blog/archive/2014/11/11.rss

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   4                 <title>Petter Reinholdtsen - Entries from November 2014</title>
   5                 <description>Entries from November 2014</description>
   6                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/</link>
   7
   8
   9         <item>
  10                 <title>How to stay with sysvinit in Debian Jessie</title>
  11                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_stay_with_sysvinit_in_Debian_Jessie.html</link>
  12                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_stay_with_sysvinit_in_Debian_Jessie.html</guid>
  13                 <pubDate>Sat, 22 Nov 2014 01:00:00 +0100</pubDate>
  14                 <description>&lt;p&gt;By now, it is well known that Debian Jessie will not be using
  15 sysvinit as its boot system by default.  But how can one keep using
  16 sysvinit in Jessie?  It is fairly easy, and here are a few recipes,
  17 courtesy of
  18 &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vitavonni.de/blog/201410/2014102101-avoiding-systemd.html&quot;&gt;Erich
  19 Schubert&lt;/a&gt; and
  20 &lt;a href=&quot;http://smcv.pseudorandom.co.uk/2014/still_universal/&quot;&gt;Simon
  21 McVittie&lt;/a&gt;.
  22
  23 &lt;p&gt;If you already are using Wheezy and want to upgrade to Jessie and
  24 keep sysvinit as your boot system, create a file
  25 &lt;tt&gt;/etc/apt/preferences.d/use-sysvinit&lt;/tt&gt; with this content before
  26 you upgrade:&lt;/p&gt;
  27
  28 &lt;p&gt;&lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;pre&gt;
  29 Package: systemd-sysv
  30 Pin: release o=Debian
  31 Pin-Priority: -1
  32 &lt;/pre&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;p&gt;
  33
  34 &lt;p&gt;This file content will tell apt and aptitude to not consider
  35 installing systemd-sysv as part of any installation and upgrade
  36 solution when resolving dependencies, and thus tell it to avoid
  37 systemd as a default boot system.  The end result should be that the
  38 upgraded system keep using sysvinit.&lt;/p&gt;
  39
  40 &lt;p&gt;If you are installing Jessie for the first time, there is no way to
  41 get sysvinit installed by default (debootstrap used by
  42 debian-installer have no option for this), but one can tell the
  43 installer to switch to sysvinit before the first boot.  Either by
  44 using a kernel argument to the installer, or by adding a line to the
  45 preseed file used.  First, the kernel command line argument:
  46
  47 &lt;p&gt;&lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;pre&gt;
  48 preseed/late_command=&quot;in-target apt-get install -y sysvinit-core&quot;
  49 &lt;/pre&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;p&gt;
  50
  51 &lt;p&gt;Next, the line to use in a preseed file:&lt;/p&gt;
  52
  53 &lt;p&gt;&lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;pre&gt;
  54 d-i preseed/late_command string in-target apt-get install -y sysvinit-core
  55 &lt;/pre&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;p&gt;
  56
  57 &lt;p&gt;One can of course also do this after the first boot by installing
  58 the sysvinit-core package.&lt;/p&gt;
  59
  60 &lt;p&gt;I recommend only using sysvinit if you really need it, as the
  61 sysvinit boot sequence in Debian have several hardware specific bugs
  62 on Linux caused by the fact that it is unpredictable when hardware
  63 devices show up during boot.  But on the other hand, the new default
  64 boot system still have a few rough edges I hope will be fixed before
  65 Jessie is released.&lt;/p&gt;
  66 </description>
  67         </item>
  68
  69         <item>
  70                 <title>Hvordan vurderer regjeringen H.264-patentutfordringen?</title>
  71                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Hvordan_vurderer_regjeringen_H_264_patentutfordringen_.html</link>
  72                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Hvordan_vurderer_regjeringen_H_264_patentutfordringen_.html</guid>
  73                 <pubDate>Sun, 16 Nov 2014 10:30:00 +0100</pubDate>
  74                 <description>&lt;p&gt;For en stund tilbake spurte jeg Fornyingsdepartementet om hvilke
  75 juridiske vurderinger rundt patentproblemstillingen som var gjort da
  76 H.264 ble tatt inn i &lt;a href=&quot;http://standard.difi.no/&quot;&gt;statens
  77 referansekatalog over standarder&lt;/a&gt;.  Stig Hornnes i FAD tipset meg
  78 om følgende som står i oppsumeringen til høringen om
  79 referansekatalogen versjon 2.0, som jeg siden ved hjelp av en
  80 innsynsforespørsel fikk tak i
  81 &lt;a href=&quot;http://wiki.nuug.no/uttalelser/200901-standardkatalog-v2?action=AttachFile&amp;do=get&amp;target=kongelig-resolusjon.pdf&quot;&gt;PDF-utgaven av&lt;/a&gt;
  82 datert 2009-06-03 (saksnummer 200803291, saksbehandler Henrik
  83 Linnestad).&lt;/p&gt;
  84
  85 &lt;p&gt;Der står det følgende om problemstillingen:&lt;/p&gt;
  86
  87 &lt;p&gt;&lt;blockquote&gt;
  88 &lt;strong&gt;4.4 Patentproblematikk&lt;/strong&gt;
  89
  90 &lt;p&gt;NUUG og Opera ser det som særlig viktig at forslagene knyttet til
  91 lyd og video baserer seg på de royalty-frie standardene Vorbis, Theora
  92 og FLAC.&lt;/p&gt;
  93
  94 &lt;p&gt;Kommentarene relaterer seg til at enkelte standarder er åpne, men
  95 inneholder tekniske prosedyrer som det i USA (og noen andre land som
  96 Japan) er gitt patentrettigheter til. I vårt tilfelle berører dette
  97 spesielt standardene Mp3 og H.264, selv om Politidirektoratet peker på
  98 at det muligens kan være tilsvarende problematikk også for Theora og
  99 Vorbis.  Dette medfører at det i USA kan kreves royalties for bruk av
 100 tekniske løsninger knyttet til standardene, et krav som også
 101 håndheves. Patenter kan imidlertid bare hevdes i de landene hvor
 102 patentet er gitt, så amerikanske patenter gjelder ikke andre steder
 103 enn USA.&lt;/p&gt;
 104
 105 &lt;p&gt;Spesielt for utvikling av fri programvare er patenter
 106 problematisk. GPL, en &quot;grunnleggende&quot; lisens for distribusjon av fri
 107 programvare, avviser at programvare kan distribueres under denne
 108 lisensen hvis det inneholder referanser til patenterte rutiner som
 109 utløser krav om royalties. Det er imidlertid uproblematisk å
 110 distribuere fri programvareløsninger under GPL som benytter de
 111 aktuelle standardene innen eller mellom land som ikke anerkjenner
 112 patentene. Derfor finner vi også flere implementeringer av Mp3 og
 113 H.264 som er fri programvare, lisensiert under GPL.&lt;/p&gt;
 114
 115 &lt;p&gt;I Norge og EU er patentlovgivningen langt mer restriktiv enn i USA,
 116 men det er også her mulig å få patentert metoder for løsning av et
 117 problem som relaterer seg til databehandling. Det er AIF bekjent ikke
 118 relevante patenter i EU eller Norge hva gjelder H.264 og Mp3, men
 119 muligheten for at det finnes patenter uten at det er gjort krav om
 120 royalties eller at det senere vil gis slike patenter kan ikke helt
 121 avvises.&lt;/p&gt;
 122
 123 &lt;p&gt;AIF mener det er et behov for å gi offentlige virksomheter mulighet
 124 til å benytte antatt royaltyfrie åpne standarder som et likeverdig
 125 alternativ eller i tillegg til de markedsledende åpne standardene.&lt;/p&gt;
 126
 127 &lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
 128
 129 &lt;p&gt;Det ser dermed ikke ut til at de har vurdert patentspørsmålet i
 130 sammenheng med opphavsrettsvilkår slik de er formulert for f.eks.
 131 Apple Final Cut Pro, Adobe Premiere Pro, Avid og Sorenson-verktøyene,
 132 der det kreves brukstillatelse for patenter som ikke er gyldige i
 133 Norge for å bruke disse verktøyene til annet en personlig og ikke
 134 kommersiell aktivitet når det gjelder H.264-video.  Jeg må nok lete
 135 videre etter svar på det spørsmålet.&lt;/p&gt;
 136 </description>
 137         </item>
 138
 139         <item>
 140                 <title>A Debian package for SMTP via Tor (aka SMTorP) using exim4</title>
 141                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/A_Debian_package_for_SMTP_via_Tor__aka_SMTorP__using_exim4.html</link>
 142                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/A_Debian_package_for_SMTP_via_Tor__aka_SMTorP__using_exim4.html</guid>
 143                 <pubDate>Mon, 10 Nov 2014 13:40:00 +0100</pubDate>
 144                 <description>&lt;p&gt;The right to communicate with your friends and family in private,
 145 without anyone snooping, is a right every citicen have in a liberal
 146 democracy.  But this right is under serious attack these days.&lt;/p&gt;
 147
 148 &lt;p&gt;A while back it occurred to me that one way to make the dragnet
 149 surveillance conducted by NSA, GCHQ, FRA and others (and confirmed by
 150 the whisleblower Snowden) more expensive for Internet email,
 151 is to deliver all email using SMTP via Tor.  Such SMTP option would be
 152 a nice addition to the FreedomBox project if we could send email
 153 between FreedomBox machines without leaking metadata about the emails
 154 to the people peeking on the wire.  I
 155 &lt;a href=&quot;http://lists.alioth.debian.org/pipermail/freedombox-discuss/2014-October/006493.html&quot;&gt;proposed
 156 this on the FreedomBox project mailing list in October&lt;/a&gt; and got a
 157 lot of useful feedback and suggestions.  It also became obvious to me
 158 that this was not a novel idea, as the same idea was tested and
 159 documented by Johannes Berg as early as 2006, and both
 160 &lt;a href=&quot;https://github.com/pagekite/Mailpile/wiki/SMTorP&quot;&gt;the
 161 Mailpile&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;http://dee.su/cables&quot;&gt;the Cables&lt;/a&gt; systems
 162 propose a similar method / protocol to pass emails between users.&lt;/p&gt;
 163
 164 &lt;p&gt;To implement such system one need to set up a Tor hidden service
 165 providing the SMTP protocol on port 25, and use email addresses
 166 looking like username@hidden-service-name.onion.  With such addresses
 167 the connections to port 25 on hidden-service-name.onion using Tor will
 168 go to the correct SMTP server.  To do this, one need to configure the
 169 Tor daemon to provide the hidden service and the mail server to accept
 170 emails for this .onion domain.  To learn more about Exim configuration
 171 in Debian and test the design provided by Johannes Berg in his FAQ, I
 172 set out yesterday to create a Debian package for making it trivial to
 173 set up such SMTP over Tor service based on Debian.  Getting it to work
 174 were fairly easy, and
 175 &lt;a href=&quot;https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/exim4-smtorp&quot;&gt;the
 176 source code for the Debian package&lt;/a&gt; is available from github.  I
 177 plan to move it into Debian if further testing prove this to be a
 178 useful approach.&lt;/p&gt;
 179
 180 &lt;p&gt;If you want to test this, set up a blank Debian machine without any
 181 mail system installed (or run &lt;tt&gt;apt-get purge exim4-config&lt;/tt&gt; to
 182 get rid of exim4).  Install tor, clone the git repository mentioned
 183 above, build the deb and install it on the machine.  Next, run
 184 &lt;tt&gt;/usr/lib/exim4-smtorp/setup-exim-hidden-service&lt;/tt&gt; and follow
 185 the instructions to get the service up and running.  Restart tor and
 186 exim when it is done, and test mail delivery using swaks like
 187 this:&lt;/p&gt;
 188
 189 &lt;p&gt;&lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;pre&gt;
 190 torsocks swaks --server dutlqrrmjhtfa3vp.onion \
 191   --to fbx@dutlqrrmjhtfa3vp.onion
 192 &lt;/pre&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
 193
 194 &lt;p&gt;This will test the SMTP delivery using tor.  Replace the email
 195 address with your own address to test your server. :)&lt;/p&gt;
 196
 197 &lt;p&gt;The setup procedure is still to complex, and I hope it can be made
 198 easier and more automatic.  Especially the tor setup need more work.
 199 Also, the package include a tor-smtp tool written in C, but its task
 200 should probably be rewritten in some script language to make the deb
 201 architecture independent.  It would probably also make the code easier
 202 to review.  The tor-smtp tool currently need to listen on a socket for
 203 exim to talk to it and is started using xinetd.  It would be better if
 204 no daemon and no socket is needed.  I suspect it is possible to get
 205 exim to run a command line tool for delivery instead of talking to a
 206 socket, and hope to figure out how in a future version of this
 207 system.&lt;/p&gt;
 208
 209 &lt;p&gt;Until I wipe my test machine, I can be reached using the
 210 &lt;tt&gt;fbx@dutlqrrmjhtfa3vp.onion&lt;/tt&gt; mail address, deliverable over
 211 SMTorP. :)&lt;/p&gt;
 212 </description>
 213         </item>
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