt;/a&gt; where the gathering was announced.
  80 Thanks to the good people at
  81 &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.debian.org/&quot;&gt;Debian&lt;/a&gt;,
  82 &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.redpill-linpro.com/&quot;&gt;Redpill-Linpro&lt;/a&gt; and
  83 &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.nuugfoundation.no/no/&quot;&gt;NUUG Foundation&lt;/a&gt;, we
  84 have enough sponsor funds to pay for food, and shelter for the people
  85 traveling from afar to join us.  If you would like to join the
  86 gathering, get in touch.&lt;/p&gt;
  87
  88 &lt;p&gt;As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
  89 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
  90 &lt;b&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b&quot;&gt;15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/b&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
  91 </description>
  92         </item>
  93
  94         <item>
  95                 <title>OpenSnitch in Debian ready for prime time</title>
  96                 <link>https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/OpenSnitch_in_Debian_ready_for_prime_time.html</link>
  97                 <guid isPermaLink="true">https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/OpenSnitch_in_Debian_ready_for_prime_time.html</guid>
  98                 <pubDate>Sat, 13 May 2023 12:10:00 +0200</pubDate>
  99                 <description>&lt;p&gt;A bit delayed,
 100 &lt;a href=&quot;https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/opensnitch&quot;&gt;the interactive
 101 application firewall OpenSnitch&lt;/a&gt; package in Debian now got the
 102 latest fixes ready for Debian Bookworm.  Because it depend on a
 103 package missing on some architectures, the autopkgtest check of the
 104 testing migration script did not understand that the tests were
 105 actually working, so the migration was delayed.  A bug in the package
 106 dependencies is also fixed, so those installing the firewall package
 107 (opensnitch) now also get the GUI admin tool (python3-opensnitch-ui)
 108 installed by default.  I am very grateful to Gustavo Iñiguez Goya for
 109 his work on getting the package ready for Debian Bookworm.&lt;/p&gt;
 110
 111 &lt;p&gt;Armed with this package I have discovered some surprising
 112 connections from programs I believed were able to work completly
 113 offline, and it has already proven its worth, at least to me.  If you
 114 too want to get more familiar with the kind of programs using
 115 Internett connections on your machine, I recommend testing &lt;tt&gt;apt
 116 install opensnitch&lt;/tt&gt; in Bookworm and see what you think.&lt;/p&gt;
 117
 118 &lt;p&gt;The package is still not able to build its eBPF module within
 119 Debian.  Not sure how much work it would be to get it working, but
 120 suspect some kernel related packages need to be extended with more
 121 header files to get it working.&lt;/p&gt;
 122
 123 &lt;p&gt;As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
 124 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
 125 &lt;b&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b&quot;&gt;15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/b&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
 126 </description>
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