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  13  <h1>
  14      <a href="https://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="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Opensnitch__the_application_level_interactive_firewall__heading_into_the_Debian_archive.html">Opensnitch, the application level interactive firewall, heading into the Debian archive</a>
  26       </div>
  27       <div class="date">
  28         22nd January 2023
  29       </div>
  30       <div class="body">
  31         <p>While reading a
  32 <a href="https://sneak.berlin/20230115/macos-scans-your-local-files-now/">blog
  33 post claiming MacOS X recently started scanning local files and
  34 reporting information about them to Apple</a>, even on a machine where
  35 all such callback features had been disabled, I came across a
  36 description of the Little Snitch application for MacOS X.  It seemed
  37 like a very nice tool to have in the tool box, and I decided to see if
  38 something similar was available for Linux.</p>
  39
  40 <p>It did not took long to find
  41 <a href="https://github.com/evilsocket/opensnitch">the OpenSnitch
  42 package</a>, which has been in development since 2017, and now is in
  43 version 1.5.0.  It has had a
  44 <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/909567">request for Debian
  45 packaging</a> since 2018, but no-one completed the job so far.  Just
  46 for fun, I decided to see if I could help, and I was very happy to
  47 discover that
  48 <a href="https://github.com/evilsocket/opensnitch/issues/304">upstream
  49 want a Debian package too</a>.</p>
  50
  51 <p>After struggling a bit with getting the program to run, figuring
  52 out building Go programs (and a little failed detour to look at eBPF
  53 builds too - help needed), I am very happy to report that I am
  54 sponsoring upstream to maintain the package in Debian, and it has
  55 since this morning been waiting in NEW for the ftpmasters to have a
  56 look.  Perhaps it can get into the archive in time for the Bookworm
  57 release?</p>
  58
  59 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
  60 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
  61 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
  62
  63       </div>
  64       <div class="tags">
  65
  66
  67         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
  68
  69
  70       </div>
  71     </div>
  72     <div class="padding"></div>
  73
  74     <div class="entry">
  75       <div class="title">
  76         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/LinuxCNC_MQTT_publisher_component.html">LinuxCNC MQTT publisher component</a>
  77       </div>
  78       <div class="date">
  79          8th January 2023
  80       </div>
  81       <div class="body">
  82         <p>I watched <a href="https://yewtu.be/watch?v=jmKUV3aNLjk">a 2015
  83 video from Andreas Schiffler</a> the other day, where he set up
  84 <a href="https://linuxcnc.org/">LinuxCNC</a> to send status
  85 information to the MQTT broker IBM Bluemix.  As I also use MQTT for
  86 graphing, it occured to me that a generic MQTT LinuxCNC component
  87 would be useful and I set out to implement it.  Today I got the first
  88 draft limping along and submitted as
  89 <a href="https://github.com/LinuxCNC/linuxcnc/pull/2253">a patch to the
  90 LinuxCNC project</a>.</p>
  91
  92 <p>The simple part was setting up the MQTT publishing code in Python.
  93 I already have set up other parts submitting data to my Mosquito MQTT
  94 broker, so I could reuse that code.  Writing a LinuxCNC component in
  95 Python as new to me, but using existing examples in the code
  96 repository and the extensive documentation, this was fairly straight
  97 forward.  The hardest part was creating a automated test for the
  98 component to ensure it was working.  Testing it in a simulated
  99 LinuxCNC machine proved very useful, as I discovered features I needed
 100 that I had not thought of yet, and adjusted the code quite a bit to
 101 make it easier to test without a operational MQTT broker
 102 available.</p>
 103
 104 <p>The draft is ready and working, but I am unsure which LinuxCNC HAL
 105 pins I should collect and publish by default (in other words, the
 106 default set of information pieces published), and how to get the
 107 machine name from the LinuxCNC INI file.  The latter is a minor
 108 detail, but I expect it would be useful in a setup with several
 109 machines available.  I am hoping for feedback from the experienced
 110 LinuxCNC developers and users, to make the component even better
 111 before it can go into the mainland LinuxCNC code base.</p>
 112
 113 <p>Since I started on the MQTT component, I came across
 114 <a href="https://yewtu.be/watch?v=Bqa2grG0XtA">another video from Kent
 115 VanderVelden</a> where he combine LinuxCNC with a set of screen glasses
 116 controlled by a Raspberry Pi, and it occured to me that it would
 117 be useful for such use cases if LinuxCNC also provided a REST API for
 118 querying its status.  I hope to start on such component once the MQTT
 119 component is working well.</p>
 120
 121 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
 122 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
 123 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
 124
 125       </div>
 126       <div class="tags">
 127
 128
 129         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/linuxcnc">linuxcnc</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/robot">robot</a>.
 130
 131
 132       </div>
 133     </div>
 134     <div class="padding"></div>
 135
 136     <div class="entry">
 137       <div class="title">
 138         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/ONVIF_IP_camera_management_tool_finally_in_Debian.html">ONVIF IP camera management tool finally in Debian</a>
 139       </div>
 140       <div class="date">
 141         24th December 2022
 142       </div>
 143       <div class="body">
 144         <p>Merry Christmas to you all.  Here is a small gift to all those with
 145 IP cameras following the <a href="https://www.onvif.org/">ONVIF
 146 specification</a>.  There is finally a nice command line and GUI tool
 147 in Debian to manage ONVIF IP cameras.  After working with upstream for
 148 a few months and sponsoring the upload, I am very happy to report that
 149 the <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/libonvif">libonvif package</a>
 150 entered Debian Sid last night.</p>
 151
 152 <p>The package provide a C library to communicate with such cameras, a
 153 command line tool to locate and update settings of (like password) the
 154 cameras and a GUI tool to configure and control the units as well as
 155 preview the video from the camera.  Libonvif is available on Both
 156 Linux and Windows and the GUI tool uses the Qt library.  The main
 157 competitors are non-free software, while libonvif is GNU GPL licensed.
 158 I am very glad Debian users in the future can control their cameras
 159 using a free software system provided by Debian.  But the ONVIF world
 160 is full of slightly broken firmware, where the cameras pretend to
 161 follow the ONVIF specification but fail to set some configuration
 162 values or refuse to provide video to more than one recipient at the
 163 time, and the onvif project is quite young and might take a while
 164 before it completely work with your camera.  Upstream seem eager to
 165 improve the library, so handling any broken camera might be just <a
 166 href="https://github.com/sr99622/libonvif/">a bug report away</a>.</p>
 167
 168 <p>The package just cleared NEW, and need a new source only upload
 169 before it can enter testing.  This will happen in the next few
 170 days.</p>
 171
 172 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
 173 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
 174 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
 175
 176       </div>
 177       <div class="tags">
 178
 179
 180         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/multimedia">multimedia</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/standard">standard</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance</a>.
 181
 182
 183       </div>
 184     </div>
 185     <div class="padding"></div>
 186
 187     <div class="entry">
 188       <div class="title">
 189         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Managing_and_using_ONVIF_IP_cameras_with_Linux.html">Managing and using ONVIF IP cameras with Linux</a>
 190       </div>
 191       <div class="date">
 192         19th October 2022
 193       </div>
 194       <div class="body">
 195         <p>Recently I have been looking at how to control and collect data
 196 from a handful IP cameras using Linux.  I both wanted to change their
 197 settings and to make their imagery available via a free software
 198 service under my control.  Here is a summary of the tools I found.</p>
 199
 200 <p>First I had to identify the cameras and their protocols.  As far as
 201 I could tell, they were using some SOAP looking protocol and their
 202 internal web server seem to only work with Microsoft Internet Explorer
 203 with some proprietary binary plugin, which in these days of course is
 204 a security disaster and also made it impossible for me to use the
 205 camera web interface.  Luckily I discovered that the SOAP looking
 206 protocol is actually following <a href="https://www.onvif.org/">the
 207 ONVIF specification</a>, which seem to be supported by a lot of IP
 208 cameras these days.</p>
 209
 210 <p>Once the protocol was identified, I was able to find what appear to
 211 be the most popular way to configure ONVIF cameras, the free software
 212 Windows tool named
 213 <a href="https://sourceforge.net/projects/onvifdm/">ONVIF Device
 214 Manager</a>.  Lacking any other options at the time, I tried
 215 unsuccessfully to get it running using Wine, but was missing a dotnet
 216 40 library and I found no way around it to run it on Linux.</p>
 217
 218 <p>The next tool I found to configure the cameras were a non-free Linux Qt
 219 client <a href="https://www.lingodigit.com/onvif_nvcdemo.html">ONVIF
 220 Device Tool</a>.  I did not like its terms of use, so did not spend
 221 much time on it.</p>
 222
 223 <p>To collect the video and make it available in a web interface, I
 224 found the Zoneminder tool in Debian.  A recent version was able to
 225 automatically detect and configure ONVIF devices, so I could use it to
 226 set up motion detection in and collection of the camera output.  I had
 227 initial problems getting the ONVIF autodetection to work, as both
 228 Firefox and Chromium <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/1001188">refused
 229 the inter-tab communication</a> being used by the Zoneminder web
 230 pages, but managed to get konqueror to work.  Apparently the "Enhanced
 231 Tracking Protection" in Firefox cause the problem.  I ended up
 232 upgrading to the Bookworm edition of Zoneminder in the process to try
 233 to fix the issue, and believe the problem might be solved now.</p>
 234
 235 <p>In the process I came across the nice Linux GUI tool
 236 <a href="https://gitlab.com/caspermeijn/onvifviewer/">ONVIF Viewer</a>
 237 allowing me to preview the camera output and validate the login
 238 passwords required.  Sadly its author has grown tired of maintaining
 239 the software, so it might not see any future updates.  Which is sad,
 240 as the viewer is sightly unstable and the picture tend to lock up.
 241 Note, this lockup might be due to limitations in the cameras and not
 242 the viewer implementation.  I suspect the camera is only able to
 243 provide pictures to one client at the time, and the Zoneminder feed
 244 might interfere with the GUI viewer.  I have
 245 <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/1000820">asked for the tool to be
 246 included in Debian</a>.</p>
 247
 248 <p>Finally, I found what appear to be very nice Linux free software
 249 replacement for the Windows tool, named
 250 <a href="https://github.com/sr99622/libonvif/">libonvif</a>.  It
 251 provide a C library to talk to ONVIF devices as well as a command line
 252 and GUI tool using the library.  Using the GUI tool I was able to change
 253 the admin passwords and update other settings of the cameras.  I have
 254 <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/1021980">asked for the package to be
 255 included in Debian</a>.</p>
 256
 257 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
 258 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
 259 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
 260
 261 <p><strong>Update 2022-10-20</strong>: Since my initial publication of
 262 this text, I got several suggestions for more free software Linux
 263 tools.  There is <a href="https://github.com/quatanium/python-onvif">a
 264 ONVIF python library</a> (already
 265 <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/824240">requested into Debian</a>) and
 266 <a href="https://github.com/FalkTannhaeuser/python-onvif-zeep">a python 3
 267 fork</a> using a different SOAP dependency.  There is also
 268 <a href="https://www.home-assistant.io/integrations/onvif/">support for
 269 ONVIF in Home Assistant</a>, and there is an alternative to Zoneminder
 270 called <a href="https://www.shinobi.video/">Shinobi</a>.  The latter
 271 two are not included in Debian either.  I have not tested any of these
 272 so far.</p>
 273
 274       </div>
 275       <div class="tags">
 276
 277
 278         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/multimedia">multimedia</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/standard">standard</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance</a>.
 279
 280
 281       </div>
 282     </div>
 283     <div class="padding"></div>
 284
 285     <div class="entry">
 286       <div class="title">
 287         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Time_to_translate_the_Bullseye_edition_of_the_Debian_Administrator_s_Handbook.html">Time to translate the Bullseye edition of the Debian Administrator's Handbook</a>
 288       </div>
 289       <div class="date">
 290         12th September 2022
 291       </div>
 292       <div class="body">
 293         <p align="center"><img align="center" src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2020-10-20-debian-handbook-nb-testprint.jpeg" width="60%"/></p>
 294
 295 <p>(The picture is of the previous edition.)</p>
 296
 297 <p>Almost two years after the previous Norwegian Bokmål translation of
 298 the "<a href="https://debian-handbook.info/">The Debian Administrator's
 299 Handbook</a>" was published, a new edition is finally being prepared.  The
 300 english text is updated, and it is time to start working on the
 301 translations.  Around 37 percent of the strings have been updated, one
 302 way or another, and the translations starting from a complete Debian Buster
 303 edition now need to bring their translation up from 63% to 100%.  The
 304 complete book is licensed using a Creative Commons license, and has
 305 been published in several languages over the years.  The translations
 306 are done by volunteers to bring Linux in their native tongue.  The
 307 last time I checked, it complete text was available in English,
 308 Norwegian Bokmål, German, Indonesian, Brazil Portuguese and Spanish.
 309 In addition, work has been started for Arabic (Morocco), Catalan,
 310 Chinese (Simplified), Chinese (Traditional), Croatian, Czech, Danish,
 311 Dutch, French, Greek, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Persian, Polish,
 312 Romanian, Russian, Swedish, Turkish and Vietnamese.</p>
 313
 314 <p>The translation is conducted on
 315 <a href="https://hosted.weblate.org/projects/debian-handbook/">the
 316 hosted weblate project page</a>.  Prospective translators are
 317 recommeded to subscribe to
 318 <a href="http://lists.alioth.debian.org/mailman/listinfo/debian-handbook-translators">the
 319 translators mailing list</a> and should also check out
 320 <a href="https://debian-handbook.info/contribute/">the instructions for
 321 contributors</a>.</p>
 322
 323 <p>I am one of the Norwegian Bokmål translators of this book, and we
 324 have just started.  Your contribution is most welcome.</p>
 325
 326 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
 327 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
 328 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
 329
 330       </div>
 331       <div class="tags">
 332
 333
 334         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian-handbook">debian-handbook</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
 335
 336
 337       </div>
 338     </div>
 339     <div class="padding"></div>
 340
 341     <div class="entry">
 342       <div class="title">
 343         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Automatic_LinuxCNC_servo_PID_tuning_.html">Automatic LinuxCNC servo PID tuning?</a>
 344       </div>
 345       <div class="date">
 346         16th July 2022
 347       </div>
 348       <div class="body">
 349         <p>While working on a CNC with servo motors controlled by the
 350 <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LinuxCNC">LinuxCNC</a>
 351 <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PID_controller">PID
 352 controller</a>, I recently had to learn how to tune the collection of values
 353 that control such mathematical machinery that a PID controller is.  It
 354 proved to be a lot harder than I hoped, and I still have not succeeded
 355 in getting the Z PID controller to successfully defy gravity, nor X
 356 and Y to move accurately and reliably.  But while climbing up this
 357 rather steep learning curve, I discovered that some motor control
 358 systems are able to tune their PID controllers.  I got the impression
 359 from the documentation that LinuxCNC were not.  This proved to be not
 360 true.</p>
 361
 362 <p>The LinuxCNC
 363 <a href="http://linuxcnc.org/docs/html/man/man9/pid.9.html">pid
 364 component</a> is the recommended PID controller to use.  It uses eight
 365 constants <tt>Pgain</tt>, <tt>Igain</tt>, <tt>Dgain</tt>,
 366 <tt>bias</tt>, <tt>FF0</tt>, <tt>FF1</tt>, <tt>FF2</tt> and
 367 <tt>FF3</tt> to calculate the output value based on current and wanted
 368 state, and all of these need to have a sensible value for the
 369 controller to behave properly.  Note, there are even more values
 370 involved, theser are just the most important ones.  In my case I need
 371 the X, Y and Z axes to follow the requested path with little error.
 372 This has proved quite a challenge for someone who have never tuned a
 373 PID controller before, but there is at least some help to be found.
 374
 375 <p>I discovered that included in LinuxCNC was this old PID component
 376 at_pid claiming to have auto tuning capabilities.  Sadly it had been
 377 neglected since 2011, and could not be used as a plug in replacement
 378 for the default pid component.  One would have to rewriting the
 379 LinuxCNC HAL setup to test at_pid.  This was rather sad, when I wanted
 380 to quickly test auto tuning to see if it did a better job than me at
 381 figuring out good P, I and D values to use.</p>
 382
 383 <p>I decided to have a look if the situation could be improved.  This
 384 involved trying to understand the code and history of the pid and
 385 at_pid components.  Apparently they had a common ancestor, as code
 386 structure, comments and variable names were quite close to each other.
 387 Sadly this was not reflected in the git history, making it hard to
 388 figure out what really happened.  My guess is that the author of
 389 <a href="https://github.com/LinuxCNC/linuxcnc/blob/master/src/hal/components/at_pid.c">at_pid.c</a>
 390 took a version of
 391 <a href="https://github.com/LinuxCNC/linuxcnc/blob/master/src/hal/components/pid.c">pid.c</a>,
 392 rewrote it to follow the structure he wished pid.c to have, then added
 393 support for auto tuning and finally got it included into the LinuxCNC
 394 repository.  The restructuring and lack of early history made it
 395 harder to figure out which part of the code were relevant to the auto
 396 tuning, and which part of the code needed to be updated to work the
 397 same way as the current pid.c implementation.  I started by trying to
 398 isolate relevant changes in pid.c, and applying them to at_pid.c.  My
 399 aim was to make sure the at_pid component could replace the pid
 400 component with a simple change in the HAL setup loadrt line, without
 401 having to "rewire" the rest of the HAL configuration.  After a few
 402 hours following this approach, I had learned quite a lot about the
 403 code structure of both components, while concluding I was heading down
 404 the wrong rabbit hole, and should get back to the surface and find a
 405 different path.</p>
 406
 407 <p>For the second attempt, I decided to throw away all the PID control
 408 related part of the original at_pid.c, and instead isolate and lift
 409 the auto tuning part of the code and inject it into a copy of pid.c.
 410 This ensured compatibility with the current pid component, while
 411 adding auto tuning as a run time option.  To make it easier to identify
 412 the relevant parts in the future, I wrapped all the auto tuning code
 413 with '#ifdef AUTO_TUNER'.  The end result behave just like the current
 414 pid component by default, as that part of the code is identical.  The
 415 <a href="https://github.com/LinuxCNC/linuxcnc/pull/1820">end result
 416 entered the LinuxCNC master branch</a> a few days ago.</p>
 417
 418 <p>To enable auto tuning, one need to set a few HAL pins in the PID
 419 component.  The most important ones are <tt>tune-effort</tt>,
 420 <tt>tune-mode</tt> and <tt>tune-start</tt>.  But lets take a step
 421 back, and see what the auto tuning code will do.  I do not know the
 422 mathematical foundation of the at_pid algorithm, but from observation
 423 I can tell that the algorithm will, when enabled, produce a square
 424 wave pattern centered around the <tt>bias</tt> value on the output pin
 425 of the PID controller.  This can be seen using the HAL Scope provided
 426 by LinuxCNC.  In my case, this is translated into voltage (+-10V) sent
 427 to the motor controller, which in turn is translated into motor speed.
 428 So at_pid will ask the motor to move the axis back and forth.  The
 429 number of cycles in the pattern is controlled by the
 430 <tt>tune-cycles</tt> pin, and the extremes of the wave pattern is
 431 controlled by the <tt>tune-effort</tt> pin.  Of course, trying to
 432 change the direction of a physical object instantly (as in going
 433 directly from a positive voltage to the equivalent negative voltage)
 434 do not change velocity instantly, and it take some time for the object
 435 to slow down and move in the opposite direction.  This result in a
 436 more smooth movement wave form, as the axis in question were vibrating
 437 back and forth.  When the axis reached the target speed in the
 438 opposing direction, the auto tuner change direction again.  After
 439 several of these changes, the average time delay between the 'peaks'
 440 and 'valleys' of this movement graph is then used to calculate
 441 proposed values for Pgain, Igain and Dgain, and insert them into the
 442 HAL model to use by the pid controller.  The auto tuned settings are
 443 not great, but htye work a lot better than the values I had been able
 444 to cook up on my own, at least for the horizontal X and Y axis.  But I
 445 had to use very small <tt>tune-effort<tt> values, as my motor
 446 controllers error out if the voltage change too quickly.  I've been
 447 less lucky with the Z axis, which is moving a heavy object up and
 448 down, and seem to confuse the algorithm.  The Z axis movement became a
 449 lot better when I introduced a <tt>bias</tt> value to counter the
 450 gravitational drag, but I will have to work a lot more on the Z axis
 451 PID values.</p>
 452
 453 <p>Armed with this knowledge, it is time to look at how to do the
 454 tuning.  Lets say the HAL configuration in question load the PID
 455 component for X, Y and Z like this:</p>
 456
 457 <blockquote><pre>
 458 loadrt pid names=pid.x,pid.y,pid.z
 459 </pre></blockquote>
 460
 461 <p>Armed with the new and improved at_pid component, the new line will
 462 look like this:</p>
 463
 464 <blockquote><pre>
 465 loadrt at_pid names=pid.x,pid.y,pid.z
 466 </pre></blockquote>
 467
 468 <p>The rest of the HAL setup can stay the same.  This work because the
 469 components are referenced by name.  If the component had used count=3
 470 instead, all use of pid.# had to be changed to at_pid.#.</p>
 471
 472 <p>To start tuning the X axis, move the axis to the middle of its
 473 range, to make sure it do not hit anything when it start moving back
 474 and forth.  Next, set the <tt>tune-effort</tt> to a low number in the
 475 output range.  I used 0.1 as my initial value.  Next, assign 1 to the
 476 <tt>tune-mode</tt> value. Note, this will disable the pid controlling
 477 part and feed 0 to the output pin, which in my case initially caused a
 478 lot of drift.  In my case it proved to be a good idea with X and Y to
 479 tune the motor driver to make sure 0 voltage stopped the motor
 480 rotation.  On the other hand, for the Z axis this proved to be a bad
 481 idea, so it will depend on your setup.  It might help to set the
 482 <tt>bias</tt> value to a output value that reduce or eliminate the
 483 axis drift.  Finally, after setting <tt>tune-mode</tt>, set
 484 <tt>tune-start</tt> to 1 to activate the auto tuning.  If all go well,
 485 your axis will vibrate for a few seconds and when it is done, new
 486 values for Pgain, Igain and Dgain will be active.  To test them,
 487 change <tt>tune-mode</tt> back to 0.  Note that this might cause the
 488 machine to suddenly jerk as it bring the axis back to its commanded
 489 position, which it might have drifted away from during tuning.  To
 490 summarize with some halcmd lines:</p>
 491
 492 <blockquote><pre>
 493 setp pid.x.tune-effort 0.1
 494 setp pid.x.tune-mode 1
 495 setp pid.x.tune-start 1
 496 # wait for the tuning to complete
 497 setp pid.x.tune-mode 0
 498 </pre></blockquote>
 499
 500 <p>After doing this task quite a few times while trying to figure out
 501 how to properly tune the PID controllers on the machine in, I decided
 502 to figure out if this process could be automated, and wrote a script
 503 to do the entire tuning process from power on.  The end result will
 504 ensure the machine is powered on and ready to run, home all axis if it
 505 is not already done, check that the extra tuning pins are available,
 506 move the axis to its mid point, run the auto tuning and re-enable the
 507 pid controller when it is done.  It can be run several times.  Check
 508 out the
 509 <a href="https://github.com/SebKuzminsky/MazakVQC1540/blob/bon-dev/scripts/run-auto-pid-tuner">run-auto-pid-tuner</a>
 510 script on github if you want to learn how it is done.</p>
 511
 512 <p>My hope is that this little adventure can inspire someone who know
 513 more about motor PID controller tuning can implement even better
 514 algorithms for automatic PID tuning in LinuxCNC, making life easier
 515 for both me and all the others that want to use LinuxCNC but lack the
 516 in depth knowledge needed to tune PID controllers well.</p>
 517
 518 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
 519 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
 520 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
 521
 522       </div>
 523       <div class="tags">
 524
 525
 526         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/3d-printer">3d-printer</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/linuxcnc">linuxcnc</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/robot">robot</a>.
 527
 528
 529       </div>
 530     </div>
 531     <div class="padding"></div>
 532
 533     <div class="entry">
 534       <div class="title">
 535         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/LinuxCNC_translators_life_just_got_a_bit_easier.html">LinuxCNC translators life just got a bit easier</a>
 536       </div>
 537       <div class="date">
 538          3rd June 2022
 539       </div>
 540       <div class="body">
 541         <p>Back in oktober last year, when I started looking at the
 542 <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LinuxCNC">LinuxCNC</a> system, I
 543 proposed to change the documentation build system make life easier for
 544 translators.  The original system consisted of independently written
 545 documentation files for each language, with no automated way to track
 546 changes done in other translations and no help for the translators to
 547 know how much was left to translated.  By using
 548 <a href="https://po4a.org/">the po4a system</a> to generate POT and PO
 549 files from the English documentation, this can be improved.  A small
 550 team of LinuxCNC contributors got together and today our labour
 551 finally payed off.  Since a few hours ago, it is now possible to
 552 translate <a href="https://hosted.weblate.org/projects/linuxcnc/">the
 553 LinuxCNC documentation on Weblate</a>, alongside the program itself.</p>
 554
 555 <p>The effort to migrate the documentation to use po4a has been both
 556 slow and frustrating.  I am very happy we finally made it.</p>
 557
 558 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
 559 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
 560 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
 561
 562       </div>
 563       <div class="tags">
 564
 565
 566         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/3d-printer">3d-printer</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/linuxcnc">linuxcnc</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/robot">robot</a>.
 567
 568
 569       </div>
 570     </div>
 571     <div class="padding"></div>
 572
 573     <div class="entry">
 574       <div class="title">
 575         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/geteltorito_make_CD_firmware_upgrades_a_breeze.html">geteltorito make CD firmware upgrades a breeze</a>
 576       </div>
 577       <div class="date">
 578         20th April 2022
 579       </div>
 580       <div class="body">
 581         <p>Recently I wanted to upgrade the firmware of my thinkpad, and
 582 located the firmware download page from Lenovo (which annoyingly do
 583 not allow access via Tor, forcing me to hand them more personal
 584 information that I would like).  The
 585 <a href="https://support.lenovo.com/no/en/search?query=thinkpad firmware bios upgrade iso&SearchType=Customer search&searchLocation=Masthead">download
 586 from Lenovo</a> is a bootable ISO image, which is a bit of a problem
 587 when all I got available is a USB memory stick.  I tried booting the
 588 ISO as a USB stick, but this did not work.  But genisoimage came to
 589 the rescue.</p>
 590
 591 <P>The geteltorito program in
 592 <a href="http://tracker.debian.org/cdrkit">the genisoimage binary
 593 package</a> is able to convert the bootable ISO image to a bootable
 594 USB stick using a simple command line recipe, which I then can write
 595 to the most recently inserted USB stick:</p>
 596
 597 <blockquote><pre>
 598 geteltorito -o usbstick.img lenovo-firmware.iso
 599 sudo dd bs=10M if=usbstick.img of=$(ls -tr /dev/sd?|tail -1)
 600 </pre></blockquote>
 601
 602 <p>This USB stick booted the firmware upgrader just fine, and in a few
 603 minutes my machine had the latest and greatest BIOS firmware in place.</p>
 604
 605       </div>
 606       <div class="tags">
 607
 608
 609         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
 610
 611
 612       </div>
 613     </div>
 614     <div class="padding"></div>
 615
 616     <div class="entry">
 617       <div class="title">
 618         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Run_your_industrial_metal_working_machine_using_Debian_.html">Run your industrial metal working machine using Debian?</a>
 619       </div>
 620       <div class="date">
 621          2nd March 2022
 622       </div>
 623       <div class="body">
 624         <p>After many months of hard work by the good people involved in
 625 <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LinuxCNC">LinuxCNC</a>, the
 626 system was accepted Sunday
 627 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/linuxcnc">into Debian</a>.
 628 Once it was available from Debian, I was surprised to discover from
 629 <a href="https://qa.debian.org/popcon.php?package=linuxcnc">its
 630 popularity-contest numbers</a> that people have been reporting its use
 631 since 2012.  <a href="http://linuxcnc.org/">Its project site</a> might
 632 be a good place to check out, but sadly is not working when visiting
 633 via Tor.</p>
 634
 635 <p>But what is LinuxCNC, you are probably wondering?  Perhaps a
 636 Wikipedia quote is in place?</p>
 637
 638 <blockquote>
 639 "LinuxCNC is a software system for numerical control of
 640 machines such as milling machines, lathes, plasma cutters, routers,
 641 cutting machines, robots and hexapods. It can control up to 9 axes or
 642 joints of a CNC machine using G-code (RS-274NGC) as input. It has
 643 several GUIs suited to specific kinds of usage (touch screen,
 644 interactive development)."
 645 </blockquote>
 646
 647 <p>It can even control 3D printers.  And even though the Wikipedia
 648 page indicate that it can only work with hard real time kernel
 649 features, it can also work with the user space soft real time features
 650 provided by the Debian kernel.
 651 <a href="https://github.com/linuxcnc/linuxcnc">The source code</a> is
 652 available from Github.  The last few months I've been involved in the
 653 translation setup for the program and documentation.  Translators are
 654 most welcome to
 655 <a href="https://hosted.weblate.org/engage/linuxcnc/">join the
 656 effort</a> using Weblate.</p>
 657
 658 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
 659 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
 660 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
 661
 662       </div>
 663       <div class="tags">
 664
 665
 666         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/3d-printer">3d-printer</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/linuxcnc">linuxcnc</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/robot">robot</a>.
 667
 668
 669       </div>
 670     </div>
 671     <div class="padding"></div>
 672
 673     <div class="entry">
 674       <div class="title">
 675         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_still_an_excellent_choice_for_Lego_builders.html">Debian still an excellent choice for Lego builders</a>
 676       </div>
 677       <div class="date">
 678         24th October 2021
 679       </div>
 680       <div class="body">
 681         <p>The Debian Lego team saw a lot of activity the last few weeks.  All
 682 the packages under the team umbrella has been updated to fix
 683 packaging, lintian issues and BTS reports.  In addition, a new and
 684 inspiring team member appeared on both the
 685 <a href="https://alioth-lists.debian.net/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/debian-lego-team">debian-lego-team
 686 Team mailing list</a> and
 687 <a href="irc://irc.debian.org/%23debian-lego">IRC channel
 688 #debian-lego</a>.  If you are interested in Lego CAD design and LEGO
 689 Mindstorms programming, check out the
 690 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/LegoDesigners">team wiki page</a> to
 691 see what Debian can offer the Lego enthusiast.</p>
 692
 693 <p>Patches has been sent upstream, causing new upstream releases, one
 694 even the first one in more than ten years, and old upstreams was
 695 released with new ones.  There are still a lot of work left, and the
 696 team welcome more members to help us make sure Debian is the Linux
 697 distribution of choice for Lego builders.  If you want to contribute,
 698 join us in the IRC channel and become part of
 699 <a href="https://salsa.debian.org/debian-lego-team/">the team on
 700 Salsa</a>.</p>
 701
 702 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
 703 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
 704 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
 705
 706       </div>
 707       <div class="tags">
 708
 709
 710         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/lego">lego</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/robot">robot</a>.
 711
 712
 713       </div>
 714     </div>
 715     <div class="padding"></div>
 716
 717     <div class="entry">
 718       <div class="title">
 719         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Six_complete_translations_of_The_Debian_Administrator_s_Handbook_for_Buster.html">Six complete translations of The Debian Administrator's Handbook for Buster</a>
 720       </div>
 721       <div class="date">
 722          5th July 2021
 723       </div>
 724       <div class="body">
 725         <p>I am happy observe that the <a href="https://debian-handbook.info/">The
 726 Debian Administrator's Handbook</a> is available in six languages now.
 727 I am not sure which one of these are completely proof read, but the
 728 complete book is available in these languages:
 729
 730 <ul>
 731
 732 <li>English</li>
 733 <li>Norwegian Bokmål</li>
 734 <li>German</li>
 735 <li>Indonesian</li>
 736 <li>Brazil Portuguese</li>
 737 <li>Spanish</li>
 738
 739 </ul>
 740
 741 <p>This is the list of languages more than 70% complete, in other
 742 words with not too much left to do:</p>
 743
 744 <ul>
 745
 746 <li>Chinese (Simplified) - 90%</li>
 747 <li>French - 79%</li>
 748 <li>Italian - 79%</li>
 749 <li>Japanese - 77%</li>
 750 <li>Arabic (Morocco) - 75%</li>
 751 <li>Persian - 71%</li>
 752
 753 </ul>
 754
 755 <p>I wonder how long it will take to bring these to 100%.</p>
 756
 757 <p>Then there is the list of languages about halfway done:</p>
 758
 759 <ul>
 760
 761 <li>Russian - 63%</li>
 762 <li>Swedish - 53%</li>
 763 <li>Chinese (Traditional) - 46%</li>
 764 <li>Catalan - 45%</li>
 765
 766 </ul>
 767
 768 <p>Several are on to a good start:</p>
 769
 770 <ul>
 771
 772 <li>Dutch - 26%</li>
 773 <li>Vietnamese - 25%</li>
 774 <li>Polish - 23%</li>
 775 <li>Czech - 22%</li>
 776 <li>Turkish - 18%</li>
 777
 778 </ul>
 779
 780 <p>Finally, there are the ones just getting started:</p>
 781
 782 <ul>
 783
 784 <li>Korean - 4%</li>
 785 <li>Croatian - 2%</li>
 786 <li>Greek - 2%</li>
 787 <li>Danish - 1%</li>
 788 <li>Romanian - 1%</li>
 789
 790 </ul>
 791
 792 <p>If you want to help provide a Debian instruction book in your own
 793 language, visit
 794 <a href="https://hosted.weblate.org/projects/debian-handbook/#languages">Weblate</a>
 795 to contribute to the translations.</p>
 796
 797 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
 798 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
 799 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
 800
 801       </div>
 802       <div class="tags">
 803
 804
 805         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian-handbook">debian-handbook</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
 806
 807
 808       </div>
 809     </div>
 810     <div class="padding"></div>
 811
 812     <div class="entry">
 813       <div class="title">
 814         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Latest_Jami_back_in_Debian_Testing__and_scriptable_using_dbus.html">Latest Jami back in Debian Testing, and scriptable using dbus</a>
 815       </div>
 816       <div class="date">
 817         12th January 2021
 818       </div>
 819       <div class="body">
 820         <p>After a lot of hard work by its maintainer Alexandre Viau and
 821 others, the decentralized communication platform
 822 <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jami_(software)">Jami</a>
 823 (earlier known as Ring), managed to get
 824 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/ring">its latest version</a>
 825 into Debian Testing.  Several of its dependencies has caused build and
 826 propagation problems, which all seem to be solved now.</p>
 827
 828 <p>In addition to the fact that Jami is decentralized, similar to how
 829 bittorrent is decentralized, I first of all like how it is not
 830 connected to external IDs like phone numbers.  This allow me to set up
 831 computers to send me notifications using Jami without having to find
 832 get a phone number for each computer.  Automatic notification via Jami
 833 is also made trivial thanks to the provided client side API (as a DBus
 834 service).  Here is my bourne shell script demonstrating how to let any
 835 system send a message to any Jami address.  It will create a new
 836 identity before sending the message, if no Jami identity exist
 837 already:</p>
 838
 839 <p><pre>
 840 #!/bin/sh
 841 #
 842 # Usage: $0 <jami-address> <message>
 843 #
 844 # Send <message> to <jami-address>, create local jami account if
 845 # missing.
 846 #
 847 # License: GPL v2 or later at your choice
 848 # Author: Petter Reinholdtsen
 849
 850
 851 if [ -z "$HOME" ] ; then
 852     echo "error: missing \$HOME, required for dbus to work"
 853     exit 1
 854 fi
 855
 856 # First, get dbus running if not already running
 857 DBUSLAUNCH=/usr/bin/dbus-launch
 858 PIDFILE=/run/asterisk/dbus-session.pid
 859 if [ -e $PIDFILE ] ; then
 860     . $PIDFILE
 861     if ! kill -0 $DBUS_SESSION_BUS_PID 2>/dev/null ; then
 862         unset DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS
 863     fi
 864 fi
 865 if [ -z "$DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS" ] && [ -x "$DBUSLAUNCH" ]; then
 866     DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS="unix:path=$HOME/.dbus"
 867     dbus-daemon --session --address="$DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS" --nofork --nopidfile --syslog-only < /dev/null > /dev/null 2>&1 3>&1 &
 868     DBUS_SESSION_BUS_PID=$!
 869     (
 870         echo DBUS_SESSION_BUS_PID=$DBUS_SESSION_BUS_PID
 871         echo DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS=\""$DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS"\"
 872         echo export DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS
 873     ) > $PIDFILE
 874     . $PIDFILE
 875 fi &
 876
 877 dringop() {
 878     part="$1"; shift
 879     op="$1"; shift
 880     dbus-send --session \
 881         --dest="cx.ring.Ring" /cx/ring/Ring/$part cx.ring.Ring.$part.$op $*
 882 }
 883
 884 dringopreply() {
 885     part="$1"; shift
 886     op="$1"; shift
 887     dbus-send --session --print-reply \
 888         --dest="cx.ring.Ring" /cx/ring/Ring/$part cx.ring.Ring.$part.$op $*
 889 }
 890
 891 firstaccount() {
 892     dringopreply ConfigurationManager getAccountList | \
 893       grep string | awk -F'"' '{print $2}' | head -n 1
 894 }
 895
 896 account=$(firstaccount)
 897
 898 if [ -z "$account" ] ; then
 899     echo "Missing local account, trying to create it"
 900     dringop ConfigurationManager addAccount \
 901       dict:string:string:"Account.type","RING","Account.videoEnabled","false"
 902     account=$(firstaccount)
 903     if [ -z "$account" ] ; then
 904         echo "unable to create local account"
 905         exit 1
 906     fi
 907 fi
 908
 909 # Not using dringopreply to ensure $2 can contain spaces
 910 dbus-send --print-reply --session \
 911   --dest=cx.ring.Ring \
 912   /cx/ring/Ring/ConfigurationManager \
 913   cx.ring.Ring.ConfigurationManager.sendTextMessage \
 914   string:"$account" string:"$1" \
 915   dict:string:string:"text/plain","$2"
 916 </pre></p>
 917
 918 <p>If you want to check it out yourself, visit the
 919 <a href="https://jami.net/">the Jami system project page</a> to learn
 920 more, and install the latest Jami client from Debian Unstable or
 921 Testing.</p>
 922
 923 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
 924 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
 925 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
 926
 927       </div>
 928       <div class="tags">
 929
 930
 931         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance</a>.
 932
 933
 934       </div>
 935     </div>
 936     <div class="padding"></div>
 937
 938     <div class="entry">
 939       <div class="title">
 940         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Buster_based_Bokm_l_edition_of_Debian_Administrator_s_Handbook.html">Buster based Bokmål edition of Debian Administrator's Handbook</a>
 941       </div>
 942       <div class="date">
 943         20th October 2020
 944       </div>
 945       <div class="body">
 946         <p align="center"><img align="center" src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2020-10-20-debian-handbook-nb-testprint.jpeg" width="60%"/></p>
 947
 948 <p>I am happy to report that we finally made it!  Norwegian Bokmål
 949 became the first translation published on paper of the new Buster
 950 based edition of "<a href="https://debian-handbook.info/">The Debian
 951 Administrator's Handbook</a>".  The print proof reading copy arrived
 952 some days ago, and it looked good, so now the book is approved for
 953 general distribution.  This updated paperback edition <a
 954 href="https://debian-handbook.info/get/#norwegian">is available from
 955 lulu.com</a>.  The book is also available for download in electronic
 956 form as PDF, EPUB and Mobipocket, and can also be
 957 <a href="https://debian-handbook.info/browse/nb-NO/stable/">read online</a>.</p>
 958
 959 <p>I am very happy to wrap up this Creative Common licensed project,
 960 which concludes several months of work by several volunteers. The
 961 number of Linux related books published in Norwegian are few, and I
 962 really hope this one will gain many readers, as it is packed with deep
 963 knowledge on Linux and the Debian ecosystem.  The book will be
 964 available for various Internet book stores like Amazon and Barnes &
 965 Noble soon, but I recommend buying
 966 "<a href="https://www.lulu.com/en/us/shop/roland-mas-and-rapha%C3%ABl-hertzog/h%C3%A5ndbok-for-debian-administratoren/paperback/product-9j7qwq.html">Håndbok
 967 for Debian-administratoren</a>" directly from the source at Lulu.
 968
 969 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
 970 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
 971 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
 972
 973       </div>
 974       <div class="tags">
 975
 976
 977         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian-handbook">debian-handbook</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
 978
 979
 980       </div>
 981     </div>
 982     <div class="padding"></div>
 983
 984     <div class="entry">
 985       <div class="title">
 986         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Buster_update_of_Norwegian_Bokm_l_edition_of_Debian_Administrator_s_Handbook_almost_done.html">Buster update of Norwegian Bokmål edition of Debian Administrator's Handbook almost done</a>
 987       </div>
 988       <div class="date">
 989         11th September 2020
 990       </div>
 991       <div class="body">
 992         <p>Thanks to the good work of several volunteers, the updated edition
 993 of the Norwegian translation for
 994 "<a href="https://debian-handbook.info/">The Debian Administrator's
 995 Handbook</a>" is now almost completed.  After many months of proof
 996 reading, I consider the proof reading complete enough for us to move
 997 to the next step, and have asked for the print version to be prepared
 998 and sent of to the print on demand service lulu.com.  While it is
 999 still not to late if you find any incorrect translations on
1000 <a href="https://hosted.weblate.org/languages/nb_NO/debian-handbook/">the
1001 hosted Weblate service</a>, but it will be soon. :) You can check out
1002 <a href=" https://debian-handbook.info/browse/nb-NO/stable/">the Buster
1003 edition on the web</a> until the print edition is ready.</p>
1004
1005 <p>The book will be for sale on lulu.com and various web book stores,
1006 with links available from the web site for the book linked to above.
1007 I hope a lot of readers find it useful.</p>
1008
1009 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
1010 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
1011 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
1012
1013       </div>
1014       <div class="tags">
1015
1016
1017         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian-handbook">debian-handbook</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
1018
1019
1020       </div>
1021     </div>
1022     <div class="padding"></div>
1023
1024     <div class="entry">
1025       <div class="title">
1026         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Working_on_updated_Norwegian_Bokm_l_edition_of_Debian_Administrator_s_Handbook.html">Working on updated Norwegian Bokmål edition of Debian Administrator's Handbook</a>
1027       </div>
1028       <div class="date">
1029          4th July 2020
1030       </div>
1031       <div class="body">
1032         <p>Three years ago, the first Norwegian Bokmål edition of
1033 "<a href="https://debian-handbook.info/">The Debian Administrator's
1034 Handbook</a>" was published.  This was based on Debian Jessie.  Now a
1035 new and updated version based on Buster is getting ready.  Work on the
1036 updated Norwegian Bokmål edition has been going on for a few months
1037 now, and yesterday, we reached the first mile stone, with 100% of the
1038 texts being translated.  A lot of proof reading remains, of course,
1039 but a major step towards a new edition has been taken.</p>
1040
1041 <p>The book is translated by volunteers, and we would love to get some
1042 help with the proof reading.  The translation uses
1043 <a href="https://hosted.weblate.org/languages/nb_NO/debian-handbook/">the
1044 hosted Weblate service</a>, and we welcome everyone to have a look and
1045 submit improvements and suggestions.  There is also a proof readers
1046 PDF available on request, get in touch if you want to help out that
1047 way.</p>
1048
1049 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
1050 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
1051 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
1052
1053       </div>
1054       <div class="tags">
1055
1056
1057         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian-handbook">debian-handbook</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
1058
1059
1060       </div>
1061     </div>
1062     <div class="padding"></div>
1063
1064     <div class="entry">
1065       <div class="title">
1066         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Secure_Socket_API___a_simple_and_powerful_approach_for_TLS_support_in_software.html">Secure Socket API - a simple and powerful approach for TLS support in software</a>
1067       </div>
1068       <div class="date">
1069          6th June 2020
1070       </div>
1071       <div class="body">
1072         <p>As a member of the <a href="https://www.nuug.no/">Norwegian Unix
1073 User Group</a>, I have the pleasure of receiving the
1074 <a href="https://www.usenix.org/">USENIX</a> magazine
1075 <a href="https://www.usenix.org/publications/login/">;login:</a>
1076 several times a year.  I rarely have time to read all the articles,
1077 but try to at least skim through them all as there is a lot of nice
1078 knowledge passed on there.  I even carry the latest issue with me most
1079 of the time to try to get through all the articles when I have a few
1080 spare minutes.</p>
1081
1082 <p>The other day I came across a nice article titled
1083 "<a href="https://www.usenix.org/publications/login/winter2018/oneill">The
1084 Secure Socket API: TLS as an Operating System Service</a>" with a
1085 marvellous idea I hope can make it all the way into the POSIX standard.
1086 The idea is as simple as it is powerful.  By introducing a new
1087 socket() option IPPROTO_TLS to use TLS, and a system wide service to
1088 handle setting up TLS connections, one both make it trivial to add TLS
1089 support to any program currently using the POSIX socket API, and gain
1090 system wide control over certificates, TLS versions and encryption
1091 systems used.  Instead of doing this:</p>
1092
1093 <p><blockquote><pre>
1094 int socket = socket(PF_INET, SOCK_STREAM, IPPROTO_TCP);
1095 </pre></blockquote></p>
1096
1097 <p>the program code would be doing this:<p>
1098
1099 <p><blockquote><pre>
1100 int socket = socket(PF_INET, SOCK_STREAM, IPPROTO_TLS);
1101 </pre></blockquote></p>
1102
1103 <p>According to the ;login: article, converting a C program to use TLS
1104 would normally modify only 5-10 lines in the code, which is amazing
1105 when compared to using for example the OpenSSL API.</p>
1106
1107 <p>The project has set up the
1108 <a href="https://securesocketapi.org/">https://securesocketapi.org/</a>
1109 web site to spread the idea, and the code for a kernel module and the
1110 associated system daemon is available from two github repositories:
1111 <a href="https://github.com/markoneill/ssa">ssa</a> and
1112 <a href="https://github.com/markoneill/ssa-daemon">ssa-daemon</a>.
1113 Unfortunately there is no explicit license information with the code,
1114 so its copyright status is unclear.  A
1115 <a href="https://github.com/markoneill/ssa/issues/2">request to solve
1116 this</a> about it has been unsolved since 2018-08-17.</p>
1117
1118 <p>I love the idea of extending socket() to gain TLS support, and
1119 understand why it is an advantage to implement this as a kernel module
1120 and system wide service daemon, but can not help to think that it
1121 would be a lot easier to get projects to move to this way of setting
1122 up TLS if it was done with a user space approach where programs
1123 wanting to use this API approach could just link with a wrapper
1124 library.</p>
1125
1126 <p>I recommend you check out this simple and powerful approach to more
1127 secure network connections. :)</p>
1128
1129 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
1130 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
1131 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
1132
1133       </div>
1134       <div class="tags">
1135
1136
1137         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sysadmin">sysadmin</a>.
1138
1139
1140       </div>
1141     </div>
1142     <div class="padding"></div>
1143
1144     <div class="entry">
1145       <div class="title">
1146         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Jami_as_a_Zoom_client__a_trick_for_password_protected_rooms___.html">Jami as a Zoom client, a trick for password protected rooms...</a>
1147       </div>
1148       <div class="date">
1149          8th May 2020
1150       </div>
1151       <div class="body">
1152         <p>Half a year ago,
1153 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Jami_Ring__finally_functioning_peer_to_peer_communication_client.html">I
1154 wrote</a> about <a href="https://jami.net/">the Jami communication
1155 client</a>, capable of peer-to-peer encrypted communication.  It
1156 handle both messages, audio and video.  It uses distributed hash
1157 tables instead of central infrastructure to connect its users to each
1158 other, which in my book is a plus.  I mentioned briefly that it could
1159 also work as a SIP client, which came in handy when the higher
1160 educational sector in Norway started to promote Zoom as its video
1161 conferencing solution.  I am reluctant to use the official Zoom client
1162 software, due to their <a href="https://zoom.us/terms">copyright
1163 license clauses</a> prohibiting users to reverse engineer (for example
1164 to check the security) and benchmark it, and thus prefer to connect to
1165 Zoom meetings with free software clients.</p>
1166
1167 <p>Jami worked OK as a SIP client to Zoom as long as there was no
1168 password set on the room.  The Jami daemon leak memory like crazy
1169 (approximately 1 GiB a minute) when I am connected to the video
1170 conference, so I had to restart the client every 7-10 minutes, which
1171 is not great.  I tried to get other SIP Linux clients to work
1172 without success, so I decided I would have to live with this wart
1173 until someone managed to fix the leak in the dring code base.  But
1174 another problem showed up once the rooms were password protected.  I
1175 could not get my dial tone signaling through from Jami to Zoom, and
1176 dial tone signaling is used to enter the password when connecting to
1177 Zoom.  I tried a lot of different permutations with my Jami and
1178 Asterisk setup to try to figure out why the signaling did not get
1179 through, only to finally discover that the fundamental problem seem to
1180 be that Zoom is simply not able to receive dial tone signaling when
1181 connecting via SIP.  There seem to be nothing wrong with the Jami and
1182 Asterisk end, it is simply broken in the Zoom end.  I got help from a
1183 very skilled VoIP engineer figuring out this last part.  And being a
1184 very skilled engineer, he was also able to locate a solution for me.
1185 Or to be exact, a workaround that solve my initial problem of
1186 connecting to password protected Zoom rooms using Jami.</p>
1187
1188 <p>So, how do you do this, I am sure you are wondering by now.  The
1189 trick is already
1190 <a href="https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us/articles/202405539-H-323-SIP-Room-Connector-Dial-Strings#sip">documented
1191 from Zoom</a>, and it is to modify the SIP address to include the room
1192 password.  What is most surprising about this is that the
1193 automatically generated email from Zoom with instructions on how to
1194 connect via SIP do not mention this.  The SIP address to use normally
1195 consist of the room ID (a number), an @ character and the IP address
1196 of the Zoom SIP gateway.  But Zoom understand a lot more than just the
1197 room ID in front of the at sign.  The format is "<tt>[Meeting
1198 ID].[Password].[Layout].[Host Key]</tt>", and you can here see how you
1199 can both enter password, control the layout (full screen, active
1200 presence and gallery) and specify the host key to start the meeting.
1201 The full SIP address entered into Jami to provide the password will
1202 then look like this (all using made up numbers):</p>
1203
1204 <p><blockquote>
1205 <tt>sip:657837644.522827@192.168.169.170</tt>
1206 </blockquote></p>
1207
1208 <p>Now if only jami would reduce its memory usage, I could even
1209 recommend this setup to others. :)</p>
1210
1211 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
1212 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
1213 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
1214
1215       </div>
1216       <div class="tags">
1217
1218
1219         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance</a>.
1220
1221
1222       </div>
1223     </div>
1224     <div class="padding"></div>
1225
1226     <div class="entry">
1227       <div class="title">
1228         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/GnuCOBOL__a_free_platform_to_learn_and_use_COBOL___nice_free_software.html">GnuCOBOL, a free platform to learn and use COBOL - nice free software</a>
1229       </div>
1230       <div class="date">
1231         29th April 2020
1232       </div>
1233       <div class="body">
1234         <p>The curiosity got the better of me when
1235 <a href="https://developers.slashdot.org/story/20/04/06/1424246/new-jersey-desperately-needs-cobol-programmers">Slashdot
1236 reported</a> that New Jersey was desperately looking for
1237 <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COBOL">COBOL</a> programmers,
1238 and a few days later it was reported that
1239 <a href="https://onezero.medium.com/ibm-rallies-cobol-engineers-to-save-overloaded-unemployment-systems-eeadf13eddce">IBM
1240 tried to locate COBOL programmers</a>.</p>
1241
1242 <p>I thus decided to have a look at free software alternatives to
1243 learn COBOL, and had the pleasure to find
1244 <a href="https://sourceforge.net/projects/open-cobol/">GnuCOBOL</a> was
1245 already <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/gnucobol">in
1246 Debian</a>.  It used to be called Open Cobol, and is a "compiler"
1247 transforming COBOL code to C or C++ before giving it to GCC or Visual
1248 Studio to build binaries.</p>
1249
1250 <p>I managed to get in touch with upstream, and was impressed with the
1251 quick response, and also was happy to see a new Debian maintainer
1252 taking over when the original one recently asked to be replaced.  A
1253 new Debian upload was done as recently as yesterday.</p>
1254
1255 <p>Using the Debian package, I was able to follow a simple COBOL
1256 introduction and make and run simple COBOL programs.  It was fun to
1257 learn a new programming language.  If you want to test for yourself,
1258 <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GnuCOBOL">the GnuCOBOL Wikipedia
1259 page</a> have a few simple examples to get you startet.</p>
1260
1261 <p>As I do not have much experience with COBOL, I do not know how
1262 standard compliant it is, but it claim to pass most tests from COBOL
1263 test suite, which sound good to me.  It is nice to know it is possible
1264 to learn COBOL using software without any usage restrictions, and I am
1265 very happy such nice free software project as this is available.  If
1266 you as me is curious about COBOL, check it out.</p>
1267
1268 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
1269 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
1270 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
1271
1272       </div>
1273       <div class="tags">
1274
1275
1276         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nice free software">nice free software</a>.
1277
1278
1279       </div>
1280     </div>
1281     <div class="padding"></div>
1282
1283     <div class="entry">
1284       <div class="title">
1285         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Jami_Ring__finally_functioning_peer_to_peer_communication_client.html">Jami/Ring, finally functioning peer to peer communication client</a>
1286       </div>
1287       <div class="date">
1288         19th June 2019
1289       </div>
1290       <div class="body">
1291         <p>Some years ago, in 2016, I
1292 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Experience_and_updated_recipe_for_using_the_Signal_app_without_a_mobile_phone.html">wrote
1293 for the first time about</a> the Ring peer to peer messaging system.
1294 It would provide messaging without any central server coordinating the
1295 system and without requiring all users to register a phone number or
1296 own a mobile phone.  Back then, I could not get it to work, and put it
1297 aside until it had seen more development.  A few days ago I decided to
1298 give it another try, and am happy to report that this time I am able
1299 to not only send and receive messages, but also place audio and video
1300 calls.  But only if UDP is not blocked into your network.</p>
1301
1302 <p>The Ring system changed name earlier this year to
1303 <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jami_(software)">Jami</a>.  I
1304 tried doing web search for 'ring' when I discovered it for the first
1305 time, and can only applaud this change as it is impossible to find
1306 something called Ring among the noise of other uses of that word.  Now
1307 you can search for 'jami' and this client and
1308 <a href="https://jami.net/">the Jami system</a> is the first hit at
1309 least on duckduckgo.</p>
1310
1311 <p>Jami will by default encrypt messages as well as audio and video
1312 calls, and try to send them directly between the communicating parties
1313 if possible.  If this proves impossible (for example if both ends are
1314 behind NAT), it will use a central SIP TURN server maintained by the
1315 Jami project.  Jami can also be a normal SIP client.  If the SIP
1316 server is unencrypted, the audio and video calls will also be
1317 unencrypted.  This is as far as I know the only case where Jami will
1318 do anything without encryption.</p>
1319
1320 <p>Jami is available for several platforms: Linux, Windows, MacOSX,
1321 Android, iOS, and Android TV.  It is included in Debian already.  Jami
1322 also work for those using F-Droid without any Google connections,
1323 while Signal do not.
1324 <a href="https://git.jami.net/savoirfairelinux/ring-project/wikis/technical/Protocol">The
1325 protocol</a> is described in the Ring project wiki.  The system uses a
1326 distributed hash table (DHT) system (similar to BitTorrent) running
1327 over UDP.  On one of the networks I use, I discovered Jami failed to
1328 work.  I tracked this down to the fact that incoming UDP packages
1329 going to ports 1-49999 were blocked, and the DHT would pick a random
1330 port and end up in the low range most of the time.  After talking to
1331 the developers, I solved this by enabling the dhtproxy in the
1332 settings, thus using TCP to talk to a central DHT proxy instead of
1333
1334 peering directly with others.  I've been told the developers are
1335 working on allowing DHT to use TCP to avoid this problem.  I also ran
1336 into a problem when trying to talk to the version of Ring included in
1337 Debian Stable (Stretch).  Apparently the protocol changed between
1338 beta2 and the current version, making these clients incompatible.
1339 Hopefully the protocol will not be made incompatible in the
1340 future.</p>
1341
1342 <p>It is worth noting that while looking at Jami and its features, I
1343 came across another communication platform I have not tested yet.  The
1344 <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tox_(protocol)">Tox protocol</a>
1345 and <a href="https://tox.chat/">family of Tox clients</a>.  It might
1346 become the topic of a future blog post.</p>
1347
1348 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
1349 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
1350 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
1351
1352       </div>
1353       <div class="tags">
1354
1355
1356         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance</a>.
1357
1358
1359       </div>
1360     </div>
1361     <div class="padding"></div>
1362
1363     <div class="entry">
1364       <div class="title">
1365         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Strategispillet_Unknown_Horizons_n__tilgjengelig_p__bokm_l.html">Strategispillet Unknown Horizons nå tilgjengelig på bokmål</a>
1366       </div>
1367       <div class="date">
1368         23rd January 2019
1369       </div>
1370       <div class="body">
1371         <p>I høst ble jeg inspirert til å bidra til oversettelsen av
1372 <a href="http://unknown-horizons.org/">strategispillet Unknown
1373 Horizons</a>, og oversatte de nesten 200 strengene i prosjektet til
1374 bokmål.  Deretter har jeg gått å ventet på at det kom en ny utgave som
1375 inneholdt disse oversettelsene.  Nå er endelig ventetiden over.  Den
1376 nye versjonen kom på nyåret, og ble
1377 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/unknown-horizons">lastet opp i
1378 Debian</a> for noen få dager siden.  I går kveld fikk jeg testet det ut, og
1379 må innrømme at oversettelsene fungerer fint.  Fant noen få tekster som
1380 måtte justeres, men ikke noe alvorlig.  Har oppdatert
1381 <a href="https://hosted.weblate.org/projects/uh/">oversettelsen på
1382 Weblate</a>, slik at neste utgave vil være enda bedre. :)</p>
1383
1384 <p>Spillet er et ressursstyringsspill ala Civilization, og er morsomt
1385 å spille for oss som liker slikt. :)</p>
1386
1387 <p>Som vanlig, hvis du bruker Bitcoin og ønsker å vise din støtte til
1388 det jeg driver med, setter jeg pris på om du sender Bitcoin-donasjoner
1389 til min adresse
1390 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.
1391 Merk, betaling med bitcoin er ikke anonymt. :)</p>
1392
1393       </div>
1394       <div class="tags">
1395
1396
1397         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/norsk">norsk</a>.
1398
1399
1400       </div>
1401     </div>
1402     <div class="padding"></div>
1403
1404     <div class="entry">
1405       <div class="title">
1406         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_now_got_everything_you_need_to_program_Micro_bit.html">Debian now got everything you need to program Micro:bit</a>
1407       </div>
1408       <div class="date">
1409         22nd January 2019
1410       </div>
1411       <div class="body">
1412         <p>I am amazed and very pleased to discover that since a few days ago,
1413 everything you need to program the <a href="https://microbit.org/">BBC
1414 micro:bit</a> is available from the Debian archive.  All this is
1415 thanks to the hard work of Nick Morrott and the Debian python
1416 packaging team.  The micro:bit project recommend the mu-editor to
1417 program the microcomputer, as this editor will take care of all the
1418 machinery required to injekt/flash micropython alongside the program
1419 into the micro:bit, as long as the pieces are available.</p>
1420
1421 <p>There are three main pieces involved.  The first to enter Debian
1422 was
1423 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/python-uflash">python-uflash</a>,
1424 which was accepted into the archive 2019-01-12.  The next one was
1425 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/mu-editor">mu-editor</a>, which
1426 showed up 2019-01-13.  The final and hardest part to to into the
1427 archive was
1428 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/firmware-microbit-micropython">firmware-microbit-micropython</a>,
1429 which needed to get its build system and dependencies into Debian
1430 before it was accepted 2019-01-20.  The last one is already in Debian
1431 Unstable and should enter Debian Testing / Buster in three days.  This
1432 all allow any user of the micro:bit to get going by simply running
1433 'apt install mu-editor' when using Testing or Unstable, and once
1434 Buster is released as stable, all the users of Debian stable will be
1435 catered for.</p>
1436
1437 <p>As a minor final touch, I added rules to
1438 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/isenkram">the isenkram
1439 package</a> for recognizing micro:bit and recommend the mu-editor
1440 package.  This make sure any user of the isenkram desktop daemon will
1441 get a popup suggesting to install mu-editor then the USB cable from
1442 the micro:bit is inserted for the first time.</p>
1443
1444 <p>This should make it easier to have fun.</p>
1445
1446 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
1447 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
1448 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
1449
1450       </div>
1451       <div class="tags">
1452
1453
1454         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/robot">robot</a>.
1455
1456
1457       </div>
1458     </div>
1459     <div class="padding"></div>
1460
1461     <div class="entry">
1462       <div class="title">
1463         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Learn_to_program_with_Minetest_on_Debian.html">Learn to program with Minetest on Debian</a>
1464       </div>
1465       <div class="date">
1466         15th December 2018
1467       </div>
1468       <div class="body">
1469         <p>A fun way to learn how to program
1470 <a href="https://www.python.org/">Python</a> is to follow the
1471 instructions in the book
1472 "<a href="https://nostarch.com/programwithminecraft">Learn to program
1473 with Minecraft</a>", which introduces programming in Python to people
1474 who like to play with Minecraft.  The book uses a Python library to
1475 talk to a TCP/IP socket with an API accepting build instructions and
1476 providing information about the current players in a Minecraft world.
1477 The TCP/IP API was first created for the Minecraft implementation for
1478 Raspberry Pi, and has since been ported to some server versions of
1479 Minecraft.  The book contain recipes for those using Windows, MacOSX
1480 and Raspian.  But a little known fact is that you can follow the same
1481 recipes using the free software construction game
1482 <a href="https://minetest.net/">Minetest</a>.</p>
1483
1484 <p>There is <a href="https://github.com/sprintingkiwi/pycraft_mod">a
1485 Minetest module implementing the same API</a>, making it possible to
1486 use the Python programs coded to talk to Minecraft with Minetest too.
1487 I
1488 <a href="https://ftp-master.debian.org/new/minetest-mod-pycraft_0.20%2Bgit20180331.0376a0a%2Bdfsg-1.html">uploaded
1489 this module</a> to Debian two weeks ago, and as soon as it clears the
1490 FTP masters NEW queue, learning to program Python with Minetest on
1491 Debian will be a simple 'apt install' away.  The Debian package is
1492 maintained as part of the Debian Games team, and
1493 <a href="https://salsa.debian.org/games-team/unfinished/minetest-mod-pycraft">the
1494 packaging rules</a> are currently located under 'unfinished' on
1495 Salsa.</p>
1496
1497 <p>You will most likely need to install several of the Minetest
1498 modules in Debian for the examples included with the library to work
1499 well, as there are several blocks used by the example scripts that are
1500 provided via modules in Minetest.  Without the required blocks, a
1501 simple stone block is used instead.  My initial testing with a analog
1502 clock did not get gold arms as instructed in the python library, but
1503 instead used stone arms.</p>
1504
1505 <p>I tried to find a way to add the API to the desktop version of
1506 Minecraft, but were unable to find any working recipes.  The
1507 <a href="https://www.epiphanydigest.com/tag/minecraft-python-api/">recipes</a>
1508 I <a href="https://github.com/kbsriram/mcpiapi">found</a> are only
1509 working with a standalone Minecraft server setup.  Are there any
1510 options to use with the normal desktop version?</p>
1511
1512 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
1513 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
1514 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
1515
1516       </div>
1517       <div class="tags">
1518
1519
1520         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
1521
1522
1523       </div>
1524     </div>
1525     <div class="padding"></div>
1526
1527     <div class="entry">
1528       <div class="title">
1529         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Time_for_an_official_MIME_type_for_patches_.html">Time for an official MIME type for patches?</a>
1530       </div>
1531       <div class="date">
1532          1st November 2018
1533       </div>
1534       <div class="body">
1535         <p>As part of my involvement in
1536 <a href="https://gitlab.com/OsloMet-ABI/nikita-noark5-core">the Nikita
1537 archive API project</a>, I've been importing a fairly large lump of
1538 emails into a test instance of the archive to see how well this would
1539 go.  I picked a subset of <a href="https://notmuchmail.org/">my
1540 notmuch email database</a>, all public emails sent to me via
1541 @lists.debian.org, giving me a set of around 216 000 emails to import.
1542 In the process, I had a look at the various attachments included in
1543 these emails, to figure out what to do with attachments, and noticed
1544 that one of the most common attachment formats do not have
1545 <a href="https://www.iana.org/assignments/media-types/media-types.xhtml">an
1546 official MIME type</a> registered with IANA/IETF.  The output from
1547 diff, ie the input for patch, is on the top 10 list of formats
1548 included in these emails.  At the moment people seem to use either
1549 text/x-patch or text/x-diff, but neither is officially registered.  It
1550 would be better if one official MIME type were registered and used
1551 everywhere.</p>
1552
1553 <p>To try to get one official MIME type for these files, I've brought
1554 up the topic on
1555 <a href="https://www.ietf.org/mailman/listinfo/media-types">the
1556 media-types mailing list</a>.  If you are interested in discussion
1557 which MIME type to use as the official for patch files, or involved in
1558 making software using a MIME type for patches, perhaps you would like
1559 to join the discussion?</p>
1560
1561 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
1562 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
1563 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
1564
1565       </div>
1566       <div class="tags">
1567
1568
1569         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/noark5">noark5</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/standard">standard</a>.
1570
1571
1572       </div>
1573     </div>
1574     <div class="padding"></div>
1575
1576     <div class="entry">
1577       <div class="title">
1578         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Automatic_Google_Drive_sync_using_grive_in_Debian.html">Automatic Google Drive sync using grive in Debian</a>
1579       </div>
1580       <div class="date">
1581          4th October 2018
1582       </div>
1583       <div class="body">
1584         <p>A few days, I rescued a Windows victim over to Debian.  To try to
1585 rescue the remains, I helped set up automatic sync with Google Drive.
1586 I did not find any sensible Debian package handling this
1587 automatically, so I rebuild the grive2 source from
1588 <a href="http://www.webupd8.org/">the Ubuntu UPD8 PPA</a> to do the
1589 task and added a autostart desktop entry and a small shell script to
1590 run in the background while the user is logged in to do the sync.
1591 Here is a sketch of the setup for future reference.</p>
1592
1593 <p>I first created <tt>~/googledrive</tt>, entered the directory and
1594 ran '<tt>grive -a</tt>' to authenticate the machine/user.  Next, I
1595 created a autostart hook in <tt>~/.config/autostart/grive.desktop</tt>
1596 to start the sync when the user log in:</p>
1597
1598 <p><blockquote><pre>
1599 [Desktop Entry]
1600 Name=Google drive autosync
1601 Type=Application
1602 Exec=/home/user/bin/grive-sync
1603 </pre></blockquote></p>
1604
1605 <p>Finally, I wrote the <tt>~/bin/grive-sync</tt> script to sync
1606 ~/googledrive/ with the files in Google Drive.</p>
1607
1608 <p><blockquote><pre>
1609 #!/bin/sh
1610 set -e
1611 cd ~/
1612 cleanup() {
1613     if [ "$syncpid" ] ; then
1614         kill $syncpid
1615     fi
1616 }
1617 trap cleanup EXIT INT QUIT
1618 /usr/lib/grive/grive-sync.sh listen googledrive 2>&1 | sed "s%^%$0:%" &
1619 syncpdi=$!
1620 while true; do
1621     if ! xhost >/dev/null 2>&1 ; then
1622         echo "no DISPLAY, exiting as the user probably logged out"
1623         exit 1
1624     fi
1625     if [ ! -e /run/user/1000/grive-sync.sh_googledrive ] ; then
1626         /usr/lib/grive/grive-sync.sh sync googledrive
1627     fi
1628     sleep 300
1629 done 2>&1 | sed "s%^%$0:%"
1630 </pre></blockquote></p>
1631
1632 <p>Feel free to use the setup if you want.  It can be assumed to be
1633 GNU GPL v2 licensed (or any later version, at your leisure), but I
1634 doubt this code is possible to claim copyright on.</p>
1635
1636 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
1637 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
1638 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
1639
1640       </div>
1641       <div class="tags">
1642
1643
1644         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
1645
1646
1647       </div>
1648     </div>
1649     <div class="padding"></div>
1650
1651     <div class="entry">
1652       <div class="title">
1653         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Using_the_Kodi_API_to_play_Youtube_videos.html">Using the Kodi API to play Youtube videos</a>
1654       </div>
1655       <div class="date">
1656          2nd September 2018
1657       </div>
1658       <div class="body">
1659         <p>I continue to explore my Kodi installation, and today I wanted to
1660 tell it to play a youtube URL I received in a chat, without having to
1661 insert search terms using the on-screen keyboard.  After searching the
1662 web for API access to the Youtube plugin and testing a bit, I managed
1663 to find a recipe that worked.  If you got a kodi instance with its API
1664 available from http://kodihost/jsonrpc, you can try the following to
1665 have check out a nice cover band.</p>
1666
1667 <p><blockquote><pre>curl --silent --header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
1668   --data-binary '{ "id": 1, "jsonrpc": "2.0", "method": "Player.Open",
1669   "params": {"item": { "file":
1670   "plugin://plugin.video.youtube/play/?video_id=LuRGVM9O0qg" } } }' \
1671   http://projector.local/jsonrpc</pre></blockquote></p>
1672
1673 <p>I've extended kodi-stream program to take a video source as its
1674 first argument.  It can now handle direct video links, youtube links
1675 and 'desktop' to stream my desktop to Kodi.  It is almost like a
1676 Chromecast. :)</p>
1677
1678 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
1679 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
1680 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
1681
1682       </div>
1683       <div class="tags">
1684
1685
1686         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/kodi">kodi</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/video">video</a>.
1687
1688
1689       </div>
1690     </div>
1691     <div class="padding"></div>
1692
1693     <div class="entry">
1694       <div class="title">
1695         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Sharing_images_with_friends_and_family_using_RSS_and_EXIF_XMP_metadata.html">Sharing images with friends and family using RSS and EXIF/XMP metadata</a>
1696       </div>
1697       <div class="date">
1698         31st July 2018
1699       </div>
1700       <div class="body">
1701         <p>For a while now, I have looked for a sensible way to share images
1702 with my family using a self hosted solution, as it is unacceptable to
1703 place images from my personal life under the control of strangers
1704 working for data hoarders like Google or Dropbox.  The last few days I
1705 have drafted an approach that might work out, and I would like to
1706 share it with you.  I would like to publish images on a server under
1707 my control, and point some Internet connected display units using some
1708 free and open standard to the images I published.  As my primary
1709 language is not limited to ASCII, I need to store metadata using
1710 UTF-8.  Many years ago, I hoped to find a digital photo frame capable
1711 of reading a RSS feed with image references (aka using the
1712 &lt;enclosure&gt; RSS tag), but was unable to find a current supplier
1713 of such frames.  In the end I gave up that approach.</p>
1714
1715 <p>Some months ago, I discovered that
1716 <a href="https://www.jwz.org/xscreensaver/">XScreensaver</a> is able to
1717 read images from a RSS feed, and used it to set up a screen saver on
1718 my home info screen, showing images from the Daily images feed from
1719 NASA.  This proved to work well.  More recently I discovered that
1720 <a href="https://kodi.tv">Kodi</a> (both using
1721 <a href="https://www.openelec.tv/">OpenELEC</a> and
1722 <a href="https://libreelec.tv">LibreELEC</a>) provide the
1723 <a href="https://github.com/grinsted/script.screensaver.feedreader">Feedreader</a>
1724 screen saver capable of reading a RSS feed with images and news.  For
1725 fun, I used it this summer to test Kodi on my parents TV by hooking up
1726 a Raspberry PI unit with LibreELEC, and wanted to provide them with a
1727 screen saver showing selected pictures from my selection.</p>
1728
1729 <p>Armed with motivation and a test photo frame, I set out to generate
1730 a RSS feed for the Kodi instance.  I adjusted my <a
1731 href="https://freedombox.org/">Freedombox</a> instance, created
1732 /var/www/html/privatepictures/, wrote a small Perl script to extract
1733 title and description metadata from the photo files and generate the
1734 RSS file.  I ended up using Perl instead of python, as the
1735 libimage-exiftool-perl Debian package seemed to handle the EXIF/XMP
1736 tags I ended up using, while python3-exif did not.  The relevant EXIF
1737 tags only support ASCII, so I had to find better alternatives.  XMP
1738 seem to have the support I need.</p>
1739
1740 <p>I am a bit unsure which EXIF/XMP tags to use, as I would like to
1741 use tags that can be easily added/updated using normal free software
1742 photo managing software.  I ended up using the tags set using this
1743 exiftool command, as these tags can also be set using digiKam:</p>
1744
1745 <blockquote><pre>
1746 exiftool -headline='The RSS image title' \
1747   -description='The RSS image description.' \
1748   -subject+=for-family photo.jpeg
1749 </pre></blockquote>
1750
1751 <p>I initially tried the "-title" and "keyword" tags, but they were
1752 invisible in digiKam, so I changed to "-headline" and "-subject".  I
1753 use the keyword/subject 'for-family' to flag that the photo should be
1754 shared with my family.  Images with this keyword set are located and
1755 copied into my Freedombox for the RSS generating script to find.</p>
1756
1757 <p>Are there better ways to do this?  Get in touch if you have better
1758 suggestions.</p>
1759
1760 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
1761 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
1762 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
1763
1764       </div>
1765       <div class="tags">
1766
1767
1768         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
1769
1770
1771       </div>
1772     </div>
1773     <div class="padding"></div>
1774
1775     <div class="entry">
1776       <div class="title">
1777         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Simple_streaming_the_Linux_desktop_to_Kodi_using_GStreamer_and_RTP.html">Simple streaming the Linux desktop to Kodi using GStreamer and RTP</a>
1778       </div>
1779       <div class="date">
1780         12th July 2018
1781       </div>
1782       <div class="body">
1783         <p>Last night, I wrote
1784 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Streaming_the_Linux_desktop_to_Kodi_using_VLC_and_RTSP.html">a
1785 recipe to stream a Linux desktop using VLC to a instance of Kodi</a>.
1786 During the day I received valuable feedback, and thanks to the
1787 suggestions I have been able to rewrite the recipe into a much simpler
1788 approach requiring no setup at all.  It is a single script that take
1789 care of it all.</p>
1790
1791 <p>This new script uses GStreamer instead of VLC to capture the
1792 desktop and stream it to Kodi.  This fixed the video quality issue I
1793 saw initially.  It further removes the need to add a m3u file on the
1794 Kodi machine, as it instead connects to
1795 <a href="https://kodi.wiki/view/JSON-RPC_API/v8">the JSON-RPC API in
1796 Kodi</a> and simply ask Kodi to play from the stream created using
1797 GStreamer.  Streaming the desktop to Kodi now become trivial.  Copy
1798 the script below, run it with the DNS name or IP address of the kodi
1799 server to stream to as the only argument, and watch your screen show
1800 up on the Kodi screen.  Note, it depend on multicast on the local
1801 network, so if you need to stream outside the local network, the
1802 script must be modified.  Also note, I have no idea if audio work, as
1803 I only care about the picture part.</p>
1804
1805 <blockquote><pre>
1806 #!/bin/sh
1807 #
1808 # Stream the Linux desktop view to Kodi.  See
1809 # http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Streaming_the_Linux_desktop_to_Kodi_using_VLC_and_RTSP.html
1810 # for backgorund information.
1811
1812 # Make sure the stream is stopped in Kodi and the gstreamer process is
1813 # killed if something go wrong (for example if curl is unable to find the
1814 # kodi server).  Do the same when interrupting this script.
1815 kodicmd() {
1816     host="$1"
1817     cmd="$2"
1818     params="$3"
1819     curl --silent --header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
1820          --data-binary "{ \"id\": 1, \"jsonrpc\": \"2.0\", \"method\": \"$cmd\", \"params\": $params }" \
1821          "http://$host/jsonrpc"
1822 }
1823 cleanup() {
1824     if [ -n "$kodihost" ] ; then
1825         # Stop the playing when we end
1826         playerid=$(kodicmd "$kodihost" Player.GetActivePlayers "{}" |
1827                             jq .result[].playerid)
1828         kodicmd "$kodihost" Player.Stop "{ \"playerid\" : $playerid }" > /dev/null
1829     fi
1830     if [ "$gstpid" ] && kill -0 "$gstpid" >/dev/null 2>&1; then
1831         kill "$gstpid"
1832     fi
1833 }
1834 trap cleanup EXIT INT
1835
1836 if [ -n "$1" ]; then
1837     kodihost=$1
1838     shift
1839 else
1840     kodihost=kodi.local
1841 fi
1842
1843 mcast=239.255.0.1
1844 mcastport=1234
1845 mcastttl=1
1846
1847 pasrc=$(pactl list | grep -A2 'Source #' | grep 'Name: .*\.monitor$' | \
1848   cut -d" " -f2|head -1)
1849 gst-launch-1.0 ximagesrc use-damage=0 ! video/x-raw,framerate=30/1 ! \
1850   videoconvert ! queue2 ! \
1851   x264enc bitrate=8000 speed-preset=superfast tune=zerolatency qp-min=30 \
1852   key-int-max=15 bframes=2 ! video/x-h264,profile=high ! queue2 ! \
1853   mpegtsmux alignment=7 name=mux ! rndbuffersize max=1316 min=1316 ! \
1854   udpsink host=$mcast port=$mcastport ttl-mc=$mcastttl auto-multicast=1 sync=0 \
1855   pulsesrc device=$pasrc ! audioconvert ! queue2 ! avenc_aac ! queue2 ! mux. \
1856   > /dev/null 2>&1 &
1857 gstpid=$!
1858
1859 # Give stream a second to get going
1860 sleep 1
1861
1862 # Ask kodi to start streaming using its JSON-RPC API
1863 kodicmd "$kodihost" Player.Open \
1864         "{\"item\": { \"file\": \"udp://@$mcast:$mcastport\" } }" > /dev/null
1865
1866 # wait for gst to end
1867 wait "$gstpid"
1868 </pre></blockquote>
1869
1870 <p>I hope you find the approach useful.  I know I do.</p>
1871
1872 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
1873 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
1874 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
1875
1876       </div>
1877       <div class="tags">
1878
1879
1880         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/kodi">kodi</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/video">video</a>.
1881
1882
1883       </div>
1884     </div>
1885     <div class="padding"></div>
1886
1887     <div class="entry">
1888       <div class="title">
1889         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Streaming_the_Linux_desktop_to_Kodi_using_VLC_and_RTSP.html">Streaming the Linux desktop to Kodi using VLC and RTSP</a>
1890       </div>
1891       <div class="date">
1892         12th July 2018
1893       </div>
1894       <div class="body">
1895         <p>PS: See
1896 <ahref="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Simple_streaming_the_Linux_desktop_to_Kodi_using_GStreamer_and_RTP.html">the
1897 followup post</a> for a even better approach.</p>
1898
1899 <p>A while back, I was asked by a friend how to stream the desktop to
1900 my projector connected to Kodi.  I sadly had to admit that I had no
1901 idea, as it was a task I never had tried.  Since then, I have been
1902 looking for a way to do so, preferable without much extra software to
1903 install on either side.  Today I found a way that seem to kind of
1904 work.  Not great, but it is a start.</p>
1905
1906 <p>I had a look at several approaches, for example
1907 <a href="https://github.com/mfoetsch/dlna_live_streaming">using uPnP
1908 DLNA as described in 2011</a>, but it required a uPnP server, fuse and
1909 local storage enough to store the stream locally.  This is not going
1910 to work well for me, lacking enough free space, and it would
1911 impossible for my friend to get working.</p>
1912
1913 <p>Next, it occurred to me that perhaps I could use VLC to create a
1914 video stream that Kodi could play.  Preferably using
1915 broadcast/multicast, to avoid having to change any setup on the Kodi
1916 side when starting such stream.  Unfortunately, the only recipe I
1917 could find using multicast used the rtp protocol, and this protocol
1918 seem to not be supported by Kodi.</p>
1919
1920 <p>On the other hand, the rtsp protocol is working!  Unfortunately I
1921 have to specify the IP address of the streaming machine in both the
1922 sending command and the file on the Kodi server.  But it is showing my
1923 desktop, and thus allow us to have a shared look on the big screen at
1924 the programs I work on.</p>
1925
1926 <p>I did not spend much time investigating codeces.  I combined the
1927 rtp and rtsp recipes from
1928 <a href="https://wiki.videolan.org/Documentation:Streaming_HowTo/Command_Line_Examples/">the
1929 VLC Streaming HowTo/Command Line Examples</a>, and was able to get
1930 this working on the desktop/streaming end.</p>
1931
1932 <blockquote><pre>
1933 vlc screen:// --sout \
1934   '#transcode{vcodec=mp4v,acodec=mpga,vb=800,ab=128}:rtp{dst=projector.local,port=1234,sdp=rtsp://192.168.11.4:8080/test.sdp}'
1935 </pre></blockquote>
1936
1937 <p>I ssh-ed into my Kodi box and created a file like this with the
1938 same IP address:</p>
1939
1940 <blockquote><pre>
1941 echo rtsp://192.168.11.4:8080/test.sdp \
1942   > /storage/videos/screenstream.m3u
1943 </pre></blockquote>
1944
1945 <p>Note the 192.168.11.4 IP address is my desktops IP address.  As far
1946 as I can tell the IP must be hardcoded for this to work.  In other
1947 words, if someone elses machine is going to do the steaming, you have
1948 to update screenstream.m3u on the Kodi machine and adjust the vlc
1949 recipe.  To get started, locate the file in Kodi and select the m3u
1950 file while the VLC stream is running.  The desktop then show up in my
1951 big screen. :)</p>
1952
1953 <p>When using the same technique to stream a video file with audio,
1954 the audio quality is really bad.  No idea if the problem is package
1955 loss or bad parameters for the transcode.  I do not know VLC nor Kodi
1956 enough to tell.</p>
1957
1958 <p><strong>Update 2018-07-12</strong>: Johannes Schauer send me a few
1959 succestions and reminded me about an important step.  The "screen:"
1960 input source is only available once the vlc-plugin-access-extra
1961 package is installed on Debian.  Without it, you will see this error
1962 message: "VLC is unable to open the MRL 'screen://'.  Check the log
1963 for details."  He further found that it is possible to drop some parts
1964 of the VLC command line to reduce the amount of hardcoded information.
1965 It is also useful to consider using cvlc to avoid having the VLC
1966 window in the desktop view.  In sum, this give us this command line on
1967 the source end
1968
1969 <blockquote><pre>
1970 cvlc screen:// --sout \
1971   '#transcode{vcodec=mp4v,acodec=mpga,vb=800,ab=128}:rtp{sdp=rtsp://:8080/}'
1972 </pre></blockquote>
1973
1974 <p>and this on the Kodi end<p>
1975
1976 <blockquote><pre>
1977 echo rtsp://192.168.11.4:8080/ \
1978   > /storage/videos/screenstream.m3u
1979 </pre></blockquote>
1980
1981 <p>Still bad image quality, though.  But I did discover that streaming
1982 a DVD using dvdsimple:///dev/dvd as the source had excellent video and
1983 audio quality, so I guess the issue is in the input or transcoding
1984 parts, not the rtsp part.  I've tried to change the vb and ab
1985 parameters to use more bandwidth, but it did not make a
1986 difference.</p>
1987
1988 <p>I further received a suggestion from Einar Haraldseid to try using
1989 gstreamer instead of VLC, and this proved to work great!  He also
1990 provided me with the trick to get Kodi to use a multicast stream as
1991 its source.  By using this monstrous oneliner, I can stream my desktop
1992 with good video quality in reasonable framerate to the 239.255.0.1
1993 multicast address on port 1234:
1994
1995 <blockquote><pre>
1996 gst-launch-1.0 ximagesrc use-damage=0 ! video/x-raw,framerate=30/1 ! \
1997   videoconvert ! queue2 ! \
1998   x264enc bitrate=8000 speed-preset=superfast tune=zerolatency qp-min=30 \
1999   key-int-max=15 bframes=2 ! video/x-h264,profile=high ! queue2 ! \
2000   mpegtsmux alignment=7 name=mux ! rndbuffersize max=1316 min=1316 ! \
2001   udpsink host=239.255.0.1 port=1234 ttl-mc=1 auto-multicast=1 sync=0 \
2002   pulsesrc device=$(pactl list | grep -A2 'Source #' | \
2003     grep 'Name: .*\.monitor$' |  cut -d" " -f2|head -1) ! \
2004   audioconvert ! queue2 ! avenc_aac ! queue2 ! mux.
2005 </pre></blockquote>
2006
2007 <p>and this on the Kodi end<p>
2008
2009 <blockquote><pre>
2010 echo udp://@239.255.0.1:1234 \
2011   > /storage/videos/screenstream.m3u
2012 </pre></blockquote>
2013
2014 <p>Note the trick to pick a valid pulseaudio source.  It might not
2015 pick the one you need.  This approach will of course lead to trouble
2016 if more than one source uses the same multicast port and address.
2017 Note the ttl-mc=1 setting, which limit the multicast packages to the
2018 local network.  If the value is increased, your screen will be
2019 broadcasted further, one network "hop" for each increase (read up on
2020 multicast to learn more. :)!</p>
2021
2022 <p>Having cracked how to get Kodi to receive multicast streams, I
2023 could use this VLC command to stream to the same multicast address.
2024 The image quality is way better than the rtsp approach, but gstreamer
2025 seem to be doing a better job.</p>
2026
2027 <blockquote><pre>
2028 cvlc screen:// --sout '#transcode{vcodec=mp4v,acodec=mpga,vb=800,ab=128}:rtp{mux=ts,dst=239.255.0.1,port=1234,sdp=sap}'
2029 </pre></blockquote>
2030
2031 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
2032 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
2033 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
2034
2035       </div>
2036       <div class="tags">
2037
2038
2039         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/kodi">kodi</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/video">video</a>.
2040
2041
2042       </div>
2043     </div>
2044     <div class="padding"></div>
2045
2046     <div class="entry">
2047       <div class="title">
2048         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/What_is_the_most_supported_MIME_type_in_Debian_in_2018_.html">What is the most supported MIME type in Debian in 2018?</a>
2049       </div>
2050       <div class="date">
2051          9th July 2018
2052       </div>
2053       <div class="body">
2054         <p>Five years ago,
2055 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/What_is_the_most_supported_MIME_type_in_Debian_.html">I
2056 measured what the most supported MIME type in Debian was</a>, by
2057 analysing the desktop files in all packages in the archive.  Since
2058 then, the DEP-11 AppStream system has been put into production, making
2059 the task a lot easier.  This made me want to repeat the measurement,
2060 to see how much things changed.  Here are the new numbers, for
2061 unstable only this time:
2062
2063 <p><strong>Debian Unstable:</strong></p>
2064
2065 <pre>
2066   count MIME type
2067   ----- -----------------------
2068      56 image/jpeg
2069      55 image/png
2070      49 image/tiff
2071      48 image/gif
2072      39 image/bmp
2073      38 text/plain
2074      37 audio/mpeg
2075      34 application/ogg
2076      33 audio/x-flac
2077      32 audio/x-mp3
2078      30 audio/x-wav
2079      30 audio/x-vorbis+ogg
2080      29 image/x-portable-pixmap
2081      27 inode/directory
2082      27 image/x-portable-bitmap
2083      27 audio/x-mpeg
2084      26 application/x-ogg
2085      25 audio/x-mpegurl
2086      25 audio/ogg
2087      24 text/html
2088 </pre>
2089
2090 <p>The list was created like this using a sid chroot: "cat
2091 /var/lib/apt/lists/*sid*_dep11_Components-amd64.yml.gz| zcat | awk '/^
2092 - \S+\/\S+$/ {print $2 }' | sort | uniq -c | sort -nr | head -20"</p>
2093
2094 <p>It is interesting to see how image formats have passed text/plain
2095 as the most announced supported MIME type.  These days, thanks to the
2096 AppStream system, if you run into a file format you do not know, and
2097 want to figure out which packages support the format, you can find the
2098 MIME type of the file using "file --mime &lt;filename&gt;", and then
2099 look up all packages announcing support for this format in their
2100 AppStream metadata (XML or .desktop file) using "appstreamcli
2101 what-provides mimetype &lt;mime-type&gt;.  For example if you, like
2102 me, want to know which packages support inode/directory, you can get a
2103 list like this:</p>
2104
2105 <p><blockquote><pre>
2106 % appstreamcli what-provides mimetype inode/directory | grep Package: | sort
2107 Package: anjuta
2108 Package: audacious
2109 Package: baobab
2110 Package: cervisia
2111 Package: chirp
2112 Package: dolphin
2113 Package: doublecmd-common
2114 Package: easytag
2115 Package: enlightenment
2116 Package: ephoto
2117 Package: filelight
2118 Package: gwenview
2119 Package: k4dirstat
2120 Package: kaffeine
2121 Package: kdesvn
2122 Package: kid3
2123 Package: kid3-qt
2124 Package: nautilus
2125 Package: nemo
2126 Package: pcmanfm
2127 Package: pcmanfm-qt
2128 Package: qweborf
2129 Package: ranger
2130 Package: sirikali
2131 Package: spacefm
2132 Package: spacefm
2133 Package: vifm
2134 %
2135 </pre></blockquote></p>
2136
2137 <p>Using the same method, I can quickly discover that the Sketchup file
2138 format is not yet supported by any package in Debian:</p>
2139
2140 <p><blockquote><pre>
2141 % appstreamcli what-provides mimetype  application/vnd.sketchup.skp
2142 Could not find component providing 'mimetype::application/vnd.sketchup.skp'.
2143 %
2144 </pre></blockquote></p>
2145
2146 <p>Yesterday I used it to figure out which packages support the STL 3D
2147 format:</p>
2148
2149 <p><blockquote><pre>
2150 % appstreamcli what-provides mimetype  application/sla|grep Package
2151 Package: cura
2152 Package: meshlab
2153 Package: printrun
2154 %
2155 </pre></blockquote></p>
2156
2157 <p>PS: A new version of Cura was uploaded to Debian yesterday.</p>
2158
2159 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
2160 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
2161 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
2162
2163       </div>
2164       <div class="tags">
2165
2166
2167         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram">isenkram</a>.
2168
2169
2170       </div>
2171     </div>
2172     <div class="padding"></div>
2173
2174     <div class="entry">
2175       <div class="title">
2176         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_APT_upgrade_without_enough_free_space_on_the_disk___.html">Debian APT upgrade without enough free space on the disk...</a>
2177       </div>
2178       <div class="date">
2179          8th July 2018
2180       </div>
2181       <div class="body">
2182         <p>Quite regularly, I let my Debian Sid/Unstable chroot stay untouch
2183 for a while, and when I need to update it there is not enough free
2184 space on the disk for apt to do a normal 'apt upgrade'.  I normally
2185 would resolve the issue by doing 'apt install &lt;somepackages&gt;' to
2186 upgrade only some of the packages in one batch, until the amount of
2187 packages to download fall below the amount of free space available.
2188 Today, I had about 500 packages to upgrade, and after a while I got
2189 tired of trying to install chunks of packages manually.  I concluded
2190 that I did not have the spare hours required to complete the task, and
2191 decided to see if I could automate it.  I came up with this small
2192 script which I call 'apt-in-chunks':</p>
2193
2194 <p><blockquote><pre>
2195 #!/bin/sh
2196 #
2197 # Upgrade packages when the disk is too full to upgrade every
2198 # upgradable package in one lump.  Fetching packages to upgrade using
2199 # apt, and then installing using dpkg, to avoid changing the package
2200 # flag for manual/automatic.
2201
2202 set -e
2203
2204 ignore() {
2205     if [ "$1" ]; then
2206         grep -v "$1"
2207     else
2208         cat
2209     fi
2210 }
2211
2212 for p in $(apt list --upgradable | ignore "$@" |cut -d/ -f1 | grep -v '^Listing...'); do
2213     echo "Upgrading $p"
2214     apt clean
2215     apt install --download-only -y $p
2216     for f in /var/cache/apt/archives/*.deb; do
2217         if [ -e "$f" ]; then
2218             dpkg -i /var/cache/apt/archives/*.deb
2219             break
2220         fi
2221     done
2222 done
2223 </pre></blockquote></p>
2224
2225 <p>The script will extract the list of packages to upgrade, try to
2226 download the packages needed to upgrade one package, install the
2227 downloaded packages using dpkg.  The idea is to upgrade packages
2228 without changing the APT mark for the package (ie the one recording of
2229 the package was manually requested or pulled in as a dependency).  To
2230 use it, simply run it as root from the command line.  If it fail, try
2231 'apt install -f' to clean up the mess and run the script again.  This
2232 might happen if the new packages conflict with one of the old
2233 packages.  dpkg is unable to remove, while apt can do this.</p>
2234
2235 <p>It take one option, a package to ignore in the list of packages to
2236 upgrade.  The option to ignore a package is there to be able to skip
2237 the packages that are simply too large to unpack.  Today this was
2238 'ghc', but I have run into other large packages causing similar
2239 problems earlier (like TeX).</p>
2240
2241 <p>Update 2018-07-08: Thanks to Paul Wise, I am aware of two
2242 alternative ways to handle this.  The "unattended-upgrades
2243 --minimal-upgrade-steps" option will try to calculate upgrade sets for
2244 each package to upgrade, and then upgrade them in order, smallest set
2245 first.  It might be a better option than my above mentioned script.
2246 Also, "aptutude upgrade" can upgrade single packages, thus avoiding
2247 the need for using "dpkg -i" in the script above.</p>
2248
2249 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
2250 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
2251 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
2252
2253       </div>
2254       <div class="tags">
2255
2256
2257         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
2258
2259
2260       </div>
2261     </div>
2262     <div class="padding"></div>
2263
2264     <div class="entry">
2265       <div class="title">
2266         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Version_3_1_of_Cura__the_3D_print_slicer__is_now_in_Debian.html">Version 3.1 of Cura, the 3D print slicer, is now in Debian</a>
2267       </div>
2268       <div class="date">
2269         13th February 2018
2270       </div>
2271       <div class="body">
2272         <p>A new version of the
2273 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/cura">3D printer slicer
2274 software Cura</a>, version 3.1.0, is now available in Debian Testing
2275 (aka Buster) and Debian Unstable (aka Sid).  I hope you find it
2276 useful.  It was uploaded the last few days, and the last update will
2277 enter testing tomorrow.  See the
2278 <a href="https://ultimaker.com/en/products/cura-software/release-notes">release
2279 notes</a> for the list of bug fixes and new features.  Version 3.2
2280 was announced 6 days ago.  We will try to get it into Debian as
2281 well.</p>
2282
2283 <p>More information related to 3D printing is available on the
2284 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/3DPrinting">3D printing</a> and
2285 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/3D-printer">3D printer</a> wiki pages
2286 in Debian.</p>
2287
2288 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
2289 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
2290 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
2291
2292       </div>
2293       <div class="tags">
2294
2295
2296         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/3d-printer">3d-printer</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
2297
2298
2299       </div>
2300     </div>
2301     <div class="padding"></div>
2302
2303     <div class="entry">
2304       <div class="title">
2305         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Cura__the_nice_3D_print_slicer__is_now_in_Debian_Unstable.html">Cura, the nice 3D print slicer, is now in Debian Unstable</a>
2306       </div>
2307       <div class="date">
2308         17th December 2017
2309       </div>
2310       <div class="body">
2311         <p>After several months of working and waiting, I am happy to report
2312 that the nice and user friendly 3D printer slicer software Cura just
2313 entered Debian Unstable.  It consist of five packages,
2314 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/cura">cura</a>,
2315 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/cura-engine">cura-engine</a>,
2316 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/libarcus">libarcus</a>,
2317 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/fdm-materials">fdm-materials</a>,
2318 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/libsavitar">libsavitar</a> and
2319 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/uranium">uranium</a>.  The last
2320 two, uranium and cura, entered Unstable yesterday.  This should make
2321 it easier for Debian users to print on at least the Ultimaker class of
2322 3D printers.  My nearest 3D printer is an Ultimaker 2+, so it will
2323 make life easier for at least me. :)</p>
2324
2325 <p>The work to make this happen was done by Gregor Riepl, and I was
2326 happy to assist him in sponsoring the packages.  With the introduction
2327 of Cura, Debian is up to three 3D printer slicers at your service,
2328 Cura, Slic3r and Slic3r Prusa.  If you own or have access to a 3D
2329 printer, give it a go. :)</p>
2330
2331 <p>The 3D printer software is maintained by the 3D printer Debian
2332 team, flocking together on the
2333 <a href="http://lists.alioth.debian.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/3dprinter-general">3dprinter-general</a>
2334 mailing list and the
2335 <a href="irc://irc.debian.org/#debian-3dprinting">#debian-3dprinting</a>
2336 IRC channel.</p>
2337
2338 <p>The next step for Cura in Debian is to update the cura package to
2339 version 3.0.3 and then update the entire set of packages to version
2340 3.1.0 which showed up the last few days.</p>
2341
2342       </div>
2343       <div class="tags">
2344
2345
2346         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/3d-printer">3d-printer</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
2347
2348
2349       </div>
2350     </div>
2351     <div class="padding"></div>
2352
2353     <div class="entry">
2354       <div class="title">
2355         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Generating_3D_prints_in_Debian_using_Cura_and_Slic3r__prusa_.html">Generating 3D prints in Debian using Cura and Slic3r(-prusa)</a>
2356       </div>
2357       <div class="date">
2358          9th October 2017
2359       </div>
2360       <div class="body">
2361         <p>At my nearby maker space,
2362 <a href="http://sonen.ifi.uio.no/">Sonen</a>, I heard the story that it
2363 was easier to generate gcode files for theyr 3D printers (Ultimake 2+)
2364 on Windows and MacOS X than Linux, because the software involved had
2365 to be manually compiled and set up on Linux while premade packages
2366 worked out of the box on Windows and MacOS X.  I found this annoying,
2367 as the software involved,
2368 <a href="https://github.com/Ultimaker/Cura">Cura</a>, is free software
2369 and should be trivial to get up and running on Linux if someone took
2370 the time to package it for the relevant distributions.  I even found
2371 <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/706656">a request for adding into
2372 Debian</a> from 2013, which had seem some activity over the years but
2373 never resulted in the software showing up in Debian.  So a few days
2374 ago I offered my help to try to improve the situation.</p>
2375
2376 <p>Now I am very happy to see that all the packages required by a
2377 working Cura in Debian are uploaded into Debian and waiting in the NEW
2378 queue for the ftpmasters to have a look.  You can track the progress
2379 on
2380 <a href="https://qa.debian.org/developer.php?email=3dprinter-general%40lists.alioth.debian.org">the
2381 status page for the 3D printer team</a>.</p>
2382
2383 <p>The uploaded packages are a bit behind upstream, and was uploaded
2384 now to get slots in <a href="https://ftp-master.debian.org/new.html">the NEW
2385 queue</a> while we work up updating the packages to the latest
2386 upstream version.</p>
2387
2388 <p>On a related note, two competitors for Cura, which I found harder
2389 to use and was unable to configure correctly for Ultimaker 2+ in the
2390 short time I spent on it, are already in Debian.  If you are looking
2391 for 3D printer "slicers" and want something already available in
2392 Debian, check out
2393 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/slic3r">slic3r</a> and
2394 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/slic3r-prusa">slic3r-prusa</a>.
2395 The latter is a fork of the former.</p>
2396
2397 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
2398 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
2399 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
2400
2401       </div>
2402       <div class="tags">
2403
2404
2405         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/3d-printer">3d-printer</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
2406
2407
2408       </div>
2409     </div>
2410     <div class="padding"></div>
2411
2412     <div class="entry">
2413       <div class="title">
2414         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Visualizing_GSM_radio_chatter_using_gr_gsm_and_Hopglass.html">Visualizing GSM radio chatter using gr-gsm and Hopglass</a>
2415       </div>
2416       <div class="date">
2417         29th September 2017
2418       </div>
2419       <div class="body">
2420         <p>Every mobile phone announce its existence over radio to the nearby
2421 mobile cell towers.  And this radio chatter is available for anyone
2422 with a radio receiver capable of receiving them.  Details about the
2423 mobile phones with very good accuracy is of course collected by the
2424 phone companies, but this is not the topic of this blog post.  The
2425 mobile phone radio chatter make it possible to figure out when a cell
2426 phone is nearby, as it include the SIM card ID (IMSI).  By paying
2427 attention over time, one can see when a phone arrive and when it leave
2428 an area.  I believe it would be nice to make this information more
2429 available to the general public, to make more people aware of how
2430 their phones are announcing their whereabouts to anyone that care to
2431 listen.</p>
2432
2433 <p>I am very happy to report that we managed to get something
2434 visualizing this information up and running for
2435 <a href="http://norwaymakers.org/osf17">Oslo Skaperfestival 2017</a>
2436 (Oslo Makers Festival) taking place today and tomorrow at Deichmanske
2437 library.  The solution is based on the
2438 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Easier_recipe_to_observe_the_cell_phones_around_you.html">simple
2439 recipe for listening to GSM chatter</a> I posted a few days ago, and
2440 will show up at the stand of <a href="http://sonen.ifi.uio.no/">Åpen
2441 Sone from the Computer Science department of the University of
2442 Oslo</a>.  The presentation will show the nearby mobile phones (aka
2443 IMSIs) as dots in a web browser graph, with lines to the dot
2444 representing mobile base station it is talking to. It was working in
2445 the lab yesterday, and was moved into place this morning.</p>
2446
2447 <p>We set up a fairly powerful desktop machine using Debian
2448 Buster/Testing with several (five, I believe) RTL2838 DVB-T receivers
2449 connected and visualize the visible cell phone towers using an
2450 <a href="https://github.com/marlow925/hopglass">English version of
2451 Hopglass</a>.  A fairly powerfull machine is needed as the
2452 grgsm_livemon_headless processes from
2453 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/gr-gsm">gr-gsm</a> converting
2454 the radio signal to data packages is quite CPU intensive.</p>
2455
2456 <p>The frequencies to listen to, are identified using a slightly
2457 patched scan-and-livemon (to set the --args values for each receiver),
2458 and the Hopglass data is generated using the
2459 <a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/IMSI-catcher/tree/meshviewer-output">patches
2460 in my meshviewer-output branch</a>.  For some reason we could not get
2461 more than four SDRs working.  There is also a geographical map trying
2462 to show the location of the base stations, but I believe their
2463 coordinates are hardcoded to some random location in Germany, I
2464 believe.  The code should be replaced with code to look up location in
2465 a text file, a sqlite database or one of the online databases
2466 mentioned in
2467 <a href="https://github.com/Oros42/IMSI-catcher/issues/14">the github
2468 issue for the topic</a>.
2469
2470 <p>If this sound interesting, visit the stand at the festival!</p>
2471
2472       </div>
2473       <div class="tags">
2474
2475
2476         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/personvern">personvern</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance</a>.
2477
2478
2479       </div>
2480     </div>
2481     <div class="padding"></div>
2482
2483     <div class="entry">
2484       <div class="title">
2485         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Easier_recipe_to_observe_the_cell_phones_around_you.html">Easier recipe to observe the cell phones around you</a>
2486       </div>
2487       <div class="date">
2488         24th September 2017
2489       </div>
2490       <div class="body">
2491         <p>A little more than a month ago I wrote
2492 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Simpler_recipe_on_how_to_make_a_simple__7_IMSI_Catcher_using_Debian.html">how
2493 to observe the SIM card ID (aka IMSI number) of mobile phones talking
2494 to nearby mobile phone base stations using Debian GNU/Linux and a
2495 cheap USB software defined radio</a>, and thus being able to pinpoint
2496 the location of people and equipment (like cars and trains) with an
2497 accuracy of a few kilometer.  Since then we have worked to make the
2498 procedure even simpler, and it is now possible to do this without any
2499 manual frequency tuning and without building your own packages.</p>
2500
2501 <p>The <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/gr-gsm">gr-gsm</a>
2502 package is now included in Debian testing and unstable, and the
2503 IMSI-catcher code no longer require root access to fetch and decode
2504 the GSM data collected using gr-gsm.</p>
2505
2506 <p>Here is an updated recipe, using packages built by Debian and a git
2507 clone of two python scripts:</p>
2508
2509 <ol>
2510
2511 <li>Start with a Debian machine running the Buster version (aka
2512   testing).</li>
2513
2514 <li>Run '<tt>apt install gr-gsm python-numpy python-scipy
2515   python-scapy</tt>' as root to install required packages.</li>
2516
2517 <li>Fetch the code decoding GSM packages using '<tt>git clone
2518   github.com/Oros42/IMSI-catcher.git</tt>'.</li>
2519
2520 <li>Insert USB software defined radio supported by GNU Radio.</li>
2521
2522 <li>Enter the IMSI-catcher directory and run '<tt>python
2523   scan-and-livemon</tt>' to locate the frequency of nearby base
2524   stations and start listening for GSM packages on one of them.</li>
2525
2526 <li>Enter the IMSI-catcher directory and run '<tt>python
2527   simple_IMSI-catcher.py</tt>' to display the collected information.</li>
2528
2529 </ol>
2530
2531 <p>Note, due to a bug somewhere the scan-and-livemon program (actually
2532 <a href="https://github.com/ptrkrysik/gr-gsm/issues/336">its underlying
2533 program grgsm_scanner</a>) do not work with the HackRF radio.  It does
2534 work with RTL 8232 and other similar USB radio receivers you can get
2535 very cheaply
2536 (<a href="https://www.ebay.com/sch/items/?_nkw=rtl+2832">for example
2537 from ebay</a>), so for now the solution is to scan using the RTL radio
2538 and only use HackRF for fetching GSM data.</p>
2539
2540 <p>As far as I can tell, a cell phone only show up on one of the
2541 frequencies at the time, so if you are going to track and count every
2542 cell phone around you, you need to listen to all the frequencies used.
2543 To listen to several frequencies, use the --numrecv argument to
2544 scan-and-livemon to use several receivers.  Further, I am not sure if
2545 phones using 3G or 4G will show as talking GSM to base stations, so
2546 this approach might not see all phones around you.  I typically see
2547 0-400 IMSI numbers an hour when looking around where I live.</p>
2548
2549 <p>I've tried to run the scanner on a
2550 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/RaspberryPi">Raspberry Pi 2 and 3
2551 running Debian Buster</a>, but the grgsm_livemon_headless process seem
2552 to be too CPU intensive to keep up.  When GNU Radio print 'O' to
2553 stdout, I am told there it is caused by a buffer overflow between the
2554 radio and GNU Radio, caused by the program being unable to read the
2555 GSM data fast enough.  If you see a stream of 'O's from the terminal
2556 where you started scan-and-livemon, you need a give the process more
2557 CPU power.  Perhaps someone are able to optimize the code to a point
2558 where it become possible to set up RPi3 based GSM sniffers?  I tried
2559 using Raspbian instead of Debian, but there seem to be something wrong
2560 with GNU Radio on raspbian, causing glibc to abort().</p>
2561
2562       </div>
2563       <div class="tags">
2564
2565
2566         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/personvern">personvern</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance</a>.
2567
2568
2569       </div>
2570     </div>
2571     <div class="padding"></div>
2572
2573     <div class="entry">
2574       <div class="title">
2575         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Simpler_recipe_on_how_to_make_a_simple__7_IMSI_Catcher_using_Debian.html">Simpler recipe on how to make a simple $7 IMSI Catcher using Debian</a>
2576       </div>
2577       <div class="date">
2578          9th August 2017
2579       </div>
2580       <div class="body">
2581         <p>On friday, I came across an interesting article in the Norwegian
2582 web based ICT news magazine digi.no on
2583 <a href="https://www.digi.no/artikler/sikkerhetsforsker-lagde-enkel-imsi-catcher-for-60-kroner-na-kan-mobiler-kartlegges-av-alle/398588">how
2584 to collect the IMSI numbers of nearby cell phones</a> using the cheap
2585 DVB-T software defined radios.  The article refered to instructions
2586 and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UjwgNd_as30">a recipe by
2587 Keld Norman on Youtube on how to make a simple $7 IMSI Catcher</a>, and I decided to test them out.</p>
2588
2589 <p>The instructions said to use Ubuntu, install pip using apt (to
2590 bypass apt), use pip to install pybombs (to bypass both apt and pip),
2591 and the ask pybombs to fetch and build everything you need from
2592 scratch.  I wanted to see if I could do the same on the most recent
2593 Debian packages, but this did not work because pybombs tried to build
2594 stuff that no longer build with the most recent openssl library or
2595 some other version skew problem.  While trying to get this recipe
2596 working, I learned that the apt->pip->pybombs route was a long detour,
2597 and the only piece of software dependency missing in Debian was the
2598 gr-gsm package.  I also found out that the lead upstream developer of
2599 gr-gsm (the name stand for GNU Radio GSM) project already had a set of
2600 Debian packages provided in an Ubuntu PPA repository.  All I needed to
2601 do was to dget the Debian source package and built it.</p>
2602
2603 <p>The IMSI collector is a python script listening for packages on the
2604 loopback network device and printing to the terminal some specific GSM
2605 packages with IMSI numbers in them.  The code is fairly short and easy
2606 to understand.  The reason this work is because gr-gsm include a tool
2607 to read GSM data from a software defined radio like a DVB-T USB stick
2608 and other software defined radios, decode them and inject them into a
2609 network device on your Linux machine (using the loopback device by
2610 default).  This proved to work just fine, and I've been testing the
2611 collector for a few days now.</p>
2612
2613 <p>The updated and simpler recipe is thus to</p>
2614
2615 <ol>
2616
2617 <li>start with a Debian machine running Stretch or newer,</li>
2618
2619 <li>build and install the gr-gsm package available from
2620 <a href="http://ppa.launchpad.net/ptrkrysik/gr-gsm/ubuntu/pool/main/g/gr-gsm/">http://ppa.launchpad.net/ptrkrysik/gr-gsm/ubuntu/pool/main/g/gr-gsm/</a>,</li>
2621
2622 <li>clone the git repostory from <a href="https://github.com/Oros42/IMSI-catcher">https://github.com/Oros42/IMSI-catcher</a>,</li>
2623
2624 <li>run grgsm_livemon and adjust the frequency until the terminal
2625 where it was started is filled with a stream of text (meaning you
2626 found a GSM station).</li>
2627
2628 <li>go into the IMSI-catcher directory and run 'sudo python simple_IMSI-catcher.py' to extract the IMSI numbers.</li>
2629
2630 </ol>
2631
2632 <p>To make it even easier in the future to get this sniffer up and
2633 running, I decided to package
2634 <a href="https://github.com/ptrkrysik/gr-gsm/">the gr-gsm project</a>
2635 for Debian (<a href="https://bugs.debian.org/871055">WNPP
2636 #871055</a>), and the package was uploaded into the NEW queue today.
2637 Luckily the gnuradio maintainer has promised to help me, as I do not
2638 know much about gnuradio stuff yet.</p>
2639
2640 <p>I doubt this "IMSI cacher" is anywhere near as powerfull as
2641 commercial tools like
2642 <a href="https://www.thespyphone.com/portable-imsi-imei-catcher/">The
2643 Spy Phone Portable IMSI / IMEI Catcher</a> or the
2644 <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stingray_phone_tracker">Harris
2645 Stingray</a>, but I hope the existance of cheap alternatives can make
2646 more people realise how their whereabouts when carrying a cell phone
2647 is easily tracked.  Seeing the data flow on the screen, realizing that
2648 I live close to a police station and knowing that the police is also
2649 wearing cell phones, I wonder how hard it would be for criminals to
2650 track the position of the police officers to discover when there are
2651 police near by, or for foreign military forces to track the location
2652 of the Norwegian military forces, or for anyone to track the location
2653 of government officials...</p>
2654
2655 <p>It is worth noting that the data reported by the IMSI-catcher
2656 script mentioned above is only a fraction of the data broadcasted on
2657 the GSM network.  It will only collect one frequency at the time,
2658 while a typical phone will be using several frequencies, and not all
2659 phones will be using the frequencies tracked by the grgsm_livemod
2660 program.  Also, there is a lot of radio chatter being ignored by the
2661 simple_IMSI-catcher script, which would be collected by extending the
2662 parser code.  I wonder if gr-gsm can be set up to listen to more than
2663 one frequency?</p>
2664
2665       </div>
2666       <div class="tags">
2667
2668
2669         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/personvern">personvern</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance</a>.
2670
2671
2672       </div>
2673     </div>
2674     <div class="padding"></div>
2675
2676     <div class="entry">
2677       <div class="title">
2678         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Norwegian_Bokm_l_edition_of_Debian_Administrator_s_Handbook_is_now_available.html">Norwegian Bokmål edition of Debian Administrator's Handbook is now available</a>
2679       </div>
2680       <div class="date">
2681         25th July 2017
2682       </div>
2683       <div class="body">
2684         <p align="center"><img align="center" src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2017-07-25-debian-handbook-nb-testprint.png"/></p>
2685
2686 <p>I finally received a copy of the Norwegian Bokmål edition of
2687 "<a href="https://debian-handbook.info/">The Debian Administrator's
2688 Handbook</a>".  This test copy arrived in the mail a few days ago, and
2689 I am very happy to hold the result in my hand.   We spent around one and a half year translating it. This paperbook edition
2690 <a href="https://debian-handbook.info/get/#norwegian">is available
2691 from lulu.com</a>.  If you buy it quickly, you save 25% on the list
2692 price.  The book is also available for download in electronic form as
2693 PDF, EPUB and Mobipocket, as can be
2694 <a href="https://debian-handbook.info/browse/nb-NO/stable/">read online
2695 as a web page</a>.</p>
2696
2697 <p>This is the second book I publish (the first was the book
2698 "<a href="http://free-culture.cc/">Free Culture</a>" by Lawrence Lessig
2699 in
2700 <a href="http://www.lulu.com/shop/lawrence-lessig/free-culture/paperback/product-22440520.html">English</a>,
2701 <a href="http://www.lulu.com/shop/lawrence-lessig/culture-libre/paperback/product-22645082.html">French</a>
2702 and
2703 <a href="http://www.lulu.com/shop/lawrence-lessig/fri-kultur/paperback/product-22441576.html">Norwegian
2704 Bokmål</a>), and I am very excited to finally wrap up this
2705 project.  I hope
2706 "<a href="http://www.lulu.com/shop/rapha%C3%ABl-hertzog-and-roland-mas/h%C3%A5ndbok-for-debian-administratoren/paperback/product-23262290.html">Håndbok
2707 for Debian-administratoren</a>" will be well received.</p>
2708
2709       </div>
2710       <div class="tags">
2711
2712
2713         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian-handbook">debian-handbook</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
2714
2715
2716       </div>
2717     </div>
2718     <div class="padding"></div>
2719
2720     <div class="entry">
2721       <div class="title">
2722         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/N_r_nynorskoversettelsen_svikter_til_eksamen___.html">Når nynorskoversettelsen svikter til eksamen...</a>
2723       </div>
2724       <div class="date">
2725          3rd June 2017
2726       </div>
2727       <div class="body">
2728         <p><a href="http://www.aftenposten.no/norge/Krever-at-elever-ma-fa-annullert-eksamen-etter-rot-med-oppgavetekster-622459b.html">Aftenposten
2729 melder i dag</a> om feil i eksamensoppgavene for eksamen i politikk og
2730 menneskerettigheter, der teksten i bokmåls og nynorskutgaven ikke var
2731 like.  Oppgaveteksten er gjengitt i artikkelen, og jeg ble nysgjerring
2732 på om den fri oversetterløsningen
2733 <a href="https://www.apertium.org/">Apertium</a> ville gjort en bedre
2734 jobb enn Utdanningsdirektoratet.  Det kan se slik ut.</p>
2735
2736 <p>Her er bokmålsoppgaven fra eksamenen:</p>
2737
2738 <blockquote>
2739 <p>Drøft utfordringene knyttet til nasjonalstatenes og andre aktørers
2740 rolle og muligheter til å håndtere internasjonale utfordringer, som
2741 for eksempel flykningekrisen.</p>
2742
2743 <p>Vedlegge er eksempler på tekster som kan gi relevante perspektiver
2744 på temaet:</p>
2745 <ol>
2746 <li>Flykningeregnskapet 2016, UNHCR og IDMC
2747 <li>«Grenseløst Europa for fall» A-Magasinet, 26. november 2015
2748 </ol>
2749
2750 </blockquote>
2751
2752 <p>Dette oversetter Apertium slik:</p>
2753
2754 <blockquote>
2755 <p>Drøft utfordringane knytte til nasjonalstatane sine og rolla til
2756 andre aktørar og høve til å handtera internasjonale utfordringar, som
2757 til dømes *flykningekrisen.</p>
2758
2759 <p>Vedleggja er døme på tekster som kan gje relevante perspektiv på
2760 temaet:</p>
2761
2762 <ol>
2763 <li>*Flykningeregnskapet 2016, *UNHCR og *IDMC</li>
2764 <li>«*Grenseløst Europa for fall» A-Magasinet, 26. november 2015</li>
2765 </ol>
2766
2767 </blockquote>
2768
2769 <p>Ord som ikke ble forstått er markert med stjerne (*), og trenger
2770 ekstra språksjekk.  Men ingen ord er forsvunnet, slik det var i
2771 oppgaven elevene fikk presentert på eksamen.  Jeg mistenker dog at
2772 "andre aktørers rolle og muligheter til ..." burde vært oversatt til
2773 "rolla til andre aktørar og deira høve til ..." eller noe slikt, men
2774 det er kanskje flisespikking.  Det understreker vel bare at det alltid
2775 trengs korrekturlesning etter automatisk oversettelse.</p>
2776
2777       </div>
2778       <div class="tags">
2779
2780
2781         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/norsk">norsk</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/stavekontroll">stavekontroll</a>.
2782
2783
2784       </div>
2785     </div>
2786     <div class="padding"></div>
2787
2788     <div class="entry">
2789       <div class="title">
2790         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Detecting_NFS_hangs_on_Linux_without_hanging_yourself___.html">Detecting NFS hangs on Linux without hanging yourself...</a>
2791       </div>
2792       <div class="date">
2793          9th March 2017
2794       </div>
2795       <div class="body">
2796         <p>Over the years, administrating thousand of NFS mounting linux
2797 computers at the time, I often needed a way to detect if the machine
2798 was experiencing NFS hang.  If you try to use <tt>df</tt> or look at a
2799 file or directory affected by the hang, the process (and possibly the
2800 shell) will hang too.  So you want to be able to detect this without
2801 risking the detection process getting stuck too.  It has not been
2802 obvious how to do this.  When the hang has lasted a while, it is
2803 possible to find messages like these in dmesg:</p>
2804
2805 <p><blockquote>
2806 nfs: server nfsserver not responding, still trying
2807 <br>nfs: server nfsserver OK
2808 </blockquote></p>
2809
2810 <p>It is hard to know if the hang is still going on, and it is hard to
2811 be sure looking in dmesg is going to work.  If there are lots of other
2812 messages in dmesg the lines might have rotated out of site before they
2813 are noticed.</p>
2814
2815 <p>While reading through the nfs client implementation in linux kernel
2816 code, I came across some statistics that seem to give a way to detect
2817 it.  The om_timeouts sunrpc value in the kernel will increase every
2818 time the above log entry is inserted into dmesg.  And after digging a
2819 bit further, I discovered that this value show up in
2820 /proc/self/mountstats on Linux.</p>
2821
2822 <p>The mountstats content seem to be shared between files using the
2823 same file system context, so it is enough to check one of the
2824 mountstats files to get the state of the mount point for the machine.
2825 I assume this will not show lazy umounted NFS points, nor NFS mount
2826 points in a different process context (ie with a different filesystem
2827 view), but that does not worry me.</p>
2828
2829 <p>The content for a NFS mount point look similar to this:</p>
2830
2831 <p><blockquote><pre>
2832 [...]
2833 device /dev/mapper/Debian-var mounted on /var with fstype ext3
2834 device nfsserver:/mnt/nfsserver/home0 mounted on /mnt/nfsserver/home0 with fstype nfs statvers=1.1
2835         opts:   rw,vers=3,rsize=65536,wsize=65536,namlen=255,acregmin=3,acregmax=60,acdirmin=30,acdirmax=60,soft,nolock,proto=tcp,timeo=600,retrans=2,sec=sys,mountaddr=129.240.3.145,mountvers=3,mountport=4048,mountproto=udp,local_lock=all
2836         age:    7863311
2837         caps:   caps=0x3fe7,wtmult=4096,dtsize=8192,bsize=0,namlen=255
2838         sec:    flavor=1,pseudoflavor=1
2839         events: 61063112 732346265 1028140 35486205 16220064 8162542 761447191 71714012 37189 3891185 45561809 110486139 4850138 420353 15449177 296502 52736725 13523379 0 52182 9016896 1231 0 0 0 0 0
2840         bytes:  166253035039 219519120027 0 0 40783504807 185466229638 11677877 45561809
2841         RPC iostats version: 1.0  p/v: 100003/3 (nfs)
2842         xprt:   tcp 925 1 6810 0 0 111505412 111480497 109 2672418560317 0 248 53869103 22481820
2843         per-op statistics
2844                 NULL: 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
2845              GETATTR: 61063106 61063108 0 9621383060 6839064400 453650 77291321 78926132
2846              SETATTR: 463469 463470 0 92005440 66739536 63787 603235 687943
2847               LOOKUP: 17021657 17021657 0 3354097764 4013442928 57216 35125459 35566511
2848               ACCESS: 14281703 14290009 5 2318400592 1713803640 1709282 4865144 7130140
2849             READLINK: 125 125 0 20472 18620 0 1112 1118
2850                 READ: 4214236 4214237 0 715608524 41328653212 89884 22622768 22806693
2851                WRITE: 8479010 8494376 22 187695798568 1356087148 178264904 51506907 231671771
2852               CREATE: 171708 171708 0 38084748 46702272 873 1041833 1050398
2853                MKDIR: 3680 3680 0 773980 993920 26 23990 24245
2854              SYMLINK: 903 903 0 233428 245488 6 5865 5917
2855                MKNOD: 80 80 0 20148 21760 0 299 304
2856               REMOVE: 429921 429921 0 79796004 61908192 3313 2710416 2741636
2857                RMDIR: 3367 3367 0 645112 484848 22 5782 6002
2858               RENAME: 466201 466201 0 130026184 121212260 7075 5935207 5961288
2859                 LINK: 289155 289155 0 72775556 67083960 2199 2565060 2585579
2860              READDIR: 2933237 2933237 0 516506204 13973833412 10385 3190199 3297917
2861          READDIRPLUS: 1652839 1652839 0 298640972 6895997744 84735 14307895 14448937
2862               FSSTAT: 6144 6144 0 1010516 1032192 51 9654 10022
2863               FSINFO: 2 2 0 232 328 0 1 1
2864             PATHCONF: 1 1 0 116 140 0 0 0
2865               COMMIT: 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
2866
2867 device binfmt_misc mounted on /proc/sys/fs/binfmt_misc with fstype binfmt_misc
2868 [...]
2869 </pre></blockquote></p>
2870
2871 <p>The key number to look at is the third number in the per-op list.
2872 It is the number of NFS timeouts experiences per file system
2873 operation.  Here 22 write timeouts and 5 access timeouts.  If these
2874 numbers are increasing, I believe the machine is experiencing NFS
2875 hang.  Unfortunately the timeout value do not start to increase right
2876 away.  The NFS operations need to time out first, and this can take a
2877 while.  The exact timeout value depend on the setup.  For example the
2878 defaults for TCP and UDP mount points are quite different, and the
2879 timeout value is affected by the soft, hard, timeo and retrans NFS
2880 mount options.</p>
2881
2882 <p>The only way I have been able to get working on Debian and RedHat
2883 Enterprise Linux for getting the timeout count is to peek in /proc/.
2884 But according to
2885 <ahref="http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E19253-01/816-4555/netmonitor-12/index.html">Solaris
2886 10 System Administration Guide: Network Services</a>, the 'nfsstat -c'
2887 command can be used to get these timeout values.  But this do not work
2888 on Linux, as far as I can tell.  I
2889 <ahref="http://bugs.debian.org/857043">asked Debian about this</a>,
2890 but have not seen any replies yet.</p>
2891
2892 <p>Is there a better way to figure out if a Linux NFS client is
2893 experiencing NFS hangs?  Is there a way to detect which processes are
2894 affected?  Is there a way to get the NFS mount going quickly once the
2895 network problem causing the NFS hang has been cleared?  I would very
2896 much welcome some clues, as we regularly run into NFS hangs.</p>
2897
2898       </div>
2899       <div class="tags">
2900
2901
2902         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sysadmin">sysadmin</a>.
2903
2904
2905       </div>
2906     </div>
2907     <div class="padding"></div>
2908
2909     <div class="entry">
2910       <div class="title">
2911         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Norwegian_Bokm_l_translation_of_The_Debian_Administrator_s_Handbook_complete__proofreading_in_progress.html">Norwegian Bokmål translation of The Debian Administrator's Handbook complete, proofreading in progress</a>
2912       </div>
2913       <div class="date">
2914          3rd March 2017
2915       </div>
2916       <div class="body">
2917         <p>For almost a year now, we have been working on making a Norwegian
2918 Bokmål edition of <a href="https://debian-handbook.info/">The Debian
2919 Administrator's Handbook</a>.  Now, thanks to the tireless effort of
2920 Ole-Erik, Ingrid and Andreas, the initial translation is complete, and
2921 we are working on the proof reading to ensure consistent language and
2922 use of correct computer science terms.  The plan is to make the book
2923 available on paper, as well as in electronic form.  For that to
2924 happen, the proof reading must be completed and all the figures need
2925 to be translated.  If you want to help out, get in touch.</p>
2926
2927 <p><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/debian-handbook/debian-handbook-nb-NO.pdf">A
2928
2929 fresh PDF edition</a> in A4 format (the final book will have smaller
2930 pages) of the book created every morning is available for
2931 proofreading.  If you find any errors, please
2932 <a href="https://hosted.weblate.org/projects/debian-handbook/">visit
2933 Weblate and correct the error</a>.  The
2934 <a href="http://l.github.io/debian-handbook/stat/nb-NO/index.html">state
2935 of the translation including figures</a> is a useful source for those
2936 provide Norwegian bokmål screen shots and figures.</p>
2937
2938       </div>
2939       <div class="tags">
2940
2941
2942         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian-handbook">debian-handbook</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
2943
2944
2945       </div>
2946     </div>
2947     <div class="padding"></div>
2948
2949     <div class="entry">
2950       <div class="title">
2951         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Unlimited_randomness_with_the_ChaosKey_.html">Unlimited randomness with the ChaosKey?</a>
2952       </div>
2953       <div class="date">
2954          1st March 2017
2955       </div>
2956       <div class="body">
2957         <p>A few days ago I ordered a small batch of
2958 <a href="http://altusmetrum.org/ChaosKey/">the ChaosKey</a>, a small
2959 USB dongle for generating entropy created by Bdale Garbee and Keith
2960 Packard.  Yesterday it arrived, and I am very happy to report that it
2961 work great!  According to its designers, to get it to work out of the
2962 box, you need the Linux kernel version 4.1 or later.  I tested on a
2963 Debian Stretch machine (kernel version 4.9), and there it worked just
2964 fine, increasing the available entropy very quickly.  I wrote a small
2965 test oneliner to test.  It first print the current entropy level,
2966 drain /dev/random, and then print the entropy level for five seconds.
2967 Here is the situation without the ChaosKey inserted:</p>
2968
2969 <blockquote><pre>
2970 % cat /proc/sys/kernel/random/entropy_avail; \
2971   dd bs=1M if=/dev/random of=/dev/null count=1; \
2972   for n in $(seq 1 5); do \
2973      cat /proc/sys/kernel/random/entropy_avail; \
2974      sleep 1; \
2975   done
2976 300
2977 0+1 oppføringer inn
2978 0+1 oppføringer ut
2979 28 byte kopiert, 0,000264565 s, 106 kB/s
2980 4
2981 8
2982 12
2983 17
2984 21
2985 %
2986 </pre></blockquote>
2987
2988 <p>The entropy level increases by 3-4 every second.  In such case any
2989 application requiring random bits (like a HTTPS enabled web server)
2990 will halt and wait for more entrpy.  And here is the situation with
2991 the ChaosKey inserted:</p>
2992
2993 <blockquote><pre>
2994 % cat /proc/sys/kernel/random/entropy_avail; \
2995   dd bs=1M if=/dev/random of=/dev/null count=1; \
2996   for n in $(seq 1 5); do \
2997      cat /proc/sys/kernel/random/entropy_avail; \
2998      sleep 1; \
2999   done
3000 1079
3001 0+1 oppføringer inn
3002 0+1 oppføringer ut
3003 104 byte kopiert, 0,000487647 s, 213 kB/s
3004 433
3005 1028
3006 1031
3007 1035
3008 1038
3009 %
3010 </pre></blockquote>
3011
3012 <p>Quite the difference. :) I bought a few more than I need, in case
3013 someone want to buy one here in Norway. :)</p>
3014
3015 <p>Update: The dongle was presented at Debconf last year.  You might
3016 find <a href="https://debconf16.debconf.org/talks/94/">the talk
3017 recording illuminating</a>.  It explains exactly what the source of
3018 randomness is, if you are unable to spot it from the schema drawing
3019 available from the ChaosKey web site linked at the start of this blog
3020 post.</p>
3021
3022       </div>
3023       <div class="tags">
3024
3025
3026         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
3027
3028
3029       </div>
3030     </div>
3031     <div class="padding"></div>
3032
3033     <div class="entry">
3034       <div class="title">
3035         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Where_did_that_package_go___mdash__geolocated_IP_traceroute.html">Where did that package go? &mdash; geolocated IP traceroute</a>
3036       </div>
3037       <div class="date">
3038          9th January 2017
3039       </div>
3040       <div class="body">
3041         <p>Did you ever wonder where the web trafic really flow to reach the
3042 web servers, and who own the network equipment it is flowing through?
3043 It is possible to get a glimpse of this from using traceroute, but it
3044 is hard to find all the details.  Many years ago, I wrote a system to
3045 map the Norwegian Internet (trying to figure out if our plans for a
3046 network game service would get low enough latency, and who we needed
3047 to talk to about setting up game servers close to the users.  Back
3048 then I used traceroute output from many locations (I asked my friends
3049 to run a script and send me their traceroute output) to create the
3050 graph and the map.  The output from traceroute typically look like
3051 this:
3052
3053 <p><pre>
3054 traceroute to www.stortinget.no (85.88.67.10), 30 hops max, 60 byte packets
3055  1  uio-gw10.uio.no (129.240.202.1)  0.447 ms  0.486 ms  0.621 ms
3056  2  uio-gw8.uio.no (129.240.24.229)  0.467 ms  0.578 ms  0.675 ms
3057  3  oslo-gw1.uninett.no (128.39.65.17)  0.385 ms  0.373 ms  0.358 ms
3058  4  te3-1-2.br1.fn3.as2116.net (193.156.90.3)  1.174 ms  1.172 ms  1.153 ms
3059  5  he16-1-1.cr1.san110.as2116.net (195.0.244.234)  2.627 ms he16-1-1.cr2.oslosda310.as2116.net (195.0.244.48)  3.172 ms he16-1-1.cr1.san110.as2116.net (195.0.244.234)  2.857 ms
3060  6  ae1.ar8.oslosda310.as2116.net (195.0.242.39)  0.662 ms  0.637 ms ae0.ar8.oslosda310.as2116.net (195.0.242.23)  0.622 ms
3061  7  89.191.10.146 (89.191.10.146)  0.931 ms  0.917 ms  0.955 ms
3062  8  * * *
3063  9  * * *
3064 [...]
3065 </pre></p>
3066
3067 <p>This show the DNS names and IP addresses of (at least some of the)
3068 network equipment involved in getting the data traffic from me to the
3069 www.stortinget.no server, and how long it took in milliseconds for a
3070 package to reach the equipment and return to me.  Three packages are
3071 sent, and some times the packages do not follow the same path.  This
3072 is shown for hop 5, where three different IP addresses replied to the
3073 traceroute request.</p>
3074
3075 <p>There are many ways to measure trace routes.  Other good traceroute
3076 implementations I use are traceroute (using ICMP packages) mtr (can do
3077 both ICMP, UDP and TCP) and scapy (python library with ICMP, UDP, TCP
3078 traceroute and a lot of other capabilities).  All of them are easily
3079 available in <a href="https://www.debian.org/">Debian</a>.</p>
3080
3081 <p>This time around, I wanted to know the geographic location of
3082 different route points, to visualize how visiting a web page spread
3083 information about the visit to a lot of servers around the globe.  The
3084 background is that a web site today often will ask the browser to get
3085 from many servers the parts (for example HTML, JSON, fonts,
3086 JavaScript, CSS, video) required to display the content.  This will
3087 leak information about the visit to those controlling these servers
3088 and anyone able to peek at the data traffic passing by (like your ISP,
3089 the ISPs backbone provider, FRA, GCHQ, NSA and others).</p>
3090
3091 <p>Lets pick an example, the Norwegian parliament web site
3092 www.stortinget.no.  It is read daily by all members of parliament and
3093 their staff, as well as political journalists, activits and many other
3094 citizens of Norway.  A visit to the www.stortinget.no web site will
3095 ask your browser to contact 8 other servers: ajax.googleapis.com,
3096 insights.hotjar.com, script.hotjar.com, static.hotjar.com,
3097 stats.g.doubleclick.net, www.google-analytics.com,
3098 www.googletagmanager.com and www.netigate.se.  I extracted this by
3099 asking <a href="http://phantomjs.org/">PhantomJS</a> to visit the
3100 Stortinget web page and tell me all the URLs PhantomJS downloaded to
3101 render the page (in HAR format using
3102 <a href="https://github.com/ariya/phantomjs/blob/master/examples/netsniff.js">their
3103 netsniff example</a>.  I am very grateful to Gorm for showing me how
3104 to do this).  My goal is to visualize network traces to all IP
3105 addresses behind these DNS names, do show where visitors personal
3106 information is spread when visiting the page.</p>
3107
3108 <p align="center"><a href="www.stortinget.no-geoip.kml"><img
3109 src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2017-01-09-www.stortinget.no-geoip-small.png" alt="map of combined traces for URLs used by www.stortinget.no using GeoIP"/></a></p>
3110
3111 <p>When I had a look around for options, I could not find any good
3112 free software tools to do this, and decided I needed my own traceroute
3113 wrapper outputting KML based on locations looked up using GeoIP.  KML
3114 is easy to work with and easy to generate, and understood by several
3115 of the GIS tools I have available.  I got good help from by NUUG
3116 colleague Anders Einar with this, and the result can be seen in
3117 <a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/kmltraceroute">my
3118 kmltraceroute git repository</a>.  Unfortunately, the quality of the
3119 free GeoIP databases I could find (and the for-pay databases my
3120 friends had access to) is not up to the task.  The IP addresses of
3121 central Internet infrastructure would typically be placed near the
3122 controlling companies main office, and not where the router is really
3123 located, as you can see from <a href="www.stortinget.no-geoip.kml">the
3124 KML file I created</a> using the GeoLite City dataset from MaxMind.
3125
3126 <p align="center"><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2017-01-09-www.stortinget.no-scapy.svg"><img
3127 src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2017-01-09-www.stortinget.no-scapy-small.png" alt="scapy traceroute graph for URLs used by www.stortinget.no"/></a></p>
3128
3129 <p>I also had a look at the visual traceroute graph created by
3130 <a href="http://www.secdev.org/projects/scapy/">the scrapy project</a>,
3131 showing IP network ownership (aka AS owner) for the IP address in
3132 question.
3133 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2017-01-09-www.stortinget.no-scapy.svg">The
3134 graph display a lot of useful information about the traceroute in SVG
3135 format</a>, and give a good indication on who control the network
3136 equipment involved, but it do not include geolocation.  This graph
3137 make it possible to see the information is made available at least for
3138 UNINETT, Catchcom, Stortinget, Nordunet, Google, Amazon, Telia, Level
3139 3 Communications and NetDNA.</p>
3140
3141 <p align="center"><a href="https://geotraceroute.com/index.php?node=4&host=www.stortinget.no"><img
3142 src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2017-01-09-www.stortinget.no-geotraceroute-small.png" alt="example geotraceroute view for www.stortinget.no"/></a></p>
3143
3144 <p>In the process, I came across the
3145 <a href="https://geotraceroute.com/">web service GeoTraceroute</a> by
3146 Salim Gasmi.  Its methology of combining guesses based on DNS names,
3147 various location databases and finally use latecy times to rule out
3148 candidate locations seemed to do a very good job of guessing correct
3149 geolocation.  But it could only do one trace at the time, did not have
3150 a sensor in Norway and did not make the geolocations easily available
3151 for postprocessing.  So I contacted the developer and asked if he
3152 would be willing to share the code (he refused until he had time to
3153 clean it up), but he was interested in providing the geolocations in a
3154 machine readable format, and willing to set up a sensor in Norway.  So
3155 since yesterday, it is possible to run traces from Norway in this
3156 service thanks to a sensor node set up by
3157 <a href="https://www.nuug.no/">the NUUG assosiation</a>, and get the
3158 trace in KML format for further processing.</p>
3159
3160 <p align="center"><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2017-01-09-www.stortinget.no-geotraceroute-kml-join.kml"><img
3161 src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2017-01-09-www.stortinget.no-geotraceroute-kml-join.png" alt="map of combined traces for URLs used by www.stortinget.no using geotraceroute"/></a></p>
3162
3163 <p>Here we can see a lot of trafic passes Sweden on its way to
3164 Denmark, Germany, Holland and Ireland.  Plenty of places where the
3165 Snowden confirmations verified the traffic is read by various actors
3166 without your best interest as their top priority.</p>
3167
3168 <p>Combining KML files is trivial using a text editor, so I could loop
3169 over all the hosts behind the urls imported by www.stortinget.no and
3170 ask for the KML file from GeoTraceroute, and create a combined KML
3171 file with all the traces (unfortunately only one of the IP addresses
3172 behind the DNS name is traced this time.  To get them all, one would
3173 have to request traces using IP number instead of DNS names from
3174 GeoTraceroute).  That might be the next step in this project.</p>
3175
3176 <p>Armed with these tools, I find it a lot easier to figure out where
3177 the IP traffic moves and who control the boxes involved in moving it.
3178 And every time the link crosses for example the Swedish border, we can
3179 be sure Swedish Signal Intelligence (FRA) is listening, as GCHQ do in
3180 Britain and NSA in USA and cables around the globe.  (Hm, what should
3181 we tell them? :) Keep that in mind if you ever send anything
3182 unencrypted over the Internet.</p>
3183
3184 <p>PS: KML files are drawn using
3185 <a href="http://ivanrublev.me/kml/">the KML viewer from Ivan
3186 Rublev<a/>, as it was less cluttered than the local Linux application
3187 Marble.  There are heaps of other options too.</p>
3188
3189 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
3190 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
3191 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
3192
3193       </div>
3194       <div class="tags">
3195
3196
3197         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/kart">kart</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/personvern">personvern</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/stortinget">stortinget</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/web">web</a>.
3198
3199
3200       </div>
3201     </div>
3202     <div class="padding"></div>
3203
3204     <div class="entry">
3205       <div class="title">
3206         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Appstream_just_learned_how_to_map_hardware_to_packages_too_.html">Appstream just learned how to map hardware to packages too!</a>
3207       </div>
3208       <div class="date">
3209         23rd December 2016
3210       </div>
3211       <div class="body">
3212         <p>I received a very nice Christmas present today.  As my regular
3213 readers probably know, I have been working on the
3214 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/isenkram">the Isenkram
3215 system</a> for many years.  The goal of the Isenkram system is to make
3216 it easier for users to figure out what to install to get a given piece
3217 of hardware to work in Debian, and a key part of this system is a way
3218 to map hardware to packages.  Isenkram have its own mapping database,
3219 and also uses data provided by each package using the AppStream
3220 metadata format.  And today,
3221 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/appstream">AppStream</a> in
3222 Debian learned to look up hardware the same way Isenkram is doing it,
3223 ie using fnmatch():</p>
3224
3225 <p><pre>
3226 % appstreamcli what-provides modalias \
3227   usb:v1130p0202d0100dc00dsc00dp00ic03isc00ip00in00
3228 Identifier: pymissile [generic]
3229 Name: pymissile
3230 Summary: Control original Striker USB Missile Launcher
3231 Package: pymissile
3232 % appstreamcli what-provides modalias usb:v0694p0002d0000
3233 Identifier: libnxt [generic]
3234 Name: libnxt
3235 Summary: utility library for talking to the LEGO Mindstorms NXT brick
3236 Package: libnxt
3237 ---
3238 Identifier: t2n [generic]
3239 Name: t2n
3240 Summary: Simple command-line tool for Lego NXT
3241 Package: t2n
3242 ---
3243 Identifier: python-nxt [generic]
3244 Name: python-nxt
3245 Summary: Python driver/interface/wrapper for the Lego Mindstorms NXT robot
3246 Package: python-nxt
3247 ---
3248 Identifier: nbc [generic]
3249 Name: nbc
3250 Summary: C compiler for LEGO Mindstorms NXT bricks
3251 Package: nbc
3252 %
3253 </pre></p>
3254
3255 <p>A similar query can be done using the combined AppStream and
3256 Isenkram databases using the isenkram-lookup tool:</p>
3257
3258 <p><pre>
3259 % isenkram-lookup usb:v1130p0202d0100dc00dsc00dp00ic03isc00ip00in00
3260 pymissile
3261 % isenkram-lookup usb:v0694p0002d0000
3262 libnxt
3263 nbc
3264 python-nxt
3265 t2n
3266 %
3267 </pre></p>
3268
3269 <p>You can find modalias values relevant for your machine using
3270 <tt>cat $(find /sys/devices/ -name modalias)</tt>.
3271
3272 <p>If you want to make this system a success and help Debian users
3273 make the most of the hardware they have, please
3274 help<a href="https://wiki.debian.org/AppStream/Guidelines">add
3275 AppStream metadata for your package following the guidelines</a>
3276 documented in the wiki.  So far only 11 packages provide such
3277 information, among the several hundred hardware specific packages in
3278 Debian. The Isenkram database on the other hand contain 101 packages,
3279 mostly related to USB dongles.  Most of the packages with hardware
3280 mapping in AppStream are LEGO Mindstorms related, because I have, as
3281 part of my involvement in
3282 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/LegoDesigners">the Debian LEGO
3283 team</a> given priority to making sure LEGO users get proposed the
3284 complete set of packages in Debian for that particular hardware.  The
3285 team also got a nice Christmas present today.  The
3286 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/nxt-firmware">nxt-firmware
3287 package</a> made it into Debian.  With this package in place, it is
3288 now possible to use the LEGO Mindstorms NXT unit with only free
3289 software, as the nxt-firmware package contain the source and firmware
3290 binaries for the NXT brick.</p>
3291
3292 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
3293 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
3294 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
3295
3296       </div>
3297       <div class="tags">
3298
3299
3300         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram">isenkram</a>.
3301
3302
3303       </div>
3304     </div>
3305     <div class="padding"></div>
3306
3307     <div class="entry">
3308       <div class="title">
3309         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Isenkram_updated_with_a_lot_more_hardware_package_mappings.html">Isenkram updated with a lot more hardware-package mappings</a>
3310       </div>
3311       <div class="date">
3312         20th December 2016
3313       </div>
3314       <div class="body">
3315         <p><a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/isenkram">The Isenkram
3316 system</a> I wrote two years ago to make it easier in Debian to find
3317 and install packages to get your hardware dongles to work, is still
3318 going strong.  It is a system to look up the hardware present on or
3319 connected to the current system, and map the hardware to Debian
3320 packages.  It can either be done using the tools in isenkram-cli or
3321 using the user space daemon in the isenkram package.  The latter will
3322 notify you, when inserting new hardware, about what packages to
3323 install to get the dongle working.  It will even provide a button to
3324 click on to ask packagekit to install the packages.</p>
3325
3326 <p>Here is an command line example from my Thinkpad laptop:</p>
3327
3328 <p><pre>
3329 % isenkram-lookup
3330 bluez
3331 cheese
3332 ethtool
3333 fprintd
3334 fprintd-demo
3335 gkrellm-thinkbat
3336 hdapsd
3337 libpam-fprintd
3338 pidgin-blinklight
3339 thinkfan
3340 tlp
3341 tp-smapi-dkms
3342 tp-smapi-source
3343 tpb
3344 %
3345 </pre></p>
3346
3347 <p>It can also list the firware package providing firmware requested
3348 by the load kernel modules, which in my case is an empty list because
3349 I have all the firmware my machine need:
3350
3351 <p><pre>
3352 % /usr/sbin/isenkram-autoinstall-firmware -l
3353 info: did not find any firmware files requested by loaded kernel modules.  exiting
3354 %
3355 </pre></p>
3356
3357 <p>The last few days I had a look at several of the around 250
3358 packages in Debian with udev rules.  These seem like good candidates
3359 to install when a given hardware dongle is inserted, and I found
3360 several that should be proposed by isenkram.  I have not had time to
3361 check all of them, but am happy to report that now there are 97
3362 packages packages mapped to hardware by Isenkram.  11 of these
3363 packages provide hardware mapping using AppStream, while the rest are
3364 listed in the modaliases file provided in isenkram.</p>
3365
3366 <p>These are the packages with hardware mappings at the moment.  The
3367 <strong>marked packages</strong> are also announcing their hardware
3368 support using AppStream, for everyone to use:</p>
3369
3370 <p>air-quality-sensor, alsa-firmware-loaders, argyll,
3371 <strong>array-info</strong>, avarice, avrdude, b43-fwcutter,
3372 bit-babbler, bluez, bluez-firmware, <strong>brltty</strong>,
3373 <strong>broadcom-sta-dkms</strong>, calibre, cgminer, cheese, colord,
3374 <strong>colorhug-client</strong>, dahdi-firmware-nonfree, dahdi-linux,
3375 dfu-util, dolphin-emu, ekeyd, ethtool, firmware-ipw2x00, fprintd,
3376 fprintd-demo, <strong>galileo</strong>, gkrellm-thinkbat, gphoto2,
3377 gpsbabel, gpsbabel-gui, gpsman, gpstrans, gqrx-sdr, gr-fcdproplus,
3378 gr-osmosdr, gtkpod, hackrf, hdapsd, hdmi2usb-udev, hpijs-ppds, hplip,
3379 ipw3945-source, ipw3945d, kde-config-tablet, kinect-audio-setup,
3380 <strong>libnxt</strong>, libpam-fprintd, <strong>lomoco</strong>,
3381 madwimax, minidisc-utils, mkgmap, msi-keyboard, mtkbabel,
3382 <strong>nbc</strong>, <strong>nqc</strong>, nut-hal-drivers, ola,
3383 open-vm-toolbox, open-vm-tools, openambit, pcgminer, pcmciautils,
3384 pcscd, pidgin-blinklight, printer-driver-splix,
3385 <strong>pymissile</strong>, python-nxt, qlandkartegt,
3386 qlandkartegt-garmin, rosegarden, rt2x00-source, sispmctl,
3387 soapysdr-module-hackrf, solaar, squeak-plugins-scratch, sunxi-tools,
3388 <strong>t2n</strong>, thinkfan, thinkfinger-tools, tlp, tp-smapi-dkms,
3389 tp-smapi-source, tpb, tucnak, uhd-host, usbmuxd, viking,
3390 virtualbox-ose-guest-x11, w1retap, xawtv, xserver-xorg-input-vmmouse,
3391 xserver-xorg-input-wacom, xserver-xorg-video-qxl,
3392 xserver-xorg-video-vmware, yubikey-personalization and
3393 zd1211-firmware</p>
3394
3395 <p>If you know of other packages, please let me know with a wishlist
3396 bug report against the isenkram-cli package, and ask the package
3397 maintainer to
3398 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/AppStream/Guidelines">add AppStream
3399 metadata according to the guidelines</a> to provide the information
3400 for everyone.  In time, I hope to get rid of the isenkram specific
3401 hardware mapping and depend exclusively on AppStream.</p>
3402
3403 <p>Note, the AppStream metadata for broadcom-sta-dkms is matching too
3404 much hardware, and suggest that the package with with any ethernet
3405 card.  See <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/838735">bug #838735</a> for
3406 the details.  I hope the maintainer find time to address it soon.  In
3407 the mean time I provide an override in isenkram.</p>
3408
3409       </div>
3410       <div class="tags">
3411
3412
3413         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram">isenkram</a>.
3414
3415
3416       </div>
3417     </div>
3418     <div class="padding"></div>
3419
3420     <div class="entry">
3421       <div class="title">
3422         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Oolite__a_life_in_space_as_vagabond_and_mercenary___nice_free_software.html">Oolite, a life in space as vagabond and mercenary - nice free software</a>
3423       </div>
3424       <div class="date">
3425         11th December 2016
3426       </div>
3427       <div class="body">
3428         <p align="center"><img width="70%" src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2016-12-11-nice-oolite.png"/></p>
3429
3430 <p>In my early years, I played
3431 <a href="http://wiki.alioth.net/index.php/Classic_Elite">the epic game
3432 Elite</a> on my PC.  I spent many months trading and fighting in
3433 space, and reached the 'elite' fighting status before I moved on.  The
3434 original Elite game was available on Commodore 64 and the IBM PC
3435 edition I played had a 64 KB executable.  I am still impressed today
3436 that the authors managed to squeeze both a 3D engine and details about
3437 more than 2000 planet systems across 7 galaxies into a binary so
3438 small.</p>
3439
3440 <p>I have known about <a href="http://www.oolite.org/">the free
3441 software game Oolite inspired by Elite</a> for a while, but did not
3442 really have time to test it properly until a few days ago.  It was
3443 great to discover that my old knowledge about trading routes were
3444 still valid.  But my fighting and flying abilities were gone, so I had
3445 to retrain to be able to dock on a space station.  And I am still not
3446 able to make much resistance when I am attacked by pirates, so I
3447 bougth and mounted the most powerful laser in the rear to be able to
3448 put up at least some resistance while fleeing for my life. :)</p>
3449
3450 <p>When playing Elite in the late eighties, I had to discover
3451 everything on my own, and I had long lists of prices seen on different
3452 planets to be able to decide where to trade what.  This time I had the
3453 advantages of the
3454 <a href="http://wiki.alioth.net/index.php/Main_Page">Elite wiki</a>,
3455 where information about each planet is easily available with common
3456 price ranges and suggested trading routes.  This improved my ability
3457 to earn money and I have been able to earn enough to buy a lot of
3458 useful equipent in a few days.  I believe I originally played for
3459 months before I could get a docking computer, while now I could get it
3460 after less then a week.</p>
3461
3462 <p>If you like science fiction and dreamed of a life as a vagabond in
3463 space, you should try out Oolite.  It is available for Linux, MacOSX
3464 and Windows, and is included in Debian and derivatives since 2011.</p>
3465
3466 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
3467 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
3468 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
3469
3470       </div>
3471       <div class="tags">
3472
3473
3474         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nice free software">nice free software</a>.
3475
3476
3477       </div>
3478     </div>
3479     <div class="padding"></div>
3480
3481     <div class="entry">
3482       <div class="title">
3483         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Quicker_Debian_installations_using_eatmydata.html">Quicker Debian installations using eatmydata</a>
3484       </div>
3485       <div class="date">
3486         25th November 2016
3487       </div>
3488       <div class="body">
3489         <p>Two years ago, I did some experiments with eatmydata and the Debian
3490 installation system, observing how using
3491 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Speeding_up_the_Debian_installer_using_eatmydata_and_dpkg_divert.html">eatmydata
3492 could speed up the installation</a> quite a bit.  My testing measured
3493 speedup around 20-40 percent for Debian Edu, where we install around
3494 1000 packages from within the installer.  The eatmydata package
3495 provide a way to disable/delay file system flushing.  This is a bit
3496 risky in the general case, as files that should be stored on disk will
3497 stay only in memory a bit longer than expected, causing problems if a
3498 machine crashes at an inconvenient time.  But for an installation, if
3499 the machine crashes during installation the process is normally
3500 restarted, and avoiding disk operations as much as possible to speed
3501 up the process make perfect sense.
3502
3503 <p>I added code in the Debian Edu specific installation code to enable
3504 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/libeatmydata">eatmydata</a>,
3505 but did not have time to push it any further.  But a few months ago I
3506 picked it up again and worked with the libeatmydata package maintainer
3507 Mattia Rizzolo to make it easier for everyone to get this installation
3508 speedup in Debian.  Thanks to our cooperation There is now an
3509 eatmydata-udeb package in Debian testing and unstable, and simply
3510 enabling/installing it in debian-installer (d-i) is enough to get the
3511 quicker installations.  It can be enabled using preseeding.  The
3512 following untested kernel argument should do the trick:</p>
3513
3514 <blockquote><pre>
3515 preseed/early_command="anna-install eatmydata-udeb"
3516 </pre></blockquote>
3517
3518 <p>This should ask d-i to install the package inside the d-i
3519 environment early in the installation sequence.  Having it installed
3520 in d-i in turn will make sure the relevant scripts are called just
3521 after debootstrap filled /target/ with the freshly installed Debian
3522 system to configure apt to run dpkg with eatmydata.  This is enough to
3523 speed up the installation process.  There is a proposal to
3524 <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/841153">extend the idea a bit further
3525 by using /etc/ld.so.preload instead of apt.conf</a>, but I have not
3526 tested its impact.</p>
3527
3528
3529       </div>
3530       <div class="tags">
3531
3532
3533         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
3534
3535
3536       </div>
3537     </div>
3538     <div class="padding"></div>
3539
3540     <div class="entry">
3541       <div class="title">
3542         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Oversette_bokm_l_til_nynorsk__enklere_enn_du_tror_takket_v_re_Apertium.html">Oversette bokmål til nynorsk, enklere enn du tror takket være Apertium</a>
3543       </div>
3544       <div class="date">
3545         24th November 2016
3546       </div>
3547       <div class="body">
3548         <p>I Norge er det mange som trenger å skrive både bokmål og nynorsk.
3549 Eksamensoppgaver, offentlige brev og nyheter er eksempler på tekster
3550 der det er krav om skriftspråk.  I tillegg til alle skoleoppgavene som
3551 elever over det ganske land skal levere inn hvert år.  Det mange ikke
3552 vet er at selv om de kommersielle alternativene
3553 <a href="https://translate.google.com/">Google Translate</a> og
3554 <a href="https://www.bing.com/translator/">Bing Translator</a> ikke kan
3555 bidra med å oversette mellom bokmål og nynorsk, så finnes det et
3556 utmerket fri programvarealternativ som kan.  Oversetterverktøyet
3557 Apertium har støtte for en rekke språkkombinasjoner, og takket være
3558 den utrettelige innsatsen til blant annet Kevin Brubeck Unhammer, kan
3559 en bruke webtjenesten til å fylle inn en tekst på bokmål eller
3560 nynorsk, og få den automatoversatt til det andre skriftspråket.
3561 Resultatet er ikke perfekt, men et svært godt utgangspunkt.  Av og til
3562 er resultatet så bra at det kan benyttes uten endringer.  Jeg vet
3563 f.eks. at store deler av Joomla ble oversatt til nynorsk ved hjelp
3564 Apertium.  Høres det ut som noe du kan ha bruk for?  Besøk i så fall
3565 <a href="https://www.apertium.org/">Apertium.org</a> og fyll inn
3566 teksten din i webskjemaet der.
3567
3568 <p>Hvis du trenger maskinell tilgang til den bakenforliggende
3569 teknologien kan du enten installere pakken
3570 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/apertium-nno-nob">apertium-nno-nob</a>
3571 på en Debian-maskin eller bruke web-API-et tilgjengelig fra
3572 api.apertium.org.  Se
3573 <a href="http://wiki.apertium.org/wiki/Apertium-apy">API-dokumentasjonen</a>
3574 for detaljer om web-API-et.  Her kan du se hvordan resultatet blir for
3575 denne teksten som ble skrevet på bokmål over maskinoversatt til
3576 nynorsk.</p>
3577
3578 <hr/>
3579
3580 <p>I Noreg er det mange som treng å skriva både bokmål og nynorsk.
3581 Eksamensoppgåver, offentlege brev og nyhende er døme på tekster der
3582 det er krav om skriftspråk.  I tillegg til alle skuleoppgåvene som
3583 elevar over det ganske land skal levera inn kvart år.  Det mange ikkje
3584 veit er at sjølv om dei kommersielle alternativa
3585 <a href="https://translate.google.com/">Google *Translate</a> og
3586 <a href="https://www.bing.com/translator/">Bing *Translator</a> ikkje
3587 kan bidra med å omsetja mellom bokmål og nynorsk, så finst det eit
3588 utmerka fri programvarealternativ som kan.  Omsetjarverktøyet
3589 *Apertium har støtte for ei rekkje språkkombinasjonar, og takka vera
3590 den utrøyttelege innsatsen til blant anna Kevin Brubeck Unhammer, kan
3591 ein bruka *webtjenesten til å fylla inn ei tekst på bokmål eller
3592 nynorsk, og få den *automatoversatt til det andre skriftspråket.
3593 Resultatet er ikkje perfekt, men eit svært godt utgangspunkt.  Av og
3594 til er resultatet så bra at det kan nyttast utan endringar.  Eg veit
3595 t.d. at store delar av *Joomla vart omsett til nynorsk ved hjelp
3596 *Apertium.  Høyrast det ut som noko du kan ha bruk for?  Besøk i så
3597 fall <a href="https://www.apertium.org/">*Apertium.org</a> og fyll inn
3598 teksta di i *webskjemaet der.
3599
3600 <p>Viss du treng *maskinell tilgjenge til den *bakenforliggende
3601 teknologien kan du anten installera pakken
3602 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/apertium-nno-nob">*apertium-*nno-*nob</a>
3603 på ein *Debian-maskin eller bruka *web-*API-eit tilgjengeleg frå
3604 *api.*apertium.org.  Sjå
3605 <a href="http://wiki.apertium.org/wiki/Apertium-apy">*API-dokumentasjonen</a>
3606 for detaljar om *web-*API-eit.  Her kan du sjå korleis resultatet vert
3607 for denne teksta som vart skreva på bokmål over *maskinoversatt til
3608 nynorsk.</p>
3609
3610       </div>
3611       <div class="tags">
3612
3613
3614         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/norsk">norsk</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/stavekontroll">stavekontroll</a>.
3615
3616
3617       </div>
3618     </div>
3619     <div class="padding"></div>
3620
3621     <div class="entry">
3622       <div class="title">
3623         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Coz_profiler_for_multi_threaded_software_is_now_in_Debian.html">Coz profiler for multi-threaded software is now in Debian</a>
3624       </div>
3625       <div class="date">
3626         13th November 2016
3627       </div>
3628       <div class="body">
3629         <p><a href="http://coz-profiler.org/">The Coz profiler</a>, a nice
3630 profiler able to run benchmarking experiments on the instrumented
3631 multi-threaded program, finally
3632 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/coz-profiler">made it into
3633 Debian unstable yesterday</A>.  Lluís Vilanova and I have spent many
3634 months since
3635 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Coz_can_help_you_find_bottlenecks_in_multi_threaded_software___nice_free_software.html">I
3636 blogged about the coz tool</a> in August working with upstream to make
3637 it suitable for Debian.  There are still issues with clang
3638 compatibility, inline assembly only working x86 and minimized
3639 JavaScript libraries.</p>
3640
3641 <p>To test it, install 'coz-profiler' using apt and run it like this:</p>
3642
3643 <p><blockquote>
3644 <tt>coz run --- /path/to/binary-with-debug-info</tt>
3645 </blockquote></p>
3646
3647 <p>This will produce a profile.coz file in the current working
3648 directory with the profiling information.  This is then given to a
3649 JavaScript application provided in the package and available from
3650 <a href="http://plasma-umass.github.io/coz/">a project web page</a>.
3651 To start the local copy, invoke it in a browser like this:</p>
3652
3653 <p><blockquote>
3654 <tt>sensible-browser /usr/share/coz-profiler/viewer/index.htm</tt>
3655 </blockquote></p>
3656
3657 <p>See the project home page and the
3658 <a href="https://www.usenix.org/publications/login/summer2016/curtsinger">USENIX
3659 ;login: article on Coz</a> for more information on how it is
3660 working.</p>
3661
3662       </div>
3663       <div class="tags">
3664
3665
3666         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
3667
3668
3669       </div>
3670     </div>
3671     <div class="padding"></div>
3672
3673     <div class="entry">
3674       <div class="title">
3675         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/My_own_self_balancing_Lego_Segway.html">My own self balancing Lego Segway</a>
3676       </div>
3677       <div class="date">
3678          4th November 2016
3679       </div>
3680       <div class="body">
3681         <p>A while back I received a Gyro sensor for the NXT
3682 <a href="mindstorms.lego.com">Mindstorms</a> controller as a birthday
3683 present.  It had been on my wishlist for a while, because I wanted to
3684 build a Segway like balancing lego robot.  I had already built
3685 <a href="http://www.nxtprograms.com/NXT2/segway/">a simple balancing
3686 robot</a> with the kids, using the light/color sensor included in the
3687 NXT kit as the balance sensor, but it was not working very well.  It
3688 could balance for a while, but was very sensitive to the light
3689 condition in the room and the reflective properties of the surface and
3690 would fall over after a short while.  I wanted something more robust,
3691 and had
3692 <a href="https://www.hitechnic.com/cgi-bin/commerce.cgi?preadd=action&key=NGY1044">the
3693 gyro sensor from HiTechnic</a> I believed would solve it on my
3694 wishlist for some years before it suddenly showed up as a gift from my
3695 loved ones. :)</p>
3696
3697 <p>Unfortunately I have not had time to sit down and play with it
3698 since then.  But that changed some days ago, when I was searching for
3699 lego segway information and came across a recipe from HiTechnic for
3700 building
3701 <a href="http://www.hitechnic.com/blog/gyro-sensor/htway/">the
3702 HTWay</a>, a segway like balancing robot.  Build instructions and
3703 <a href="https://www.hitechnic.com/upload/786-HTWayC.nxc">source
3704 code</a> was included, so it was just a question of putting it all
3705 together.  And thanks to the great work of many Debian developers, the
3706 compiler needed to build the source for the NXT is already included in
3707 Debian, so I was read to go in less than an hour.  The resulting robot
3708 do not look very impressive in its simplicity:</p>
3709
3710 <p align="center"><img width="70%" src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2016-11-04-lego-htway-robot.jpeg"></p>
3711
3712 <p>Because I lack the infrared sensor used to control the robot in the
3713 design from HiTechnic, I had to comment out the last task
3714 (taskControl).  I simply placed /* and */ around it get the program
3715 working without that sensor present.  Now it balances just fine until
3716 the battery status run low:</p>
3717
3718 <p align="center"><video width="70%" controls="true">
3719    <source src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2016-11-04-lego-htway-balancing.ogv" type="video/ogg">
3720 </video></p>
3721
3722 <p>Now we would like to teach it how to follow a line and take remote
3723 control instructions using the included Bluetooth receiver in the NXT.</p>
3724
3725 <p>If you, like me, love LEGO and want to make sure we find the tools
3726 they need to work with LEGO in Debian and all our derivative
3727 distributions like Ubuntu, check out
3728 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/LegoDesigners">the LEGO designers
3729 project page</a> and join the Debian LEGO team.  Personally I own a
3730 RCX and NXT controller (no EV3), and would like to make sure the
3731 Debian tools needed to program the systems I own work as they
3732 should.</p>
3733
3734       </div>
3735       <div class="tags">
3736
3737
3738         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/lego">lego</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/robot">robot</a>.
3739
3740
3741       </div>
3742     </div>
3743     <div class="padding"></div>
3744
3745     <div class="entry">
3746       <div class="title">
3747         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Experience_and_updated_recipe_for_using_the_Signal_app_without_a_mobile_phone.html">Experience and updated recipe for using the Signal app without a mobile phone</a>
3748       </div>
3749       <div class="date">
3750         10th October 2016
3751       </div>
3752       <div class="body">
3753         <p>In July
3754 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_use_the_Signal_app_if_you_only_have_a_land_line__ie_no_mobile_phone_.html">I
3755 wrote how to get the Signal Chrome/Chromium app working</a> without
3756 the ability to receive SMS messages (aka without a cell phone).  It is
3757 time to share some experiences and provide an updated setup.</p>
3758
3759 <p>The Signal app have worked fine for several months now, and I use
3760 it regularly to chat with my loved ones.  I had a major snag at the
3761 end of my summer vacation, when the the app completely forgot my
3762 setup, identity and keys.  The reason behind this major mess was
3763 running out of disk space.  To avoid that ever happening again I have
3764 started storing everything in <tt>userdata/</tt> in git, to be able to
3765 roll back to an earlier version if the files are wiped by mistake.  I
3766 had to use it once after introducing the git backup.  When rolling
3767 back to an earlier version, one need to use the 'reset session' option
3768 in Signal to get going, and notify the people you talk with about the
3769 problem.  I assume there is some sequence number tracking in the
3770 protocol to detect rollback attacks.  The git repository is rather big
3771 (674 MiB so far), but I have not tried to figure out if some of the
3772 content can be added to a .gitignore file due to lack of spare
3773 time.</p>
3774
3775 <p>I've also hit the 90 days timeout blocking, and noticed that this
3776 make it impossible to send messages using Signal.  I could still
3777 receive them, but had to patch the code with a new timestamp to send.
3778 I believe the timeout is added by the developers to force people to
3779 upgrade to the latest version of the app, even when there is no
3780 protocol changes, to reduce the version skew among the user base and
3781 thus try to keep the number of support requests down.</p>
3782
3783 <p>Since my original recipe, the Signal source code changed slightly,
3784 making the old patch fail to apply cleanly.  Below is an updated
3785 patch, including the shell wrapper I use to start Signal.  The
3786 original version required a new user to locate the JavaScript console
3787 and call a function from there.  I got help from a friend with more
3788 JavaScript knowledge than me to modify the code to provide a GUI
3789 button instead.  This mean that to get started you just need to run
3790 the wrapper and click the 'Register without mobile phone' to get going
3791 now.  I've also modified the timeout code to always set it to 90 days
3792 in the future, to avoid having to patch the code regularly.</p>
3793
3794 <p>So, the updated recipe for Debian Jessie:</p>
3795
3796 <ol>
3797
3798 <li>First, install required packages to get the source code and the
3799 browser you need.  Signal only work with Chrome/Chromium, as far as I
3800 know, so you need to install it.
3801
3802 <pre>
3803 apt install git tor chromium
3804 git clone https://github.com/WhisperSystems/Signal-Desktop.git
3805 </pre></li>
3806
3807 <li>Modify the source code using command listed in the the patch
3808 block below.</li>
3809
3810 <li>Start Signal using the run-signal-app wrapper (for example using
3811 <tt>`pwd`/run-signal-app</tt>).
3812
3813 <li>Click on the 'Register without mobile phone', will in a phone
3814 number you can receive calls to the next minute, receive the
3815 verification code and enter it into the form field and press
3816 'Register'.  Note, the phone number you use will be user Signal
3817 username, ie the way others can find you on Signal.</li>
3818
3819 <li>You can now use Signal to contact others.  Note, new contacts do
3820 not show up in the contact list until you restart Signal, and there is
3821 no way to assign names to Contacts.  There is also no way to create or
3822 update chat groups.  I suspect this is because the web app do not have
3823 a associated contact database.</li>
3824
3825 </ol>
3826
3827 <p>I am still a bit uneasy about using Signal, because of the way its
3828 main author moxie0 reject federation and accept dependencies to major
3829 corporations like Google (part of the code is fetched from Google) and
3830 Amazon (the central coordination point is owned by Amazon).  See for
3831 example
3832 <a href="https://github.com/LibreSignal/LibreSignal/issues/37">the
3833 LibreSignal issue tracker</a> for a thread documenting the authors
3834 view on these issues.  But the network effect is strong in this case,
3835 and several of the people I want to communicate with already use
3836 Signal.  Perhaps we can all move to <a href="https://ring.cx/">Ring</a>
3837 once it <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/830265">work on my
3838 laptop</a>?  It already work on Windows and Android, and is included
3839 in <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/ring">Debian</a> and
3840 <a href="https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/ring">Ubuntu</a>, but not
3841 working on Debian Stable.</p>
3842
3843 <p>Anyway, this is the patch I apply to the Signal code to get it
3844 working.  It switch to the production servers, disable to timeout,
3845 make registration easier and add the shell wrapper:</p>
3846
3847 <pre>
3848 cd Signal-Desktop; cat &lt;&lt;EOF | patch -p1
3849 diff --git a/js/background.js b/js/background.js
3850 index 24b4c1d..579345f 100644
3851 --- a/js/background.js
3852 +++ b/js/background.js
3853 @@ -33,9 +33,9 @@
3854          });
3855      });
3856
3857 -    var SERVER_URL = 'https://textsecure-service-staging.whispersystems.org';
3858 +    var SERVER_URL = 'https://textsecure-service-ca.whispersystems.org';
3859      var SERVER_PORTS = [80, 4433, 8443];
3860 -    var ATTACHMENT_SERVER_URL = 'https://whispersystems-textsecure-attachments-staging.s3.amazonaws.com';
3861 +    var ATTACHMENT_SERVER_URL = 'https://whispersystems-textsecure-attachments.s3.amazonaws.com';
3862      var messageReceiver;
3863      window.getSocketStatus = function() {
3864          if (messageReceiver) {
3865 diff --git a/js/expire.js b/js/expire.js
3866 index 639aeae..beb91c3 100644
3867 --- a/js/expire.js
3868 +++ b/js/expire.js
3869 @@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
3870  ;(function() {
3871      'use strict';
3872 -    var BUILD_EXPIRATION = 0;
3873 +    var BUILD_EXPIRATION = Date.now() + (90 * 24 * 60 * 60 * 1000);
3874
3875      window.extension = window.extension || {};
3876
3877 diff --git a/js/views/install_view.js b/js/views/install_view.js
3878 index 7816f4f..1d6233b 100644
3879 --- a/js/views/install_view.js
3880 +++ b/js/views/install_view.js
3881 @@ -38,7 +38,8 @@
3882              return {
3883                  'click .step1': this.selectStep.bind(this, 1),
3884                  'click .step2': this.selectStep.bind(this, 2),
3885 -                'click .step3': this.selectStep.bind(this, 3)
3886 +                'click .step3': this.selectStep.bind(this, 3),
3887 +                'click .callreg': function() { extension.install('standalone') },
3888              };
3889          },
3890          clearQR: function() {
3891 diff --git a/options.html b/options.html
3892 index dc0f28e..8d709f6 100644
3893 --- a/options.html
3894 +++ b/options.html
3895 @@ -14,7 +14,10 @@
3896          &lt;div class='nav'>
3897            &lt;h1>{{ installWelcome }}&lt;/h1>
3898            &lt;p>{{ installTagline }}&lt;/p>
3899 -          &lt;div> &lt;a class='button step2'>{{ installGetStartedButton }}&lt;/a> &lt;/div>
3900 +          &lt;div> &lt;a class='button step2'>{{ installGetStartedButton }}&lt;/a>
3901 +           &lt;br> &lt;a class="button callreg">Register without mobile phone&lt;/a>
3902 +
3903 +         &lt;/div>
3904            &lt;span class='dot step1 selected'>&lt;/span>
3905            &lt;span class='dot step2'>&lt;/span>
3906            &lt;span class='dot step3'>&lt;/span>
3907 --- /dev/null   2016-10-07 09:55:13.730181472 +0200
3908 +++ b/run-signal-app   2016-10-10 08:54:09.434172391 +0200
3909 @@ -0,0 +1,12 @@
3910 +#!/bin/sh
3911 +set -e
3912 +cd $(dirname $0)
3913 +mkdir -p userdata
3914 +userdata="`pwd`/userdata"
3915 +if [ -d "$userdata" ] && [ ! -d "$userdata/.git" ] ; then
3916 +    (cd $userdata && git init)
3917 +fi
3918 +(cd $userdata && git add . && git commit -m "Current status." || true)
3919 +exec chromium \
3920 +  --proxy-server="socks://localhost:9050" \
3921 +  --user-data-dir=$userdata --load-and-launch-app=`pwd`
3922 EOF
3923 chmod a+rx run-signal-app
3924 </pre>
3925
3926 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
3927 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
3928 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
3929
3930       </div>
3931       <div class="tags">
3932
3933
3934         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance</a>.
3935
3936
3937       </div>
3938     </div>
3939     <div class="padding"></div>
3940
3941     <div class="entry">
3942       <div class="title">
3943         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Isenkram__Appstream_and_udev_make_life_as_a_LEGO_builder_easier.html">Isenkram, Appstream and udev make life as a LEGO builder easier</a>
3944       </div>
3945       <div class="date">
3946          7th October 2016
3947       </div>
3948       <div class="body">
3949         <p><a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/isenkram">The Isenkram
3950 system</a> provide a practical and easy way to figure out which
3951 packages support the hardware in a given machine.  The command line
3952 tool <tt>isenkram-lookup</tt> and the tasksel options provide a
3953 convenient way to list and install packages relevant for the current
3954 hardware during system installation, both user space packages and
3955 firmware packages. The GUI background daemon on the other hand provide
3956 a pop-up proposing to install packages when a new dongle is inserted
3957 while using the computer.  For example, if you plug in a smart card
3958 reader, the system will ask if you want to install <tt>pcscd</tt> if
3959 that package isn't already installed, and if you plug in a USB video
3960 camera the system will ask if you want to install <tt>cheese</tt> if
3961 cheese is currently missing.  This already work just fine.</p>
3962
3963 <p>But Isenkram depend on a database mapping from hardware IDs to
3964 package names.  When I started no such database existed in Debian, so
3965 I made my own data set and included it with the isenkram package and
3966 made isenkram fetch the latest version of this database from git using
3967 http.  This way the isenkram users would get updated package proposals
3968 as soon as I learned more about hardware related packages.</p>
3969
3970 <p>The hardware is identified using modalias strings.  The modalias
3971 design is from the Linux kernel where most hardware descriptors are
3972 made available as a strings that can be matched using filename style
3973 globbing.  It handle USB, PCI, DMI and a lot of other hardware related
3974 identifiers.</p>
3975
3976 <p>The downside to the Isenkram specific database is that there is no
3977 information about relevant distribution / Debian version, making
3978 isenkram propose obsolete packages too.  But along came AppStream, a
3979 cross distribution mechanism to store and collect metadata about
3980 software packages.  When I heard about the proposal, I contacted the
3981 people involved and suggested to add a hardware matching rule using
3982 modalias strings in the specification, to be able to use AppStream for
3983 mapping hardware to packages.  This idea was accepted and AppStream is
3984 now a great way for a package to announce the hardware it support in a
3985 distribution neutral way.  I wrote
3986 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Using_appstream_with_isenkram_to_install_hardware_related_packages_in_Debian.html">a
3987 recipe on how to add such meta-information</a> in a blog post last
3988 December.  If you have a hardware related package in Debian, please
3989 announce the relevant hardware IDs using AppStream.</p>
3990
3991 <p>In Debian, almost all packages that can talk to a LEGO Mindestorms
3992 RCX or NXT unit, announce this support using AppStream.  The effect is
3993 that when you insert such LEGO robot controller into your Debian
3994 machine, Isenkram will propose to install the packages needed to get
3995 it working.  The intention is that this should allow the local user to
3996 start programming his robot controller right away without having to
3997 guess what packages to use or which permissions to fix.</p>
3998
3999 <p>But when I sat down with my son the other day to program our NXT
4000 unit using his Debian Stretch computer, I discovered something
4001 annoying.  The local console user (ie my son) did not get access to
4002 the USB device for programming the unit.  This used to work, but no
4003 longer in Jessie and Stretch.  After some investigation and asking
4004 around on #debian-devel, I discovered that this was because udev had
4005 changed the mechanism used to grant access to local devices.  The
4006 ConsoleKit mechanism from <tt>/lib/udev/rules.d/70-udev-acl.rules</tt>
4007 no longer applied, because LDAP users no longer was added to the
4008 plugdev group during login.  Michael Biebl told me that this method
4009 was obsolete and the new method used ACLs instead.  This was good
4010 news, as the plugdev mechanism is a mess when using a remote user
4011 directory like LDAP.  Using ACLs would make sure a user lost device
4012 access when she logged out, even if the user left behind a background
4013 process which would retain the plugdev membership with the ConsoleKit
4014 setup.  Armed with this knowledge I moved on to fix the access problem
4015 for the LEGO Mindstorms related packages.</p>
4016
4017 <p>The new system uses a udev tag, 'uaccess'.  It can either be
4018 applied directly for a device, or is applied in
4019 /lib/udev/rules.d/70-uaccess.rules for classes of devices.  As the
4020 LEGO Mindstorms udev rules did not have a class, I decided to add the
4021 tag directly in the udev rules files included in the packages.  Here
4022 is one example.  For the nqc C compiler for the RCX, the
4023 <tt>/lib/udev/rules.d/60-nqc.rules</tt> file now look like this:
4024
4025 <p><pre>
4026 SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ACTION=="add", ATTR{idVendor}=="0694", ATTR{idProduct}=="0001", \
4027     SYMLINK+="rcx-%k", TAG+="uaccess"
4028 </pre></p>
4029
4030 <p>The key part is the 'TAG+="uaccess"' at the end.  I suspect all
4031 packages using plugdev in their /lib/udev/rules.d/ files should be
4032 changed to use this tag (either directly or indirectly via
4033 <tt>70-uaccess.rules</tt>).  Perhaps a lintian check should be created
4034 to detect this?</p>
4035
4036 <p>I've been unable to find good documentation on the uaccess feature.
4037 It is unclear to me if the uaccess tag is an internal implementation
4038 detail like the udev-acl tag used by
4039 <tt>/lib/udev/rules.d/70-udev-acl.rules</tt>.  If it is, I guess the
4040 indirect method is the preferred way.  Michael
4041 <a href="https://github.com/systemd/systemd/issues/4288">asked for more
4042 documentation from the systemd project</a> and I hope it will make
4043 this clearer.  For now I use the generic classes when they exist and
4044 is already handled by <tt>70-uaccess.rules</tt>, and add the tag
4045 directly if no such class exist.</p>
4046
4047 <p>To learn more about the isenkram system, please check out
4048 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram/">my
4049 blog posts tagged isenkram</a>.</p>
4050
4051 <p>To help out making life for LEGO constructors in Debian easier,
4052 please join us on our IRC channel
4053 <a href="irc://irc.debian.org/%23debian-lego">#debian-lego</a> and join
4054 the <a href="https://alioth.debian.org/projects/debian-lego/">Debian
4055 LEGO team</a> in the Alioth project we created yesterday.  A mailing
4056 list is not yet created, but we are working on it. :)</p>
4057
4058 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
4059 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
4060 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
4061
4062       </div>
4063       <div class="tags">
4064
4065
4066         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram">isenkram</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/lego">lego</a>.
4067
4068
4069       </div>
4070     </div>
4071     <div class="padding"></div>
4072
4073     <div class="entry">
4074       <div class="title">
4075         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/First_draft_Norwegian_Bokm_l_edition_of_The_Debian_Administrator_s_Handbook_now_public.html">First draft Norwegian Bokmål edition of The Debian Administrator's Handbook now public</a>
4076       </div>
4077       <div class="date">
4078         30th August 2016
4079       </div>
4080       <div class="body">
4081         <p>In April we
4082 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lets_make_a_Norwegian_Bokm_l_edition_of_The_Debian_Administrator_s_Handbook.html">started
4083 to work</a> on a Norwegian Bokmål edition of the "open access" book on
4084 how to set up and administrate a Debian system.  Today I am happy to
4085 report that the first draft is now publicly available.  You can find
4086 it on <a href="https://debian-handbook.info/get/">get the Debian
4087 Administrator's Handbook page</a> (under Other languages).  The first
4088 eight chapters have a first draft translation, and we are working on
4089 proofreading the content.  If you want to help out, please start
4090 contributing using
4091 <a href="https://hosted.weblate.org/projects/debian-handbook/">the
4092 hosted weblate project page</a>, and get in touch using
4093 <a href="http://lists.alioth.debian.org/mailman/listinfo/debian-handbook-translators">the
4094 translators mailing list</a>.  Please also check out
4095 <a href="https://debian-handbook.info/contribute/">the instructions for
4096 contributors</a>.  A good way to contribute is to proofread the text
4097 and update weblate if you find errors.</p>
4098
4099 <p>Our goal is still to make the Norwegian book available on paper as well as
4100 electronic form.</p>
4101
4102       </div>
4103       <div class="tags">
4104
4105
4106         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian-handbook">debian-handbook</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
4107
4108
4109       </div>
4110     </div>
4111     <div class="padding"></div>
4112
4113     <div class="entry">
4114       <div class="title">
4115         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Coz_can_help_you_find_bottlenecks_in_multi_threaded_software___nice_free_software.html">Coz can help you find bottlenecks in multi-threaded software - nice free software</a>
4116       </div>
4117       <div class="date">
4118         11th August 2016
4119       </div>
4120       <div class="body">
4121         <p>This summer, I read a great article
4122 "<a href="https://www.usenix.org/publications/login/summer2016/curtsinger">coz:
4123 This Is the Profiler You're Looking For</a>" in USENIX ;login: about
4124 how to profile multi-threaded programs.  It presented a system for
4125 profiling software by running experiences in the running program,
4126 testing how run time performance is affected by "speeding up" parts of
4127 the code to various degrees compared to a normal run.  It does this by
4128 slowing down parallel threads while the "faster up" code is running
4129 and measure how this affect processing time.  The processing time is
4130 measured using probes inserted into the code, either using progress
4131 counters (COZ_PROGRESS) or as latency meters (COZ_BEGIN/COZ_END).  It
4132 can also measure unmodified code by measuring complete the program
4133 runtime and running the program several times instead.</p>
4134
4135 <p>The project and presentation was so inspiring that I would like to
4136 get the system into Debian.  I
4137 <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=830708">created
4138 a WNPP request for it</a> and contacted upstream to try to make the
4139 system ready for Debian by sending patches.  The build process need to
4140 be changed a bit to avoid running 'git clone' to get dependencies, and
4141 to include the JavaScript web page used to visualize the collected
4142 profiling information included in the source package.
4143 But I expect that should work out fairly soon.</p>
4144
4145 <p>The way the system work is fairly simple.  To run an coz experiment
4146 on a binary with debug symbols available, start the program like this:
4147
4148 <p><blockquote><pre>
4149 coz run --- program-to-run
4150 </pre></blockquote></p>
4151
4152 <p>This will create a text file profile.coz with the instrumentation
4153 information.  To show what part of the code affect the performance
4154 most, use a web browser and either point it to
4155 <a href="http://plasma-umass.github.io/coz/">http://plasma-umass.github.io/coz/</a>
4156 or use the copy from git (in the gh-pages branch).  Check out this web
4157 site to have a look at several example profiling runs and get an idea what the end result from the profile runs look like.  To make the
4158 profiling more useful you include &lt;coz.h&gt; and insert the
4159 COZ_PROGRESS or COZ_BEGIN and COZ_END at appropriate places in the
4160 code, rebuild and run the profiler.  This allow coz to do more
4161 targeted experiments.</p>
4162
4163 <p>A video published by ACM
4164 <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jE0V-p1odPg">presenting the
4165 Coz profiler</a> is available from Youtube.  There is also a paper
4166 from the 25th Symposium on Operating Systems Principles available
4167 titled
4168 <a href="https://www.usenix.org/conference/atc16/technical-sessions/presentation/curtsinger">Coz:
4169 finding code that counts with causal profiling</a>.</p>
4170
4171 <p><a href="https://github.com/plasma-umass/coz">The source code</a>
4172 for Coz is available from github.  It will only build with clang
4173 because it uses a
4174 <a href="https://gcc.gnu.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=55606">C++
4175 feature missing in GCC</a>, but I've submitted
4176 <a href="https://github.com/plasma-umass/coz/pull/67">a patch to solve
4177 it</a> and hope it will be included in the upstream source soon.</p>
4178
4179 <p>Please get in touch if you, like me, would like to see this piece
4180 of software in Debian.  I would very much like some help with the
4181 packaging effort, as I lack the in depth knowledge on how to package
4182 C++ libraries.</p>
4183
4184       </div>
4185       <div class="tags">
4186
4187
4188         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nice free software">nice free software</a>.
4189
4190
4191       </div>
4192     </div>
4193     <div class="padding"></div>
4194
4195     <div class="entry">
4196       <div class="title">
4197         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Unlocking_HTC_Desire_HD_on_Linux_using_unruu_and_fastboot.html">Unlocking HTC Desire HD on Linux using unruu and fastboot</a>
4198       </div>
4199       <div class="date">
4200          7th July 2016
4201       </div>
4202       <div class="body">
4203         <p>Yesterday, I tried to unlock a HTC Desire HD phone, and it proved
4204 to be a slight challenge.  Here is the recipe if I ever need to do it
4205 again.  It all started by me wanting to try the recipe to set up
4206 <a href="https://blog.torproject.org/blog/mission-impossible-hardening-android-security-and-privacy">an
4207 hardened Android installation</a> from the Tor project blog on a
4208 device I had access to.  It is a old mobile phone with a broken
4209 microphone The initial idea had been to just
4210 <a href="http://wiki.cyanogenmod.org/w/Install_CM_for_ace">install
4211 CyanogenMod on it</a>, but did not quite find time to start on it
4212 until a few days ago.</p>
4213
4214 <p>The unlock process is supposed to be simple: (1) Boot into the boot
4215 loader (press volume down and power at the same time), (2) select
4216 'fastboot' before (3) connecting the device via USB to a Linux
4217 machine, (4) request the device identifier token by running 'fastboot
4218 oem get_identifier_token', (5) request the device unlocking key using
4219 the <a href="http://www.htcdev.com/bootloader/">HTC developer web
4220 site</a> and unlock the phone using the key file emailed to you.</p>
4221
4222 <p>Unfortunately, this only work fi you have hboot version 2.00.0029
4223 or newer, and the device I was working on had 2.00.0027.  This
4224 apparently can be easily fixed by downloading a Windows program and
4225 running it on your Windows machine, if you accept the terms Microsoft
4226 require you to accept to use Windows - which I do not.  So I had to
4227 come up with a different approach.  I got a lot of help from AndyCap
4228 on #nuug, and would not have been able to get this working without
4229 him.</p>
4230
4231 <p>First I needed to extract the hboot firmware from
4232 <a href="http://www.htcdev.com/ruu/PD9810000_Ace_Sense30_S_hboot_2.00.0029.exe">the
4233 windows binary for HTC Desire HD</a> downloaded as 'the RUU' from HTC.
4234 For this there is is <a href="https://github.com/kmdm/unruu/">a github
4235 project named unruu</a> using libunshield.  The unshield tool did not
4236 recognise the file format, but unruu worked and extracted rom.zip,
4237 containing the new hboot firmware and a text file describing which
4238 devices it would work for.</p>
4239
4240 <p>Next, I needed to get the new firmware into the device.  For this I
4241 followed some instructions
4242 <a href="http://www.htc1guru.com/2013/09/new-ruu-zips-posted/">available
4243 from HTC1Guru.com</a>, and ran these commands as root on a Linux
4244 machine with Debian testing:</p>
4245
4246 <p><pre>
4247 adb reboot-bootloader
4248 fastboot oem rebootRUU
4249 fastboot flash zip rom.zip
4250 fastboot flash zip rom.zip
4251 fastboot reboot
4252 </pre></p>
4253
4254 <p>The flash command apparently need to be done twice to take effect,
4255 as the first is just preparations and the second one do the flashing.
4256 The adb command is just to get to the boot loader menu, so turning the
4257 device on while holding volume down and the power button should work
4258 too.</p>
4259
4260 <p>With the new hboot version in place I could start following the
4261 instructions on the HTC developer web site.  I got the device token
4262 like this:</p>
4263
4264 <p><pre>
4265 fastboot oem get_identifier_token 2>&1 | sed 's/(bootloader) //'
4266 </pre>
4267
4268 <p>And once I got the unlock code via email, I could use it like
4269 this:</p>
4270
4271 <p><pre>
4272 fastboot flash unlocktoken Unlock_code.bin
4273 </pre></p>
4274
4275 <p>And with that final step in place, the phone was unlocked and I
4276 could start stuffing the software of my own choosing into the device.
4277 So far I only inserted a replacement recovery image to wipe the phone
4278 before I start.  We will see what happen next.  Perhaps I should
4279 install <a href="https://www.debian.org/">Debian</a> on it. :)</p>
4280
4281       </div>
4282       <div class="tags">
4283
4284
4285         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bootsystem">bootsystem</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/opphavsrett">opphavsrett</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>.
4286
4287
4288       </div>
4289     </div>
4290     <div class="padding"></div>
4291
4292     <div class="entry">
4293       <div class="title">
4294         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_use_the_Signal_app_if_you_only_have_a_land_line__ie_no_mobile_phone_.html">How to use the Signal app if you only have a land line (ie no mobile phone)</a>
4295       </div>
4296       <div class="date">
4297          3rd July 2016
4298       </div>
4299       <div class="body">
4300         <p>For a while now, I have wanted to test
4301 <a href="https://whispersystems.org/">the Signal app</a>, as it is
4302 said to provide end to end encrypted communication and several of my
4303 friends and family are already using it.  As I by choice do not own a
4304 mobile phone, this proved to be harder than expected.  And I wanted to
4305 have the source of the client and know that it was the code used on my
4306 machine.  But yesterday I managed to get it working.  I used the
4307 Github source, compared it to the source in
4308 <a href="https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/signal-private-messenger/bikioccmkafdpakkkcpdbppfkghcmihk?hl=en-US">the
4309 Signal Chrome app</a> available from the Chrome web store, applied
4310 patches to use the production Signal servers, started the app and
4311 asked for the hidden "register without a smart phone" form.  Here is
4312 the recipe how I did it.</p>
4313
4314 <p>First, I fetched the Signal desktop source from Github, using
4315
4316 <pre>
4317 git clone https://github.com/WhisperSystems/Signal-Desktop.git
4318 </pre>
4319
4320 <p>Next, I patched the source to use the production servers, to be
4321 able to talk to other Signal users:</p>
4322
4323 <pre>
4324 cat &lt;&lt;EOF | patch -p0
4325 diff -ur ./js/background.js userdata/Default/Extensions/bikioccmkafdpakkkcpdbppfkghcmihk/0.15.0_0/js/background.js
4326 --- ./js/background.js  2016-06-29 13:43:15.630344628 +0200
4327 +++ userdata/Default/Extensions/bikioccmkafdpakkkcpdbppfkghcmihk/0.15.0_0/js/background.js    2016-06-29 14:06:29.530300934 +0200
4328 @@ -47,8 +47,8 @@
4329          });
4330      });
4331
4332 -    var SERVER_URL = 'https://textsecure-service-staging.whispersystems.org';
4333 -    var ATTACHMENT_SERVER_URL = 'https://whispersystems-textsecure-attachments-staging.s3.amazonaws.com';
4334 +    var SERVER_URL = 'https://textsecure-service-ca.whispersystems.org:4433';
4335 +    var ATTACHMENT_SERVER_URL = 'https://whispersystems-textsecure-attachments.s3.amazonaws.com';
4336      var messageReceiver;
4337      window.getSocketStatus = function() {
4338          if (messageReceiver) {
4339 diff -ur ./js/expire.js userdata/Default/Extensions/bikioccmkafdpakkkcpdbppfkghcmihk/0.15.0_0/js/expire.js
4340 --- ./js/expire.js      2016-06-29 13:43:15.630344628 +0200
4341 +++ userdata/Default/Extensions/bikioccmkafdpakkkcpdbppfkghcmihk/0.15.0_0/js/expire.js2016-06-29 14:06:29.530300934 +0200
4342 @@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
4343  ;(function() {
4344      'use strict';
4345 -    var BUILD_EXPIRATION = 0;
4346 +    var BUILD_EXPIRATION = 1474492690000;
4347
4348      window.extension = window.extension || {};
4349
4350 EOF
4351 </pre>
4352
4353 <p>The first part is changing the servers, and the second is updating
4354 an expiration timestamp.  This timestamp need to be updated regularly.
4355 It is set 90 days in the future by the build process (Gruntfile.js).
4356 The value is seconds since 1970 times 1000, as far as I can tell.</p>
4357
4358 <p>Based on a tip and good help from the #nuug IRC channel, I wrote a
4359 script to launch Signal in Chromium.</p>
4360
4361 <pre>
4362 #!/bin/sh
4363 cd $(dirname $0)
4364 mkdir -p userdata
4365 exec chromium \
4366   --proxy-server="socks://localhost:9050" \
4367   --user-data-dir=`pwd`/userdata --load-and-launch-app=`pwd`
4368 </pre>
4369
4370 <p> The script start the app and configure Chromium to use the Tor
4371 SOCKS5 proxy to make sure those controlling the Signal servers (today
4372 Amazon and Whisper Systems) as well as those listening on the lines
4373 will have a harder time location my laptop based on the Signal
4374 connections if they use source IP address.</p>
4375
4376 <p>When the script starts, one need to follow the instructions under
4377 "Standalone Registration" in the CONTRIBUTING.md file in the git
4378 repository.  I right clicked on the Signal window to get up the
4379 Chromium debugging tool, visited the 'Console' tab and wrote
4380 'extension.install("standalone")' on the console prompt to get the
4381 registration form.  Then I entered by land line phone number and
4382 pressed 'Call'.  5 seconds later the phone rang and a robot voice
4383 repeated the verification code three times.  After entering the number
4384 into the verification code field in the form, I could start using
4385 Signal from my laptop.
4386
4387 <p>As far as I can tell, The Signal app will leak who is talking to
4388 whom and thus who know who to those controlling the central server,
4389 but such leakage is hard to avoid with a centrally controlled server
4390 setup.  It is something to keep in mind when using Signal - the
4391 content of your chats are harder to intercept, but the meta data
4392 exposing your contact network is available to people you do not know.
4393 So better than many options, but not great.  And sadly the usage is
4394 connected to my land line, thus allowing those controlling the server
4395 to associate it to my home and person.  I would prefer it if only
4396 those I knew could tell who I was on Signal.  There are options
4397 avoiding such information leakage, but most of my friends are not
4398 using them, so I am stuck with Signal for now.</p>
4399
4400 <p><strong>Update 2017-01-10</strong>: There is an updated blog post
4401 on this topic in
4402 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Experience_and_updated_recipe_for_using_the_Signal_app_without_a_mobile_phone.html">Experience
4403 and updated recipe for using the Signal app without a mobile
4404 phone</a>.</p>
4405
4406       </div>
4407       <div class="tags">
4408
4409
4410         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance</a>.
4411
4412
4413       </div>
4414     </div>
4415     <div class="padding"></div>
4416
4417     <div class="entry">
4418       <div class="title">
4419         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_new__best__multimedia_player_in_Debian_.html">The new "best" multimedia player in Debian?</a>
4420       </div>
4421       <div class="date">
4422          6th June 2016
4423       </div>
4424       <div class="body">
4425         <p>When I set out a few weeks ago to figure out
4426 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/What_is_the_best_multimedia_player_in_Debian_.html">which
4427 multimedia player in Debian claimed to support most file formats /
4428 MIME types</a>, I was a bit surprised how varied the sets of MIME types
4429 the various players claimed support for.  The range was from 55 to 130
4430 MIME types.  I suspect most media formats are supported by all
4431 players, but this is not really reflected in the MimeTypes values in
4432 their desktop files.  There are probably also some bogus MIME types
4433 listed, but it is hard to identify which one this is.</p>
4434
4435 <p>Anyway, in the mean time I got in touch with upstream for some of
4436 the players suggesting to add more MIME types to their desktop files,
4437 and decided to spend some time myself improving the situation for my
4438 favorite media player VLC.  The fixes for VLC entered Debian unstable
4439 yesterday. The complete list of MIME types can be seen on the
4440 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DebianMultimedia/PlayerSupport">Multimedia
4441 player MIME type support status</a> Debian wiki page.</p>
4442
4443 <p>The new "best" multimedia player in Debian?  It is VLC, followed by
4444 totem, parole, kplayer, gnome-mpv, mpv, smplayer, mplayer-gui and
4445 kmplayer.  I am sure some of the other players desktop files support
4446 several of the formats currently listed as working only with vlc,
4447 toten and parole.</p>
4448
4449 <p>A sad observation is that only 14 MIME types are listed as
4450 supported by all the tested multimedia players in Debian in their
4451 desktop files: audio/mpeg, audio/vnd.rn-realaudio, audio/x-mpegurl,
4452 audio/x-ms-wma, audio/x-scpls, audio/x-wav, video/mp4, video/mpeg,
4453 video/quicktime, video/vnd.rn-realvideo, video/x-matroska,
4454 video/x-ms-asf, video/x-ms-wmv and video/x-msvideo.  Personally I find
4455 it sad that video/ogg and video/webm is not supported by all the media
4456 players in Debian.  As far as I can tell, all of them can handle both
4457 formats.</p>
4458
4459       </div>
4460       <div class="tags">
4461
4462
4463         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/multimedia">multimedia</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/video">video</a>.
4464
4465
4466       </div>
4467     </div>
4468     <div class="padding"></div>
4469
4470     <div class="entry">
4471       <div class="title">
4472         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/A_program_should_be_able_to_open_its_own_files_on_Linux.html">A program should be able to open its own files on Linux</a>
4473       </div>
4474       <div class="date">
4475          5th June 2016
4476       </div>
4477       <div class="body">
4478         <p>Many years ago, when koffice was fresh and with few users, I
4479 decided to test its presentation tool when making the slides for a
4480 talk I was giving for NUUG on Japhar, a free Java virtual machine.  I
4481 wrote the first draft of the slides, saved the result and went to bed
4482 the day before I would give the talk.  The next day I took a plane to
4483 the location where the meeting should take place, and on the plane I
4484 started up koffice again to polish the talk a bit, only to discover
4485 that kpresenter refused to load its own data file.  I cursed a bit and
4486 started making the slides again from memory, to have something to
4487 present when I arrived.  I tested that the saved files could be
4488 loaded, and the day seemed to be rescued.  I continued to polish the
4489 slides until I suddenly discovered that the saved file could no longer
4490 be loaded into kpresenter.  In the end I had to rewrite the slides
4491 three times, condensing the content until the talk became shorter and
4492 shorter.  After the talk I was able to pinpoint the problem &ndash;
4493 kpresenter wrote inline images in a way itself could not understand.
4494 Eventually that bug was fixed and kpresenter ended up being a great
4495 program to make slides.  The point I'm trying to make is that we
4496 expect a program to be able to load its own data files, and it is
4497 embarrassing to its developers if it can't.</p>
4498
4499 <p>Did you ever experience a program failing to load its own data
4500 files from the desktop file browser?  It is not a uncommon problem.  A
4501 while back I discovered that the screencast recorder
4502 gtk-recordmydesktop would save an Ogg Theora video file the KDE file
4503 browser would refuse to open.  No video player claimed to understand
4504 such file.  I tracked down the cause being <tt>file --mime-type</tt>
4505 returning the application/ogg MIME type, which no video player I had
4506 installed listed as a MIME type they would understand.  I asked for
4507 <a href="http://bugs.gw.com/view.php?id=382">file to change its
4508 behavour</a> and use the MIME type video/ogg instead.  I also asked
4509 several video players to add video/ogg to their desktop files, to give
4510 the file browser an idea what to do about Ogg Theora files.  After a
4511 while, the desktop file browsers in Debian started to handle the
4512 output from gtk-recordmydesktop properly.</p>
4513
4514 <p>But history repeats itself.  A few days ago I tested the music
4515 system Rosegarden again, and I discovered that the KDE and xfce file
4516 browsers did not know what to do with the Rosegarden project files
4517 (*.rg).  I've reported <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/825993">the
4518 rosegarden problem to BTS</a> and a fix is commited to git and will be
4519 included in the next upload.  To increase the chance of me remembering
4520 how to fix the problem next time some program fail to load its files
4521 from the file browser, here are some notes on how to fix it.</p>
4522
4523 <p>The file browsers in Debian in general operates on MIME types.
4524 There are two sources for the MIME type of a given file.  The output from
4525 <tt>file --mime-type</tt> mentioned above, and the content of the
4526 shared MIME type registry (under /usr/share/mime/).  The file MIME
4527 type is mapped to programs supporting the MIME type, and this
4528 information is collected from
4529 <a href="https://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Specifications/desktop-entry-spec/">the
4530 desktop files</a> available in /usr/share/applications/.  If there is
4531 one desktop file claiming support for the MIME type of the file, it is
4532 activated when asking to open a given file.  If there are more, one
4533 can normally select which one to use by right-clicking on the file and
4534 selecting the wanted one using 'Open with' or similar.  In general
4535 this work well.  But it depend on each program picking a good MIME
4536 type (preferably
4537 <a href="http://www.iana.org/assignments/media-types/media-types.xhtml">a
4538 MIME type registered with IANA</a>), file and/or the shared MIME
4539 registry recognizing the file and the desktop file to list the MIME
4540 type in its list of supported MIME types.</p>
4541
4542 <p>The <tt>/usr/share/mime/packages/rosegarden.xml</tt> entry for
4543 <a href="http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Specifications/shared-mime-info-spec">the
4544 Shared MIME database</a> look like this:</p>
4545
4546 <p><blockquote><pre>
4547 &lt;?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?&gt;
4548 &lt;mime-info xmlns="http://www.freedesktop.org/standards/shared-mime-info"&gt;
4549   &lt;mime-type type="audio/x-rosegarden"&gt;
4550     &lt;sub-class-of type="application/x-gzip"/&gt;
4551     &lt;comment&gt;Rosegarden project file&lt;/comment&gt;
4552     &lt;glob pattern="*.rg"/&gt;
4553   &lt;/mime-type&gt;
4554 &lt;/mime-info&gt;
4555 </pre></blockquote></p>
4556
4557 <p>This states that audio/x-rosegarden is a kind of application/x-gzip
4558 (it is a gzipped XML file).  Note, it is much better to use an
4559 official MIME type registered with IANA than it is to make up ones own
4560 unofficial ones like the x-rosegarden type used by rosegarden.</p>
4561
4562 <p>The desktop file of the rosegarden program failed to list
4563 audio/x-rosegarden in its list of supported MIME types, causing the
4564 file browsers to have no idea what to do with *.rg files:</p>
4565
4566 <p><blockquote><pre>
4567 % grep Mime /usr/share/applications/rosegarden.desktop
4568 MimeType=audio/x-rosegarden-composition;audio/x-rosegarden-device;audio/x-rosegarden-project;audio/x-rosegarden-template;audio/midi;
4569 X-KDE-NativeMimeType=audio/x-rosegarden-composition
4570 %
4571 </pre></blockquote></p>
4572
4573 <p>The fix was to add "audio/x-rosegarden;" at the end of the
4574 MimeType= line.</p>
4575
4576 <p>If you run into a file which fail to open the correct program when
4577 selected from the file browser, please check out the output from
4578 <tt>file --mime-type</tt> for the file, ensure the file ending and
4579 MIME type is registered somewhere under /usr/share/mime/ and check
4580 that some desktop file under /usr/share/applications/ is claiming
4581 support for this MIME type.  If not, please report a bug to have it
4582 fixed. :)</p>
4583
4584       </div>
4585       <div class="tags">
4586
4587
4588         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
4589
4590
4591       </div>
4592     </div>
4593     <div class="padding"></div>
4594
4595     <div class="entry">
4596       <div class="title">
4597         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Isenkram_with_PackageKit_support___new_version_0_23_available_in_Debian_unstable.html">Isenkram with PackageKit support - new version 0.23 available in Debian unstable</a>
4598       </div>
4599       <div class="date">
4600         25th May 2016
4601       </div>
4602       <div class="body">
4603         <p><a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/isenkram">The isenkram
4604 system</a> is a user-focused solution in Debian for handling hardware
4605 related packages.  The idea is to have a database of mappings between
4606 hardware and packages, and pop up a dialog suggesting for the user to
4607 install the packages to use a given hardware dongle.  Some use cases
4608 are when you insert a Yubikey, it proposes to install the software
4609 needed to control it; when you insert a braille reader list it
4610 proposes to install the packages needed to send text to the reader;
4611 and when you insert a ColorHug screen calibrator it suggests to
4612 install the driver for it.  The system work well, and even have a few
4613 command line tools to install firmware packages and packages for the
4614 hardware already in the machine (as opposed to hotpluggable hardware).</p>
4615
4616 <p>The system was initially written using aptdaemon, because I found
4617 good documentation and example code on how to use it.  But aptdaemon
4618 is going away and is generally being replaced by
4619 <a href="http://www.freedesktop.org/software/PackageKit/">PackageKit</a>,
4620 so Isenkram needed a rewrite.  And today, thanks to the great patch
4621 from my college Sunil Mohan Adapa in the FreedomBox project, the
4622 rewrite finally took place.  I've just uploaded a new version of
4623 Isenkram into Debian Unstable with the patch included, and the default
4624 for the background daemon is now to use PackageKit.  To check it out,
4625 install the <tt>isenkram</tt> package and insert some hardware dongle
4626 and see if it is recognised.</p>
4627
4628 <p>If you want to know what kind of packages isenkram would propose for
4629 the machine it is running on, you can check out the isenkram-lookup
4630 program.  This is what it look like on a Thinkpad X230:</p>
4631
4632 <p><blockquote><pre>
4633 % isenkram-lookup
4634 bluez
4635 cheese
4636 fprintd
4637 fprintd-demo
4638 gkrellm-thinkbat
4639 hdapsd
4640 libpam-fprintd
4641 pidgin-blinklight
4642 thinkfan
4643 tleds
4644 tp-smapi-dkms
4645 tp-smapi-source
4646 tpb
4647 %p
4648 </pre></blockquote></p>
4649
4650 <p>The hardware mappings come from several places.  The preferred way
4651 is for packages to announce their hardware support using
4652 <a href="https://www.freedesktop.org/software/appstream/docs/">the
4653 cross distribution appstream system</a>.
4654 See
4655 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram/">previous
4656 blog posts about isenkram</a> to learn how to do that.</p>
4657
4658       </div>
4659       <div class="tags">
4660
4661
4662         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram">isenkram</a>.
4663
4664
4665       </div>
4666     </div>
4667     <div class="padding"></div>
4668
4669     <div class="entry">
4670       <div class="title">
4671         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Discharge_rate_estimate_in_new_battery_statistics_collector_for_Debian.html">Discharge rate estimate in new battery statistics collector for Debian</a>
4672       </div>
4673       <div class="date">
4674         23rd May 2016
4675       </div>
4676       <div class="body">
4677         <p>Yesterday I updated the
4678 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/battery-stats">battery-stats
4679 package in Debian</a> with a few patches sent to me by skilled and
4680 enterprising users.  There were some nice user and visible changes.
4681 First of all, both desktop menu entries now work.  A design flaw in
4682 one of the script made the history graph fail to show up (its PNG was
4683 dumped in ~/.xsession-errors) if no controlling TTY was available.
4684 The script worked when called from the command line, but not when
4685 called from the desktop menu.  I changed this to look for a DISPLAY
4686 variable or a TTY before deciding where to draw the graph, and now the
4687 graph window pop up as expected.</p>
4688
4689 <p>The next new feature is a discharge rate estimator in one of the
4690 graphs (the one showing the last few hours).  New is also the user of
4691 colours showing charging in blue and discharge in red.  The percentages
4692 of this graph is relative to last full charge, not battery design
4693 capacity.</p>
4694
4695 <p align="center"><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2016-05-23-battery-stats-rate.png"/></p>
4696
4697 <p>The other graph show the entire history of the collected battery
4698 statistics, comparing it to the design capacity of the battery to
4699 visualise how the battery life time get shorter over time.  The red
4700 line in this graph is what the previous graph considers 100 percent:
4701
4702 <p align="center"><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2016-05-23-battery-stats-history.png"/></p>
4703
4704 <p>In this graph you can see that I only charge the battery to 80
4705 percent of last full capacity, and how the capacity of the battery is
4706 shrinking. :(</p>
4707
4708 <p>The last new feature is in the collector, which now will handle
4709 more hardware models.  On some hardware, Linux power supply
4710 information is stored in /sys/class/power_supply/ACAD/, while the
4711 collector previously only looked in /sys/class/power_supply/AC/.  Now
4712 both are checked to figure if there is power connected to the
4713 machine.</p>
4714
4715 <p>If you are interested in how your laptop battery is doing, please
4716 check out the
4717 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/battery-stats">battery-stats</a>
4718 in Debian unstable, or rebuild it on Jessie to get it working on
4719 Debian stable. :) The upstream source is available from <a
4720 href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/battery-stats">github</a>.
4721 Patches are very welcome.</p>
4722
4723 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
4724 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
4725 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
4726
4727       </div>
4728       <div class="tags">
4729
4730
4731         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
4732
4733
4734       </div>
4735     </div>
4736     <div class="padding"></div>
4737
4738     <div class="entry">
4739       <div class="title">
4740         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_now_with_ZFS_on_Linux_included.html">Debian now with ZFS on Linux included</a>
4741       </div>
4742       <div class="date">
4743         12th May 2016
4744       </div>
4745       <div class="body">
4746         <p>Today, after many years of hard work from many people,
4747 <a href="http://zfsonlinux.org/">ZFS for Linux</a> finally entered
4748 Debian.  The package status can be seen on
4749 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/zfs-linux">the package tracker
4750 for zfs-linux</a>.  and
4751 <a href="https://qa.debian.org/developer.php?login=pkg-zfsonlinux-devel@lists.alioth.debian.org">the
4752 team status page</a>. If you want to help out, please join us.
4753 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/gitweb/?p=pkg-zfsonlinux/zfs.git">The
4754 source code</a> is available via git on Alioth.  It would also be
4755 great if you could help out with
4756 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/dkms">the dkms package</a>, as
4757 it is an important piece of the puzzle to get ZFS working.</p>
4758
4759       </div>
4760       <div class="tags">
4761
4762
4763         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
4764
4765
4766       </div>
4767     </div>
4768     <div class="padding"></div>
4769
4770     <div class="entry">
4771       <div class="title">
4772         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/What_is_the_best_multimedia_player_in_Debian_.html">What is the best multimedia player in Debian?</a>
4773       </div>
4774       <div class="date">
4775          8th May 2016
4776       </div>
4777       <div class="body">
4778         <p><strong>Where I set out to figure out which multimedia player in
4779 Debian claim support for most file formats.</strong></p>
4780
4781 <p>A few years ago, I had a look at the media support for Browser
4782 plugins in Debian, to get an idea which plugins to include in Debian
4783 Edu.  I created a script to extract the set of supported MIME types
4784 for each plugin, and used this to find out which multimedia browser
4785 plugin supported most file formats / media types.
4786 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/BrowserMultimedia">The
4787 result</a> can still be seen on the Debian wiki, even though it have
4788 not been updated for a while.  But browser plugins are less relevant
4789 these days, so I thought it was time to look at standalone
4790 players.</p>
4791
4792 <p>A few days ago I was tired of VLC not being listed as a viable
4793 player when I wanted to play videos from the Norwegian National
4794 Broadcasting Company, and decided to investigate why.  The cause is a
4795 <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/822245">missing MIME type in the VLC
4796 desktop file</a>.  In the process I wrote a script to compare the set
4797 of MIME types announced in the desktop file and the browser plugin,
4798 only to discover that there is quite a large difference between the
4799 two for VLC.  This discovery made me dig up the script I used to
4800 compare browser plugins, and adjust it to compare desktop files
4801 instead, to try to figure out which multimedia player in Debian
4802 support most file formats.</p>
4803
4804 <p>The result can be seen on the Debian Wiki, as
4805 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DebianMultimedia/PlayerSupport">a
4806 table listing all MIME types supported by one of the packages included
4807 in the table</a>, with the package supporting most MIME types being
4808 listed first in the table.</p>
4809
4810 </p>The best multimedia player in Debian?  It is totem, followed by
4811 parole, kplayer, mpv, vlc, smplayer mplayer-gui gnome-mpv and
4812 kmplayer.  Time for the other players to update their announced MIME
4813 support?</p>
4814
4815       </div>
4816       <div class="tags">
4817
4818
4819         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/multimedia">multimedia</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/video">video</a>.
4820
4821
4822       </div>
4823     </div>
4824     <div class="padding"></div>
4825
4826     <div class="entry">
4827       <div class="title">
4828         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_Pyra___handheld_computer_with_Debian_preinstalled.html">The Pyra - handheld computer with Debian preinstalled</a>
4829       </div>
4830       <div class="date">
4831          4th May 2016
4832       </div>
4833       <div class="body">
4834         A friend of mine made me aware of
4835 <a href="https://pyra-handheld.com/boards/pages/pyra/">The Pyra</a>, a
4836 handheld computer which will be delivered with Debian preinstalled.  I
4837 would love to get one of those for my birthday. :)</p>
4838
4839 <p>The machine is a complete ARM-based PC with micro HDMI, SATA, USB
4840 plugs and many others connectors, and include a full keyboard and a 5"
4841 LCD touch screen.  The 6000mAh battery is claimed to provide a whole
4842 day of battery life time, but I have not seen any independent tests
4843 confirming this.  The vendor is still collecting preorders, and the
4844 last I heard last night was that 22 more orders were needed before
4845 production started.</p>
4846
4847 <p>As far as I know, this is the first handheld preinstalled with
4848 Debian.  Please let me know if you know of any others.  Is it the
4849 first computer being sold with Debian preinstalled?</p>
4850
4851       </div>
4852       <div class="tags">
4853
4854
4855         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
4856
4857
4858       </div>
4859     </div>
4860     <div class="padding"></div>
4861
4862     <div class="entry">
4863       <div class="title">
4864         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lets_make_a_Norwegian_Bokm_l_edition_of_The_Debian_Administrator_s_Handbook.html">Lets make a Norwegian Bokmål edition of The Debian Administrator's Handbook</a>
4865       </div>
4866       <div class="date">
4867         10th April 2016
4868       </div>
4869       <div class="body">
4870         <p>During this weekends
4871 <a href="http://www.nuug.no/news/Oslo__Takk_for_feilfiksingsfesten.shtml">bug
4872 squashing party and developer gathering</a>, we decided to do our part
4873 to make sure there are good books about Debian available in Norwegian
4874 Bokmål, and got in touch with the people behind the
4875 <a href="http://debian-handbook.info/">Debian Administrator's Handbook
4876 project</a> to get started.  If you want to help out, please start
4877 contributing using
4878 <a href="https://hosted.weblate.org/projects/debian-handbook/">the
4879 hosted weblate project page</a>, and get in touch using
4880 <a href="http://lists.alioth.debian.org/mailman/listinfo/debian-handbook-translators">the
4881 translators mailing list</a>.  Please also check out
4882 <a href="https://debian-handbook.info/contribute/">the instructions for
4883 contributors</a>.</p>
4884
4885 <p>The book is already available on paper in English, French and
4886 Japanese, and our goal is to get it available on paper in Norwegian
4887 Bokmål too.  In addition to the paper edition, there are also EPUB and
4888 Mobi versions available.  And there are incomplete translations
4889 available for many more languages.</p>
4890
4891       </div>
4892       <div class="tags">
4893
4894
4895         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian-handbook">debian-handbook</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
4896
4897
4898       </div>
4899     </div>
4900     <div class="padding"></div>
4901
4902     <div class="entry">
4903       <div class="title">
4904         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/One_in_two_hundred_Debian_users_using_ZFS_on_Linux_.html">One in two hundred Debian users using ZFS on Linux?</a>
4905       </div>
4906       <div class="date">
4907          7th April 2016
4908       </div>
4909       <div class="body">
4910         <p>Just for fun I had a look at the popcon number of ZFS related
4911 packages in Debian, and was quite surprised with what I found.  I use
4912 ZFS myself at home, but did not really expect many others to do so.
4913 But I might be wrong.</p>
4914
4915 <p>According to
4916 <a href="https://qa.debian.org/popcon.php?package=spl-linux">the popcon
4917 results for spl-linux</a>, there are 1019 Debian installations, or
4918 0.53% of the population, with the package installed.  As far as I know
4919 the only use of the spl-linux package is as a support library for ZFS
4920 on Linux, so I use it here as proxy for measuring the number of ZFS
4921 installation on Linux in Debian.  In the kFreeBSD variant of Debian
4922 the ZFS feature is already available, and there
4923 <a href="https://qa.debian.org/popcon.php?package=zfsutils">the popcon
4924 results for zfsutils</a> show 1625 Debian installations or 0.84% of
4925 the population.  So I guess I am not alone in using ZFS on Debian.</p>
4926
4927 <p>But even though the Debian project leader Lucas Nussbaum
4928 <a href="https://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce/2015/04/msg00006.html">announced
4929 in April 2015</a> that the legal obstacles blocking ZFS on Debian were
4930 cleared, the package is still not in Debian.  The package is again in
4931 the NEW queue.  Several uploads have been rejected so far because the
4932 debian/copyright file was incomplete or wrong, but there is no reason
4933 to give up.  The current status can be seen on
4934 <a href="https://qa.debian.org/developer.php?login=pkg-zfsonlinux-devel@lists.alioth.debian.org">the
4935 team status page</a>, and
4936 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/gitweb/?p=pkg-zfsonlinux/zfs.git">the
4937 source code</a> is available on Alioth.</p>
4938
4939 <p>As I want ZFS to be included in next version of Debian to make sure
4940 my home server can function in the future using only official Debian
4941 packages, and the current blocker is to get the debian/copyright file
4942 accepted by the FTP masters in Debian, I decided a while back to try
4943 to help out the team.  This was the background for my blog post about
4944 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Creating__updating_and_checking_debian_copyright_semi_automatically.html">creating,
4945 updating and checking debian/copyright semi-automatically</a>, and I
4946 used the techniques I explored there to try to find any errors in the
4947 copyright file.  It is not very easy to check every one of the around
4948 2000 files in the source package, but I hope we this time got it
4949 right.  If you want to help out, check out the git source and try to
4950 find missing entries in the debian/copyright file.</p>
4951
4952       </div>
4953       <div class="tags">
4954
4955
4956         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
4957
4958
4959       </div>
4960     </div>
4961     <div class="padding"></div>
4962
4963     <div class="entry">
4964       <div class="title">
4965         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Full_battery_stats_collector_is_now_available_in_Debian.html">Full battery stats collector is now available in Debian</a>
4966       </div>
4967       <div class="date">
4968         23rd March 2016
4969       </div>
4970       <div class="body">
4971         <p>Since this morning, the battery-stats package in Debian include an
4972 extended collector that will collect the complete battery history for
4973 later processing and graphing.  The original collector store the
4974 battery level as percentage of last full level, while the new
4975 collector also record battery vendor, model, serial number, design
4976 full level, last full level and current battery level.  This make it
4977 possible to predict the lifetime of the battery as well as visualise
4978 the energy flow when the battery is charging or discharging.</p>
4979
4980 <p>The new tools are available in <tt>/usr/share/battery-stats/</tt>
4981 in the version 0.5.1 package in unstable.  Get the new battery level graph
4982 and lifetime prediction by running:
4983
4984 <p><pre>
4985 /usr/share/battery-stats/battery-stats-graph /var/log/battery-stats.csv
4986 </pre></p>
4987
4988 <p>Or select the 'Battery Level Graph' from your application menu.</p>
4989
4990 <p>The flow in/out of the battery can be seen by running (no menu
4991 entry yet):</p>
4992
4993 <p><pre>
4994 /usr/share/battery-stats/battery-stats-graph-flow
4995 </pre></p>
4996
4997 <p>I'm not quite happy with the way the data is visualised, at least
4998 when there are few data points.  The graphs look a bit better with a
4999 few years of data.</p>
5000
5001 <p>A while back one important feature I use in the battery stats
5002 collector broke in Debian.  The scripts in
5003 <tt>/usr/lib/pm-utils/power.d/</tt> were no longer executed.  I
5004 suspect it happened when Jessie started using systemd, but I do not
5005 know.  The issue is reported as
5006 <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/818649">bug #818649</a> against
5007 pm-utils.  I managed to work around it by adding an udev rule to call
5008 the collector script every time the power connector is connected and
5009 disconnected.  With this fix in place it was finally time to make a
5010 new release of the package, and get it into Debian.</p>
5011
5012 <p>If you are interested in how your laptop battery is doing, please
5013 check out the
5014 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/battery-stats">battery-stats</a>
5015 in Debian unstable, or rebuild it on Jessie to get it working on
5016 Debian stable. :) The upstream source is available from
5017 <a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/battery-stats">github</a>.
5018 As always, patches are very welcome.</p>
5019
5020       </div>
5021       <div class="tags">
5022
5023
5024         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
5025
5026
5027       </div>
5028     </div>
5029     <div class="padding"></div>
5030
5031     <div class="entry">
5032       <div class="title">
5033         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Making_battery_measurements_a_little_easier_in_Debian.html">Making battery measurements a little easier in Debian</a>
5034       </div>
5035       <div class="date">
5036         15th March 2016
5037       </div>
5038       <div class="body">
5039         <p>Back in September, I blogged about
5040 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_life_and_death_of_a_laptop_battery.html">the
5041 system I wrote to collect statistics about my laptop battery</a>, and
5042 how it showed the decay and death of this battery (now replaced).  I
5043 created a simple deb package to handle the collection and graphing,
5044 but did not want to upload it to Debian as there were already
5045 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/battery-stats">a battery-stats
5046 package in Debian</a> that should do the same thing, and I did not see
5047 a point of uploading a competing package when battery-stats could be
5048 fixed instead.  I reported a few bugs about its non-function, and
5049 hoped someone would step in and fix it.  But no-one did.</p>
5050
5051 <p>I got tired of waiting a few days ago, and took matters in my own
5052 hands.  The end result is that I am now the new upstream developer of
5053 battery stats (<a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/battery-stats">available from github</a>) and part of the team maintaining
5054 battery-stats in Debian, and the package in Debian unstable is finally
5055 able to collect battery status using the <tt>/sys/class/power_supply/</tt>
5056 information provided by the Linux kernel.  If you install the
5057 battery-stats package from unstable now, you will be able to get a
5058 graph of the current battery fill level, to get some idea about the
5059 status of the battery.  The source package build and work just fine in
5060 Debian testing and stable (and probably oldstable too, but I have not
5061 tested).  The default graph you get for that system look like this:</p>
5062
5063 <p align="center"><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2016-03-15-battery-stats-graph-example.png" width="70%" align="center"></p>
5064
5065 <p>My plans for the future is to merge my old scripts into the
5066 battery-stats package, as my old scripts collected a lot more details
5067 about the battery.  The scripts are merged into the upstream
5068 battery-stats git repository already, but I am not convinced they work
5069 yet, as I changed a lot of paths along the way.  Will have to test a
5070 bit more before I make a new release.</p>
5071
5072 <p>I will also consider changing the file format slightly, as I
5073 suspect the way I combine several values into one field might make it
5074 impossible to know the type of the value when using it for processing
5075 and graphing.</p>
5076
5077 <p>If you would like I would like to keep an close eye on your laptop
5078 battery, check out the battery-stats package in
5079 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/battery-stats">Debian</a> and
5080 on
5081 <a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/battery-stats">github</a>.
5082 I would love some help to improve the system further.</p>
5083
5084       </div>
5085       <div class="tags">
5086
5087
5088         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
5089
5090
5091       </div>
5092     </div>
5093     <div class="padding"></div>
5094
5095     <div class="entry">
5096       <div class="title">
5097         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Creating__updating_and_checking_debian_copyright_semi_automatically.html">Creating, updating and checking debian/copyright semi-automatically</a>
5098       </div>
5099       <div class="date">
5100         19th February 2016
5101       </div>
5102       <div class="body">
5103         <p>Making packages for Debian requires quite a lot of attention to
5104 details.  And one of the details is the content of the
5105 debian/copyright file, which should list all relevant licenses used by
5106 the code in the package in question, preferably in
5107 <a href="https://www.debian.org/doc/packaging-manuals/copyright-format/1.0/">machine
5108 readable DEP5 format</a>.</p>
5109
5110 <p>For large packages with lots of contributors it is hard to write
5111 and update this file manually, and if you get some detail wrong, the
5112 package is normally rejected by the ftpmasters.  So getting it right
5113 the first time around get the package into Debian faster, and save
5114 both you and the ftpmasters some work..  Today, while trying to figure
5115 out what was wrong with
5116 <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=686447">the
5117 zfsonlinux copyright file</a>, I decided to spend some time on
5118 figuring out the options for doing this job automatically, or at least
5119 semi-automatically.</p>
5120
5121 <p>Lucikly, there are at least two tools available for generating the
5122 file based on the code in the source package,
5123 <tt><a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/debmake">debmake</a></tt>
5124 and <tt><a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/cme">cme</a></tt>.  I'm
5125 not sure which one of them came first, but both seem to be able to
5126 create a sensible draft file.  As far as I can tell, none of them can
5127 be trusted to get the result just right, so the content need to be
5128 polished a bit before the file is OK to upload.  I found the debmake
5129 option in
5130 <a href="http://goofying-with-debian.blogspot.com/2014/07/debmake-checking-source-against-dep-5.html">a
5131 blog posts from 2014</a>.
5132
5133 <p>To generate using debmake, use the -cc option:
5134
5135 <p><pre>
5136 debmake -cc > debian/copyright
5137 </pre></p>
5138
5139 <p>Note there are some problems with python and non-ASCII names, so
5140 this might not be the best option.</p>
5141
5142 <p>The cme option is based on a config parsing library, and I found
5143 this approach in
5144 <a href="https://ddumont.wordpress.com/2015/04/05/improving-creation-of-debian-copyright-file/">a
5145 blog post from 2015</a>.  To generate using cme, use the 'update
5146 dpkg-copyright' option:
5147
5148 <p><pre>
5149 cme update dpkg-copyright
5150 </pre></p>
5151
5152 <p>This will create or update debian/copyright.  The cme tool seem to
5153 handle UTF-8 names better than debmake.</p>
5154
5155 <p>When the copyright file is created, I would also like some help to
5156 check if the file is correct.  For this I found two good options,
5157 <tt>debmake -k</tt> and <tt>license-reconcile</tt>.  The former seem
5158 to focus on license types and file matching, and is able to detect
5159 ineffective blocks in the copyright file.  The latter reports missing
5160 copyright holders and years, but was confused by inconsistent license
5161 names (like CDDL vs. CDDL-1.0).  I suspect it is good to use both and
5162 fix all issues reported by them before uploading.  But I do not know
5163 if the tools and the ftpmasters agree on what is important to fix in a
5164 copyright file, so the package might still be rejected.</p>
5165
5166 <p>The devscripts tool <tt>licensecheck</tt> deserve mentioning.  It
5167 will read through the source and try to find all copyright statements.
5168 It is not comparing the result to the content of debian/copyright, but
5169 can be useful when verifying the content of the copyright file.</p>
5170
5171 <p>Are you aware of better tools in Debian to create and update
5172 debian/copyright file.  Please let me know, or blog about it on
5173 planet.debian.org.</p>
5174
5175 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
5176 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
5177 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
5178
5179 <p><strong>Update 2016-02-20</strong>: I got a tip from Mike Gabriel
5180 on how to use licensecheck and cdbs to create a draft copyright file
5181
5182 <p><pre>
5183 licensecheck --copyright -r `find * -type f` | \
5184   /usr/lib/cdbs/licensecheck2dep5 > debian/copyright.auto
5185 </pre></p>
5186
5187 <p>He mentioned that he normally check the generated file into the
5188 version control system to make it easier to discover license and
5189 copyright changes in the upstream source.  I will try to do the same
5190 with my packages in the future.</p>
5191
5192 <p><strong>Update 2016-02-21</strong>: The cme author recommended
5193 against using -quiet for new users, so I removed it from the proposed
5194 command line.</p>
5195
5196       </div>
5197       <div class="tags">
5198
5199
5200         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
5201
5202
5203       </div>
5204     </div>
5205     <div class="padding"></div>
5206
5207     <div class="entry">
5208       <div class="title">
5209         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Using_appstream_in_Debian_to_locate_packages_with_firmware_and_mime_type_support.html">Using appstream in Debian to locate packages with firmware and mime type support</a>
5210       </div>
5211       <div class="date">
5212          4th February 2016
5213       </div>
5214       <div class="body">
5215         <p>The <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DEP-11">appstream system</a>
5216 is taking shape in Debian, and one provided feature is a very
5217 convenient way to tell you which package to install to make a given
5218 firmware file available when the kernel is looking for it.  This can
5219 be done using apt-file too, but that is for someone else to blog
5220 about. :)</p>
5221
5222 <p>Here is a small recipe to find the package with a given firmware
5223 file, in this example I am looking for ctfw-3.2.3.0.bin, randomly
5224 picked from the set of firmware announced using appstream in Debian
5225 unstable.  In general you would be looking for the firmware requested
5226 by the kernel during kernel module loading.  To find the package
5227 providing the example file, do like this:</p>
5228
5229 <blockquote><pre>
5230 % apt install appstream
5231 [...]
5232 % apt update
5233 [...]
5234 % appstreamcli what-provides firmware:runtime ctfw-3.2.3.0.bin | \
5235   awk '/Package:/ {print $2}'
5236 firmware-qlogic
5237 %
5238 </pre></blockquote>
5239
5240 <p>See <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/AppStream/Guidelines">the
5241 appstream wiki</a> page to learn how to embed the package metadata in
5242 a way appstream can use.</p>
5243
5244 <p>This same approach can be used to find any package supporting a
5245 given MIME type.  This is very useful when you get a file you do not
5246 know how to handle.  First find the mime type using <tt>file
5247 --mime-type</tt>, and next look up the package providing support for
5248 it.  Lets say you got an SVG file.  Its MIME type is image/svg+xml,
5249 and you can find all packages handling this type like this:</p>
5250
5251 <blockquote><pre>
5252 % apt install appstream
5253 [...]
5254 % apt update
5255 [...]
5256 % appstreamcli what-provides mimetype image/svg+xml | \
5257   awk '/Package:/ {print $2}'
5258 bkchem
5259 phototonic
5260 inkscape
5261 shutter
5262 tetzle
5263 geeqie
5264 xia
5265 pinta
5266 gthumb
5267 karbon
5268 comix
5269 mirage
5270 viewnior
5271 postr
5272 ristretto
5273 kolourpaint4
5274 eog
5275 eom
5276 gimagereader
5277 midori
5278 %
5279 </pre></blockquote>
5280
5281 <p>I believe the MIME types are fetched from the desktop file for
5282 packages providing appstream metadata.</p>
5283
5284       </div>
5285       <div class="tags">
5286
5287
5288         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
5289
5290
5291       </div>
5292     </div>
5293     <div class="padding"></div>
5294
5295     <div class="entry">
5296       <div class="title">
5297         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Creepy__visualise_geotagged_social_media_information___nice_free_software.html">Creepy, visualise geotagged social media information - nice free software</a>
5298       </div>
5299       <div class="date">
5300         24th January 2016
5301       </div>
5302       <div class="body">
5303         <p>Most people seem not to realise that every time they walk around
5304 with the computerised radio beacon known as a mobile phone their
5305 position is tracked by the phone company and often stored for a long
5306 time (like every time a SMS is received or sent).  And if their
5307 computerised radio beacon is capable of running programs (often called
5308 mobile apps) downloaded from the Internet, these programs are often
5309 also capable of tracking their location (if the app requested access
5310 during installation).  And when these programs send out information to
5311 central collection points, the location is often included, unless
5312 extra care is taken to not send the location.  The provided
5313 information is used by several entities, for good and bad (what is
5314 good and bad, depend on your point of view).  What is certain, is that
5315 the private sphere and the right to free movement is challenged and
5316 perhaps even eradicated for those announcing their location this way,
5317 when they share their whereabouts with private and public
5318 entities.</p>
5319
5320 <p align="center"><img width="70%" src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2016-01-24-nice-creepy-desktop-window.png"></p>
5321
5322 <p>The phone company logs provide a register of locations to check out
5323 when one want to figure out what the tracked person was doing.  It is
5324 unavailable for most of us, but provided to selected government
5325 officials, company staff, those illegally buying information from
5326 unfaithful servants and crackers stealing the information.  But the
5327 public information can be collected and analysed, and a free software
5328 tool to do so is called
5329 <a href="http://www.geocreepy.com/">Creepy or Cree.py</a>.  I
5330 discovered it when I read
5331 <a href="http://www.aftenposten.no/kultur/Slik-kan-du-bli-overvaket-pa-Twitter-og-Instagram-uten-a-ane-det-7787884.html">an
5332 article about Creepy</a> in the Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten i
5333 November 2014, and decided to check if it was available in Debian.
5334 The python program was in Debian, but
5335 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/creepy">the version in
5336 Debian</a> was completely broken and practically unmaintained.  I
5337 uploaded a new version which did not work quite right, but did not
5338 have time to fix it then.  This Christmas I decided to finally try to
5339 get Creepy operational in Debian.  Now a fixed version is available in
5340 Debian unstable and testing, and almost all Debian specific patches
5341 are now included
5342 <a href="https://github.com/jkakavas/creepy">upstream</a>.</p>
5343
5344 <p>The Creepy program visualises geolocation information fetched from
5345 Twitter, Instagram, Flickr and Google+, and allow one to get a
5346 complete picture of every social media message posted recently in a
5347 given area, or track the movement of a given individual across all
5348 these services.  Earlier it was possible to use the search API of at
5349 least some of these services without identifying oneself, but these
5350 days it is impossible.  This mean that to use Creepy, you need to
5351 configure it to log in as yourself on these services, and provide
5352 information to them about your search interests.  This should be taken
5353 into account when using Creepy, as it will also share information
5354 about yourself with the services.</p>
5355
5356 <p>The picture above show the twitter messages sent from (or at least
5357 geotagged with a position from) the city centre of Oslo, the capital
5358 of Norway.  One useful way to use Creepy is to first look at
5359 information tagged with an area of interest, and next look at all the
5360 information provided by one or more individuals who was in the area.
5361 I tested it by checking out which celebrity provide their location in
5362 twitter messages by checkout out who sent twitter messages near a
5363 Norwegian TV station, and next could track their position over time,
5364 making it possible to locate their home and work place, among other
5365 things.  A similar technique have been
5366 <a href="http://www.buzzfeed.com/maxseddon/does-this-soldiers-instagram-account-prove-russia-is-covertl">used
5367 to locate Russian soldiers in Ukraine</a>, and it is both a powerful
5368 tool to discover lying governments, and a useful tool to help people
5369 understand the value of the private information they provide to the
5370 public.</p>
5371
5372 <p>The package is not trivial to backport to Debian Stable/Jessie, as
5373 it depend on several python modules currently missing in Jessie (at
5374 least python-instagram, python-flickrapi and
5375 python-requests-toolbelt).</p>
5376
5377 <p>(I have uploaded
5378 <a href="https://screenshots.debian.net/package/creepy">the image to
5379 screenshots.debian.net</a> and licensed it under the same terms as the
5380 Creepy program in Debian.)</p>
5381
5382       </div>
5383       <div class="tags">
5384
5385
5386         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nice free software">nice free software</a>.
5387
5388
5389       </div>
5390     </div>
5391     <div class="padding"></div>
5392
5393     <div class="entry">
5394       <div class="title">
5395         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Always_download_Debian_packages_using_Tor___the_simple_recipe.html">Always download Debian packages using Tor - the simple recipe</a>
5396       </div>
5397       <div class="date">
5398         15th January 2016
5399       </div>
5400       <div class="body">
5401         <p>During his DebConf15 keynote, Jacob Appelbaum
5402 <a href="https://summit.debconf.org/debconf15/meeting/331/what-is-to-be-done/">observed
5403 that those listening on the Internet lines would have good reason to
5404 believe a computer have a given security hole</a> if it download a
5405 security fix from a Debian mirror.  This is a good reason to always
5406 use encrypted connections to the Debian mirror, to make sure those
5407 listening do not know which IP address to attack.  In August, Richard
5408 Hartmann observed that encryption was not enough, when it was possible
5409 to interfere download size to security patches or the fact that
5410 download took place shortly after a security fix was released, and
5411 <a href="http://richardhartmann.de/blog/posts/2015/08/24-Tor-enabled_Debian_mirror/">proposed
5412 to always use Tor to download packages from the Debian mirror</a>.  He
5413 was not the first to propose this, as the
5414 <tt><a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/apt-transport-tor">apt-transport-tor</a></tt>
5415 package by Tim Retout already existed to make it easy to convince apt
5416 to use <a href="https://www.torproject.org/">Tor</a>, but I was not
5417 aware of that package when I read the blog post from Richard.</p>
5418
5419 <p>Richard discussed the idea with Peter Palfrader, one of the Debian
5420 sysadmins, and he set up a Tor hidden service on one of the central
5421 Debian mirrors using the address vwakviie2ienjx6t.onion, thus making
5422 it possible to download packages directly between two tor nodes,
5423 making sure the network traffic always were encrypted.</p>
5424
5425 <p>Here is a short recipe for enabling this on your machine, by
5426 installing <tt>apt-transport-tor</tt> and replacing http and https
5427 urls with tor+http and tor+https, and using the hidden service instead
5428 of the official Debian mirror site.  I recommend installing
5429 <tt>etckeeper</tt> before you start to have a history of the changes
5430 done in /etc/.</p>
5431
5432 <blockquote><pre>
5433 apt install apt-transport-tor
5434 sed -i 's% http://ftp.debian.org/% tor+http://vwakviie2ienjx6t.onion/%' /etc/apt/sources.list
5435 sed -i 's% http% tor+http%' /etc/apt/sources.list
5436 </pre></blockquote>
5437
5438 <p>If you have more sources listed in /etc/apt/sources.list.d/, run
5439 the sed commands for these too.  The sed command is assuming your are
5440 using the ftp.debian.org Debian mirror.  Adjust the command (or just
5441 edit the file manually) to match your mirror.</p>
5442
5443 <p>This work in Debian Jessie and later.  Note that tools like
5444 <tt>apt-file</tt> only recently started using the apt transport
5445 system, and do not work with these tor+http URLs.  For
5446 <tt>apt-file</tt> you need the version currently in experimental,
5447 which need a recent apt version currently only in unstable.  So if you
5448 need a working <tt>apt-file</tt>, this is not for you.</p>
5449
5450 <p>Another advantage from this change is that your machine will start
5451 using Tor regularly and at fairly random intervals (every time you
5452 update the package lists or upgrade or install a new package), thus
5453 masking other Tor traffic done from the same machine.  Using Tor will
5454 become normal for the machine in question.</p>
5455
5456 <p>On <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/FreedomBox">Freedombox</a>, APT
5457 is set up by default to use <tt>apt-transport-tor</tt> when Tor is
5458 enabled.  It would be great if it was the default on any Debian
5459 system.</p>
5460
5461       </div>
5462       <div class="tags">
5463
5464
5465         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>.
5466
5467
5468       </div>
5469     </div>
5470     <div class="padding"></div>
5471
5472     <div class="entry">
5473       <div class="title">
5474         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/OpenALPR__find_car_license_plates_in_video_streams___nice_free_software.html">OpenALPR, find car license plates in video streams - nice free software</a>
5475       </div>
5476       <div class="date">
5477         23rd December 2015
5478       </div>
5479       <div class="body">
5480         <p>When I was a kid, we used to collect "car numbers", as we used to
5481 call the car license plate numbers in those days.  I would write the
5482 numbers down in my little book and compare notes with the other kids
5483 to see how many region codes we had seen and if we had seen some
5484 exotic or special region codes and numbers.  It was a fun game to pass
5485 time, as we kids have plenty of it.</p>
5486
5487 <p>A few days I came across
5488 <a href="https://github.com/openalpr/openalpr">the OpenALPR
5489 project</a>, a free software project to automatically discover and
5490 report license plates in images and video streams, and provide the
5491 "car numbers" in a machine readable format.  I've been looking for
5492 such system for a while now, because I believe it is a bad idea that the
5493 <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automatic_number_plate_recognition">automatic
5494 number plate recognition</a> tool only is available in the hands of
5495 the powerful, and want it to be available also for the powerless to
5496 even the score when it comes to surveillance and sousveillance.  I
5497 discovered the developer
5498 <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/747509">wanted to get the tool into
5499 Debian</a>, and as I too wanted it to be in Debian, I volunteered to
5500 help him get it into shape to get the package uploaded into the Debian
5501 archive.</p>
5502
5503 <p>Today we finally managed to get the package into shape and uploaded
5504 it into Debian, where it currently
5505 <a href="https://ftp-master.debian.org//new/openalpr_2.2.1-1.html">waits
5506 in the NEW queue</a> for review by the Debian ftpmasters.</p>
5507
5508 <p>I guess you are wondering why on earth such tool would be useful
5509 for the common folks, ie those not running a large government
5510 surveillance system?  Well, I plan to put it in a computer on my bike
5511 and in my car, tracking the cars nearby and allowing me to be notified
5512 when number plates on my watch list are discovered.  Another use case
5513 was suggested by a friend of mine, who wanted to set it up at his home
5514 to open the car port automatically when it discovered the plate on his
5515 car.  When I mentioned it perhaps was a bit foolhardy to allow anyone
5516 capable of placing his license plate number of a piece of cardboard to
5517 open his car port, men replied that it was always unlocked anyway.  I
5518 guess for such use case it make sense.  I am sure there are other use
5519 cases too, for those with imagination and a vision.</p>
5520
5521 <p>If you want to build your own version of the Debian package, check
5522 out the upstream git source and symlink ./distros/debian to ./debian/
5523 before running "debuild" to build the source.  Or wait a bit until the
5524 package show up in unstable.</p>
5525
5526       </div>
5527       <div class="tags">
5528
5529
5530         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nice free software">nice free software</a>.
5531
5532
5533       </div>
5534     </div>
5535     <div class="padding"></div>
5536
5537     <div class="entry">
5538       <div class="title">
5539         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Using_appstream_with_isenkram_to_install_hardware_related_packages_in_Debian.html">Using appstream with isenkram to install hardware related packages in Debian</a>
5540       </div>
5541       <div class="date">
5542         20th December 2015
5543       </div>
5544       <div class="body">
5545         <p>Around three years ago, I created
5546 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/isenkram">the isenkram
5547 system</a> to get a more practical solution in Debian for handing
5548 hardware related packages.  A GUI system in the isenkram package will
5549 present a pop-up dialog when some hardware dongle supported by
5550 relevant packages in Debian is inserted into the machine.  The same
5551 lookup mechanism to detect packages is available as command line
5552 tools in the isenkram-cli package.  In addition to mapping hardware,
5553 it will also map kernel firmware files to packages and make it easy to
5554 install needed firmware packages automatically.  The key for this
5555 system to work is a good way to map hardware to packages, in other
5556 words, allow packages to announce what hardware they will work
5557 with.</p>
5558
5559 <p>I started by providing data files in the isenkram source, and
5560 adding code to download the latest version of these data files at run
5561 time, to ensure every user had the most up to date mapping available.
5562 I also added support for storing the mapping in the Packages file in
5563 the apt repositories, but did not push this approach because while I
5564 was trying to figure out how to best store hardware/package mappings,
5565 <a href="http://www.freedesktop.org/software/appstream/docs/">the
5566 appstream system</a> was announced.  I got in touch and suggested to
5567 add the hardware mapping into that data set to be able to use
5568 appstream as a data source, and this was accepted at least for the
5569 Debian version of appstream.</p>
5570
5571 <p>A few days ago using appstream in Debian for this became possible,
5572 and today I uploaded a new version 0.20 of isenkram adding support for
5573 appstream as a data source for mapping hardware to packages.  The only
5574 package so far using appstream to announce its hardware support is my
5575 pymissile package.  I got help from Matthias Klumpp with figuring out
5576 how do add the required
5577 <a href="https://appstream.debian.org/html/sid/main/metainfo/pymissile.html">metadata
5578 in pymissile</a>.  I added a file debian/pymissile.metainfo.xml with
5579 this content:</p>
5580
5581 <blockquote><pre>
5582 &lt;?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?&gt;
5583 &lt;component&gt;
5584   &lt;id&gt;pymissile&lt;/id&gt;
5585   &lt;metadata_license&gt;MIT&lt;/metadata_license&gt;
5586   &lt;name&gt;pymissile&lt;/name&gt;
5587   &lt;summary&gt;Control original Striker USB Missile Launcher&lt;/summary&gt;
5588   &lt;description&gt;
5589     &lt;p&gt;
5590       Pymissile provides a curses interface to control an original
5591       Marks and Spencer / Striker USB Missile Launcher, as well as a
5592       motion control script to allow a webcamera to control the
5593       launcher.
5594     &lt;/p&gt;
5595   &lt;/description&gt;
5596   &lt;provides&gt;
5597     &lt;modalias&gt;usb:v1130p0202d*&lt;/modalias&gt;
5598   &lt;/provides&gt;
5599 &lt;/component&gt;
5600 </pre></blockquote>
5601
5602 <p>The key for isenkram is the component/provides/modalias value,
5603 which is a glob style match rule for hardware specific strings
5604 (modalias strings) provided by the Linux kernel.  In this case, it
5605 will map to all USB devices with vendor code 1130 and product code
5606 0202.</p>
5607
5608 <p>Note, it is important that the license of all the metadata files
5609 are compatible to have permissions to aggregate them into archive wide
5610 appstream files.  Matthias suggested to use MIT or BSD licenses for
5611 these files.  A challenge is figuring out a good id for the data, as
5612 it is supposed to be globally unique and shared across distributions
5613 (in other words, best to coordinate with upstream what to use).  But
5614 it can be changed later or, so we went with the package name as
5615 upstream for this project is dormant.</p>
5616
5617 <p>To get the metadata file installed in the correct location for the
5618 mirror update scripts to pick it up and include its content the
5619 appstream data source, the file must be installed in the binary
5620 package under /usr/share/appdata/.  I did this by adding the following
5621 line to debian/pymissile.install:</p>
5622
5623 <blockquote><pre>
5624 debian/pymissile.metainfo.xml usr/share/appdata
5625 </pre></blockquote>
5626
5627 <p>With that in place, the command line tool isenkram-lookup will list
5628 all packages useful on the current computer automatically, and the GUI
5629 pop-up handler will propose to install the package not already
5630 installed if a hardware dongle is inserted into the machine in
5631 question.</p>
5632
5633 <p>Details of the modalias field in appstream is available from the
5634 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DEP-11">DEP-11</a> proposal.</p>
5635
5636 <p>To locate the modalias values of all hardware present in a machine,
5637 try running this command on the command line:</p>
5638
5639 <blockquote><pre>
5640 cat $(find /sys/devices/|grep modalias)
5641 </pre></blockquote>
5642
5643 <p>To learn more about the isenkram system, please check out
5644 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram/">my
5645 blog posts tagged isenkram</a>.</p>
5646
5647       </div>
5648       <div class="tags">
5649
5650
5651         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram">isenkram</a>.
5652
5653
5654       </div>
5655     </div>
5656     <div class="padding"></div>
5657
5658     <div class="entry">
5659       <div class="title">
5660         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_GNU_General_Public_License_is_not_magic_pixie_dust.html">The GNU General Public License is not magic pixie dust</a>
5661       </div>
5662       <div class="date">
5663         30th November 2015
5664       </div>
5665       <div class="body">
5666         <p>A blog post from my fellow Debian developer Paul Wise titled
5667 "<a href="http://bonedaddy.net/pabs3/log/2015/11/27/sfc-supporter/">The
5668 GPL is not magic pixie dust</a>" explain the importance of making sure
5669 the <a href="http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html">GPL</a> is enforced.
5670 I quote the blog post from Paul in full here with his permission:<p>
5671
5672 <blockquote>
5673
5674 <p><a href="https://sfconservancy.org/supporter/"><img src="https://sfconservancy.org/img/supporter-badge.png" width="194" height="90" alt="Become a Software Freedom Conservancy Supporter!" align="right" border="0" /></a></p>
5675
5676 <blockquote>
5677 The GPL is not magic pixie dust. It does not work by itself.<br/>
5678
5679 The first step is to choose a
5680 <a href="https://copyleft.org/">copyleft</a> license for your
5681 code.<br/>
5682
5683 The next step is, when someone fails to follow that copyleft license,
5684 <b>it must be enforced</b><br/>
5685
5686 and its a simple fact of our modern society that such type of
5687 work<br/>
5688
5689 is incredibly expensive to do and incredibly difficult to do.
5690 </blockquote>
5691
5692 <p><small>-- <a href="http://ebb.org/bkuhn/">Bradley Kuhn</a>, in
5693 <a href="http://faif.us/" title="Free as in Freedom">FaiF</a>
5694 <a href="http://faif.us/cast/2015/nov/24/0x57/">episode
5695 0x57</a></small></p>
5696
5697 <p>As the Debian Website
5698 <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/794116">used</a>
5699 <a href="https://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/webwml/webwml/english/intro/free.wml?r1=1.24&amp;r2=1.25">to</a>
5700 imply, public domain and permissively licensed software can lead to
5701 the production of more proprietary software as people discover useful
5702 software, extend it and or incorporate it into their hardware or
5703 software products.  Copyleft licenses such as the GNU GPL were created
5704 to close off this avenue to the production of proprietary software but
5705 such licenses are not enough.  With the ongoing adoption of Free
5706 Software by individuals and groups, inevitably the community's
5707 expectations of license compliance are violated, usually out of
5708 ignorance of the way Free Software works, but not always.  As Karen
5709 and Bradley explained in <a href="http://faif.us/" title="Free as in
5710 Freedom">FaiF</a>
5711 <a href="http://faif.us/cast/2015/nov/24/0x57/">episode 0x57</a>,
5712 copyleft is nothing if no-one is willing and able to stand up in court
5713 to protect it.  The reality of today's world is that legal
5714 representation is expensive, difficult and time consuming.  With
5715 <a href="http://gpl-violations.org/">gpl-violations.org</a> in hiatus
5716 <a href="http://gpl-violations.org/news/20151027-homepage-recovers/">until</a>
5717 some time in 2016, the <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/">Software
5718 Freedom Conservancy</a> (a tax-exempt charity) is the major defender
5719 of the Linux project, Debian and other groups against GPL violations.
5720 In March the SFC supported a
5721 <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/news/2015/mar/05/vmware-lawsuit/">lawsuit
5722 by Christoph Hellwig</a> against VMware for refusing to
5723 <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/linux-compliance/vmware-lawsuit-faq.html">comply
5724 with the GPL</a> in relation to their use of parts of the Linux
5725 kernel.  Since then two of their sponsors pulled corporate funding and
5726 conferences
5727 <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/blog/2015/nov/24/faif-carols-fundraiser/">blocked
5728 or cancelled their talks</a>.  As a result they have decided to rely
5729 less on corporate funding and more on the broad community of
5730 individuals who support Free Software and copyleft.  So the SFC has
5731 <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/news/2015/nov/23/2015fundraiser/">launched</a>
5732 a <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/supporter/">campaign</a> to create
5733 a community of folks who stand up for copyleft and the GPL by
5734 supporting their work on promoting and supporting copyleft and Free
5735 Software.</p>
5736
5737 <p>If you support Free Software,
5738 <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/blog/2015/nov/26/like-what-I-do/">like</a>
5739 what the SFC do, agree with their
5740 <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/linux-compliance/principles.html">compliance
5741 principles</a>, are happy about their
5742 <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/supporter/">successes</a> in 2015,
5743 work on a project that is an SFC
5744 <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/members/current/">member</a> and or
5745 just want to stand up for copyleft, please join
5746 <a href="https://identi.ca/cwebber/image/JQGPA4qbTyyp3-MY8QpvuA">Christopher
5747 Allan Webber</a>,
5748 <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/blog/2015/nov/24/faif-carols-fundraiser/">Carol
5749 Smith</a>,
5750 <a href="http://www.jonobacon.org/2015/11/25/supporting-software-freedom-conservancy/">Jono
5751 Bacon</a>, myself and
5752 <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/sponsors/#supporters">others</a> in
5753 becoming a
5754 <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/supporter/">supporter</a>.  For the
5755 next week your donation will be
5756 <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/news/2015/nov/27/black-friday/">matched</a>
5757 by an anonymous donor.  Please also consider asking your employer to
5758 match your donation or become a sponsor of SFC.  Don't forget to
5759 spread the word about your support for SFC via email, your blog and or
5760 social media accounts.</p>
5761
5762 </blockquote>
5763
5764 <p>I agree with Paul on this topic and just signed up as a Supporter
5765 of Software Freedom Conservancy myself.  Perhaps you should be a
5766 supporter too?</p>
5767
5768       </div>
5769       <div class="tags">
5770
5771
5772         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/opphavsrett">opphavsrett</a>.
5773
5774
5775       </div>
5776     </div>
5777     <div class="padding"></div>
5778
5779     <div class="entry">
5780       <div class="title">
5781         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/PGP_key_transition_statement_for_key_EE4E02F9.html">PGP key transition statement for key EE4E02F9</a>
5782       </div>
5783       <div class="date">
5784         17th November 2015
5785       </div>
5786       <div class="body">
5787         <p>I've needed a new OpenPGP key for a while, but have not had time to
5788 set it up properly.  I wanted to generate it offline and have it
5789 available on <a href="http://shop.kernelconcepts.de/#openpgp">a OpenPGP
5790 smart card</a> for daily use, and learning how to do it and finding
5791 time to sit down with an offline machine almost took forever.  But
5792 finally I've been able to complete the process, and have now moved
5793 from my old GPG key to a new GPG key.  See
5794 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2015-11-17-new-gpg-key-transition.txt">the
5795 full transition statement, signed with both my old and new key</a> for
5796 the details.  This is my new key:</p>
5797
5798 <pre>
5799 pub   3936R/<a href="http://pgp.cs.uu.nl/stats/111D6B29EE4E02F9.html">111D6B29EE4E02F9</a> 2015-11-03 [expires: 2019-11-14]
5800       Key fingerprint = 3AC7 B2E3 ACA5 DF87 78F1  D827 111D 6B29 EE4E 02F9
5801 uid                  Petter Reinholdtsen &lt;pere@hungry.com&gt;
5802 uid                  Petter Reinholdtsen &lt;pere@debian.org&gt;
5803 sub   4096R/87BAFB0E 2015-11-03 [expires: 2019-11-02]
5804 sub   4096R/F91E6DE9 2015-11-03 [expires: 2019-11-02]
5805 sub   4096R/A0439BAB 2015-11-03 [expires: 2019-11-02]
5806 </pre>
5807
5808 <p>The key can be downloaded from the OpenPGP key servers, signed by
5809 my old key.</p>
5810
5811 <p>If you signed my old key
5812 (<a href="http://pgp.cs.uu.nl/stats/DB4CCC4B2A30D729.html">DB4CCC4B2A30D729</a>),
5813 I'd very much appreciate a signature on my new key, details and
5814 instructions in the transition statement. I m happy to reciprocate if
5815 you have a similarly signed transition statement to present.</p>
5816
5817       </div>
5818       <div class="tags">
5819
5820
5821         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>.
5822
5823
5824       </div>
5825     </div>
5826     <div class="padding"></div>
5827
5828     <div class="entry">
5829       <div class="title">
5830         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_life_and_death_of_a_laptop_battery.html">The life and death of a laptop battery</a>
5831       </div>
5832       <div class="date">
5833         24th September 2015
5834       </div>
5835       <div class="body">
5836         <p>When I get a new laptop, the battery life time at the start is OK.
5837 But this do not last.  The last few laptops gave me a feeling that
5838 within a year, the life time is just a fraction of what it used to be,
5839 and it slowly become painful to use the laptop without power connected
5840 all the time.  Because of this, when I got a new Thinkpad X230 laptop
5841 about two years ago, I decided to monitor its battery state to have
5842 more hard facts when the battery started to fail.</p>
5843
5844 <img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2015-09-24-laptop-battery-graph.png"/>
5845
5846 <p>First I tried to find a sensible Debian package to record the
5847 battery status, assuming that this must be a problem already handled
5848 by someone else.  I found
5849 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/battery-stats">battery-stats</a>,
5850 which collects statistics from the battery, but it was completely
5851 broken.  I sent a few suggestions to the maintainer, but decided to
5852 write my own collector as a shell script while I waited for feedback
5853 from him.  Via
5854 <a href="http://www.ifweassume.com/2013/08/the-de-evolution-of-my-laptop-battery.html">a
5855 blog post about the battery development on a MacBook Air</a> I also
5856 discovered
5857 <a href="https://github.com/jradavenport/batlog.git">batlog</a>, not
5858 available in Debian.</p>
5859
5860 <p>I started my collector 2013-07-15, and it has been collecting
5861 battery stats ever since. Now my
5862 /var/log/hjemmenett-battery-status.log file contain around 115,000
5863 measurements, from the time the battery was working great until now,
5864 when it is unable to charge above 7% of original capacity.  My
5865 collector shell script is quite simple and look like this:</p>
5866
5867 <pre>
5868 #!/bin/sh
5869 # Inspired by
5870 # http://www.ifweassume.com/2013/08/the-de-evolution-of-my-laptop-battery.html
5871 # See also
5872 # http://blog.sleeplessbeastie.eu/2013/01/02/debian-how-to-monitor-battery-capacity/
5873 logfile=/var/log/hjemmenett-battery-status.log
5874
5875 files="manufacturer model_name technology serial_number \
5876     energy_full energy_full_design energy_now cycle_count status"
5877
5878 if [ ! -e "$logfile" ] ; then
5879     (
5880         printf "timestamp,"
5881         for f in $files; do
5882             printf "%s," $f
5883         done
5884         echo
5885     ) > "$logfile"
5886 fi
5887
5888 log_battery() {
5889     # Print complete message in one echo call, to avoid race condition
5890     # when several log processes run in parallel.
5891     msg=$(printf "%s," $(date +%s); \
5892         for f in $files; do \
5893             printf "%s," $(cat $f); \
5894         done)
5895     echo "$msg"
5896 }
5897
5898 cd /sys/class/power_supply
5899
5900 for bat in BAT*; do
5901     (cd $bat && log_battery >> "$logfile")
5902 done
5903 </pre>
5904
5905 <p>The script is called when the power management system detect a
5906 change in the power status (power plug in or out), and when going into
5907 and out of hibernation and suspend.  In addition, it collect a value
5908 every 10 minutes.  This make it possible for me know when the battery
5909 is discharging, charging and how the maximum charge change over time.
5910 The code for the Debian package
5911 <a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/battery-status">is now
5912 available on github</a>.</p>
5913
5914 <p>The collected log file look like this:</p>
5915
5916 <pre>
5917 timestamp,manufacturer,model_name,technology,serial_number,energy_full,energy_full_design,energy_now,cycle_count,status,
5918 1376591133,LGC,45N1025,Li-ion,974,62800000,62160000,39050000,0,Discharging,
5919 [...]
5920 1443090528,LGC,45N1025,Li-ion,974,4900000,62160000,4900000,0,Full,
5921 1443090601,LGC,45N1025,Li-ion,974,4900000,62160000,4900000,0,Full,
5922 </pre>
5923
5924 <p>I wrote a small script to create a graph of the charge development
5925 over time.  This graph depicted above show the slow death of my laptop
5926 battery.</p>
5927
5928 <p>But why is this happening?  Why are my laptop batteries always
5929 dying in a year or two, while the batteries of space probes and
5930 satellites keep working year after year.  If we are to believe
5931 <a href="http://batteryuniversity.com/learn/article/how_to_prolong_lithium_based_batteries">Battery
5932 University</a>, the cause is me charging the battery whenever I have a
5933 chance, and the fix is to not charge the Lithium-ion batteries to 100%
5934 all the time, but to stay below 90% of full charge most of the time.
5935 I've been told that the Tesla electric cars
5936 <a href="http://my.teslamotors.com/de_CH/forum/forums/battery-charge-limit">limit
5937 the charge of their batteries to 80%</a>, with the option to charge to
5938 100% when preparing for a longer trip (not that I would want a car
5939 like Tesla where rights to privacy is abandoned, but that is another
5940 story), which I guess is the option we should have for laptops on
5941 Linux too.</p>
5942
5943 <p>Is there a good and generic way with Linux to tell the battery to
5944 stop charging at 80%, unless requested to charge to 100% once in
5945 preparation for a longer trip?  I found
5946 <a href="http://askubuntu.com/questions/34452/how-can-i-limit-battery-charging-to-80-capacity">one
5947 recipe on askubuntu for Ubuntu to limit charging on Thinkpad to
5948 80%</a>, but could not get it to work (kernel module refused to
5949 load).</p>
5950
5951 <p>I wonder why the battery capacity was reported to be more than 100%
5952 at the start.  I also wonder why the "full capacity" increases some
5953 times, and if it is possible to repeat the process to get the battery
5954 back to design capacity.  And I wonder if the discharge and charge
5955 speed change over time, or if this stay the same.  I did not yet try
5956 to write a tool to calculate the derivative values of the battery
5957 level, but suspect some interesting insights might be learned from
5958 those.</p>
5959
5960 <p>Update 2015-09-24: I got a tip to install the packages
5961 acpi-call-dkms and tlp (unfortunately missing in Debian stable)
5962 packages instead of the tp-smapi-dkms package I had tried to use
5963 initially, and use 'tlp setcharge 40 80' to change when charging start
5964 and stop.  I've done so now, but expect my existing battery is toast
5965 and need to be replaced.  The proposal is unfortunately Thinkpad
5966 specific.</p>
5967
5968       </div>
5969       <div class="tags">
5970
5971
5972         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
5973
5974
5975       </div>
5976     </div>
5977     <div class="padding"></div>
5978
5979     <div class="entry">
5980       <div class="title">
5981         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/New_laptop___some_more_clues_and_ideas_based_on_feedback.html">New laptop - some more clues and ideas based on feedback</a>
5982       </div>
5983       <div class="date">
5984          5th July 2015
5985       </div>
5986       <div class="body">
5987         <p>Several people contacted me after my previous blog post about my
5988 need for a new laptop, and provided very useful feedback.  I wish to
5989 thank every one of these.  Several pointed me to the possibility of
5990 fixing my X230, and I am already in the process of getting Lenovo to
5991 do so thanks to the on site, next day support contract covering the
5992 machine.  But the battery is almost useless (I expect to replace it
5993 with a non-official battery) and I do not expect the machine to live
5994 for many more years, so it is time to plan its replacement.  If I did
5995 not have a support contract, it was suggested to find replacement parts
5996 using <a href="http://www.francecrans.com/">FrancEcrans</a>, but it
5997 might present a language barrier as I do not understand French.</p>
5998
5999 <p>One tip I got was to use the
6000 <a href="https://skinflint.co.uk/?cat=nb">Skinflint</a> web service to
6001 compare laptop models.  It seem to have more models available than
6002 prisjakt.no.  Another tip I got from someone I know have similar
6003 keyboard preferences was that the HP EliteBook 840 keyboard is not
6004 very good, and this matches my experience with earlier EliteBook
6005 keyboards I tested.  Because of this, I will not consider it any further.
6006
6007 <p>When I wrote my blog post, I was not aware of Thinkpad X250, the
6008 newest Thinkpad X model.  The keyboard reintroduces mouse buttons
6009 (which is missing from the X240), and is working fairly well with
6010 Debian Sid/Unstable according to
6011 <a href="http://www.corsac.net/X250/">Corsac.net</a>.  The reports I
6012 got on the keyboard quality are not consistent.  Some say the keyboard
6013 is good, others say it is ok, while others say it is not very good.
6014 Those with experience from X41 and and X60 agree that the X250
6015 keyboard is not as good as those trusty old laptops, and suggest I
6016 keep and fix my X230 instead of upgrading, or get a used X230 to
6017 replace it.  I'm also told that the X250 lack leds for caps lock, disk
6018 activity and battery status, which is very convenient on my X230.  I'm
6019 also told that the CPU fan is running very often, making it a bit
6020 noisy.  In any case, the X250 do not work out of the box with Debian
6021 Stable/Jessie, one of my requirements.</p>
6022
6023 <p>I have also gotten a few vendor proposals, one was
6024 <a href="http://pro-star.com">Pro-Star</a>, another was
6025 <a href="http://shop.gluglug.org.uk/product/libreboot-x200/">Libreboot</a>.
6026 The latter look very attractive to me.</p>
6027
6028 <p>Again, thank you all for the very useful feedback.  It help a lot
6029 as I keep looking for a replacement.</p>
6030
6031 <p>Update 2015-07-06: I was recommended to check out the
6032 <a href="">lapstore.de</a> web shop for used laptops.  They got several
6033 different
6034 <a href="http://www.lapstore.de/f.php/shop/lapstore/f/411/lang/x/kw/Lenovo_ThinkPad_X_Serie/">old
6035 thinkpad X models</a>, and provide one year warranty.</p>
6036
6037       </div>
6038       <div class="tags">
6039
6040
6041         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
6042
6043
6044       </div>
6045     </div>
6046     <div class="padding"></div>
6047
6048     <div class="entry">
6049       <div class="title">
6050         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Time_to_find_a_new_laptop__as_the_old_one_is_broken_after_only_two_years.html">Time to find a new laptop, as the old one is broken after only two years</a>
6051       </div>
6052       <div class="date">
6053          3rd July 2015
6054       </div>
6055       <div class="body">
6056         <p>My primary work horse laptop is failing, and will need a
6057 replacement soon.  The left 5 cm of the screen on my Thinkpad X230
6058 started flickering yesterday, and I suspect the cause is a broken
6059 cable, as changing the angle of the screen some times get rid of the
6060 flickering.</p>
6061
6062 <p>My requirements have not really changed since I bought it, and is
6063 still as
6064 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Thank_you_Thinkpad_X41__for_your_long_and_trustworthy_service.html">I
6065 described them in 2013</a>.  The last time I bought a laptop, I had
6066 good help from
6067 <a href="http://www.prisjakt.no/category.php?k=353">prisjakt.no</a>
6068 where I could select at least a few of the requirements (mouse pin,
6069 wifi, weight) and go through the rest manually.  Three button mouse
6070 and a good keyboard is not available as an option, and all the three
6071 laptop models proposed today (Thinkpad X240, HP EliteBook 820 G1 and
6072 G2) lack three mouse buttons).  It is also unclear to me how good the
6073 keyboard on the HP EliteBooks are.  I hope Lenovo have not messed up
6074 the keyboard, even if the quality and robustness in the X series have
6075 deteriorated since X41.</p>
6076
6077 <p>I wonder how I can find a sensible laptop when none of the options
6078 seem sensible to me?  Are there better services around to search the
6079 set of available laptops for features?  Please send me an email if you
6080 have suggestions.</p>
6081
6082 <p>Update 2015-07-23: I got a suggestion to check out the FSF
6083 <a href="http://www.fsf.org/resources/hw/endorsement/respects-your-freedom">list
6084 of endorsed hardware</a>, which is useful background information.</p>
6085
6086       </div>
6087       <div class="tags">
6088
6089
6090         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
6091
6092
6093       </div>
6094     </div>
6095     <div class="padding"></div>
6096
6097     <div class="entry">
6098       <div class="title">
6099         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_stay_with_sysvinit_in_Debian_Jessie.html">How to stay with sysvinit in Debian Jessie</a>
6100       </div>
6101       <div class="date">
6102         22nd November 2014
6103       </div>
6104       <div class="body">
6105         <p>By now, it is well known that Debian Jessie will not be using
6106 sysvinit as its boot system by default.  But how can one keep using
6107 sysvinit in Jessie?  It is fairly easy, and here are a few recipes,
6108 courtesy of
6109 <a href="http://www.vitavonni.de/blog/201410/2014102101-avoiding-systemd.html">Erich
6110 Schubert</a> and
6111 <a href="http://smcv.pseudorandom.co.uk/2014/still_universal/">Simon
6112 McVittie</a>.
6113
6114 <p>If you already are using Wheezy and want to upgrade to Jessie and
6115 keep sysvinit as your boot system, create a file
6116 <tt>/etc/apt/preferences.d/use-sysvinit</tt> with this content before
6117 you upgrade:</p>
6118
6119 <p><blockquote><pre>
6120 Package: systemd-sysv
6121 Pin: release o=Debian
6122 Pin-Priority: -1
6123 </pre></blockquote><p>
6124
6125 <p>This file content will tell apt and aptitude to not consider
6126 installing systemd-sysv as part of any installation and upgrade
6127 solution when resolving dependencies, and thus tell it to avoid
6128 systemd as a default boot system.  The end result should be that the
6129 upgraded system keep using sysvinit.</p>
6130
6131 <p>If you are installing Jessie for the first time, there is no way to
6132 get sysvinit installed by default (debootstrap used by
6133 debian-installer have no option for this), but one can tell the
6134 installer to switch to sysvinit before the first boot.  Either by
6135 using a kernel argument to the installer, or by adding a line to the
6136 preseed file used.  First, the kernel command line argument:
6137
6138 <p><blockquote><pre>
6139 preseed/late_command="in-target apt-get install --purge -y sysvinit-core"
6140 </pre></blockquote><p>
6141
6142 <p>Next, the line to use in a preseed file:</p>
6143
6144 <p><blockquote><pre>
6145 d-i preseed/late_command string in-target apt-get install -y sysvinit-core
6146 </pre></blockquote><p>
6147
6148 <p>One can of course also do this after the first boot by installing
6149 the sysvinit-core package.</p>
6150
6151 <p>I recommend only using sysvinit if you really need it, as the
6152 sysvinit boot sequence in Debian have several hardware specific bugs
6153 on Linux caused by the fact that it is unpredictable when hardware
6154 devices show up during boot.  But on the other hand, the new default
6155 boot system still have a few rough edges I hope will be fixed before
6156 Jessie is released.</p>
6157
6158 <p>Update 2014-11-26: Inspired by
6159 <ahref="https://www.mirbsd.org/permalinks/wlog-10-tg_e20141125-tg.htm#e20141125-tg_wlog-10-tg">a
6160 blog post by Torsten Glaser</a>, added --purge to the preseed
6161 line.</p>
6162
6163       </div>
6164       <div class="tags">
6165
6166
6167         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bootsystem">bootsystem</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
6168
6169
6170       </div>
6171     </div>
6172     <div class="padding"></div>
6173
6174     <div class="entry">
6175       <div class="title">
6176         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/A_Debian_package_for_SMTP_via_Tor__aka_SMTorP__using_exim4.html">A Debian package for SMTP via Tor (aka SMTorP) using exim4</a>
6177       </div>
6178       <div class="date">
6179         10th November 2014
6180       </div>
6181       <div class="body">
6182         <p>The right to communicate with your friends and family in private,
6183 without anyone snooping, is a right every citicen have in a liberal
6184 democracy.  But this right is under serious attack these days.</p>
6185
6186 <p>A while back it occurred to me that one way to make the dragnet
6187 surveillance conducted by NSA, GCHQ, FRA and others (and confirmed by
6188 the whisleblower Snowden) more expensive for Internet email,
6189 is to deliver all email using SMTP via Tor.  Such SMTP option would be
6190 a nice addition to the FreedomBox project if we could send email
6191 between FreedomBox machines without leaking metadata about the emails
6192 to the people peeking on the wire.  I
6193 <a href="http://lists.alioth.debian.org/pipermail/freedombox-discuss/2014-October/006493.html">proposed
6194 this on the FreedomBox project mailing list in October</a> and got a
6195 lot of useful feedback and suggestions.  It also became obvious to me
6196 that this was not a novel idea, as the same idea was tested and
6197 documented by Johannes Berg as early as 2006, and both
6198 <a href="https://github.com/pagekite/Mailpile/wiki/SMTorP">the
6199 Mailpile</a> and <a href="http://dee.su/cables">the Cables</a> systems
6200 propose a similar method / protocol to pass emails between users.</p>
6201
6202 <p>To implement such system one need to set up a Tor hidden service
6203 providing the SMTP protocol on port 25, and use email addresses
6204 looking like username@hidden-service-name.onion.  With such addresses
6205 the connections to port 25 on hidden-service-name.onion using Tor will
6206 go to the correct SMTP server.  To do this, one need to configure the
6207 Tor daemon to provide the hidden service and the mail server to accept
6208 emails for this .onion domain.  To learn more about Exim configuration
6209 in Debian and test the design provided by Johannes Berg in his FAQ, I
6210 set out yesterday to create a Debian package for making it trivial to
6211 set up such SMTP over Tor service based on Debian.  Getting it to work
6212 were fairly easy, and
6213 <a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/exim4-smtorp">the
6214 source code for the Debian package</a> is available from github.  I
6215 plan to move it into Debian if further testing prove this to be a
6216 useful approach.</p>
6217
6218 <p>If you want to test this, set up a blank Debian machine without any
6219 mail system installed (or run <tt>apt-get purge exim4-config</tt> to
6220 get rid of exim4).  Install tor, clone the git repository mentioned
6221 above, build the deb and install it on the machine.  Next, run
6222 <tt>/usr/lib/exim4-smtorp/setup-exim-hidden-service</tt> and follow
6223 the instructions to get the service up and running.  Restart tor and
6224 exim when it is done, and test mail delivery using swaks like
6225 this:</p>
6226
6227 <p><blockquote><pre>
6228 torsocks swaks --server dutlqrrmjhtfa3vp.onion \
6229   --to fbx@dutlqrrmjhtfa3vp.onion
6230 </pre></blockquote></p>
6231
6232 <p>This will test the SMTP delivery using tor.  Replace the email
6233 address with your own address to test your server. :)</p>
6234
6235 <p>The setup procedure is still to complex, and I hope it can be made
6236 easier and more automatic.  Especially the tor setup need more work.
6237 Also, the package include a tor-smtp tool written in C, but its task
6238 should probably be rewritten in some script language to make the deb
6239 architecture independent.  It would probably also make the code easier
6240 to review.  The tor-smtp tool currently need to listen on a socket for
6241 exim to talk to it and is started using xinetd.  It would be better if
6242 no daemon and no socket is needed.  I suspect it is possible to get
6243 exim to run a command line tool for delivery instead of talking to a
6244 socket, and hope to figure out how in a future version of this
6245 system.</p>
6246
6247 <p>Until I wipe my test machine, I can be reached using the
6248 <tt>fbx@dutlqrrmjhtfa3vp.onion</tt> mail address, deliverable over
6249 SMTorP. :)</p>
6250
6251       </div>
6252       <div class="tags">
6253
6254
6255         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freedombox">freedombox</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/personvern">personvern</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance</a>.
6256
6257
6258       </div>
6259     </div>
6260     <div class="padding"></div>
6261
6262     <div class="entry">
6263       <div class="title">
6264         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/listadmin__the_quick_way_to_moderate_mailman_lists___nice_free_software.html">listadmin, the quick way to moderate mailman lists - nice free software</a>
6265       </div>
6266       <div class="date">
6267         22nd October 2014
6268       </div>
6269       <div class="body">
6270         <p>If you ever had to moderate a mailman list, like the ones on
6271 alioth.debian.org, you know the web interface is fairly slow to
6272 operate.  First you visit one web page, enter the moderation password
6273 and get a new page shown with a list of all the messages to moderate
6274 and various options for each email address.  This take a while for
6275 every list you moderate, and you need to do it regularly to do a good
6276 job as a list moderator.  But there is a quick alternative,
6277 <a href="http://heim.ifi.uio.no/kjetilho/hacks/#listadmin">the
6278 listadmin program</a>.  It allow you to check lists for new messages
6279 to moderate in a fraction of a second.  Here is a test run on two
6280 lists I recently took over:</p>
6281
6282 <p><blockquote><pre>
6283 % time listadmin xiph
6284 fetching data for pkg-xiph-commits@lists.alioth.debian.org ... nothing in queue
6285 fetching data for pkg-xiph-maint@lists.alioth.debian.org ... nothing in queue
6286
6287 real    0m1.709s
6288 user    0m0.232s
6289 sys     0m0.012s
6290 %
6291 </pre></blockquote></p>
6292
6293 <p>In 1.7 seconds I had checked two mailing lists and confirmed that
6294 there are no message in the moderation queue.  Every morning I
6295 currently moderate 68 mailman lists, and it normally take around two
6296 minutes.  When I took over the two pkg-xiph lists above a few days
6297 ago, there were 400 emails waiting in the moderator queue.  It took me
6298 less than 15 minutes to process them all using the listadmin
6299 program.</p>
6300
6301 <p>If you install
6302 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/listadmin">the listadmin
6303 package</a> from Debian and create a file <tt>~/.listadmin.ini</tt>
6304 with content like this, the moderation task is a breeze:</p>
6305
6306 <p><blockquote><pre>
6307 username username@example.org
6308 spamlevel 23
6309 default discard
6310 discard_if_reason "Posting restricted to members only. Remove us from your mail list."
6311
6312 password secret
6313 adminurl https://{domain}/mailman/admindb/{list}
6314 mailman-list@lists.example.com
6315
6316 password hidden
6317 other-list@otherserver.example.org
6318 </pre></blockquote></p>
6319
6320 <p>There are other options to set as well.  Check the manual page to
6321 learn the details.</p>
6322
6323 <p>If you are forced to moderate lists on a mailman installation where
6324 the SSL certificate is self signed or not properly signed by a
6325 generally accepted signing authority, you can set a environment
6326 variable when calling listadmin to disable SSL verification:</p>
6327
6328 <p><blockquote><pre>
6329 PERL_LWP_SSL_VERIFY_HOSTNAME=0 listadmin
6330 </pre></blockquote></p>
6331
6332 <p>If you want to moderate a subset of the lists you take care of, you
6333 can provide an argument to the listadmin script like I do in the
6334 initial screen dump (the xiph argument).  Using an argument, only
6335 lists matching the argument string will be processed.  This make it
6336 quick to accept messages if you notice the moderation request in your
6337 email.</p>
6338
6339 <p>Without the listadmin program, I would never be the moderator of 68
6340 mailing lists, as I simply do not have time to spend on that if the
6341 process was any slower. The listadmin program have saved me hours of
6342 time I could spend elsewhere over the years.  It truly is nice free
6343 software.</p>
6344
6345 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
6346 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
6347 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
6348
6349 <p>Update 2014-10-27: Added missing 'username' statement in
6350 configuration example.  Also, I've been told that the
6351 PERL_LWP_SSL_VERIFY_HOSTNAME=0 setting do not work for everyone.  Not
6352 sure why.</p>
6353
6354       </div>
6355       <div class="tags">
6356
6357
6358         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nice free software">nice free software</a>.
6359
6360
6361       </div>
6362     </div>
6363     <div class="padding"></div>
6364
6365     <div class="entry">
6366       <div class="title">
6367         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Jessie__PXE_and_automatic_firmware_installation.html">Debian Jessie, PXE and automatic firmware installation</a>
6368       </div>
6369       <div class="date">
6370         17th October 2014
6371       </div>
6372       <div class="body">
6373         <p>When PXE installing laptops with Debian, I often run into the
6374 problem that the WiFi card require some firmware to work properly.
6375 And it has been a pain to fix this using preseeding in Debian.
6376 Normally something more is needed.  But thanks to
6377 <a href="https://packages.qa.debian.org/i/isenkram.html">my isenkram
6378 package</a> and its recent tasksel extension, it has now become easy
6379 to do this using simple preseeding.</p>
6380
6381 <p>The isenkram-cli package provide tasksel tasks which will install
6382 firmware for the hardware found in the machine (actually, requested by
6383 the kernel modules for the hardware).  (It can also install user space
6384 programs supporting the hardware detected, but that is not the focus
6385 of this story.)</p>
6386
6387 <p>To get this working in the default installation, two preeseding
6388 values are needed.  First, the isenkram-cli package must be installed
6389 into the target chroot (aka the hard drive) before tasksel is executed
6390 in the pkgsel step of the debian-installer system.  This is done by
6391 preseeding the base-installer/includes debconf value to include the
6392 isenkram-cli package.  The package name is next passed to debootstrap
6393 for installation.  With the isenkram-cli package in place, tasksel
6394 will automatically use the isenkram tasks to detect hardware specific
6395 packages for the machine being installed and install them, because
6396 isenkram-cli contain tasksel tasks.</p>
6397
6398 <p>Second, one need to enable the non-free APT repository, because
6399 most firmware unfortunately is non-free.  This is done by preseeding
6400 the apt-mirror-setup step.  This is unfortunate, but for a lot of
6401 hardware it is the only option in Debian.</p>
6402
6403 <p>The end result is two lines needed in your preseeding file to get
6404 firmware installed automatically by the installer:</p>
6405
6406 <p><blockquote><pre>
6407 base-installer base-installer/includes string isenkram-cli
6408 apt-mirror-setup apt-setup/non-free boolean true
6409 </pre></blockquote></p>
6410
6411 <p>The current version of isenkram-cli in testing/jessie will install
6412 both firmware and user space packages when using this method.  It also
6413 do not work well, so use version 0.15 or later.  Installing both
6414 firmware and user space packages might give you a bit more than you
6415 want, so I decided to split the tasksel task in two, one for firmware
6416 and one for user space programs.  The firmware task is enabled by
6417 default, while the one for user space programs is not.  This split is
6418 implemented in the package currently in unstable.</p>
6419
6420 <p>If you decide to give this a go, please let me know (via email) how
6421 this recipe work for you. :)</p>
6422
6423 <p>So, I bet you are wondering, how can this work.  First and
6424 foremost, it work because tasksel is modular, and driven by whatever
6425 files it find in /usr/lib/tasksel/ and /usr/share/tasksel/.  So the
6426 isenkram-cli package place two files for tasksel to find.  First there
6427 is the task description file (/usr/share/tasksel/descs/isenkram.desc):</p>
6428
6429 <p><blockquote><pre>
6430 Task: isenkram-packages
6431 Section: hardware
6432 Description: Hardware specific packages (autodetected by isenkram)
6433  Based on the detected hardware various hardware specific packages are
6434  proposed.
6435 Test-new-install: show show
6436 Relevance: 8
6437 Packages: for-current-hardware
6438
6439 Task: isenkram-firmware
6440 Section: hardware
6441 Description: Hardware specific firmware packages (autodetected by isenkram)
6442  Based on the detected hardware various hardware specific firmware
6443  packages are proposed.
6444 Test-new-install: mark show
6445 Relevance: 8
6446 Packages: for-current-hardware-firmware
6447 </pre></blockquote></p>
6448
6449 <p>The key parts are Test-new-install which indicate how the task
6450 should be handled and the Packages line referencing to a script in
6451 /usr/lib/tasksel/packages/.  The scripts use other scripts to get a
6452 list of packages to install.  The for-current-hardware-firmware script
6453 look like this to list relevant firmware for the machine:
6454
6455 <p><blockquote><pre>
6456 #!/bin/sh
6457 #
6458 PATH=/usr/sbin:$PATH
6459 export PATH
6460 isenkram-autoinstall-firmware -l
6461 </pre></blockquote></p>
6462
6463 <p>With those two pieces in place, the firmware is installed by
6464 tasksel during the normal d-i run. :)</p>
6465
6466 <p>If you want to test what tasksel will install when isenkram-cli is
6467 installed, run <tt>DEBIAN_PRIORITY=critical tasksel --test
6468 --new-install</tt> to get the list of packages that tasksel would
6469 install.</p>
6470
6471 <p><a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/">Debian Edu</a> will be
6472 pilots in testing this feature, as isenkram is used there now to
6473 install firmware, replacing the earlier scripts.</p>
6474
6475       </div>
6476       <div class="tags">
6477
6478
6479         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram">isenkram</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sysadmin">sysadmin</a>.
6480
6481
6482       </div>
6483     </div>
6484     <div class="padding"></div>
6485
6486     <div class="entry">
6487       <div class="title">
6488         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Ubuntu_used_to_show_the_bread_prizes_at_ICA_Storo.html">Ubuntu used to show the bread prizes at ICA Storo</a>
6489       </div>
6490       <div class="date">
6491          4th October 2014
6492       </div>
6493       <div class="body">
6494         <p>Today I came across an unexpected Ubuntu boot screen.  Above the
6495 bread shelf on the ICA shop at Storo in Oslo, the grub menu of Ubuntu
6496 with Linux kernel 3.2.0-23 (ie probably version 12.04 LTS) was stuck
6497 on a screen normally showing the bread types and prizes:</p>
6498
6499 <p align="center"><img width="70%" src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2014-10-04-ubuntu-ica-storo-crop.jpeg"></p>
6500
6501 <p>If it had booted as it was supposed to, I would never had known
6502 about this hidden Linux installation.  It is interesting what
6503 <a href="http://revealingerrors.com/">errors can reveal</a>.</p>
6504
6505       </div>
6506       <div class="tags">
6507
6508
6509         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
6510
6511
6512       </div>
6513     </div>
6514     <div class="padding"></div>
6515
6516     <div class="entry">
6517       <div class="title">
6518         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/New_lsdvd_release_version_0_17_is_ready.html">New lsdvd release version 0.17 is ready</a>
6519       </div>
6520       <div class="date">
6521          4th October 2014
6522       </div>
6523       <div class="body">
6524         <p>The <a href="https://sourceforge.net/p/lsdvd/">lsdvd project</a>
6525 got a new set of developers a few weeks ago, after the original
6526 developer decided to step down and pass the project to fresh blood.
6527 This project is now maintained by Petter Reinholdtsen and Steve
6528 Dibb.</p>
6529
6530 <p>I just wrapped up
6531 <a href="https://sourceforge.net/p/lsdvd/mailman/message/32896061/">a
6532 new lsdvd release</a>, available in git or from
6533 <a href="https://sourceforge.net/projects/lsdvd/files/lsdvd/">the
6534 download page</a>.  This is the changelog dated 2014-10-03 for version
6535 0.17.</p>
6536
6537 <ul>
6538
6539  <li>Ignore 'phantom' audio, subtitle tracks</li>
6540  <li>Check for garbage in the program chains, which indicate that a track is
6541    non-existant, to work around additional copy protection</li>
6542  <li>Fix displaying content type for audio tracks, subtitles</li>
6543  <li>Fix pallete display of first entry</li>
6544  <li>Fix include orders</li>
6545  <li>Ignore read errors in titles that would not be displayed anyway</li>
6546  <li>Fix the chapter count</li>
6547  <li>Make sure the array size and the array limit used when initialising
6548    the palette size is the same.</li>
6549  <li>Fix array printing.</li>
6550  <li>Correct subsecond calculations.</li>
6551  <li>Add sector information to the output format.</li>
6552  <li>Clean up code to be closer to ANSI C and compile without warnings
6553    with more GCC compiler warnings.</li>
6554
6555 </ul>
6556
6557 <p>This change bring together patches for lsdvd in use in various
6558 Linux and Unix distributions, as well as patches submitted to the
6559 project the last nine years.  Please check it out. :)</p>
6560
6561       </div>
6562       <div class="tags">
6563
6564
6565         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/lsdvd">lsdvd</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/multimedia">multimedia</a>.
6566
6567
6568       </div>
6569     </div>
6570     <div class="padding"></div>
6571
6572     <div class="entry">
6573       <div class="title">
6574         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_test_Debian_Edu_Jessie_despite_some_fatal_problems_with_the_installer.html">How to test Debian Edu Jessie despite some fatal problems with the installer</a>
6575       </div>
6576       <div class="date">
6577         26th September 2014
6578       </div>
6579       <div class="body">
6580         <p>The <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux
6581 project</a> provide a Linux solution for schools, including a
6582 powerful desktop with education software, a central server providing
6583 web pages, user database, user home directories, central login and PXE
6584 boot of both  clients without disk and the installation to install Debian
6585 Edu on machines with disk (and a few other services perhaps to small
6586 to mention here).  We in the Debian Edu team are currently working on
6587 the Jessie based version, trying to get everything in shape before the
6588 freeze, to avoid having to maintain our own package repository in the
6589 future.  The
6590 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Status/Jessie">current
6591 status</a> can be seen on the Debian wiki, and there is still heaps of
6592 work left.  Some fatal problems block testing, breaking the installer,
6593 but it is possible to work around these to get anyway.  Here is a
6594 recipe on how to get the installation limping along.</p>
6595
6596 <p>First, download the test ISO via
6597 <a href="ftp://ftp.skolelinux.no/cd-edu-testing-nolocal-netinst/debian-edu-amd64-i386-NETINST-1.iso">ftp</a>,
6598 <a href="http://ftp.skolelinux.no/cd-edu-testing-nolocal-netinst/debian-edu-amd64-i386-NETINST-1.iso">http</a>
6599 or rsync (use
6600 ftp.skolelinux.org::cd-edu-testing-nolocal-netinst/debian-edu-amd64-i386-NETINST-1.iso).
6601 The ISO build was broken on Tuesday, so we do not get a new ISO every
6602 12 hours or so, but thankfully the ISO we already got we are able to
6603 install with some tweaking.</p>
6604
6605 <p>When you get to the Debian Edu profile question, go to tty2
6606 (use Alt-Ctrl-F2), run</p>
6607
6608 <p><blockquote><pre>
6609 nano /usr/bin/edu-eatmydata-install
6610 </pre></blockquote></p>
6611
6612 <p>and add 'exit 0' as the second line, disabling the eatmydata
6613 optimization.  Return to the installation, select the profile you want
6614 and continue.  Without this change, exim4-config will fail to install
6615 due to a known bug in eatmydata.</p>
6616
6617 <p>When you get the grub question at the end, answer /dev/sda (or if
6618 this do not work, figure out what your correct value would be.  All my
6619 test machines need /dev/sda, so I have no advice if it do not fit
6620 your need.</p>
6621
6622 <p>If you installed a profile including a graphical desktop, log in as
6623 root after the initial boot from hard drive, and install the
6624 education-desktop-XXX metapackage.  XXX can be kde, gnome, lxde, xfce
6625 or mate.  If you want several desktop options, install more than one
6626 metapackage.  Once this is done, reboot and you should have a working
6627 graphical login screen.  This workaround should no longer be needed
6628 once the education-tasks package version 1.801 enter testing in two
6629 days.</p>
6630
6631 <p>I believe the ISO build will start working on two days when the new
6632 tasksel package enter testing and Steve McIntyre get a chance to
6633 update the debian-cd git repository.  The eatmydata, grub and desktop
6634 issues are already fixed in unstable and testing, and should show up
6635 on the ISO as soon as the ISO build start working again.  Well the
6636 eatmydata optimization is really just disabled.  The proper fix
6637 require an upload by the eatmydata maintainer applying the patch
6638 provided in bug <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/702711">#702711</a>.
6639 The rest have proper fixes in unstable.</p>
6640
6641 <p>I hope this get you going with the installation testing, as we are
6642 quickly running out of time trying to get our Jessie based
6643 installation ready before the distribution freeze in a month.</p>
6644
6645       </div>
6646       <div class="tags">
6647
6648
6649         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
6650
6651
6652       </div>
6653     </div>
6654     <div class="padding"></div>
6655
6656     <div class="entry">
6657       <div class="title">
6658         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Suddenly_I_am_the_new_upstream_of_the_lsdvd_command_line_tool.html">Suddenly I am the new upstream of the lsdvd command line tool</a>
6659       </div>
6660       <div class="date">
6661         25th September 2014
6662       </div>
6663       <div class="body">
6664         <p>I use the <a href="https://sourceforge.net/p/lsdvd/">lsdvd tool</a>
6665 to handle my fairly large DVD collection.  It is a nice command line
6666 tool to get details about a DVD, like title, tracks, track length,
6667 etc, in XML, Perl or human readable format.  But lsdvd have not seen
6668 any new development since 2006 and had a few irritating bugs affecting
6669 its use with some DVDs.  Upstream seemed to be dead, and in January I
6670 sent a small probe asking for a version control repository for the
6671 project, without any reply.  But I use it regularly and would like to
6672 get <a href="https://packages.qa.debian.org/lsdvd">an updated version
6673 into Debian</a>.  So two weeks ago I tried harder to get in touch with
6674 the project admin, and after getting a reply from him explaining that
6675 he was no longer interested in the project, I asked if I could take
6676 over.  And yesterday, I became project admin.</p>
6677
6678 <p>I've been in touch with a Gentoo developer and the Debian
6679 maintainer interested in joining forces to maintain the upstream
6680 project, and I hope we can get a new release out fairly quickly,
6681 collecting the patches spread around on the internet into on place.
6682 I've added the relevant Debian patches to the freshly created git
6683 repository, and expect the Gentoo patches to make it too.  If you got
6684 a DVD collection and care about command line tools, check out
6685 <a href="https://sourceforge.net/p/lsdvd/git/ci/master/tree/">the git source</a> and join
6686 <a href="https://sourceforge.net/p/lsdvd/mailman/">the project mailing
6687 list</a>. :)</p>
6688
6689       </div>
6690       <div class="tags">
6691
6692
6693         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/lsdvd">lsdvd</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/multimedia">multimedia</a>.
6694
6695
6696       </div>
6697     </div>
6698     <div class="padding"></div>
6699
6700     <div class="entry">
6701       <div class="title">
6702         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Speeding_up_the_Debian_installer_using_eatmydata_and_dpkg_divert.html">Speeding up the Debian installer using eatmydata and dpkg-divert</a>
6703       </div>
6704       <div class="date">
6705         16th September 2014
6706       </div>
6707       <div class="body">
6708         <p>The <a href="https://www.debian.org/">Debian</a> installer could be
6709 a lot quicker.  When we install more than 2000 packages in
6710 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Skolelinux / Debian Edu</a> using
6711 tasksel in the installer, unpacking the binary packages take forever.
6712 A part of the slow I/O issue was discussed in
6713 <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/613428">bug #613428</a> about too
6714 much file system sync-ing done by dpkg, which is the package
6715 responsible for unpacking the binary packages.  Other parts (like code
6716 executed by postinst scripts) might also sync to disk during
6717 installation.  All this sync-ing to disk do not really make sense to
6718 me.  If the machine crash half-way through, I start over, I do not try
6719 to salvage the half installed system.  So the failure sync-ing is
6720 supposed to protect against, hardware or system crash, is not really
6721 relevant while the installer is running.</p>
6722
6723 <p>A few days ago, I thought of a way to get rid of all the file
6724 system sync()-ing in a fairly non-intrusive way, without the need to
6725 change the code in several packages.  The idea is not new, but I have
6726 not heard anyone propose the approach using dpkg-divert before.  It
6727 depend on the small and clever package
6728 <a href="https://packages.qa.debian.org/eatmydata">eatmydata</a>, which
6729 uses LD_PRELOAD to replace the system functions for syncing data to
6730 disk with functions doing nothing, thus allowing programs to live
6731 dangerous while speeding up disk I/O significantly.  Instead of
6732 modifying the implementation of dpkg, apt and tasksel (which are the
6733 packages responsible for selecting, fetching and installing packages),
6734 it occurred to me that we could just divert the programs away, replace
6735 them with a simple shell wrapper calling
6736 "eatmydata&nbsp;$program&nbsp;$@", to get the same effect.
6737 Two days ago I decided to test the idea, and wrapped up a simple
6738 implementation for the Debian Edu udeb.</p>
6739
6740 <p>The effect was stunning.  In my first test it reduced the running
6741 time of the pkgsel step (installing tasks) from 64 to less than 44
6742 minutes (20 minutes shaved off the installation) on an old Dell
6743 Latitude D505 machine.  I am not quite sure what the optimised time
6744 would have been, as I messed up the testing a bit, causing the debconf
6745 priority to get low enough for two questions to pop up during
6746 installation.  As soon as I saw the questions I moved the installation
6747 along, but do not know how long the question were holding up the
6748 installation.  I did some more measurements using Debian Edu Jessie,
6749 and got these results.  The time measured is the time stamp in
6750 /var/log/syslog between the "pkgsel: starting tasksel" and the
6751 "pkgsel: finishing up" lines, if you want to do the same measurement
6752 yourself.  In Debian Edu, the tasksel dialog do not show up, and the
6753 timing thus do not depend on how quickly the user handle the tasksel
6754 dialog.</p>
6755
6756 <p><table>
6757
6758 <tr>
6759 <th>Machine/setup</th>
6760 <th>Original tasksel</th>
6761 <th>Optimised tasksel</th>
6762 <th>Reduction</th>
6763 </tr>
6764
6765 <tr>
6766 <td>Latitude D505 Main+LTSP LXDE</td>
6767 <td>64 min (07:46-08:50)</td>
6768 <td><44 min (11:27-12:11)</td>
6769 <td>>20 min 18%</td>
6770 </tr>
6771
6772 <tr>
6773 <td>Latitude D505 Roaming LXDE</td>
6774 <td>57 min (08:48-09:45)</td>
6775 <td>34 min (07:43-08:17)</td>
6776 <td>23 min 40%</td>
6777 </tr>
6778
6779 <tr>
6780 <td>Latitude D505 Minimal</td>
6781 <td>22 min (10:37-10:59)</td>
6782 <td>11 min (11:16-11:27)</td>
6783 <td>11 min 50%</td>
6784 </tr>
6785
6786 <tr>
6787 <td>Thinkpad X200 Minimal</td>
6788 <td>6 min (08:19-08:25)</td>
6789 <td>4 min (08:04-08:08)</td>
6790 <td>2 min 33%</td>
6791 </tr>
6792
6793 <tr>
6794 <td>Thinkpad X200 Roaming KDE</td>
6795 <td>19 min (09:21-09:40)</td>
6796 <td>15 min (10:25-10:40)</td>
6797 <td>4 min 21%</td>
6798 </tr>
6799
6800 </table></p>
6801
6802 <p>The test is done using a netinst ISO on a USB stick, so some of the
6803 time is spent downloading packages.  The connection to the Internet
6804 was 100Mbit/s during testing, so downloading should not be a
6805 significant factor in the measurement.  Download typically took a few
6806 seconds to a few minutes, depending on the amount of packages being
6807 installed.</p>
6808
6809 <p>The speedup is implemented by using two hooks in
6810 <a href="https://www.debian.org/devel/debian-installer/">Debian
6811 Installer</a>, the pre-pkgsel.d hook to set up the diverts, and the
6812 finish-install.d hook to remove the divert at the end of the
6813 installation.  I picked the pre-pkgsel.d hook instead of the
6814 post-base-installer.d hook because I test using an ISO without the
6815 eatmydata package included, and the post-base-installer.d hook in
6816 Debian Edu can only operate on packages included in the ISO.  The
6817 negative effect of this is that I am unable to activate this
6818 optimization for the kernel installation step in d-i.  If the code is
6819 moved to the post-base-installer.d hook, the speedup would be larger
6820 for the entire installation.</p>
6821
6822 <p>I've implemented this in the
6823 <a href="https://packages.qa.debian.org/debian-edu-install">debian-edu-install</a>
6824 git repository, and plan to provide the optimization as part of the
6825 Debian Edu installation.  If you want to test this yourself, you can
6826 create two files in the installer (or in an udeb).  One shell script
6827 need do go into /usr/lib/pre-pkgsel.d/, with content like this:</p>
6828
6829 <p><blockquote><pre>
6830 #!/bin/sh
6831 set -e
6832 . /usr/share/debconf/confmodule
6833 info() {
6834     logger -t my-pkgsel "info: $*"
6835 }
6836 error() {
6837     logger -t my-pkgsel "error: $*"
6838 }
6839 override_install() {
6840     apt-install eatmydata || true
6841     if [ -x /target/usr/bin/eatmydata ] ; then
6842         for bin in dpkg apt-get aptitude tasksel ; do
6843             file=/usr/bin/$bin
6844             # Test that the file exist and have not been diverted already.
6845             if [ -f /target$file ] ; then
6846                 info "diverting $file using eatmydata"
6847                 printf "#!/bin/sh\neatmydata $bin.distrib \"\$@\"\n" \
6848                     > /target$file.edu
6849                 chmod 755 /target$file.edu
6850                 in-target dpkg-divert --package debian-edu-config \
6851                     --rename --quiet --add $file
6852                 ln -sf ./$bin.edu /target$file
6853             else
6854                 error "unable to divert $file, as it is missing."
6855             fi
6856         done
6857     else
6858         error "unable to find /usr/bin/eatmydata after installing the eatmydata pacage"
6859     fi
6860 }
6861
6862 override_install
6863 </pre></blockquote></p>
6864
6865 <p>To clean up, another shell script should go into
6866 /usr/lib/finish-install.d/ with code like this:
6867
6868 <p><blockquote><pre>
6869 #! /bin/sh -e
6870 . /usr/share/debconf/confmodule
6871 error() {
6872     logger -t my-finish-install "error: $@"
6873 }
6874 remove_install_override() {
6875     for bin in dpkg apt-get aptitude tasksel ; do
6876         file=/usr/bin/$bin
6877         if [ -x /target$file.edu ] ; then
6878             rm /target$file
6879             in-target dpkg-divert --package debian-edu-config \
6880                 --rename --quiet --remove $file
6881             rm /target$file.edu
6882         else
6883             error "Missing divert for $file."
6884         fi
6885     done
6886     sync # Flush file buffers before continuing
6887 }
6888
6889 remove_install_override
6890 </pre></blockquote></p>
6891
6892 <p>In Debian Edu, I placed both code fragments in a separate script
6893 edu-eatmydata-install and call it from the pre-pkgsel.d and
6894 finish-install.d scripts.</p>
6895
6896 <p>By now you might ask if this change should get into the normal
6897 Debian installer too?  I suspect it should, but am not sure the
6898 current debian-installer coordinators find it useful enough.  It also
6899 depend on the side effects of the change.  I'm not aware of any, but I
6900 guess we will see if the change is safe after some more testing.
6901 Perhaps there is some package in Debian depending on sync() and
6902 fsync() having effect?  Perhaps it should go into its own udeb, to
6903 allow those of us wanting to enable it to do so without affecting
6904 everyone.</p>
6905
6906 <p>Update 2014-09-24: Since a few days ago, enabling this optimization
6907 will break installation of all programs using gnutls because of
6908 <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/702711">bug #702711</a>.  An updated
6909 eatmydata package in Debian will solve it.</p>
6910
6911 <p>Update 2014-10-17: The bug mentioned above is fixed in testing and
6912 the optimization work again.  And I have discovered that the
6913 dpkg-divert trick is not really needed and implemented a slightly
6914 simpler approach as part of the debian-edu-install package.  See
6915 tools/edu-eatmydata-install in the source package.</p>
6916
6917 <p>Update 2014-11-11: Unfortunately, a new
6918 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/765738">bug #765738</a> in eatmydata only
6919 triggering on i386 made it into testing, and broke this installation
6920 optimization again.  If <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/768893">unblock
6921 request 768893</a> is accepted, it should be working again.</p>
6922
6923       </div>
6924       <div class="tags">
6925
6926
6927         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
6928
6929
6930       </div>
6931     </div>
6932     <div class="padding"></div>
6933
6934     <div class="entry">
6935       <div class="title">
6936         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Good_bye_subkeys_pgp_net__welcome_pool_sks_keyservers_net.html">Good bye subkeys.pgp.net, welcome pool.sks-keyservers.net</a>
6937       </div>
6938       <div class="date">
6939         10th September 2014
6940       </div>
6941       <div class="body">
6942         <p>Yesterday, I had the pleasure of attending a talk with the
6943 <a href="http://www.nuug.no/">Norwegian Unix User Group</a> about
6944 <a href="http://www.nuug.no/aktiviteter/20140909-sks-keyservers/">the
6945 OpenPGP keyserver pool sks-keyservers.net</a>, and was very happy to
6946 learn that there is a large set of publicly available key servers to
6947 use when looking for peoples public key.  So far I have used
6948 subkeys.pgp.net, and some times wwwkeys.nl.pgp.net when the former
6949 were misbehaving, but those days are ended.  The servers I have used
6950 up until yesterday have been slow and some times unavailable.  I hope
6951 those problems are gone now.</p>
6952
6953 <p>Behind the round robin DNS entry of the
6954 <a href="https://sks-keyservers.net/">sks-keyservers.net</a> service
6955 there is a pool of more than 100 keyservers which are checked every
6956 day to ensure they are well connected and up to date.  It must be
6957 better than what I have used so far. :)</p>
6958
6959 <p>Yesterdays speaker told me that the service is the default
6960 keyserver provided by the default configuration in GnuPG, but this do
6961 not seem to be used in Debian.  Perhaps it should?</p>
6962
6963 <p>Anyway, I've updated my ~/.gnupg/options file to now include this
6964 line:</p>
6965
6966 <p><blockquote><pre>
6967 keyserver pool.sks-keyservers.net
6968 </pre></blockquote></p>
6969
6970 <p>With GnuPG version 2 one can also locate the keyserver using SRV
6971 entries in DNS.  Just for fun, I did just that at work, so now every
6972 user of GnuPG at the University of Oslo should find a OpenGPG
6973 keyserver automatically should their need it:</p>
6974
6975 <p><blockquote><pre>
6976 % host -t srv _pgpkey-http._tcp.uio.no
6977 _pgpkey-http._tcp.uio.no has SRV record 0 100 11371 pool.sks-keyservers.net.
6978 %
6979 </pre></blockquote></p>
6980
6981 <p>Now if only
6982 <a href="http://ietfreport.isoc.org/idref/draft-shaw-openpgp-hkp/">the
6983 HKP lookup protocol</a> supported finding signature paths, I would be
6984 very happy.  It can look up a given key or search for a user ID, but I
6985 normally do not want that, but to find a trust path from my key to
6986 another key.  Given a user ID or key ID, I would like to find (and
6987 download) the keys representing a signature path from my key to the
6988 key in question, to be able to get a trust path between the two keys.
6989 This is as far as I can tell not possible today.  Perhaps something
6990 for a future version of the protocol?</p>
6991
6992       </div>
6993       <div class="tags">
6994
6995
6996         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/personvern">personvern</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>.
6997
6998
6999       </div>
7000     </div>
7001     <div class="padding"></div>
7002
7003     <div class="entry">
7004       <div class="title">
7005         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/From_English_wiki_to_translated_PDF_and_epub_via_Docbook.html">From English wiki to translated PDF and epub via Docbook</a>
7006       </div>
7007       <div class="date">
7008         17th June 2014
7009       </div>
7010       <div class="body">
7011         <p>The <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux
7012 project</a> provide an instruction manual for teachers, system
7013 administrators and other users that contain useful tips for setting up
7014 and maintaining a Debian Edu installation.  This text is about how the
7015 text processing of this manual is handled in the project.</p>
7016
7017 <p>One goal of the project is to provide information in the native
7018 language of its users, and for this we need to handle translations.
7019 But we also want to make sure each language contain the same
7020 information, so for this we need a good way to keep the translations
7021 in sync.  And we want it to be easy for our users to improve the
7022 documentation, avoiding the need to learn special formats or tools to
7023 contribute, and the obvious way to do this is to make it possible to
7024 edit the documentation using a web browser.  We also want it to be
7025 easy for translators to keep the translation up to date, and give them
7026 help in figuring out what need to be translated. Here is the list of
7027 tools and the process we have found trying to reach all these
7028 goals.</p>
7029
7030 <p>We maintain the authoritative source of our manual in the
7031 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Documentation/Wheezy/">Debian
7032 wiki</a>, as several wiki pages written in English.  It consist of one
7033 front page with references to the different chapters, several pages
7034 for each chapter, and finally one "collection page" gluing all the
7035 chapters together into one large web page (aka
7036 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Documentation/Wheezy/AllInOne">the
7037 AllInOne page</a>).  The AllInOne page is the one used for further
7038 processing and translations.  Thanks to the fact that the
7039 <a href="http://moinmo.in/">MoinMoin</a> installation on
7040 wiki.debian.org support exporting pages in
7041 <a href="http://www.docbook.org/">the Docbook format</a>, we can fetch
7042 the list of pages to export using the raw version of the AllInOne
7043 page, loop over each of them to generate a Docbook XML version of the
7044 manual.  This process also download images and transform image
7045 references to use the locally downloaded images.  The generated
7046 Docbook XML files are slightly broken, so some post-processing is done
7047 using the <tt>documentation/scripts/get_manual</tt> program, and the
7048 result is a nice Docbook XML file (debian-edu-wheezy-manual.xml) and
7049 a handfull of images.  The XML file can now be used to generate PDF, HTML
7050 and epub versions of the English manual.  This is the basic step of
7051 our process, making PDF (using dblatex), HTML (using xsltproc) and
7052 epub (using dbtoepub) version from Docbook XML, and the resulting files
7053 are placed in the debian-edu-doc-en binary package.</p>
7054
7055 <p>But English documentation is not enough for us.  We want translated
7056 documentation too, and we want to make it easy for translators to
7057 track the English original.  For this we use the
7058 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/p/poxml.html">poxml</a> package,
7059 which allow us to transform the English Docbook XML file into a
7060 translation file (a .pot file), usable with the normal gettext based
7061 translation tools used by those translating free software.  The pot
7062 file is used to create and maintain translation files (several .po
7063 files), which the translations update with the native language
7064 translations of all titles, paragraphs and blocks of text in the
7065 original.  The next step is combining the original English Docbook XML
7066 and the translation file (say debian-edu-wheezy-manual.nb.po), to
7067 create a translated Docbook XML file (in this case
7068 debian-edu-wheezy-manual.nb.xml).  This translated (or partly
7069 translated, if the translation is not complete) Docbook XML file can
7070 then be used like the original to create a PDF, HTML and epub version
7071 of the documentation.</p>
7072
7073 <p>The translators use different tools to edit the .po files.  We
7074 recommend using
7075 <a href="http://www.kde.org/applications/development/lokalize/">lokalize</a>,
7076 while some use emacs and vi, others can use web based editors like
7077 <a href="http://pootle.translatehouse.org/">Poodle</a> or
7078 <a href="https://www.transifex.com/">Transifex</a>.  All we care about
7079 is where the .po file end up, in our git repository.  Updated
7080 translations can either be committed directly to git, or submitted as
7081 <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/src:debian-edu-doc">bug reports
7082 against the debian-edu-doc package</a>.</p>
7083
7084 <p>One challenge is images, which both might need to be translated (if
7085 they show translated user applications), and are needed in different
7086 formats when creating PDF and HTML versions (epub is a HTML version in
7087 this regard).  For this we transform the original PNG images to the
7088 needed density and format during build, and have a way to provide
7089 translated images by storing translated versions in
7090 images/$LANGUAGECODE/.  I am a bit unsure about the details here.  The
7091 package maintainers know more.</p>
7092
7093 <p>If you wonder what the result look like, we provide
7094 <a href="http://maintainer.skolelinux.org/debian-edu-doc/">the content
7095 of the documentation packages on the web</a>.  See for example the
7096 <a href="http://maintainer.skolelinux.org/debian-edu-doc/it/debian-edu-wheezy-manual.pdf">Italian
7097 PDF version</a> or the
7098 <a href="http://maintainer.skolelinux.org/debian-edu-doc/de/debian-edu-wheezy-manual.html">German
7099 HTML version</a>.  We do not yet build the epub version by default,
7100 but perhaps it will be done in the future.</p>
7101
7102 <p>To learn more, check out
7103 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/d/debian-edu-doc.html">the
7104 debian-edu-doc package</a>,
7105 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Documentation/Wheezy/">the
7106 manual on the wiki</a> and
7107 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Documentation/Wheezy/Translations">the
7108 translation instructions</a> in the manual.</p>
7109
7110       </div>
7111       <div class="tags">
7112
7113
7114         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/docbook">docbook</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
7115
7116
7117       </div>
7118     </div>
7119     <div class="padding"></div>
7120
7121     <div class="entry">
7122       <div class="title">
7123         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Install_hardware_dependent_packages_using_tasksel__Isenkram_0_7_.html">Install hardware dependent packages using tasksel (Isenkram 0.7)</a>
7124       </div>
7125       <div class="date">
7126         23rd April 2014
7127       </div>
7128       <div class="body">
7129         <p>It would be nice if it was easier in Debian to get all the hardware
7130 related packages relevant for the computer installed automatically.
7131 So I implemented one, using
7132 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/isenkram">my Isenkram
7133 package</a>.  To use it, install the tasksel and isenkram packages and
7134 run tasksel as user root.  You should be presented with a new option,
7135 "Hardware specific packages (autodetected by isenkram)".  When you
7136 select it, tasksel will install the packages isenkram claim is fit for
7137 the current hardware, hot pluggable or not.<p>
7138
7139 <p>The implementation is in two files, one is the tasksel menu entry
7140 description, and the other is the script used to extract the list of
7141 packages to install.  The first part is in
7142 <tt>/usr/share/tasksel/descs/isenkram.desc</tt> and look like
7143 this:</p>
7144
7145 <p><blockquote><pre>
7146 Task: isenkram
7147 Section: hardware
7148 Description: Hardware specific packages (autodetected by isenkram)
7149  Based on the detected hardware various hardware specific packages are
7150  proposed.
7151 Test-new-install: mark show
7152 Relevance: 8
7153 Packages: for-current-hardware
7154 </pre></blockquote></p>
7155
7156 <p>The second part is in
7157 <tt>/usr/lib/tasksel/packages/for-current-hardware</tt> and look like
7158 this:</p>
7159
7160 <p><blockquote><pre>
7161 #!/bin/sh
7162 #
7163 (
7164     isenkram-lookup
7165     isenkram-autoinstall-firmware -l
7166 ) | sort -u
7167 </pre></blockquote></p>
7168
7169 <p>All in all, a very short and simple implementation making it
7170 trivial to install the hardware dependent package we all may want to
7171 have installed on our machines.  I've not been able to find a way to
7172 get tasksel to tell you exactly which packages it plan to install
7173 before doing the installation.  So if you are curious or careful,
7174 check the output from the isenkram-* command line tools first.</p>
7175
7176 <p>The information about which packages are handling which hardware is
7177 fetched either from the isenkram package itself in
7178 /usr/share/isenkram/, from git.debian.org or from the APT package
7179 database (using the Modaliases header).  The APT package database
7180 parsing have caused a nasty resource leak in the isenkram daemon (bugs
7181 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/719837">#719837</a> and
7182 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/730704">#730704</a>).  The cause is in
7183 the python-apt code (bug
7184 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/745487">#745487</a>), but using a
7185 workaround I was able to get rid of the file descriptor leak and
7186 reduce the memory leak from ~30 MiB per hardware detection down to
7187 around 2 MiB per hardware detection.  It should make the desktop
7188 daemon a lot more useful.  The fix is in version 0.7 uploaded to
7189 unstable today.</p>
7190
7191 <p>I believe the current way of mapping hardware to packages in
7192 Isenkram is is a good draft, but in the future I expect isenkram to
7193 use the AppStream data source for this.  A proposal for getting proper
7194 AppStream support into Debian is floating around as
7195 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DEP-11">DEP-11</a>, and
7196 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/SummerOfCode2014/Projects#SummerOfCode2014.2FProjects.2FAppStreamDEP11Implementation.AppStream.2FDEP-11_for_the_Debian_Archive">GSoC
7197 project</a> will take place this summer to improve the situation.  I
7198 look forward to seeing the result, and welcome patches for isenkram to
7199 start using the information when it is ready.</p>
7200
7201 <p>If you want your package to map to some specific hardware, either
7202 add a "Xb-Modaliases" header to your control file like I did in
7203 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/pymissile">the pymissile
7204 package</a> or submit a bug report with the details to the isenkram
7205 package.  See also
7206 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram/">all my
7207 blog posts tagged isenkram</a> for details on the notation.  I expect
7208 the information will be migrated to AppStream eventually, but for the
7209 moment I got no better place to store it.</p>
7210
7211       </div>
7212       <div class="tags">
7213
7214
7215         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram">isenkram</a>.
7216
7217
7218       </div>
7219     </div>
7220     <div class="padding"></div>
7221
7222     <div class="entry">
7223       <div class="title">
7224         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/FreedomBox_milestone___all_packages_now_in_Debian_Sid.html">FreedomBox milestone - all packages now in Debian Sid</a>
7225       </div>
7226       <div class="date">
7227         15th April 2014
7228       </div>
7229       <div class="body">
7230         <p>The <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/FreedomBox">Freedombox
7231 project</a> is working on providing the software and hardware to make
7232 it easy for non-technical people to host their data and communication
7233 at home, and being able to communicate with their friends and family
7234 encrypted and away from prying eyes.  It is still going strong, and
7235 today a major mile stone was reached.</p>
7236
7237 <p>Today, the last of the packages currently used by the project to
7238 created the system images were accepted into Debian Unstable.  It was
7239 the freedombox-setup package, which is used to configure the images
7240 during build and on the first boot.  Now all one need to get going is
7241 the build code from the freedom-maker git repository and packages from
7242 Debian.  And once the freedombox-setup package enter testing, we can
7243 build everything directly from Debian. :)</p>
7244
7245 <p>Some key packages used by Freedombox are
7246 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/freedombox-setup">freedombox-setup</a>,
7247 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/plinth">plinth</a>,
7248 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/pagekite">pagekite</a>,
7249 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/tor">tor</a>,
7250 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/privoxy">privoxy</a>,
7251 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/owncloud">owncloud</a> and
7252 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/dnsmasq">dnsmasq</a>.  There
7253 are plans to integrate more packages into the setup.  User
7254 documentation is maintained on the Debian wiki.  Please
7255 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/FreedomBox/Manual/Jessie">check out
7256 the manual</a> and help us improve it.</p>
7257
7258 <p>To test for yourself and create boot images with the FreedomBox
7259 setup, run this on a Debian machine using a user with sudo rights to
7260 become root:</p>
7261
7262 <p><pre>
7263 sudo apt-get install git vmdebootstrap mercurial python-docutils \
7264   mktorrent extlinux virtualbox qemu-user-static binfmt-support \
7265   u-boot-tools
7266 git clone http://anonscm.debian.org/git/freedombox/freedom-maker.git \
7267   freedom-maker
7268 make -C freedom-maker dreamplug-image raspberry-image virtualbox-image
7269 </pre></p>
7270
7271 <p>Root access is needed to run debootstrap and mount loopback
7272 devices.  See the README in the freedom-maker git repo for more
7273 details on the build.  If you do not want all three images, trim the
7274 make line.  Note that the virtualbox-image target is not really
7275 virtualbox specific.  It create a x86 image usable in kvm, qemu,
7276 vmware and any other x86 virtual machine environment.  You might need
7277 the version of vmdebootstrap in Jessie to get the build working, as it
7278 include fixes for a race condition with kpartx.</p>
7279
7280 <p>If you instead want to install using a Debian CD and the preseed
7281 method, boot a Debian Wheezy ISO and use this boot argument to load
7282 the preseed values:</p>
7283
7284 <p><pre>
7285 url=<a href="http://www.reinholdtsen.name/freedombox/preseed-jessie.dat">http://www.reinholdtsen.name/freedombox/preseed-jessie.dat</a>
7286 </pre></p>
7287
7288 <p>I have not tested it myself the last few weeks, so I do not know if
7289 it still work.</p>
7290
7291 <p>If you wonder how to help, one task you could look at is using
7292 systemd as the boot system.  It will become the default for Linux in
7293 Jessie, so we need to make sure it is usable on the Freedombox.  I did
7294 a simple test a few weeks ago, and noticed dnsmasq failed to start
7295 during boot when using systemd.  I suspect there are other problems
7296 too. :) To detect problems, there is a test suite included, which can
7297 be run from the plinth web interface.</p>
7298
7299 <p>Give it a go and let us know how it goes on the mailing list, and help
7300 us get the new release published. :) Please join us on
7301 <a href="irc://irc.debian.org:6667/%23freedombox">IRC (#freedombox on
7302 irc.debian.org)</a> and
7303 <a href="http://lists.alioth.debian.org/mailman/listinfo/freedombox-discuss">the
7304 mailing list</a> if you want to help make this vision come true.</p>
7305
7306       </div>
7307       <div class="tags">
7308
7309
7310         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freedombox">freedombox</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/web">web</a>.
7311
7312
7313       </div>
7314     </div>
7315     <div class="padding"></div>
7316
7317     <div class="entry">
7318       <div class="title">
7319         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/S3QL__a_locally_mounted_cloud_file_system___nice_free_software.html">S3QL, a locally mounted cloud file system - nice free software</a>
7320       </div>
7321       <div class="date">
7322          9th April 2014
7323       </div>
7324       <div class="body">
7325         <p>For a while now, I have been looking for a sensible offsite backup
7326 solution for use at home.  My requirements are simple, it must be
7327 cheap and locally encrypted (in other words, I keep the encryption
7328 keys, the storage provider do not have access to my private files).
7329 One idea me and my friends had many years ago, before the cloud
7330 storage providers showed up, was to use Google mail as storage,
7331 writing a Linux block device storing blocks as emails in the mail
7332 service provided by Google, and thus get heaps of free space.  On top
7333 of this one can add encryption, RAID and volume management to have
7334 lots of (fairly slow, I admit that) cheap and encrypted storage.  But
7335 I never found time to implement such system.  But the last few weeks I
7336 have looked at a system called
7337 <a href="https://bitbucket.org/nikratio/s3ql/">S3QL</a>, a locally
7338 mounted network backed file system with the features I need.</p>
7339
7340 <p>S3QL is a fuse file system with a local cache and cloud storage,
7341 handling several different storage providers, any with Amazon S3,
7342 Google Drive or OpenStack API.  There are heaps of such storage
7343 providers.  S3QL can also use a local directory as storage, which
7344 combined with sshfs allow for file storage on any ssh server.  S3QL
7345 include support for encryption, compression, de-duplication, snapshots
7346 and immutable file systems, allowing me to mount the remote storage as
7347 a local mount point, look at and use the files as if they were local,
7348 while the content is stored in the cloud as well.  This allow me to
7349 have a backup that should survive fire.  The file system can not be
7350 shared between several machines at the same time, as only one can
7351 mount it at the time, but any machine with the encryption key and
7352 access to the storage service can mount it if it is unmounted.</p>
7353
7354 <p>It is simple to use.  I'm using it on Debian Wheezy, where the
7355 package is included already.  So to get started, run <tt>apt-get
7356 install s3ql</tt>.  Next, pick a storage provider.  I ended up picking
7357 Greenqloud, after reading their nice recipe on
7358 <a href="https://greenqloud.zendesk.com/entries/44611757-How-To-Use-S3QL-to-mount-a-StorageQloud-bucket-on-Debian-Wheezy">how
7359 to use S3QL with their Amazon S3 service</a>, because I trust the laws
7360 in Iceland more than those in USA when it come to keeping my personal
7361 data safe and private, and thus would rather spend money on a company
7362 in Iceland.  Another nice recipe is available from the article
7363 <a href="http://www.admin-magazine.com/HPC/Articles/HPC-Cloud-Storage">S3QL
7364 Filesystem for HPC Storage</a> by Jeff Layton in the HPC section of
7365 Admin magazine.  When the provider is picked, figure out how to get
7366 the API key needed to connect to the storage API.  With Greencloud,
7367 the key did not show up until I had added payment details to my
7368 account.</p>
7369
7370 <p>Armed with the API access details, it is time to create the file
7371 system.  First, create a new bucket in the cloud.  This bucket is the
7372 file system storage area.  I picked a bucket name reflecting the
7373 machine that was going to store data there, but any name will do.
7374 I'll refer to it as <tt>bucket-name</tt> below.  In addition, one need
7375 the API login and password, and a locally created password.  Store it
7376 all in ~root/.s3ql/authinfo2 like this:
7377
7378 <p><blockquote><pre>
7379 [s3c]
7380 storage-url: s3c://s.greenqloud.com:443/bucket-name
7381 backend-login: API-login
7382 backend-password: API-password
7383 fs-passphrase: local-password
7384 </pre></blockquote></p>
7385
7386 <p>I create my local passphrase using <tt>pwget 50</tt> or similar,
7387 but any sensible way to create a fairly random password should do it.
7388 Armed with these details, it is now time to run mkfs, entering the API
7389 details and password to create it:</p>
7390
7391 <p><blockquote><pre>
7392 # mkdir -m 700 /var/lib/s3ql-cache
7393 # mkfs.s3ql --cachedir /var/lib/s3ql-cache --authfile /root/.s3ql/authinfo2 \
7394   --ssl s3c://s.greenqloud.com:443/bucket-name
7395 Enter backend login:
7396 Enter backend password:
7397 Before using S3QL, make sure to read the user's guide, especially
7398 the 'Important Rules to Avoid Loosing Data' section.
7399 Enter encryption password:
7400 Confirm encryption password:
7401 Generating random encryption key...
7402 Creating metadata tables...
7403 Dumping metadata...
7404 ..objects..
7405 ..blocks..
7406 ..inodes..
7407 ..inode_blocks..
7408 ..symlink_targets..
7409 ..names..
7410 ..contents..
7411 ..ext_attributes..
7412 Compressing and uploading metadata...
7413 Wrote 0.00 MB of compressed metadata.
7414 # </pre></blockquote></p>
7415
7416 <p>The next step is mounting the file system to make the storage available.
7417
7418 <p><blockquote><pre>
7419 # mount.s3ql --cachedir /var/lib/s3ql-cache --authfile /root/.s3ql/authinfo2 \
7420   --ssl --allow-root s3c://s.greenqloud.com:443/bucket-name /s3ql
7421 Using 4 upload threads.
7422 Downloading and decompressing metadata...
7423 Reading metadata...
7424 ..objects..
7425 ..blocks..
7426 ..inodes..
7427 ..inode_blocks..
7428 ..symlink_targets..
7429 ..names..
7430 ..contents..
7431 ..ext_attributes..
7432 Mounting filesystem...
7433 # df -h /s3ql
7434 Filesystem                              Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
7435 s3c://s.greenqloud.com:443/bucket-name  1.0T     0  1.0T   0% /s3ql
7436 #
7437 </pre></blockquote></p>
7438
7439 <p>The file system is now ready for use.  I use rsync to store my
7440 backups in it, and as the metadata used by rsync is downloaded at
7441 mount time, no network traffic (and storage cost) is triggered by
7442 running rsync.  To unmount, one should not use the normal umount
7443 command, as this will not flush the cache to the cloud storage, but
7444 instead running the umount.s3ql command like this:
7445
7446 <p><blockquote><pre>
7447 # umount.s3ql /s3ql
7448 #
7449 </pre></blockquote></p>
7450
7451 <p>There is a fsck command available to check the file system and
7452 correct any problems detected.  This can be used if the local server
7453 crashes while the file system is mounted, to reset the "already
7454 mounted" flag.  This is what it look like when processing a working
7455 file system:</p>
7456
7457 <p><blockquote><pre>
7458 # fsck.s3ql --force --ssl s3c://s.greenqloud.com:443/bucket-name
7459 Using cached metadata.
7460 File system seems clean, checking anyway.
7461 Checking DB integrity...
7462 Creating temporary extra indices...
7463 Checking lost+found...
7464 Checking cached objects...
7465 Checking names (refcounts)...
7466 Checking contents (names)...
7467 Checking contents (inodes)...
7468 Checking contents (parent inodes)...
7469 Checking objects (reference counts)...
7470 Checking objects (backend)...
7471 ..processed 5000 objects so far..
7472 ..processed 10000 objects so far..
7473 ..processed 15000 objects so far..
7474 Checking objects (sizes)...
7475 Checking blocks (referenced objects)...
7476 Checking blocks (refcounts)...
7477 Checking inode-block mapping (blocks)...
7478 Checking inode-block mapping (inodes)...
7479 Checking inodes (refcounts)...
7480 Checking inodes (sizes)...
7481 Checking extended attributes (names)...
7482 Checking extended attributes (inodes)...
7483 Checking symlinks (inodes)...
7484 Checking directory reachability...
7485 Checking unix conventions...
7486 Checking referential integrity...
7487 Dropping temporary indices...
7488 Backing up old metadata...
7489 Dumping metadata...
7490 ..objects..
7491 ..blocks..
7492 ..inodes..
7493 ..inode_blocks..
7494 ..symlink_targets..
7495 ..names..
7496 ..contents..
7497 ..ext_attributes..
7498 Compressing and uploading metadata...
7499 Wrote 0.89 MB of compressed metadata.
7500 #
7501 </pre></blockquote></p>
7502
7503 <p>Thanks to the cache, working on files that fit in the cache is very
7504 quick, about the same speed as local file access.  Uploading large
7505 amount of data is to me limited by the bandwidth out of and into my
7506 house.  Uploading 685 MiB with a 100 MiB cache gave me 305 kiB/s,
7507 which is very close to my upload speed, and downloading the same
7508 Debian installation ISO gave me 610 kiB/s, close to my download speed.
7509 Both were measured using <tt>dd</tt>.  So for me, the bottleneck is my
7510 network, not the file system code.  I do not know what a good cache
7511 size would be, but suspect that the cache should e larger than your
7512 working set.</p>
7513
7514 <p>I mentioned that only one machine can mount the file system at the
7515 time.  If another machine try, it is told that the file system is
7516 busy:</p>
7517
7518 <p><blockquote><pre>
7519 # mount.s3ql --cachedir /var/lib/s3ql-cache --authfile /root/.s3ql/authinfo2 \
7520   --ssl --allow-root s3c://s.greenqloud.com:443/bucket-name /s3ql
7521 Using 8 upload threads.
7522 Backend reports that fs is still mounted elsewhere, aborting.
7523 #
7524 </pre></blockquote></p>
7525
7526 <p>The file content is uploaded when the cache is full, while the
7527 metadata is uploaded once every 24 hour by default.  To ensure the
7528 file system content is flushed to the cloud, one can either umount the
7529 file system, or ask S3QL to flush the cache and metadata using
7530 s3qlctrl:
7531
7532 <p><blockquote><pre>
7533 # s3qlctrl upload-meta /s3ql
7534 # s3qlctrl flushcache /s3ql
7535 #
7536 </pre></blockquote></p>
7537
7538 <p>If you are curious about how much space your data uses in the
7539 cloud, and how much compression and deduplication cut down on the
7540 storage usage, you can use s3qlstat on the mounted file system to get
7541 a report:</p>
7542
7543 <p><blockquote><pre>
7544 # s3qlstat /s3ql
7545 Directory entries:    9141
7546 Inodes:               9143
7547 Data blocks:          8851
7548 Total data size:      22049.38 MB
7549 After de-duplication: 21955.46 MB (99.57% of total)
7550 After compression:    21877.28 MB (99.22% of total, 99.64% of de-duplicated)
7551 Database size:        2.39 MB (uncompressed)
7552 (some values do not take into account not-yet-uploaded dirty blocks in cache)
7553 #
7554 </pre></blockquote></p>
7555
7556 <p>I mentioned earlier that there are several possible suppliers of
7557 storage.  I did not try to locate them all, but am aware of at least
7558 <a href="https://www.greenqloud.com/">Greenqloud</a>,
7559 <a href="http://drive.google.com/">Google Drive</a>,
7560 <a href="http://aws.amazon.com/s3/">Amazon S3 web serivces</a>,
7561 <a href="http://www.rackspace.com/">Rackspace</a> and
7562 <a href="http://crowncloud.net/">Crowncloud</A>.  The latter even
7563 accept payment in Bitcoin.  Pick one that suit your need.  Some of
7564 them provide several GiB of free storage, but the prize models are
7565 quite different and you will have to figure out what suits you
7566 best.</p>
7567
7568 <p>While researching this blog post, I had a look at research papers
7569 and posters discussing the S3QL file system.  There are several, which
7570 told me that the file system is getting a critical check by the
7571 science community and increased my confidence in using it.  One nice
7572 poster is titled
7573 "<a href="http://www.lanl.gov/orgs/adtsc/publications/science_highlights_2013/docs/pg68_69.pdf">An
7574 Innovative Parallel Cloud Storage System using OpenStack’s SwiftObject
7575 Store and Transformative Parallel I/O Approach</a>" by Hsing-Bung
7576 Chen, Benjamin McClelland, David Sherrill, Alfred Torrez, Parks Fields
7577 and Pamela Smith.  Please  have a look.</p>
7578
7579 <p>Given my problems with different file systems earlier, I decided to
7580 check out the mounted S3QL file system to see if it would be usable as
7581 a home directory (in other word, that it provided POSIX semantics when
7582 it come to locking and umask handling etc).  Running
7583 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Testing_if_a_file_system_can_be_used_for_home_directories___.html">my
7584 test code to check file system semantics</a>, I was happy to discover that
7585 no error was found.  So the file system can be used for home
7586 directories, if one chooses to do so.</p>
7587
7588 <p>If you do not want a locally file system, and want something that
7589 work without the Linux fuse file system, I would like to mention the
7590 <a href="http://www.tarsnap.com/">Tarsnap service</a>, which also
7591 provide locally encrypted backup using a command line client.  It have
7592 a nicer access control system, where one can split out read and write
7593 access, allowing some systems to write to the backup and others to
7594 only read from it.</p>
7595
7596 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
7597 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
7598 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
7599
7600       </div>
7601       <div class="tags">
7602
7603
7604         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nice free software">nice free software</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/personvern">personvern</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>.
7605
7606
7607       </div>
7608     </div>
7609     <div class="padding"></div>
7610
7611     <div class="entry">
7612       <div class="title">
7613         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Freedombox_on_Dreamplug__Raspberry_Pi_and_virtual_x86_machine.html">Freedombox on Dreamplug, Raspberry Pi and virtual x86 machine</a>
7614       </div>
7615       <div class="date">
7616         14th March 2014
7617       </div>
7618       <div class="body">
7619         <p>The <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/FreedomBox">Freedombox
7620 project</a> is working on providing the software and hardware for
7621 making it easy for non-technical people to host their data and
7622 communication at home, and being able to communicate with their
7623 friends and family encrypted and away from prying eyes.  It has been
7624 going on for a while, and is slowly progressing towards a new test
7625 release (0.2).</p>
7626
7627 <p>And what day could be better than the Pi day to announce that the
7628 new version will provide "hard drive" / SD card / USB stick images for
7629 Dreamplug, Raspberry Pi and VirtualBox (or any other virtualization
7630 system), and can also be installed using a Debian installer preseed
7631 file.  The Debian based Freedombox is now based on Debian Jessie,
7632 where most of the needed packages used are already present.  Only one,
7633 the freedombox-setup package, is missing.  To try to build your own
7634 boot image to test the current status, fetch the freedom-maker scripts
7635 and build using
7636 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/vmdebootstrap">vmdebootstrap</a>
7637 with a user with sudo access to become root:
7638
7639 <pre>
7640 git clone http://anonscm.debian.org/git/freedombox/freedom-maker.git \
7641   freedom-maker
7642 sudo apt-get install git vmdebootstrap mercurial python-docutils \
7643   mktorrent extlinux virtualbox qemu-user-static binfmt-support \
7644   u-boot-tools
7645 make -C freedom-maker dreamplug-image raspberry-image virtualbox-image
7646 </pre>
7647
7648 <p>Root access is needed to run debootstrap and mount loopback
7649 devices.  See the README for more details on the build. If you do not
7650 want all three images, trim the make line.  But note that thanks to <a
7651 href="https://bugs.debian.org/741407">a race condition in
7652 vmdebootstrap</a>, the build might fail without the patch to the
7653 kpartx call.</p>
7654
7655 <p>If you instead want to install using a Debian CD and the preseed
7656 method, boot a Debian Wheezy ISO and use this boot argument to load
7657 the preseed values:</p>
7658
7659 <pre>
7660 url=<a href="http://www.reinholdtsen.name/freedombox/preseed-jessie.dat">http://www.reinholdtsen.name/freedombox/preseed-jessie.dat</a>
7661 </pre>
7662
7663 <p>But note that due to <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/740673">a
7664 recently introduced bug in apt in Jessie</a>, the installer will
7665 currently hang while setting up APT sources.  Killing the
7666 '<tt>apt-cdrom ident</tt>' process when it hang a few times during the
7667 installation will get the installation going.  This affect all
7668 installations in Jessie, and I expect it will be fixed soon.</p>
7669
7670 <p>Give it a go and let us know how it goes on the mailing list, and help
7671 us get the new release published. :) Please join us on
7672 <a href="irc://irc.debian.org:6667/%23freedombox">IRC (#freedombox on
7673 irc.debian.org)</a> and
7674 <a href="http://lists.alioth.debian.org/mailman/listinfo/freedombox-discuss">the
7675 mailing list</a> if you want to help make this vision come true.</p>
7676
7677       </div>
7678       <div class="tags">
7679
7680
7681         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freedombox">freedombox</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/web">web</a>.
7682
7683
7684       </div>
7685     </div>
7686     <div class="padding"></div>
7687
7688     <div class="entry">
7689       <div class="title">
7690         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/New_home_and_release_1_0_for_netgroup_and_innetgr__aka_ng_utils_.html">New home and release 1.0 for netgroup and innetgr (aka ng-utils)</a>
7691       </div>
7692       <div class="date">
7693         22nd February 2014
7694       </div>
7695       <div class="body">
7696         <p>Many years ago, I wrote a GPL licensed version of the netgroup and
7697 innetgr tools, because I needed them in
7698 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Skolelinux</a>.  I called the project
7699 ng-utils, and it has served me well.  I placed the project under the
7700 <a href="http://www.hungry.com/">Hungry Programmer</a> umbrella, and it was maintained in our CVS
7701 repository.  But many years ago, the CVS repository was dropped (lost,
7702 not migrated to new hardware, not sure), and the project have lacked a
7703 proper home since then.</p>
7704
7705 <p>Last summer, I had a look at the package and made a new release
7706 fixing a irritating crash bug, but was unable to store the changes in
7707 a proper source control system.  I applied for a project on
7708 <a href="https://alioth.debian.org/">Alioth</a>, but did not have time
7709 to follow up on it.  Until today. :)</p>
7710
7711 <p>After many hours of cleaning and migration, the ng-utils project
7712 now have a new home, and a git repository with the highlight of the
7713 history of the project.  I published all release tarballs and imported
7714 them into the git repository.  As the project is really stable and not
7715 expected to gain new features any time soon, I decided to make a new
7716 release and call it 1.0.  Visit the new project home on
7717 <a href="https://alioth.debian.org/projects/ng-utils/">https://alioth.debian.org/projects/ng-utils/</a>
7718 if you want to check it out.  The new version is also uploaded into
7719 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/n/ng-utils.html">Debian Unstable</a>.</p>
7720
7721       </div>
7722       <div class="tags">
7723
7724
7725         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
7726
7727
7728       </div>
7729     </div>
7730     <div class="padding"></div>
7731
7732     <div class="entry">
7733       <div class="title">
7734         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Testing_sysvinit_from_experimental_in_Debian_Hurd.html">Testing sysvinit from experimental in Debian Hurd</a>
7735       </div>
7736       <div class="date">
7737          3rd February 2014
7738       </div>
7739       <div class="body">
7740         <p>A few days ago I decided to try to help the Hurd people to get
7741 their changes into sysvinit, to allow them to use the normal sysvinit
7742 boot system instead of their old one.  This follow up on the
7743 <a href="https://teythoon.cryptobitch.de//categories/gsoc.html">great
7744 Google Summer of Code work</a> done last summer by Justus Winter to
7745 get Debian on Hurd working more like Debian on Linux.  To get started,
7746 I downloaded a prebuilt hard disk image from
7747 <a href="http://ftp.debian-ports.org/debian-cd/hurd-i386/current/debian-hurd.img.tar.gz">http://ftp.debian-ports.org/debian-cd/hurd-i386/current/debian-hurd.img.tar.gz</a>,
7748 and started it using virt-manager.</p>
7749
7750 <p>The first think I had to do after logging in (root without any
7751 password) was to get the network operational.  I followed
7752 <a href="https://www.debian.org/ports/hurd/hurd-install">the
7753 instructions on the Debian GNU/Hurd ports page</a> and ran these
7754 commands as root to get the machine to accept a IP address from the
7755 kvm internal DHCP server:</p>
7756
7757 <p><blockquote><pre>
7758 settrans -fgap /dev/netdde /hurd/netdde
7759 kill $(ps -ef|awk '/[p]finet/ { print $2}')
7760 kill $(ps -ef|awk '/[d]evnode/ { print $2}')
7761 dhclient /dev/eth0
7762 </pre></blockquote></p>
7763
7764 <p>After this, the machine had internet connectivity, and I could
7765 upgrade it and install the sysvinit packages from experimental and
7766 enable it as the default boot system in Hurd.</p>
7767
7768 <p>But before I did that, I set a password on the root user, as ssh is
7769 running on the machine it for ssh login to work a password need to be
7770 set.  Also, note that a bug somewhere in openssh on Hurd block
7771 compression from working.  Remember to turn that off on the client
7772 side.</p>
7773
7774 <p>Run these commands as root to upgrade and test the new sysvinit
7775 stuff:</p>
7776
7777 <p><blockquote><pre>
7778 cat > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/experimental.list &lt;&lt;EOF
7779 deb http://http.debian.net/debian/ experimental main
7780 EOF
7781 apt-get update
7782 apt-get dist-upgrade
7783 apt-get install -t experimental initscripts sysv-rc sysvinit \
7784     sysvinit-core sysvinit-utils
7785 update-alternatives --config runsystem
7786 </pre></blockquote></p>
7787
7788 <p>To reboot after switching boot system, you have to use
7789 <tt>reboot-hurd</tt> instead of just <tt>reboot</tt>, as there is not
7790 yet a sysvinit process able to receive the signals from the normal
7791 'reboot' command.  After switching to sysvinit as the boot system,
7792 upgrading every package and rebooting, the network come up with DHCP
7793 after boot as it should, and the settrans/pkill hack mentioned at the
7794 start is no longer needed.  But for some strange reason, there are no
7795 longer any login prompt in the virtual console, so I logged in using
7796 ssh instead.
7797
7798 <p>Note that there are some race conditions in Hurd making the boot
7799 fail some times.  No idea what the cause is, but hope the Hurd porters
7800 figure it out.  At least Justus said on IRC (#debian-hurd on
7801 irc.debian.org) that they are aware of the problem.  A way to reduce
7802 the impact is to upgrade to the Hurd packages built by Justus by
7803 adding this repository to the machine:</p>
7804
7805 <p><blockquote><pre>
7806 cat > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/hurd-ci.list &lt;&lt;EOF
7807 deb http://darnassus.sceen.net/~teythoon/hurd-ci/ sid main
7808 EOF
7809 </pre></blockquote></p>
7810
7811 <p>At the moment the prebuilt virtual machine get some packages from
7812 http://ftp.debian-ports.org/debian, because some of the packages in
7813 unstable do not yet include the required patches that are lingering in
7814 BTS.  This is the completely list of "unofficial" packages installed:</p>
7815
7816 <p><blockquote><pre>
7817 # aptitude search '?narrow(?version(CURRENT),?origin(Debian Ports))'
7818 i   emacs                   - GNU Emacs editor (metapackage)
7819 i   gdb                     - GNU Debugger
7820 i   hurd-recommended        - Miscellaneous translators
7821 i   isc-dhcp-client         - ISC DHCP client
7822 i   isc-dhcp-common         - common files used by all the isc-dhcp* packages
7823 i   libc-bin                - Embedded GNU C Library: Binaries
7824 i   libc-dev-bin            - Embedded GNU C Library: Development binaries
7825 i   libc0.3                 - Embedded GNU C Library: Shared libraries
7826 i A libc0.3-dbg             - Embedded GNU C Library: detached debugging symbols
7827 i   libc0.3-dev             - Embedded GNU C Library: Development Libraries and Hea
7828 i   multiarch-support       - Transitional package to ensure multiarch compatibilit
7829 i A x11-common              - X Window System (X.Org) infrastructure
7830 i   xorg                    - X.Org X Window System
7831 i A xserver-xorg            - X.Org X server
7832 i A xserver-xorg-input-all  - X.Org X server -- input driver metapackage
7833 #
7834 </pre></blockquote></p>
7835
7836 <p>All in all, testing hurd has been an interesting experience. :)
7837 X.org did not work out of the box and I never took the time to follow
7838 the porters instructions to fix it.  This time I was interested in the
7839 command line stuff.<p>
7840
7841       </div>
7842       <div class="tags">
7843
7844
7845         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bootsystem">bootsystem</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
7846
7847
7848       </div>
7849     </div>
7850     <div class="padding"></div>
7851
7852     <div class="entry">
7853       <div class="title">
7854         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/New_chrpath_release_0_16.html">New chrpath release 0.16</a>
7855       </div>
7856       <div class="date">
7857         14th January 2014
7858       </div>
7859       <div class="body">
7860         <p><a href="http://www.coverity.com/">Coverity</a> is a nice tool to
7861 find problems in C, C++ and Java code using static source code
7862 analysis.  It can detect a lot of different problems, and is very
7863 useful to find memory and locking bugs in the error handling part of
7864 the source.  The company behind it provide
7865 <a href="https://scan.coverity.com/">check of free software projects as
7866 a community service</a>, and many hundred free software projects are
7867 already checked.  A few days ago I decided to have a closer look at
7868 the Coverity system, and discovered that the
7869 <a href="http://www.gnu.org/software/gnash/">gnash</a> and
7870 <a href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/ipmitool/">ipmitool</a>
7871 projects I am involved with was already registered.  But these are
7872 fairly big, and I would also like to have a small and easy project to
7873 check, and decided to <a href="http://scan.coverity.com/projects/1179">request
7874 checking of the chrpath project</a>.  It was
7875 added to the checker and discovered seven potential defects.  Six of
7876 these were real, mostly resource "leak" when the program detected an
7877 error.  Nothing serious, as the resources would be released a fraction
7878 of a second later when the program exited because of the error, but it
7879 is nice to do it right in case the source of the program some time in
7880 the future end up in a library.  Having fixed all defects and added
7881 <a href="https://lists.alioth.debian.org/mailman/listinfo/chrpath-devel">a
7882 mailing list for the chrpath developers</a>, I decided it was time to
7883 publish a new release.  These are the release notes:</p>
7884
7885 <p>New in 0.16 released 2014-01-14:</p>
7886
7887 <ul>
7888
7889   <li>Fixed all minor bugs discovered by Coverity.</li>
7890   <li>Updated config.sub and config.guess from the GNU project.</li>
7891   <li>Mention new project mailing list in the documentation.</li>
7892
7893 </ul>
7894
7895 <p>You can
7896 <a href="https://alioth.debian.org/frs/?group_id=31052">download the
7897 new version 0.16 from alioth</a>.  Please let us know via the Alioth
7898 project if something is wrong with the new release.  The test suite
7899 did not discover any old errors, so if you find a new one, please also
7900 include a test suite check.</p>
7901
7902       </div>
7903       <div class="tags">
7904
7905
7906         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/chrpath">chrpath</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
7907
7908
7909       </div>
7910     </div>
7911     <div class="padding"></div>
7912
7913     <div class="entry">
7914       <div class="title">
7915         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/New_chrpath_release_0_15.html">New chrpath release 0.15</a>
7916       </div>
7917       <div class="date">
7918         24th November 2013
7919       </div>
7920       <div class="body">
7921         <p>After many years break from the package and a vain hope that
7922 development would be continued by someone else, I finally pulled my
7923 acts together this morning and wrapped up a new release of chrpath,
7924 the command line tool to modify the rpath and runpath of already
7925 compiled ELF programs.  The update was triggered by the persistence of
7926 Isha Vishnoi at IBM, which needed a new config.guess file to get
7927 support for the ppc64le architecture (powerpc 64-bit Little Endian) he
7928 is working on.  I checked the
7929 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/chrpath">Debian</a>,
7930 <a href="https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/chrpath">Ubuntu</a> and
7931 <a href="https://admin.fedoraproject.org/pkgdb/acls/name/chrpath">Fedora</a>
7932 packages for interesting patches (failed to find the source from
7933 OpenSUSE and Mandriva packages), and found quite a few nice fixes.
7934 These are the release notes:</p>
7935
7936 <p>New in 0.15 released 2013-11-24:</p>
7937
7938 <ul>
7939
7940   <li>Updated config.sub and config.guess from the GNU project to work
7941    with newer architectures.  Thanks to isha vishnoi for the heads
7942    up.</li>
7943
7944   <li>Updated README with current URLs.</li>
7945
7946   <li>Added byteswap fix found in Ubuntu, credited Jeremy Kerr and
7947    Matthias Klose.</li>
7948
7949   <li>Added missing help for -k|--keepgoing option, using patch by
7950    Petr Machata found in Fedora.</li>
7951
7952   <li>Rewrite removal of RPATH/RUNPATH to make sure the entry in
7953    .dynamic is a NULL terminated string.  Based on patch found in
7954    Fedora credited Axel Thimm and Christian Krause.</li>
7955
7956 </ul>
7957
7958 <p>You can
7959 <a href="https://alioth.debian.org/frs/?group_id=31052">download the
7960 new version 0.15 from alioth</a>.  Please let us know via the Alioth
7961 project if something is wrong with the new release.  The test suite
7962 did not discover any old errors, so if you find a new one, please also
7963 include a testsuite check.</p>
7964
7965       </div>
7966       <div class="tags">
7967
7968
7969         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/chrpath">chrpath</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
7970
7971
7972       </div>
7973     </div>
7974     <div class="padding"></div>
7975
7976     <div class="entry">
7977       <div class="title">
7978         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_init_d_boot_script_example_for_rsyslog.html">Debian init.d boot script example for rsyslog</a>
7979       </div>
7980       <div class="date">
7981          2nd November 2013
7982       </div>
7983       <div class="body">
7984         <p>If one of the points of switching to a new init system in Debian is
7985 <a href="http://thomas.goirand.fr/blog/?p=147">to get rid of huge
7986 init.d scripts</a>, I doubt we need to switch away from sysvinit and
7987 init.d scripts at all.  Here is an example init.d script, ie a rewrite
7988 of /etc/init.d/rsyslog:</p>
7989
7990 <p><pre>
7991 #!/lib/init/init-d-script
7992 ### BEGIN INIT INFO
7993 # Provides:          rsyslog
7994 # Required-Start:    $remote_fs $time
7995 # Required-Stop:     umountnfs $time
7996 # X-Stop-After:      sendsigs
7997 # Default-Start:     2 3 4 5
7998 # Default-Stop:      0 1 6
7999 # Short-Description: enhanced syslogd
8000 # Description:       Rsyslog is an enhanced multi-threaded syslogd.
8001 #                    It is quite compatible to stock sysklogd and can be
8002 #                    used as a drop-in replacement.
8003 ### END INIT INFO
8004 DESC="enhanced syslogd"
8005 DAEMON=/usr/sbin/rsyslogd
8006 </pre></p>
8007
8008 <p>Pretty minimalistic to me... For the record, the original sysv-rc
8009 script was 137 lines, and the above is just 15 lines, most of it meta
8010 info/comments.</p>
8011
8012 <p>How to do this, you ask?  Well, one create a new script
8013 /lib/init/init-d-script looking something like this:
8014
8015 <p><pre>
8016 #!/bin/sh
8017
8018 # Define LSB log_* functions.
8019 # Depend on lsb-base (>= 3.2-14) to ensure that this file is present
8020 # and status_of_proc is working.
8021 . /lib/lsb/init-functions
8022
8023 #
8024 # Function that starts the daemon/service
8025
8026 #
8027 do_start()
8028 {
8029         # Return
8030         #   0 if daemon has been started
8031         #   1 if daemon was already running
8032         #   2 if daemon could not be started
8033         start-stop-daemon --start --quiet --pidfile $PIDFILE --exec $DAEMON --test > /dev/null \
8034                 || return 1
8035         start-stop-daemon --start --quiet --pidfile $PIDFILE --exec $DAEMON -- \
8036                 $DAEMON_ARGS \
8037                 || return 2
8038         # Add code here, if necessary, that waits for the process to be ready
8039         # to handle requests from services started subsequently which depend
8040         # on this one.  As a last resort, sleep for some time.
8041 }
8042
8043 #
8044 # Function that stops the daemon/service
8045 #
8046 do_stop()
8047 {
8048         # Return
8049         #   0 if daemon has been stopped
8050         #   1 if daemon was already stopped
8051         #   2 if daemon could not be stopped
8052         #   other if a failure occurred
8053         start-stop-daemon --stop --quiet --retry=TERM/30/KILL/5 --pidfile $PIDFILE --name $NAME
8054         RETVAL="$?"
8055         [ "$RETVAL" = 2 ] && return 2
8056         # Wait for children to finish too if this is a daemon that forks
8057         # and if the daemon is only ever run from this initscript.
8058         # If the above conditions are not satisfied then add some other code
8059         # that waits for the process to drop all resources that could be
8060         # needed by services started subsequently.  A last resort is to
8061         # sleep for some time.
8062         start-stop-daemon --stop --quiet --oknodo --retry=0/30/KILL/5 --exec $DAEMON
8063         [ "$?" = 2 ] && return 2
8064         # Many daemons don't delete their pidfiles when they exit.
8065         rm -f $PIDFILE
8066         return "$RETVAL"
8067 }
8068
8069 #
8070 # Function that sends a SIGHUP to the daemon/service
8071 #
8072 do_reload() {
8073         #
8074         # If the daemon can reload its configuration without
8075         # restarting (for example, when it is sent a SIGHUP),
8076         # then implement that here.
8077         #
8078         start-stop-daemon --stop --signal 1 --quiet --pidfile $PIDFILE --name $NAME
8079         return 0
8080 }
8081
8082 SCRIPTNAME=$1
8083 scriptbasename="$(basename $1)"
8084 echo "SN: $scriptbasename"
8085 if [ "$scriptbasename" != "init-d-library" ] ; then
8086     script="$1"
8087     shift
8088     . $script
8089 else
8090     exit 0
8091 fi
8092
8093 NAME=$(basename $DAEMON)
8094 PIDFILE=/var/run/$NAME.pid
8095
8096 # Exit if the package is not installed
8097 #[ -x "$DAEMON" ] || exit 0
8098
8099 # Read configuration variable file if it is present
8100 [ -r /etc/default/$NAME ] && . /etc/default/$NAME
8101
8102 # Load the VERBOSE setting and other rcS variables
8103 . /lib/init/vars.sh
8104
8105 case "$1" in
8106   start)
8107         [ "$VERBOSE" != no ] && log_daemon_msg "Starting $DESC" "$NAME"
8108         do_start
8109         case "$?" in
8110                 0|1) [ "$VERBOSE" != no ] && log_end_msg 0 ;;
8111                 2) [ "$VERBOSE" != no ] && log_end_msg 1 ;;
8112         esac
8113         ;;
8114   stop)
8115         [ "$VERBOSE" != no ] && log_daemon_msg "Stopping $DESC" "$NAME"
8116         do_stop
8117         case "$?" in
8118                 0|1) [ "$VERBOSE" != no ] && log_end_msg 0 ;;
8119                 2) [ "$VERBOSE" != no ] && log_end_msg 1 ;;
8120         esac
8121         ;;
8122   status)
8123         status_of_proc "$DAEMON" "$NAME" && exit 0 || exit $?
8124         ;;
8125   #reload|force-reload)
8126         #
8127         # If do_reload() is not implemented then leave this commented out
8128         # and leave 'force-reload' as an alias for 'restart'.
8129         #
8130         #log_daemon_msg "Reloading $DESC" "$NAME"
8131         #do_reload
8132         #log_end_msg $?
8133         #;;
8134   restart|force-reload)
8135         #
8136         # If the "reload" option is implemented then remove the
8137         # 'force-reload' alias
8138         #
8139         log_daemon_msg "Restarting $DESC" "$NAME"
8140         do_stop
8141         case "$?" in
8142           0|1)
8143                 do_start
8144                 case "$?" in
8145                         0) log_end_msg 0 ;;
8146                         1) log_end_msg 1 ;; # Old process is still running
8147                         *) log_end_msg 1 ;; # Failed to start
8148                 esac
8149                 ;;
8150           *)
8151                 # Failed to stop
8152                 log_end_msg 1
8153                 ;;
8154         esac
8155         ;;
8156   *)
8157         echo "Usage: $SCRIPTNAME {start|stop|status|restart|force-reload}" >&2
8158         exit 3
8159         ;;
8160 esac
8161
8162 :
8163 </pre></p>
8164
8165 <p>It is based on /etc/init.d/skeleton, and could be improved quite a
8166 lot.  I did not really polish the approach, so it might not always
8167 work out of the box, but you get the idea.  I did not try very hard to
8168 optimize it nor make it more robust either.</p>
8169
8170 <p>A better argument for switching init system in Debian than reducing
8171 the size of init scripts (which is a good thing to do anyway), is to
8172 get boot system that is able to handle the kernel events sensibly and
8173 robustly, and do not depend on the boot to run sequentially.  The boot
8174 and the kernel have not behaved sequentially in years.</p>
8175
8176       </div>
8177       <div class="tags">
8178
8179
8180         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bootsystem">bootsystem</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
8181
8182
8183       </div>
8184     </div>
8185     <div class="padding"></div>
8186
8187     <div class="entry">
8188       <div class="title">
8189         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Browser_plugin_for_SPICE__spice_xpi__uploaded_to_Debian.html">Browser plugin for SPICE (spice-xpi) uploaded to Debian</a>
8190       </div>
8191       <div class="date">
8192          1st November 2013
8193       </div>
8194       <div class="body">
8195         <p><a href="http://www.spice-space.org/">The SPICE protocol</a> for
8196 remote display access is the preferred solution with oVirt and RedHat
8197 Enterprise Virtualization, and I was sad to discover the other day
8198 that the browser plugin needed to use these systems seamlessly was
8199 missing in Debian.  The <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/668284">request
8200 for a package</a> was from 2012-04-10 with no progress since
8201 2013-04-01, so I decided to wrap up a package based on the great work
8202 from Cajus Pollmeier and put it in a collab-maint maintained git
8203 repository to get a package I could use.  I would very much like
8204 others to help me maintain the package (or just take over, I do not
8205 mind), but as no-one had volunteered so far, I just uploaded it to
8206 NEW.  I hope it will be available in Debian in a few days.</p>
8207
8208 <p>The source is now available from
8209 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/gitweb/?p=collab-maint/spice-xpi.git;a=summary">http://anonscm.debian.org/gitweb/?p=collab-maint/spice-xpi.git;a=summary</a>.</p>
8210
8211       </div>
8212       <div class="tags">
8213
8214
8215         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
8216
8217
8218       </div>
8219     </div>
8220     <div class="padding"></div>
8221
8222     <div class="entry">
8223       <div class="title">
8224         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Teaching_vmdebootstrap_to_create_Raspberry_Pi_SD_card_images.html">Teaching vmdebootstrap to create Raspberry Pi SD card images</a>
8225       </div>
8226       <div class="date">
8227         27th October 2013
8228       </div>
8229       <div class="body">
8230         <p>The
8231 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/v/vmdebootstrap.html">vmdebootstrap</a>
8232 program is a a very nice system to create virtual machine images.  It
8233 create a image file, add a partition table, mount it and run
8234 debootstrap in the mounted directory to create a Debian system on a
8235 stick.  Yesterday, I decided to try to teach it how to make images for
8236 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/RaspberryPi">Raspberry Pi</a>, as part
8237 of a plan to simplify the build system for
8238 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/FreedomBox">the FreedomBox
8239 project</a>.  The FreedomBox project already uses vmdebootstrap for
8240 the virtualbox images, but its current build system made multistrap
8241 based system for Dreamplug images, and it is lacking support for
8242 Raspberry Pi.</p>
8243
8244 <p>Armed with the knowledge on how to build "foreign" (aka non-native
8245 architecture) chroots for Raspberry Pi, I dived into the vmdebootstrap
8246 code and adjusted it to be able to build armel images on my amd64
8247 Debian laptop.  I ended up giving vmdebootstrap five new options,
8248 allowing me to replicate the image creation process I use to make
8249 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/A_Raspberry_Pi_based_batman_adv_Mesh_network_node.html">Debian
8250 Jessie based mesh node images for the Raspberry Pi</a>.  First, the
8251 <tt>--foreign /path/to/binfm_handler</tt> option tell vmdebootstrap to
8252 call debootstrap with --foreign and to copy the handler into the
8253 generated chroot before running the second stage.  This allow
8254 vmdebootstrap to create armel images on an amd64 host.  Next I added
8255 two new options <tt>--bootsize size</tt> and <tt>--boottype
8256 fstype</tt> to teach it to create a separate /boot/ partition with the
8257 given file system type, allowing me to create an image with a vfat
8258 partition for the /boot/ stuff.  I also added a <tt>--variant
8259 variant</tt> option to allow me to create smaller images without the
8260 Debian base system packages installed.  Finally, I added an option
8261 <tt>--no-extlinux</tt> to tell vmdebootstrap to not install extlinux
8262 as a boot loader.  It is not needed on the Raspberry Pi and probably
8263 most other non-x86 architectures.  The changes were accepted by the
8264 upstream author of vmdebootstrap yesterday and today, and is now
8265 available from
8266 <a href="http://git.liw.fi/cgi-bin/cgit/cgit.cgi/vmdebootstrap/">the
8267 upstream project page</a>.</p>
8268
8269 <p>To use it to build a Raspberry Pi image using Debian Jessie, first
8270 create a small script (the customize script) to add the non-free
8271 binary blob needed to boot the Raspberry Pi and the APT source
8272 list:</p>
8273
8274 <p><pre>
8275 #!/bin/sh
8276 set -e # Exit on first error
8277 rootdir="$1"
8278 cd "$rootdir"
8279 cat &lt;&lt;EOF > etc/apt/sources.list
8280 deb http://http.debian.net/debian/ jessie main contrib non-free
8281 EOF
8282 # Install non-free binary blob needed to boot Raspberry Pi.  This
8283 # install a kernel somewhere too.
8284 wget https://raw.github.com/Hexxeh/rpi-update/master/rpi-update \
8285     -O $rootdir/usr/bin/rpi-update
8286 chmod a+x $rootdir/usr/bin/rpi-update
8287 mkdir -p $rootdir/lib/modules
8288 touch $rootdir/boot/start.elf
8289 chroot $rootdir rpi-update
8290 </pre></p>
8291
8292 <p>Next, fetch the latest vmdebootstrap script and call it like this
8293 to build the image:</p>
8294
8295 <pre>
8296 sudo ./vmdebootstrap \
8297     --variant minbase \
8298     --arch armel \
8299     --distribution jessie \
8300     --mirror http://http.debian.net/debian \
8301     --image test.img \
8302     --size 600M \
8303     --bootsize 64M \
8304     --boottype vfat \
8305     --log-level debug \
8306     --verbose \
8307     --no-kernel \
8308     --no-extlinux \
8309     --root-password raspberry \
8310     --hostname raspberrypi \
8311     --foreign /usr/bin/qemu-arm-static \
8312     --customize `pwd`/customize \
8313     --package netbase \
8314     --package git-core \
8315     --package binutils \
8316     --package ca-certificates \
8317     --package wget \
8318     --package kmod
8319 </pre></p>
8320
8321 <p>The list of packages being installed are the ones needed by
8322 rpi-update to make the image bootable on the Raspberry Pi, with the
8323 exception of netbase, which is needed by debootstrap to find
8324 /etc/hosts with the minbase variant.  I really wish there was a way to
8325 set up an Raspberry Pi using only packages in the Debian archive, but
8326 that is not possible as far as I know, because it boots from the GPU
8327 using a non-free binary blob.</p>
8328
8329 <p>The build host need debootstrap, kpartx and qemu-user-static and
8330 probably a few others installed.  I have not checked the complete
8331 build dependency list.</p>
8332
8333 <p>The resulting image will not use the hardware floating point unit
8334 on the Raspberry PI, because the armel architecture in Debian is not
8335 optimized for that use.  So the images created will be a bit slower
8336 than <a href="http://www.raspbian.org/">Raspbian</a> based images.</p>
8337
8338       </div>
8339       <div class="tags">
8340
8341
8342         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freedombox">freedombox</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/mesh network">mesh network</a>.
8343
8344
8345       </div>
8346     </div>
8347     <div class="padding"></div>
8348
8349     <div class="entry">
8350       <div class="title">
8351         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Good_causes__Debian_Outreach_Program_for_Women__EFF_documenting_the_spying_and_Open_access_in_Norway.html">Good causes: Debian Outreach Program for Women, EFF documenting the spying and Open access in Norway</a>
8352       </div>
8353       <div class="date">
8354         15th October 2013
8355       </div>
8356       <div class="body">
8357         <p>The last few days I came across a few good causes that should get
8358 wider attention.  I recommend signing and donating to each one of
8359 these. :)</p>
8360
8361 <p>Via <a href="http://www.debian.org/News/weekly/2013/18/">Debian
8362 Project News for 2013-10-14</a> I came across the Outreach Program for
8363 Women program which is a Google Summer of Code like initiative to get
8364 more women involved in free software.  One debian sponsor has offered
8365 to match <a href="http://debian.ch/opw2013">any donation done to Debian
8366 earmarked</a> for this initiative.  I donated a few minutes ago, and
8367 hope you will to. :)</p>
8368
8369 <p>And the Electronic Frontier Foundation just announced plans to
8370 create <a href="https://supporters.eff.org/donate/nsa-videos">video
8371 documentaries about the excessive spying</a> on every Internet user that
8372 take place these days, and their need to fund the work.  I've already
8373 donated.  Are you next?</p>
8374
8375 <p>For my Norwegian audience, the organisation Studentenes og
8376 Akademikernes Internasjonale Hjelpefond is collecting signatures for a
8377 statement under the heading
8378 <a href="http://saih.no/Bloggers_United/">Bloggers United for Open
8379 Access</a> for those of us asking for more focus on open access in the
8380 Norwegian government.  So far 499 signatures.  I hope you will sign it
8381 too.</p>
8382
8383       </div>
8384       <div class="tags">
8385
8386
8387         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/opphavsrett">opphavsrett</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance</a>.
8388
8389
8390       </div>
8391     </div>
8392     <div class="padding"></div>
8393
8394     <div class="entry">
8395       <div class="title">
8396         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Videos_about_the_Freedombox_project___for_inspiration_and_learning.html">Videos about the Freedombox project - for inspiration and learning</a>
8397       </div>
8398       <div class="date">
8399         27th September 2013
8400       </div>
8401       <div class="body">
8402         <p>The <a href="http://www.freedomboxfoundation.org/">Freedombox
8403 project</a> have been going on for a while, and have presented the
8404 vision, ideas and solution several places.  Here is a little
8405 collection of videos of talks and presentation of the project.</p>
8406
8407 <ul>
8408
8409 <li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ukvUz5taxvA">FreedomBox -
8410 2,5 minute marketing film</a> (Youtube)</li>
8411
8412 <li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SzW25QTVWsE">Eben Moglen
8413 discusses the Freedombox on CBS news 2011</a> (Youtube)</li>
8414
8415 <li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ae8SZbxfE0g">Eben Moglen -
8416 Freedom in the Cloud - Software Freedom, Privacy and and Security for
8417 Web 2.0 and Cloud computing at ISOC-NY Public Meeting 2010</a>
8418 (Youtube)</li>
8419
8420 <li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNaIji_3xBE">Fosdem 2011
8421 Keynote by Eben Moglen presenting the Freedombox</a> (Youtube)</li>
8422
8423 <li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bDDUyJSQ9s">Presentation of
8424 the Freedombox by James Vasile at Elevate in Gratz 2011</a> (Youtube)</li>
8425
8426 <li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQTmnk27g9s"> Freedombox -
8427 Discovery, Identity, and Trust by Nick Daly at Freedombox Hackfest New
8428 York City in 2012</a> (Youtube)</li>
8429
8430 <li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tkbSB4Ba7Ck">Introduction
8431 to the Freedombox at Freedombox Hackfest New York City in 2012</a>
8432 (Youtube)</li>
8433
8434 <li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-P2Jaeg0aQ">Freedom, Out
8435 of the Box! by Bdale Garbee at linux.conf.au Ballarat, 2012</a> (Youtube) </li>
8436
8437 <li><a href="https://archive.fosdem.org/2013/schedule/event/freedombox/">Freedombox
8438 1.0 by Eben Moglen and Bdale Garbee at Fosdem 2013</a> (FOSDEM) </li>
8439
8440 <li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e1LpYX2zVYg">What is the
8441 FreedomBox today by Bdale Garbee at Debconf13 in Vaumarcus
8442 2013</a> (Youtube)</li>
8443
8444 </ul>
8445
8446 <p>A larger list is available from
8447 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/FreedomBox/TalksAndPresentations">the
8448 Freedombox Wiki</a>.</p>
8449
8450 <p>On other news, I am happy to report that Freedombox based on Debian
8451 Jessie is coming along quite well, and soon both Owncloud and using
8452 Tor should be available for testers of the Freedombox solution. :) In
8453 a few weeks I hope everything needed to test it is included in Debian.
8454 The withsqlite package is already in Debian, and the plinth package is
8455 pending in NEW.  The third and vital part of that puzzle is the
8456 metapackage/setup framework, which is still pending an upload.  Join
8457 us on <a href="irc://irc.debian.org:6667/%23freedombox">IRC
8458 (#freedombox on irc.debian.org)</a> and
8459 <a href="http://lists.alioth.debian.org/mailman/listinfo/freedombox-discuss">the
8460 mailing list</a> if you want to help make this vision come true.</p>
8461
8462       </div>
8463       <div class="tags">
8464
8465
8466         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freedombox">freedombox</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/web">web</a>.
8467
8468
8469       </div>
8470     </div>
8471     <div class="padding"></div>
8472
8473     <div class="entry">
8474       <div class="title">
8475         <a href="https://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>
8476       </div>
8477       <div class="date">
8478         10th September 2013
8479       </div>
8480       <div class="body">
8481         <p>I was introduced to the
8482 <a href="http://www.freedomboxfoundation.org/">Freedombox project</a>
8483 in 2010, when Eben Moglen presented his vision about serving the need
8484 of non-technical people to keep their personal information private and
8485 within the legal protection of their own homes.  The idea is to give
8486 people back the power over their network and machines, and return
8487 Internet back to its intended peer-to-peer architecture.  Instead of
8488 depending on a central service, the Freedombox will give everyone
8489 control over their own basic infrastructure.</p>
8490
8491 <p>I've intended to join the effort since then, but other tasks have
8492 taken priority.  But this summers nasty news about the misuse of trust
8493 and privilege exercised by the "western" intelligence gathering
8494 communities increased my eagerness to contribute to a point where I
8495 actually started working on the project a while back.</p>
8496
8497 <p>The <a href="https://alioth.debian.org/projects/freedombox/">initial
8498 Debian initiative</a> based on the vision from Eben Moglen, is to
8499 create a simple and cheap Debian based appliance that anyone can hook
8500 up in their home and get access to secure and private services and
8501 communication.  The initial deployment platform have been the
8502 <a href="http://www.globalscaletechnologies.com/t-dreamplugdetails.aspx">Dreamplug</a>,
8503 which is a piece of hardware I do not own.  So to be able to test what
8504 the current Freedombox setup look like, I had to come up with a way to install
8505 it on some hardware I do have access to.  I have rewritten the
8506 <a href="https://github.com/NickDaly/freedom-maker">freedom-maker</a>
8507 image build framework to use .deb packages instead of only copying
8508 setup into the boot images, and thanks to this rewrite I am able to
8509 set up any machine supported by Debian Wheezy as a Freedombox, using
8510 the previously mentioned deb (and a few support debs for packages
8511 missing in Debian).</p>
8512
8513 <p>The current Freedombox setup consist of a set of bootstrapping
8514 scripts
8515 (<a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/freedombox-setup">freedombox-setup</a>),
8516 and a administrative web interface
8517 (<a href="https://github.com/NickDaly/Plinth">plinth</a> + exmachina +
8518 withsqlite), as well as a privacy enhancing proxy based on
8519 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/privoxy">privoxy</a>
8520 (freedombox-privoxy).  There is also a web/javascript based XMPP
8521 client (<a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/jwchat">jwchat</a>)
8522 trying (unsuccessfully so far) to talk to the XMPP server
8523 (<a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/ejabberd">ejabberd</a>).  The
8524 web interface is pluggable, and the goal is to use it to enable OpenID
8525 services, mesh network connectivity, use of TOR, etc, etc.  Not much of
8526 this is really working yet, see
8527 <a href="https://github.com/NickDaly/freedombox-todos/blob/master/TODO">the
8528 project TODO</a> for links to GIT repositories.  Most of the code is
8529 on github at the moment.  The HTTP proxy is operational out of the
8530 box, and the admin web interface can be used to add/remove plinth
8531 users.  I've not been able to do anything else with it so far, but
8532 know there are several branches spread around github and other places
8533 with lots of half baked features.</p>
8534
8535 <p>Anyway, if you want to have a look at the current state, the
8536 following recipes should work to give you a test machine to poke
8537 at.</p>
8538
8539 <p><strong>Debian Wheezy amd64</strong></p>
8540
8541 <ol>
8542
8543 <li>Fetch normal Debian Wheezy installation ISO.</li>
8544 <li>Boot from it, either as CD or USB stick.</li>
8545 <li><p>Press [tab] on the boot prompt and add this as a boot argument
8546 to the Debian installer:<p>
8547 <pre>url=<a href="http://www.reinholdtsen.name/freedombox/preseed-wheezy.dat">http://www.reinholdtsen.name/freedombox/preseed-wheezy.dat</a></pre></li>
8548
8549 <li>Answer the few language/region/password questions and pick disk to
8550 install on.</li>
8551
8552 <li>When the installation is finished and the machine have rebooted a
8553 few times, your Freedombox is ready for testing.</li>
8554
8555 </ol>
8556
8557 <p><strong>Raspberry Pi Raspbian</strong></p>
8558
8559 <ol>
8560
8561 <li>Fetch a Raspbian SD card image, create SD card.</li>
8562 <li>Boot from SD card, extend file system to fill the card completely.</li>
8563 <li><p>Log in and add this to /etc/sources.list:</p>
8564 <pre>
8565 deb <a href="http://www.reinholdtsen.name/freedombox/">http://www.reinholdtsen.name/freedombox</a> wheezy main
8566 </pre></li>
8567 <li><p>Run this as root:</p>
8568 <pre>
8569 wget -O - http://www.reinholdtsen.name/freedombox/BE1A583D.asc | \
8570    apt-key add -
8571 apt-get update
8572 apt-get install freedombox-setup
8573 /usr/lib/freedombox/setup
8574 </pre></li>
8575 <li>Reboot into your freshly created Freedombox.</li>
8576
8577 </ol>
8578
8579 <p>You can test it on other architectures too, but because the
8580 freedombox-privoxy package is binary, it will only work as intended on
8581 the architectures where I have had time to build the binary and put it
8582 in my APT repository.  But do not let this stop you.  It is only a
8583 short "<tt>apt-get source -b freedombox-privoxy</tt>" away. :)</p>
8584
8585 <p>Note that by default Freedombox is a DHCP server on the
8586 192.168.1.0/24 subnet, so if this is your subnet be careful and turn
8587 off the DHCP server by running "<tt>update-rc.d isc-dhcp-server
8588 disable</tt>" as root.</p>
8589
8590 <p>Please let me know if this works for you, or if you have any
8591 problems.  We gather on the IRC channel
8592 <a href="irc://irc.debian.org:6667/%23freedombox">#freedombox</a> on
8593 irc.debian.org and the
8594 <a href="http://lists.alioth.debian.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/freedombox-discuss">project
8595 mailing list</a>.</p>
8596
8597 <p>Once you get your freedombox operational, you can visit
8598 <tt>http://your-host-name:8001/</tt> to see the state of the plint
8599 welcome screen (dead end - do not be surprised if you are unable to
8600 get past it), and next visit <tt>http://your-host-name:8001/help/</tt>
8601 to look at the rest of plinth.  The default user is 'admin' and the
8602 default password is 'secret'.</p>
8603
8604       </div>
8605       <div class="tags">
8606
8607
8608         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freedombox">freedombox</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/web">web</a>.
8609
8610
8611       </div>
8612     </div>
8613     <div class="padding"></div>
8614
8615     <div class="entry">
8616       <div class="title">
8617         <a href="https://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>
8618       </div>
8619       <div class="date">
8620         18th August 2013
8621       </div>
8622       <div class="body">
8623         <p>Earlier, I reported about
8624 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_fix_a_Thinkpad_X230_with_a_broken_180_GB_SSD_disk.html">my
8625 problems using an Intel SSD 520 Series 180 GB disk</a>.  Friday I was
8626 told by IBM that the original disk should be thrown away.  And as
8627 there no longer was a problem if I bricked the firmware, I decided
8628 today to try to install Intel firmware to replace the Lenovo firmware
8629 currently on the disk.</p>
8630
8631 <p>I searched the Intel site for firmware, and found
8632 <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>
8633 (aka Intel SATA Solid-State Drive Firmware Update Tool) which
8634 according to the site should contain the latest firmware for SSD
8635 disks.  I inserted the broken disk in one of my spare laptops and
8636 booted the ISO from a USB stick.  The disk was recognized, but the
8637 program claimed the newest firmware already were installed and refused
8638 to insert any Intel firmware.  So no change, and the disk is still
8639 unable to handle write load. :( I guess the only way to get them
8640 working would be if Lenovo releases new firmware.  No idea how likely
8641 that is.  Anyway, just blogging about this test for completeness.  I
8642 got a working Samsung disk, and see no point in spending more time on
8643 the broken disks.</p>
8644
8645       </div>
8646       <div class="tags">
8647
8648
8649         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
8650
8651
8652       </div>
8653     </div>
8654     <div class="padding"></div>
8655
8656     <div class="entry">
8657       <div class="title">
8658         <a href="https://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>
8659       </div>
8660       <div class="date">
8661         17th July 2013
8662       </div>
8663       <div class="body">
8664         <p>Today I switched to
8665 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_Thinkpad_is_dead__long_live_the_Thinkpad_X230_.html">my
8666 new laptop</a>.  I've previously written about the problems I had with
8667 my new Thinkpad X230, which was delivered with an
8668 <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
8669 GB Intel SSD disk with Lenovo firmware</a> that did not handle
8670 sustained writes.  My hardware supplier have been very forthcoming in
8671 trying to find a solution, and after first trying with another
8672 identical 180 GB disks they decided to send me a 256 GB Samsung SSD
8673 disk instead to fix it once and for all.  The Samsung disk survived
8674 the installation of Debian with encrypted disks (filling the disk with
8675 random data during installation killed the first two), and I thus
8676 decided to trust it with my data.  I have installed it as a Debian Edu
8677 Wheezy roaming workstation hooked up with my Debian Edu Squeeze main
8678 server at home using Kerberos and LDAP, and will use it as my work
8679 station from now on.</p>
8680
8681 <p>As this is a solid state disk with no moving parts, I believe the
8682 Debian Wheezy default installation need to be tuned a bit to increase
8683 performance and increase life time of the disk.  The Linux kernel and
8684 user space applications do not yet adjust automatically to such
8685 environment.  To make it easier for my self, I created a draft Debian
8686 package <tt>ssd-setup</tt> to handle this tuning.  The
8687 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/gitweb/?p=collab-maint/ssd-setup.git">source
8688 for the ssd-setup package</a> is available from collab-maint, and it
8689 is set up to adjust the setup of the machine by just installing the
8690 package.  If there is any non-SSD disk in the machine, the package
8691 will refuse to install, as I did not try to write any logic to sort
8692 file systems in SSD and non-SSD file systems.</p>
8693
8694 <p>I consider the package a draft, as I am a bit unsure how to best
8695 set up Debian Wheezy with an SSD.  It is adjusted to my use case,
8696 where I set up the machine with one large encrypted partition (in
8697 addition to /boot), put LVM on top of this and set up partitions on
8698 top of this again.  See the README file in the package source for the
8699 references I used to pick the settings.  At the moment these
8700 parameters are tuned:</p>
8701
8702 <ul>
8703
8704 <li>Set up cryptsetup to pass TRIM commands to the physical disk
8705     (adding discard to /etc/crypttab)</li>
8706
8707 <li>Set up LVM to pass on TRIM commands to the underlying device (in
8708     this case a cryptsetup partition) by changing issue_discards from
8709     0 to 1 in /etc/lvm/lvm.conf.</li>
8710
8711 <li>Set relatime as a file system option for ext3 and ext4 file
8712     systems.</li>
8713
8714 <li>Tell swap to use TRIM commands by adding 'discard' to
8715     /etc/fstab.</li>
8716
8717 <li>Change I/O scheduler from cfq to deadline using a udev rule.</li>
8718
8719 <li>Run fstrim on every ext3 and ext4 file system every night (from
8720     cron.daily).</li>
8721
8722 <li>Adjust sysctl values vm.swappiness to 1 and vm.vfs_cache_pressure
8723     to 50 to reduce the kernel eagerness to swap out processes.</li>
8724
8725 </ul>
8726
8727 <p>During installation, I cancelled the part where the installer fill
8728 the disk with random data, as this would kill the SSD performance for
8729 little gain.  My goal with the encrypted file system is to ensure
8730 those stealing my laptop end up with a brick and not a working
8731 computer.  I have no hope in keeping the really resourceful people
8732 from getting the data on the disk (see
8733 <a href="http://xkcd.com/538/">XKCD #538</a> for an explanation why).
8734 Thus I concluded that adding the discard option to crypttab is the
8735 right thing to do.</p>
8736
8737 <p>I considered using the noop I/O scheduler, as several recommended
8738 it for SSD, but others recommended deadline and a benchmark I found
8739 indicated that deadline might be better for interactive use.</p>
8740
8741 <p>I also considered using the 'discard' file system option for ext3
8742 and ext4, but read that it would give a performance hit ever time a
8743 file is removed, and thought it best to that that slowdown once a day
8744 instead of during my work.</p>
8745
8746 <p>My package do not set up tmpfs on /var/run, /var/lock and /tmp, as
8747 this is already done by Debian Edu.</p>
8748
8749 <p>I have not yet started on the user space tuning.  I expect
8750 iceweasel need some tuning, and perhaps other applications too, but
8751 have not yet had time to investigate those parts.</p>
8752
8753 <p>The package should work on Ubuntu too, but I have not yet tested it
8754 there.</p>
8755
8756 <p>As for the answer to the question in the title of this blog post,
8757 as far as I know, the only solution I know about is to replace the
8758 disk.  It might be possible to flash it with Intel firmware instead of
8759 the Lenovo firmware.  But I have not tried and did not want to do so
8760 without approval from Lenovo as I wanted to keep the warranty on the
8761 disk until a solution was found and they wanted the broken disks
8762 back.</p>
8763
8764       </div>
8765       <div class="tags">
8766
8767
8768         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
8769
8770
8771       </div>
8772     </div>
8773     <div class="padding"></div>
8774
8775     <div class="entry">
8776       <div class="title">
8777         <a href="https://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>
8778       </div>
8779       <div class="date">
8780         10th July 2013
8781       </div>
8782       <div class="body">
8783         <p>A few days ago, I wrote about
8784 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_Thinkpad_is_dead__long_live_the_Thinkpad_X230_.html">the
8785 problems I experienced with my new X230 and its SSD disk</a>, which
8786 was dying during installation because it is unable to cope with
8787 sustained write.  My supplier is in contact with
8788 <a href="http://www.lenovo.com/">Lenovo</a>, and they wanted to send a
8789 replacement disk to try to fix the problem.  They decided to send an
8790 identical model, so my hopes for a permanent fix was slim.</p>
8791
8792 <p>Anyway, today I got the replacement disk and tried to install
8793 Debian Edu Wheezy with encrypted disk on it.  The new disk have the
8794 same firmware version as the original.  This time my hope raised
8795 slightly as the installation progressed, as the original disk used to
8796 die after 4-7% of the disk was written to, while this time it kept
8797 going past 10%, 20%, 40% and even past 50%.  But around 60%, the disk
8798 died again and I was back on square one.  I still do not have a new
8799 laptop with a disk I can trust.  I can not live with a disk that might
8800 lock up when I download a new
8801 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux</a> ISO or
8802 other large files.  I look forward to hearing from my supplier with
8803 the next proposal from Lenovo.</p>
8804
8805 <p>The original disk is marked Intel SSD 520 Series 180 GB,
8806 11S0C38722Z1ZNME35X1TR, ISN: CVCV321407HB180EGN, SA: G57560302, FW:
8807 LF1i, 29MAY2013, PBA: G39779-300, LBA 351,651,888, LI P/N: 0C38722,
8808 Pb-free 2LI, LC P/N: 16-200366, WWN: 55CD2E40002756C4, Model:
8809 SSDSC2BW180A3L 2.5" 6Gb/s SATA SSD 180G 5V 1A, ASM P/N 0C38732, FRU
8810 P/N 45N8295, P0C38732.</p>
8811
8812 <p>The replacement disk is marked Intel SSD 520 Series 180 GB,
8813 11S0C38722Z1ZNDE34N0L0, ISN: CVCV315306RK180EGN, SA: G57560-302, FW:
8814 LF1i, 22APR2013, PBA: G39779-300, LBA 351,651,888, LI P/N: 0C38722,
8815 Pb-free 2LI, LC P/N: 16-200366, WWN: 55CD2E40000AB69E, Model:
8816 SSDSC2BW180A3L 2.5" 6Gb/s SATA SSD 180G 5V 1A, ASM P/N 0C38732, FRU
8817 P/N 45N8295, P0C38732.</p>
8818
8819 <p>The only difference is in the first number (serial number?), ISN,
8820 SA, date and WNPP values.  Mentioning all the details here in case
8821 someone is able to use the information to find a way to identify the
8822 failing disk among working ones (if any such working disk actually
8823 exist).</p>
8824
8825       </div>
8826       <div class="tags">
8827
8828
8829         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
8830
8831
8832       </div>
8833     </div>
8834     <div class="padding"></div>
8835
8836     <div class="entry">
8837       <div class="title">
8838         <a href="https://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>
8839       </div>
8840       <div class="date">
8841          9th July 2013
8842       </div>
8843       <div class="body">
8844         <p>The upcoming Saturday, 2013-07-13, we are organising a combined
8845 Debian Edu developer gathering and Debian and Ubuntu bug squashing
8846 party in Oslo.  It is organised by <a href="http://www.nuug.no/">the
8847 member assosiation NUUG</a> and
8848 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">the Debian Edu / Skolelinux
8849 project</a> together with <a href="http://bitraf.no/">the hack space
8850 Bitraf</a>.</p>
8851
8852 <p>It starts 10:00 and continue until late evening.  Everyone is
8853 welcome, and there is no fee to participate.  There is on the other
8854 hand limited space, and only room for 30 people.  Please put your name
8855 on <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/BSP/2013/07/13/no/Oslo">the event
8856 wiki page</a> if you plan to join us.</p>
8857
8858       </div>
8859       <div class="tags">
8860
8861
8862         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
8863
8864
8865       </div>
8866     </div>
8867     <div class="padding"></div>
8868
8869     <div class="entry">
8870       <div class="title">
8871         <a href="https://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>
8872       </div>
8873       <div class="date">
8874          5th July 2013
8875       </div>
8876       <div class="body">
8877         <p>Half a year ago, I reported that I had to find a
8878 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Thank_you_Thinkpad_X41__for_your_long_and_trustworthy_service.html">replacement
8879 for my trusty old Thinkpad X41</a>.  Unfortunately I did not have much
8880 time to spend on it, and it took a while to find a model I believe
8881 will do the job, but two days ago the replacement finally arrived.  I
8882 ended up picking a
8883 <a href="http://www.linlap.com/lenovo_thinkpad_x230">Thinkpad X230</a>
8884 with SSD disk (NZDAJMN).  I first test installed Debian Edu Wheezy as
8885 a roaming workstation, and it seemed to work flawlessly.  But my
8886 second installation with encrypted disk was not as successful.  More
8887 on that below.</p>
8888
8889 <p>I had a hard time trying to track down a good laptop, as my most
8890 important requirements (robust and with a good keyboard) are never
8891 listed in the feature list.  But I did get good help from the search
8892 feature at <a href="http://www.prisjakt.no/">Prisjakt</a>, which
8893 allowed me to limit the list of interesting laptops based on my other
8894 requirements.  A bit surprising that SSD disk are not disks according
8895 to that search interface, so I had to drop specifying the number of
8896 disks from my search parameters.  I also asked around among friends to
8897 get their impression on keyboards and robustness.</p>
8898
8899 <p>So the new laptop arrived, and it is quite a lot wider than the
8900 X41.  I am not quite convinced about the keyboard, as it is
8901 significantly wider than my old keyboard, and I have to stretch my
8902 hand a lot more to reach the edges.  But the key response is fairly
8903 good and the individual key shape is fairly easy to handle, so I hope
8904 I will get used to it.  My old X40 was starting to fail, and I really
8905 needed a new laptop now. :)</p>
8906
8907 <p>Turning off the touch pad was simple.  All it took was a quick
8908 visit to the BIOS during boot it disable it.</p>
8909
8910 <p>But there is a fatal problem with the laptop.  The 180 GB SSD disk
8911 lock up during load.  And this happen when installing Debian Wheezy
8912 with encrypted disk, while the disk is being filled with random data.
8913 I also tested to install Ubuntu Raring, and it happen there too if I
8914 reenable the code to fill the disk with random data (it is disabled by
8915 default in Ubuntu).  And the bug with is already known.  It was
8916 reported to Debian as <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/691427">BTS
8917 report #691427 2012-10-25</a> (journal commit I/O error on brand-new
8918 Thinkpad T430s ext4 on lvm on SSD).  It is also reported to the Linux
8919 kernel developers as
8920 <a href="https://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=51861">Kernel bugzilla
8921 report #51861 2012-12-20</a> (Intel SSD 520 stops working under load
8922 (SSDSC2BW180A3L in Lenovo ThinkPad T430s)). It is also reported on the
8923 Lenovo forums, both for
8924 <a href="http://forums.lenovo.com/t5/T400-T500-and-newer-T-series/T430s-Intel-SSD-520-180GB-issue/m-p/1070549">T430
8925 2012-11-10</a> and for
8926 <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
8927 03-20-2013</a>.  The problem do not only affect installation.  The
8928 reports state that the disk lock up during use if many writes are done
8929 on the disk, so it is much no use to work around the installation
8930 problem and end up with a computer that can lock up at any moment.
8931 There is even a
8932 <a href="https://git.efficios.com/?p=test-ssd.git">small C program
8933 available</a> that will lock up the hard drive after running a few
8934 minutes by writing to a file.</p>
8935
8936 <p>I've contacted my supplier and asked how to handle this, and after
8937 contacting PCHELP Norway (request 01D1FDP) which handle support
8938 requests for Lenovo, his first suggestion was to upgrade the disk
8939 firmware.  Unfortunately there is no newer firmware available from
8940 Lenovo, as my disk already have the most recent one (version LF1i).  I
8941 hope to hear more from him today and hope the problem can be
8942 fixed. :)</p>
8943
8944       </div>
8945       <div class="tags">
8946
8947
8948         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
8949
8950
8951       </div>
8952     </div>
8953     <div class="padding"></div>
8954
8955     <div class="entry">
8956       <div class="title">
8957         <a href="https://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>
8958       </div>
8959       <div class="date">
8960          4th July 2013
8961       </div>
8962       <div class="body">
8963         <p>Half a year ago, I reported that I had to find a replacement for my
8964 trusty old Thinkpad X41.  Unfortunately I did not have much time to
8965 spend on it, but today the replacement finally arrived.  I ended up
8966 picking a <a href="http://www.linlap.com/lenovo_thinkpad_x230">Thinkpad
8967 X230</a> with SSD disk (NZDAJMN).  I first test installed Debian Edu
8968 Wheezy as a roaming workstation, and it worked flawlessly.  As I write
8969 this, it is installing what I hope will be a more final installation,
8970 with a encrypted hard drive to ensure any dope head stealing it end up
8971 with an expencive door stop.</p>
8972
8973 <p>I had a hard time trying to track down a good laptop, as my most
8974 important requirements (robust and with a good keyboard) are never
8975 listed in the feature list.  But I did get good help from the search
8976 feature at <ahref="http://www.prisjakt.no/">Prisjakt</a>, which
8977 allowed me to limit the list of interesting laptops based on my other
8978 requirements.  A bit surprising that SSD disk are not disks, so I had
8979 to drop number of disks from my search parameters.</p>
8980
8981 <p>I am not quite convinced about the keyboard, as it is significantly
8982 wider than my old keyboard, and I have to stretch my hand a lot more
8983 to reach the edges.  But the key response is fairly good and the
8984 individual key shape is fairly easy to handle, so I hope I will get
8985 used to it.  My old X40 was starting to fail, and I really needed a
8986 new laptop now. :)</p>
8987
8988 <p>I look forward to figuring out how to turn off the touch pad.</p>
8989
8990       </div>
8991       <div class="tags">
8992
8993
8994         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
8995
8996
8997       </div>
8998     </div>
8999     <div class="padding"></div>
9000
9001     <div class="entry">
9002       <div class="title">
9003         <a href="https://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>
9004       </div>
9005       <div class="date">
9006         25th June 2013
9007       </div>
9008       <div class="body">
9009         <p>It annoys me when the computer fail to do automatically what it is
9010 perfectly capable of, and I have to do it manually to get things
9011 working.  One such task is to find out what firmware packages are
9012 needed to get the hardware on my computer working.  Most often this
9013 affect the wifi card, but some times it even affect the RAID
9014 controller or the ethernet card.  Today I pushed version 0.4 of the
9015 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/isenkram">Isenkram package</a>
9016 including a new script isenkram-autoinstall-firmware handling the
9017 process of asking all the loaded kernel modules what firmware files
9018 they want, find debian packages providing these files and install the
9019 debian packages.  Here is a test run on my laptop:</p>
9020
9021 <p><pre>
9022 # isenkram-autoinstall-firmware
9023 info: kernel drivers requested extra firmware: ipw2200-bss.fw ipw2200-ibss.fw ipw2200-sniffer.fw
9024 info: fetching http://http.debian.net/debian/dists/squeeze/Contents-i386.gz
9025 info: locating packages with the requested firmware files
9026 info: Updating APT sources after adding non-free APT source
9027 info: trying to install firmware-ipw2x00
9028 firmware-ipw2x00
9029 firmware-ipw2x00
9030 Preconfiguring packages ...
9031 Selecting previously deselected package firmware-ipw2x00.
9032 (Reading database ... 259727 files and directories currently installed.)
9033 Unpacking firmware-ipw2x00 (from .../firmware-ipw2x00_0.28+squeeze1_all.deb) ...
9034 Setting up firmware-ipw2x00 (0.28+squeeze1) ...
9035 #
9036 </pre></p>
9037
9038 <p>When all the requested firmware is present, a simple message is
9039 printed instead:</p>
9040
9041 <p><pre>
9042 # isenkram-autoinstall-firmware
9043 info: did not find any firmware files requested by loaded kernel modules.  exiting
9044 #
9045 </pre></p>
9046
9047 <p>It could use some polish, but it is already working well and saving
9048 me some time when setting up new machines. :)</p>
9049
9050 <p>So, how does it work?  It look at the set of currently loaded
9051 kernel modules, and look up each one of them using modinfo, to find
9052 the firmware files listed in the module meta-information.  Next, it
9053 download the Contents file from a nearby APT mirror, and search for
9054 the firmware files in this file to locate the package with the
9055 requested firmware file.  If the package is in the non-free section, a
9056 non-free APT source is added and the package is installed using
9057 <tt>apt-get install</tt>.  The end result is a slightly better working
9058 machine.</p>
9059
9060 <p>I hope someone find time to implement a more polished version of
9061 this script as part of the hw-detect debian-installer module, to
9062 finally fix <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/655507">BTS report
9063 #655507</a>.  There really is no need to insert USB sticks with
9064 firmware during a PXE install when the packages already are available
9065 from the nearby Debian mirror.</p>
9066
9067       </div>
9068       <div class="tags">
9069
9070
9071         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram">isenkram</a>.
9072
9073
9074       </div>
9075     </div>
9076     <div class="padding"></div>
9077
9078     <div class="entry">
9079       <div class="title">
9080         <a href="https://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>
9081       </div>
9082       <div class="date">
9083         11th June 2013
9084       </div>
9085       <div class="body">
9086         <p>When installing RedHat, Fedora, Debian and Ubuntu on some machines,
9087 the screen just turn black when Linux boot, either during installation
9088 or on first boot from the hard disk.  I've seen it once in a while the
9089 last few years, but only recently understood the cause.  I've seen it
9090 on HP laptops, and on my latest acquaintance the Packard Bell laptop.
9091 The reason seem to be in the wiring of some laptops.  The system to
9092 control the screen background light is inverted, so when Linux try to
9093 turn the brightness fully on, it end up turning it off instead.  I do
9094 not know which Linux drivers are affected, but this post is about the
9095 i915 driver used by the
9096 <a href="http://www.linlap.com/packard_bell_easynote_lv">Packard Bell
9097 EasyNote LV</a>, Thinkpad X40 and many other laptops.</p>
9098
9099 <p>The problem can be worked around two ways.  Either by adding
9100 i915.invert_brightness=1 as a kernel option, or by adding a file in
9101 /etc/modprobe.d/ to tell modprobe to add the invert_brightness=1
9102 option when it load the i915 kernel module.  On Debian and Ubuntu, it
9103 can be done by running these commands as root:</p>
9104
9105 <pre>
9106 echo options i915 invert_brightness=1 | tee /etc/modprobe.d/i915.conf
9107 update-initramfs -u -k all
9108 </pre>
9109
9110 <p>Since March 2012 there is
9111 <a href="http://git.kernel.org/cgit/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/commit/?id=4dca20efb1a9c2efefc28ad2867e5d6c3f5e1955">a
9112 mechanism in the Linux kernel</a> to tell the i915 driver which
9113 hardware have this problem, and get the driver to invert the
9114 brightness setting automatically.  To use it, one need to add a row in
9115 <a href="http://git.kernel.org/cgit/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/tree/drivers/gpu/drm/i915/intel_display.c">the
9116 intel_quirks array</a> in the driver source
9117 <tt>drivers/gpu/drm/i915/intel_display.c</tt> (look for "<tt>static
9118 struct intel_quirk intel_quirks</tt>"), specifying the PCI device
9119 number (vendor number 8086 is assumed) and subdevice vendor and device
9120 number.</p>
9121
9122 <p>My Packard Bell EasyNote LV got this output from <tt>lspci
9123 -vvnn</tt> for the video card in question:</p>
9124
9125 <p><pre>
9126 00:02.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: Intel Corporation \
9127     3rd Gen Core processor Graphics Controller [8086:0156] \
9128     (rev 09) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
9129  Subsystem: Acer Incorporated [ALI] Device [1025:0688]
9130  Control: I/O+ Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- \
9131     ParErr- Stepping- SE RR- FastB2B- DisINTx+
9132  Status: Cap+ 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B+ ParErr- DEVSEL=fast >TAbort- \
9133     <TAbort- <MAbort->SERR- <PERR- INTx-
9134  Latency: 0
9135  Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 42
9136  Region 0: Memory at c2000000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4M]
9137  Region 2: Memory at b0000000 (64-bit, prefetchable) [size=256M]
9138  Region 4: I/O ports at 4000 [size=64]
9139  Expansion ROM at <unassigned> [disabled]
9140  Capabilities: <access denied>
9141  Kernel driver in use: i915
9142 </pre></p>
9143
9144 <p>The resulting intel_quirks entry would then look like this:</p>
9145
9146 <p><pre>
9147 struct intel_quirk intel_quirks[] = {
9148        ...
9149         /* Packard Bell EasyNote LV11HC needs invert brightness quirk */
9150         { 0x0156, 0x1025, 0x0688, quirk_invert_brightness },
9151        ...
9152 }
9153 </pre></p>
9154
9155 <p>According to the kernel module instructions (as seen using
9156 <tt>modinfo i915</tt>), information about hardware needing the
9157 invert_brightness flag should be sent to the
9158 <a href="http://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/dri-devel">dri-devel
9159 (at) lists.freedesktop.org</a> mailing list to reach the kernel
9160 developers.  But my email about the laptop sent 2013-06-03 have not
9161 yet shown up in
9162 <a href="http://lists.freedesktop.org/archives/dri-devel/2013-June/thread.html">the
9163 web archive for the mailing list</a>, so I suspect they do not accept
9164 emails from non-subscribers.  Because of this, I sent my patch also to
9165 the Debian bug tracking system instead as
9166 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/710938">BTS report #710938</a>, to make
9167 sure the patch is not lost.</p>
9168
9169 <p>Unfortunately, it is not enough to fix the kernel to get Laptops
9170 with this problem working properly with Linux.  If you use Gnome, your
9171 worries should be over at this point.  But if you use KDE, there is
9172 something in KDE ignoring the invert_brightness setting and turning on
9173 the screen during login.  I've reported it to Debian as
9174 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/711237">BTS report #711237</a>, and
9175 have no idea yet how to figure out exactly what subsystem is doing
9176 this.  Perhaps you can help?  Perhaps you know what the Gnome
9177 developers did to handle this, and this can give a clue to the KDE
9178 developers?  Or you know where in KDE the screen brightness is changed
9179 during login?  If so, please update the BTS report (or get in touch if
9180 you do not know how to update BTS).</p>
9181
9182 <p>Update 2013-07-19: The correct fix for this machine seem to be
9183 acpi_backlight=vendor, to disable ACPI backlight support completely,
9184 as the ACPI information on the machine is trash and it is better to
9185 leave it to the intel video driver to control the screen
9186 backlight.</p>
9187
9188       </div>
9189       <div class="tags">
9190
9191
9192         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
9193
9194
9195       </div>
9196     </div>
9197     <div class="padding"></div>
9198
9199     <div class="entry">
9200       <div class="title">
9201         <a href="https://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>
9202       </div>
9203       <div class="date">
9204         27th May 2013
9205       </div>
9206       <div class="body">
9207         <p>Two days ago, I asked
9208 <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
9209 I could install Linux on a Packard Bell EasyNote LV computer
9210 preinstalled with Windows 8</a>.  I found a solution, but am horrified
9211 with the obstacles put in the way of Linux users on a laptop with UEFI
9212 and Windows 8.</p>
9213
9214 <p>I never found out if the cause of my problems were the use of UEFI
9215 secure booting or fast boot.  I suspect fast boot was the problem,
9216 causing the firmware to boot directly from HD without considering any
9217 key presses and alternative devices, but do not know UEFI settings
9218 enough to tell.</p>
9219
9220 <p>There is no way to install Linux on the machine in question without
9221 opening the box and disconnecting the hard drive!  This is as far as I
9222 can tell, the only way to get access to the firmware setup menu
9223 without accepting the Windows 8 license agreement.  I am told (and
9224 found description on how to) that it is possible to configure the
9225 firmware setup once booted into Windows 8.  But as I believe the terms
9226 of that agreement are completely unacceptable, accepting the license
9227 was never an alternative.  I do not enter agreements I do not intend
9228 to follow.</p>
9229
9230 <p>I feared I had to return the laptops and ask for a refund, and
9231 waste many hours on this, but luckily there was a way to get it to
9232 work.  But I would not recommend it to anyone planning to run Linux on
9233 it, and I have become sceptical to Windows 8 certified laptops.  Is
9234 this the way Linux will be forced out of the market place, by making
9235 it close to impossible for "normal" users to install Linux without
9236 accepting the Microsoft Windows license terms?  Or at least not
9237 without risking to loose the warranty?</p>
9238
9239 <p>I've updated the
9240 <a href="http://www.linlap.com/packard_bell_easynote_lv">Linux Laptop
9241 wiki page for Packard Bell EasyNote LV</a>, to ensure the next person
9242 do not have to struggle as much as I did to get Linux into the
9243 machine.</p>
9244
9245 <p>Thanks to Bob Rosbag, Florian Weimer, Philipp Kern, Ben Hutching,
9246 Michael Tokarev and others for feedback and ideas.</p>
9247
9248       </div>
9249       <div class="tags">
9250
9251
9252         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
9253
9254
9255       </div>
9256     </div>
9257     <div class="padding"></div>
9258
9259     <div class="entry">
9260       <div class="title">
9261         <a href="https://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>
9262       </div>
9263       <div class="date">
9264         25th May 2013
9265       </div>
9266       <div class="body">
9267         <p>I've run into quite a problem the last few days.  I bought three
9268 new laptops for my parents and a few others.  I bought Packard Bell
9269 Easynote LV to run Kubuntu on and use as their home computer.  But I
9270 am completely unable to figure out how to install Linux on it.  The
9271 computer is preinstalled with Windows 8, and I suspect it uses UEFI
9272 instead of a BIOS to boot.</p>
9273
9274 <p>The problem is that I am unable to get it to PXE boot, and unable
9275 to get it to boot the Linux installer from my USB stick.  I have yet
9276 to try the DVD install, and still hope it will work.  when I turn on
9277 the computer, there is no information on what buttons to press to get
9278 the normal boot menu.  I expect to get some boot menu to select PXE or
9279 USB stick booting.  When booting, it first ask for the language to
9280 use, then for some regional settings, and finally if I will accept the
9281 Windows 8 terms of use.  As these terms are completely unacceptable to
9282 me, I have no other choice but to turn off the computer and try again
9283 to get it to boot the Linux installer.</p>
9284
9285 <p>I have gathered my findings so far on a Linlap page about the
9286 <a href="http://www.linlap.com/packard_bell_easynote_lv">Packard Bell
9287 EasyNote LV</a> model.  If you have any idea how to get Linux
9288 installed on this machine, please get in touch or update that wiki
9289 page.  If I can't find a way to install Linux, I will have to return
9290 the laptop to the seller and find another machine for my parents.</p>
9291
9292 <p>I wonder, is this the way Linux will be forced out of the market
9293 using UEFI and "secure boot" by making it impossible to install Linux
9294 on new Laptops?</p>
9295
9296       </div>
9297       <div class="tags">
9298
9299
9300         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
9301
9302
9303       </div>
9304     </div>
9305     <div class="padding"></div>
9306
9307     <div class="entry">
9308       <div class="title">
9309         <a href="https://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>
9310       </div>
9311       <div class="date">
9312         17th May 2013
9313       </div>
9314       <div class="body">
9315         <p><a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux</a> is
9316 an operating system based on Debian intended for use in schools.  It
9317 contain a turn-key solution for the computer network provided to
9318 pupils in the primary schools.  It provide both the central server,
9319 network boot servers and desktop environments with heaps of
9320 educational software.  The project was founded almost 12 years ago,
9321 2001-07-02.  If you want to support the project, which is in need for
9322 cash to fund developer gatherings and other project related activity,
9323 <a href="http://www.linuxiskolen.no/slxdebianlabs/donations.html">please
9324 donate some money</a>.
9325
9326 <p>A topic that come up again and again on the Debian Edu mailing
9327 lists and elsewhere, is the question on how to transform a Debian or
9328 Ubuntu installation into a Debian Edu installation.  It isn't very
9329 hard, and last week I wrote a script to replicate the steps done by
9330 the Debian Edu installer.</p>
9331
9332 <p>The script,
9333 <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/>
9334 in the debian-edu-config package, will go through these six steps and
9335 transform an existing Debian Wheezy or Ubuntu (untested) installation
9336 into a Debian Edu Workstation:</p>
9337
9338 <ol>
9339
9340 <li>Add skolelinux related APT sources.</li>
9341 <li>Create /etc/debian-edu/config with the wanted configuration.</li>
9342 <li>Install debian-edu-install to load preseeding values and pull in
9343     our configuration.</li>
9344 <li>Preseed debconf database with profile setup in
9345     /etc/debian-edu/config, and run tasksel to install packages
9346     according to the profile specified in the config above,
9347     overriding some of the Debian automation machinery.</li>
9348 <li>Run debian-edu-cfengine-D installation to configure everything
9349     that could not be done using preseeding.</li>
9350 <li>Ask for a reboot to enable all the configuration changes.</li>
9351
9352 </ol>
9353
9354 <p>There are some steps in the Debian Edu installation that can not be
9355 replicated like this.  Disk partitioning and LVM setup, for example.
9356 So this script just assume there is enough disk space to install all
9357 the needed packages.</p>
9358
9359 <p>The script was created to help a Debian Edu student working on
9360 setting up <a href="http://www.raspberrypi.org">Raspberry Pi</a> as a
9361 Debian Edu client, and using it he can take the existing
9362 <a href="http://www.raspbian.org/FrontPage‎">Raspbian</a> installation and
9363 transform it into a fully functioning Debian Edu Workstation (or
9364 Roaming Workstation, or whatever :).</p>
9365
9366 <p>The default setting in the script is to create a KDE Workstation.
9367 If a LXDE based Roaming workstation is wanted instead, modify the
9368 PROFILE and DESKTOP values at the top to look like this instead:</p>
9369
9370 <p><pre>
9371 PROFILE="Roaming-Workstation"
9372 DESKTOP="lxde"
9373 </pre></p>
9374
9375 <p>The script could even become useful to set up Debian Edu servers in
9376 the cloud, by starting with a virtual Debian installation at some
9377 virtual hosting service and setting up all the services on first
9378 boot.</p>
9379
9380       </div>
9381       <div class="tags">
9382
9383
9384         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
9385
9386
9387       </div>
9388     </div>
9389     <div class="padding"></div>
9390
9391     <div class="entry">
9392       <div class="title">
9393         <a href="https://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>
9394       </div>
9395       <div class="date">
9396         11th May 2013
9397       </div>
9398       <div class="body">
9399         <P>In January,
9400 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/New_IRC_channel_for_LEGO_designers_using_Debian.html">I
9401 announced a</a> new <a href="irc://irc.debian.org/%23debian-lego">IRC
9402 channel #debian-lego</a>, for those of us in the Debian and Linux
9403 community interested in <a href="http://www.lego.com/">LEGO</a>, the
9404 marvellous construction system from Denmark.  We also created
9405 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/LegoDesigners">a wiki page</a> to have
9406 a place to take notes and write down our plans and hopes.  And several
9407 people showed up to help.  I was very happy to see the effect of my
9408 call.  Since the small start, we have a debtags tag
9409 <a href="http://debtags.debian.net/search/bytag?wl=hardware::hobby:lego">hardware::hobby:lego</a>
9410 tag for LEGO related packages, and now count 10 packages related to
9411 LEGO and <a href="http://mindstorms.lego.com/">Mindstorms</a>:</p>
9412
9413 <p><table>
9414 <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>
9415 <tr><td><a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/leocad">leocad</a></td><td>virtual brick CAD software</td></tr>
9416 <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>
9417 <tr><td><a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/lnpd">lnpd</a></td><td>daemon for LNP communication with BrickOS</td></tr>
9418 <tr><td><a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/nbc">nbc</a></td><td>compiler for LEGO Mindstorms NXT bricks</td></tr>
9419 <tr><td><a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/nqc">nqc</a></td><td>Not Quite C compiler for LEGO Mindstorms RCX</td></tr>
9420 <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>
9421 <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>
9422 <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>
9423 <tr><td><a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/t2n">t2n</a></td><td>simple command-line tool for Lego NXT</td></tr>
9424 </table></p>
9425
9426 <p>Some of these are available in Wheezy, and all but one are
9427 currently available in Jessie/testing.  leocad is so far only
9428 available in experimental.</p>
9429
9430 <p>If you care about LEGO in Debian, please join us on IRC and help
9431 adding the rest of the great free software tools available on Linux
9432 for LEGO designers.</p>
9433
9434       </div>
9435       <div class="tags">
9436
9437
9438         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/lego">lego</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/robot">robot</a>.
9439
9440
9441       </div>
9442     </div>
9443     <div class="padding"></div>
9444
9445     <div class="entry">
9446       <div class="title">
9447         <a href="https://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>
9448       </div>
9449       <div class="date">
9450          5th May 2013
9451       </div>
9452       <div class="body">
9453         <p>When I woke up this morning, I was very happy to see that the
9454 <a href="http://www.debian.org/News/2013/20130504">release announcement
9455 for Debian Wheezy</a> was waiting in my mail box.  This is a great
9456 Debian release, and I expect to move my machines at home over to it fairly
9457 soon.</p>
9458
9459 <p>The new debian release contain heaps of new stuff, and one program
9460 in particular make me very happy to see included.  The
9461 <a href="http://scratch.mit.edu/">Scratch</a> program, made famous by
9462 the <a href="http://www.code.org/">Teach kids code</a> movement, is
9463 included for the first time.  Alongside similar programs like
9464 <a href="http://edu.kde.org/kturtle/">kturtle</a> and
9465 <a href="http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Activities/Turtle_Art">turtleart</a>,
9466 it allow for visual programming where syntax errors can not happen,
9467 and a friendly programming environment for learning to control the
9468 computer.  Scratch will also be included in the next release of Debian
9469 Edu.</a>
9470
9471 <p>And now that Wheezy is wrapped up, we can wrap up the next Debian
9472 Edu/Skolelinux release too.  The
9473 <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-edu/2013/04/msg00132.html">first
9474 alpha release</a> went out last week, and the next should soon
9475 follow.<p>
9476
9477       </div>
9478       <div class="tags">
9479
9480
9481         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
9482
9483
9484       </div>
9485     </div>
9486     <div class="padding"></div>
9487
9488     <div class="entry">
9489       <div class="title">
9490         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Isenkram_0_2_finally_in_the_Debian_archive.html">Isenkram 0.2 finally in the Debian archive</a>
9491       </div>
9492       <div class="date">
9493          3rd April 2013
9494       </div>
9495       <div class="body">
9496         <p>Today the <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/isenkram">Isenkram
9497 package</a> finally made it into the archive, after lingering in NEW
9498 for many months.  I uploaded it to the Debian experimental suite
9499 2013-01-27, and today it was accepted into the archive.</p>
9500
9501 <p>Isenkram is a system for suggesting to users what packages to
9502 install to work with a pluggable hardware device.  The suggestion pop
9503 up when the device is plugged in.  For example if a Lego Mindstorm NXT
9504 is inserted, it will suggest to install the program needed to program
9505 the NXT controller.  Give it a go, and report bugs and suggestions to
9506 BTS. :)</p>
9507
9508       </div>
9509       <div class="tags">
9510
9511
9512         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram">isenkram</a>.
9513
9514
9515       </div>
9516     </div>
9517     <div class="padding"></div>
9518
9519     <div class="entry">
9520       <div class="title">
9521         <a href="https://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>
9522       </div>
9523       <div class="date">
9524          2nd February 2013
9525       </div>
9526       <div class="body">
9527         <p>My
9528 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_backport_bitcoin_qt_version_0_7_2_2_to_Debian_Squeeze.html">last
9529 bitcoin related blog post</a> mentioned that the new
9530 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/bitcoin">bitcoin package</a> for
9531 Debian was waiting in NEW.  It was accepted by the Debian ftp-masters
9532 2013-01-19, and have been available in unstable since then.  It was
9533 automatically copied to Ubuntu, and is available in their Raring
9534 version too.</p>
9535
9536 <p>But there is a strange problem with the build that block this new
9537 version from being available on the i386 and kfreebsd-i386
9538 architectures.  For some strange reason, the autobuilders in Debian
9539 for these architectures fail to run the test suite on these
9540 architectures (<a href="http://bugs.debian.org/672524">BTS #672524</a>).
9541 We are so far unable to reproduce it when building it manually, and
9542 no-one have been able to propose a fix.  If you got an idea what is
9543 failing, please let us know via the BTS.</p>
9544
9545 <p>One feature that is annoying me with of the bitcoin client, because
9546 I often run low on disk space, is the fact that the client will exit
9547 if it run short on space (<a href="http://bugs.debian.org/696715">BTS
9548 #696715</a>).  So make sure you have enough disk space when you run
9549 it. :)</p>
9550
9551 <p>As usual, if you use bitcoin and want to show your support of my
9552 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
9553 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
9554
9555       </div>
9556       <div class="tags">
9557
9558
9559         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bitcoin">bitcoin</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
9560
9561
9562       </div>
9563     </div>
9564     <div class="padding"></div>
9565
9566     <div class="entry">
9567       <div class="title">
9568         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Welcome_to_the_world__Isenkram_.html">Welcome to the world, Isenkram!</a>
9569       </div>
9570       <div class="date">
9571         22nd January 2013
9572       </div>
9573       <div class="body">
9574         <p>Yesterday, I
9575 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/First_prototype_ready_making_hardware_easier_to_use_in_Debian.html">asked
9576 for testers</a> for my prototype for making Debian better at handling
9577 pluggable hardware devices, which I
9578 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lets_make_hardware_dongles_easier_to_use_in_Debian.html">set
9579 out to create</a> earlier this month.  Several valuable testers showed
9580 up, and caused me to really want to to open up the development to more
9581 people.  But before I did this, I want to come up with a sensible name
9582 for this project.  Today I finally decided on a new name, and I have
9583 renamed the project from hw-support-handler to this new name.  In the
9584 process, I moved the source to git and made it available as a
9585 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/gitweb/?p=collab-maint/isenkram.git">collab-maint</a>
9586 repository in Debian.  The new name?  It is <strong>Isenkram</strong>.
9587 To fetch and build the latest version of the source, use</p>
9588
9589 <pre>
9590 git clone http://anonscm.debian.org/git/collab-maint/isenkram.git
9591 cd isenkram && git-buildpackage -us -uc
9592 </pre>
9593
9594 <p>I have not yet adjusted all files to use the new name yet.  If you
9595 want to hack on the source or improve the package, please go ahead.
9596 But please talk to me first on IRC or via email before you do major
9597 changes, to make sure we do not step on each others toes. :)</p>
9598
9599 <p>If you wonder what 'isenkram' is, it is a Norwegian word for iron
9600 stuff, typically meaning tools, nails, screws, etc.  Typical hardware
9601 stuff, in other words.  I've been told it is the Norwegian variant of
9602 the German word eisenkram, for those that are familiar with that
9603 word.</p>
9604
9605 <p><strong>Update 2013-01-26</strong>: Added -us -us to build
9606 instructions, to avoid confusing people with an error from the signing
9607 process.</p>
9608
9609 <p><strong>Update 2013-01-27</strong>: Switch to HTTP URL for the git
9610 clone argument to avoid the need for authentication.</p>
9611
9612       </div>
9613       <div class="tags">
9614
9615
9616         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram">isenkram</a>.
9617
9618
9619       </div>
9620     </div>
9621     <div class="padding"></div>
9622
9623     <div class="entry">
9624       <div class="title">
9625         <a href="https://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>
9626       </div>
9627       <div class="date">
9628         21st January 2013
9629       </div>
9630       <div class="body">
9631         <p>Early this month I set out to try to
9632 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lets_make_hardware_dongles_easier_to_use_in_Debian.html">improve
9633 the Debian support for pluggable hardware devices</a>.  Now my
9634 prototype is working, and it is ready for a larger audience.  To test
9635 it, fetch the
9636 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/">source
9637 from the Debian Edu subversion repository</a>, build and install the
9638 package.  You might have to log out and in again activate the
9639 autostart script.</p>
9640
9641 <p>The design is simple:</p>
9642
9643 <ul>
9644
9645 <li>Add desktop entry in /usr/share/autostart/ causing a program
9646 hw-support-handlerd to start when the user log in.</li>
9647
9648 <li>This program listen for kernel events about new hardware (directly
9649 from the kernel like udev does), not using HAL dbus events as I
9650 initially did.</li>
9651
9652 <li>When new hardware is inserted, look up the hardware modalias in
9653 the APT database, a database
9654 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/modaliases?view=markup">available
9655 via HTTP</a> and a database available as part of the package.</li>
9656
9657 <li>If a package is mapped to the hardware in question, the package
9658 isn't installed yet and this is the first time the hardware was
9659 plugged in, show a desktop notification suggesting to install the
9660 package or packages.</li>
9661
9662 <li>If the user click on the 'install package now' button, ask
9663 aptdaemon via the PackageKit API to install the requrired package.</li>
9664
9665 <li>aptdaemon ask for root password or sudo password, and install the
9666 package while showing progress information in a window.</li>
9667
9668 </ul>
9669
9670 <p>I still need to come up with a better name for the system.  Here
9671 are some screen shots showing the prototype in action.  First the
9672 notification, then the password request, and finally the request to
9673 approve all the dependencies.  Sorry for the Norwegian Bokmål GUI.</p>
9674
9675 <p><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-01-21-hw-support-1-notification.png">
9676 <br><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-01-21-hw-support-2-password.png">
9677 <br><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-01-21-hw-support-3-dependencies.png">
9678 <br><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-01-21-hw-support-4-installing.png">
9679 <br><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-01-21-hw-support-5-installing-details.png" width="70%"></p>
9680
9681 <p>The prototype still need to be improved with longer timeouts, but
9682 is already useful.  The database of hardware to package mappings also
9683 need more work.  It is currently compatible with the Ubuntu way of
9684 storing such information in the package control file, but could be
9685 changed to use other formats instead or in addition to the current
9686 method.  I've dropped the use of discover for this mapping, as the
9687 modalias approach is more flexible and easier to use on Linux as long
9688 as the Linux kernel expose its modalias strings directly.</p>
9689
9690 <p><strong>Update 2013-01-21 16:50</strong>: Due to popular demand,
9691 here is the command required to check out and build the source: Use
9692 '<tt>svn checkout
9693 svn://svn.debian.org/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/; cd
9694 hw-support-handler; debuild</tt>'.  If you lack debuild, install the
9695 devscripts package.</p>
9696
9697 <p><strong>Update 2013-01-23 12:00</strong>: The project is now
9698 renamed to Isenkram and the source moved from the Debian Edu
9699 subversion repository to a Debian collab-maint git repository.  See
9700 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Welcome_to_the_world__Isenkram_.html">build
9701 instructions</a> for details.</p>
9702
9703       </div>
9704       <div class="tags">
9705
9706
9707         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram">isenkram</a>.
9708
9709
9710       </div>
9711     </div>
9712     <div class="padding"></div>
9713
9714     <div class="entry">
9715       <div class="title">
9716         <a href="https://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>
9717       </div>
9718       <div class="date">
9719         19th January 2013
9720       </div>
9721       <div class="body">
9722         <p>This Christmas my trusty old laptop died.  It died quietly and
9723 suddenly in bed.  With a quiet whimper, it went completely quiet and
9724 black.  The power button was no longer able to turn it on.  It was a
9725 IBM Thinkpad X41, and the best laptop I ever had.  Better than both
9726 Thinkpads X30, X31, X40, X60, X61 and X61S.  Far better than the
9727 Compaq I had before that.  Now I need to find a replacement.  To keep
9728 going during Christmas, I moved the one year old SSD disk to my old
9729 X40 where it fitted (only one I had left that could use it), but it is
9730 not a durable solution.
9731
9732 <p>My laptop needs are fairly modest.  This is my wishlist from when I
9733 got a new one more than 10 years ago.  It still holds true.:)</p>
9734
9735 <ul>
9736
9737 <li>Lightweight (around 1 kg) and small volume (preferably smaller
9738   than A4).</li>
9739 <li>Robust, it will be in my backpack every day.</li>
9740 <li>Three button mouse and a mouse pin instead of touch pad.</li>
9741 <li>Long battery life time.  Preferable a week.</li>
9742 <li>Internal WIFI network card.</li>
9743 <li>Internal Twisted Pair network card.</li>
9744 <li>Some USB slots (2-3 is plenty)</li>
9745 <li>Good keyboard - similar to the Thinkpad.</li>
9746 <li>Video resolution at least 1024x768, with size around 12" (A4 paper
9747 size).</li>
9748 <li>Hardware supported by Debian Stable, ie the default kernel and
9749   X.org packages.</li>
9750 <li>Quiet, preferably fan free (or at least not using the fan most of
9751   the time).
9752
9753 </ul>
9754
9755 <p>You will notice that there are no RAM and CPU requirements in the
9756 list.  The reason is simply that the specifications on laptops the
9757 last 10-15 years have been sufficient for my needs, and I have to look
9758 at other features to choose my laptop.  But are there still made as
9759 robust laptops as my X41?  The Thinkpad X60/X61 proved to be less
9760 robust, and Thinkpads seem to be heading in the wrong direction since
9761 Lenovo took over.  But I've been told that X220 and X1 Carbon might
9762 still be useful.</p>
9763
9764 <p>Perhaps I should rethink my needs, and look for a pad with an
9765 external keyboard?  I'll have to check the
9766 <a href="http://www.linux-laptop.net/">Linux Laptops site</a> for
9767 well-supported laptops, or perhaps just buy one preinstalled from one
9768 of the vendors listed on the <a href="http://linuxpreloaded.com/">Linux
9769 Pre-loaded site</a>.</p>
9770
9771       </div>
9772       <div class="tags">
9773
9774
9775         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
9776
9777
9778       </div>
9779     </div>
9780     <div class="padding"></div>
9781
9782     <div class="entry">
9783       <div class="title">
9784         <a href="https://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>
9785       </div>
9786       <div class="date">
9787         18th January 2013
9788       </div>
9789       <div class="body">
9790         <p>Some times I try to figure out which Iceweasel browser plugin to
9791 install to get support for a given MIME type.  Thanks to
9792 <a href="https://wiki.ubuntu.com/MozillaTeam/Plugins">specifications
9793 done by Ubuntu</a> and Mozilla, it is possible to do this in Debian.
9794 Unfortunately, not very many packages provide the needed meta
9795 information, Anyway, here is a small script to look up all browser
9796 plugin packages announcing ther MIME support using this specification:</p>
9797
9798 <pre>
9799 #!/usr/bin/python
9800 import sys
9801 import apt
9802 def pkgs_handling_mimetype(mimetype):
9803     cache = apt.Cache()
9804     cache.open(None)
9805     thepkgs = []
9806     for pkg in cache:
9807         version = pkg.candidate
9808         if version is None:
9809             version = pkg.installed
9810         if version is None:
9811             continue
9812         record = version.record
9813         if not record.has_key('Npp-MimeType'):
9814             continue
9815         mime_types = record['Npp-MimeType'].split(',')
9816         for t in mime_types:
9817             t = t.rstrip().strip()
9818             if t == mimetype:
9819                 thepkgs.append(pkg.name)
9820     return thepkgs
9821 mimetype = "audio/ogg"
9822 if 1 < len(sys.argv):
9823     mimetype = sys.argv[1]
9824 print "Browser plugin packages supporting %s:" % mimetype
9825 for pkg in pkgs_handling_mimetype(mimetype):
9826     print "  %s" %pkg
9827 </pre>
9828
9829 <p>It can be used like this to look up a given MIME type:</p>
9830
9831 <pre>
9832 % ./apt-find-browserplug-for-mimetype
9833 Browser plugin packages supporting audio/ogg:
9834   gecko-mediaplayer
9835 % ./apt-find-browserplug-for-mimetype application/x-shockwave-flash
9836 Browser plugin packages supporting application/x-shockwave-flash:
9837   browser-plugin-gnash
9838 %
9839 </pre>
9840
9841 <p>In Ubuntu this mechanism is combined with support in the browser
9842 itself to query for plugins and propose to install the needed
9843 packages.  It would be great if Debian supported such feature too.  Is
9844 anyone working on adding it?</p>
9845
9846 <p><strong>Update 2013-01-18 14:20</strong>: The Debian BTS
9847 request for icweasel support for this feature is
9848 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/484010">#484010</a> from 2008 (and
9849 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/698426">#698426</a> from today).  Lack
9850 of manpower and wish for a different design is the reason thus feature
9851 is not yet in iceweasel from Debian.</p>
9852
9853       </div>
9854       <div class="tags">
9855
9856
9857         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
9858
9859
9860       </div>
9861     </div>
9862     <div class="padding"></div>
9863
9864     <div class="entry">
9865       <div class="title">
9866         <a href="https://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>
9867       </div>
9868       <div class="date">
9869         16th January 2013
9870       </div>
9871       <div class="body">
9872         <p>The <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/AppStreamDebianProposal">DEP-11
9873 proposal to add AppStream information to the Debian archive</a>, is a
9874 proposal to make it possible for a Desktop application to propose to
9875 the user some package to install to gain support for a given MIME
9876 type, font, library etc. that is currently missing.  With such
9877 mechanism in place, it would be possible for the desktop to
9878 automatically propose and install leocad if some LDraw file is
9879 downloaded by the browser.</p>
9880
9881 <p>To get some idea about the current content of the archive, I decided
9882 to write a simple program to extract all .desktop files from the
9883 Debian archive and look up the claimed MIME support there.  The result
9884 can be found on the
9885 <a href="http://ftp.skolelinux.org/pub/AppStreamTest">Skolelinux FTP
9886 site</a>.  Using the collected information, it become possible to
9887 answer the question in the title.  Here are the 20 most supported MIME
9888 types in Debian stable (Squeeze), testing (Wheezy) and unstable (Sid).
9889 The complete list is available from the link above.</p>
9890
9891 <p><strong>Debian Stable:</strong></p>
9892
9893 <pre>
9894   count MIME type
9895   ----- -----------------------
9896      32 text/plain
9897      30 audio/mpeg
9898      29 image/png
9899      28 image/jpeg
9900      27 application/ogg
9901      26 audio/x-mp3
9902      25 image/tiff
9903      25 image/gif
9904      22 image/bmp
9905      22 audio/x-wav
9906      20 audio/x-flac
9907      19 audio/x-mpegurl
9908      18 video/x-ms-asf
9909      18 audio/x-musepack
9910      18 audio/x-mpeg
9911      18 application/x-ogg
9912      17 video/mpeg
9913      17 audio/x-scpls
9914      17 audio/ogg
9915      16 video/x-ms-wmv
9916 </pre>
9917
9918 <p><strong>Debian Testing:</strong></p>
9919
9920 <pre>
9921   count MIME type
9922   ----- -----------------------
9923      33 text/plain
9924      32 image/png
9925      32 image/jpeg
9926      29 audio/mpeg
9927      27 image/gif
9928      26 image/tiff
9929      26 application/ogg
9930      25 audio/x-mp3
9931      22 image/bmp
9932      21 audio/x-wav
9933      19 audio/x-mpegurl
9934      19 audio/x-mpeg
9935      18 video/mpeg
9936      18 audio/x-scpls
9937      18 audio/x-flac
9938      18 application/x-ogg
9939      17 video/x-ms-asf
9940      17 text/html
9941      17 audio/x-musepack
9942      16 image/x-xbitmap
9943 </pre>
9944
9945 <p><strong>Debian Unstable:</strong></p>
9946
9947 <pre>
9948   count MIME type
9949   ----- -----------------------
9950      31 text/plain
9951      31 image/png
9952      31 image/jpeg
9953      29 audio/mpeg
9954      28 application/ogg
9955      27 image/gif
9956      26 image/tiff
9957      26 audio/x-mp3
9958      23 audio/x-wav
9959      22 image/bmp
9960      21 audio/x-flac
9961      20 audio/x-mpegurl
9962      19 audio/x-mpeg
9963      18 video/x-ms-asf
9964      18 video/mpeg
9965      18 audio/x-scpls
9966      18 application/x-ogg
9967      17 audio/x-musepack
9968      16 video/x-ms-wmv
9969      16 video/x-msvideo
9970 </pre>
9971
9972 <p>I am told that PackageKit can provide an API to access the kind of
9973 information mentioned in DEP-11.  I have not yet had time to look at
9974 it, but hope the PackageKit people in Debian are on top of these
9975 issues.</p>
9976
9977 <p><strong>Update 2013-01-16 13:35</strong>: Updated numbers after
9978 discovering a typo in my script.</p>
9979
9980       </div>
9981       <div class="tags">
9982
9983
9984         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
9985
9986
9987       </div>
9988     </div>
9989     <div class="padding"></div>
9990
9991     <div class="entry">
9992       <div class="title">
9993         <a href="https://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>
9994       </div>
9995       <div class="date">
9996         15th January 2013
9997       </div>
9998       <div class="body">
9999         <p>Yesterday, I wrote about the
10000 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Modalias_strings___a_practical_way_to_map__stuff__to_hardware.html">modalias
10001 values provided by the Linux kernel</a> following my hope for
10002 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lets_make_hardware_dongles_easier_to_use_in_Debian.html">better
10003 dongle support in Debian</a>.  Using this knowledge, I have tested how
10004 modalias values attached to package names can be used to map packages
10005 to hardware.  This allow the system to look up and suggest relevant
10006 packages when I plug in some new hardware into my machine, and replace
10007 discover and discover-data as the database used to map hardware to
10008 packages.</p>
10009
10010 <p>I create a modaliases file with entries like the following,
10011 containing package name, kernel module name (if relevant, otherwise
10012 the package name) and globs matching the relevant hardware
10013 modalias.</p>
10014
10015 <p><blockquote>
10016 Package: package-name
10017 <br>Modaliases: module(modaliasglob, modaliasglob, modaliasglob)</p>
10018 </blockquote></p>
10019
10020 <p>It is fairly trivial to write code to find the relevant packages
10021 for a given modalias value using this file.</p>
10022
10023 <p>An entry like this would suggest the video and picture application
10024 cheese for many USB web cameras (interface bus class 0E01):</p>
10025
10026 <p><blockquote>
10027 Package: cheese
10028 <br>Modaliases: cheese(usb:v*p*d*dc*dsc*dp*ic0Eisc01ip*)</p>
10029 </blockquote></p>
10030
10031 <p>An entry like this would suggest the pcmciautils package when a
10032 CardBus bridge (bus class 0607) PCI device is present:</p>
10033
10034 <p><blockquote>
10035 Package: pcmciautils
10036 <br>Modaliases: pcmciautils(pci:v*d*sv*sd*bc06sc07i*)
10037 </blockquote></p>
10038
10039 <p>An entry like this would suggest the package colorhug-client when
10040 plugging in a ColorHug with USB IDs 04D8:F8DA:</p>
10041
10042 <p><blockquote>
10043 Package: colorhug-client
10044 <br>Modaliases: colorhug-client(usb:v04D8pF8DAd*)</p>
10045 </blockquote></p>
10046
10047 <p>I believe the format is compatible with the format of the Packages
10048 file in the Debian archive.  Ubuntu already uses their Packages file
10049 to store their mappings from packages to hardware.</p>
10050
10051 <p>By adding a XB-Modaliases: header in debian/control, any .deb can
10052 announce the hardware it support in a way my prototype understand.
10053 This allow those publishing packages in an APT source outside the
10054 Debian archive as well as those backporting packages to make sure the
10055 hardware mapping are included in the package meta information.  I've
10056 tested such header in the pymissile package, and its modalias mapping
10057 is working as it should with my prototype.  It even made it to Ubuntu
10058 Raring.</p>
10059
10060 <p>To test if it was possible to look up supported hardware using only
10061 the shell tools available in the Debian installer, I wrote a shell
10062 implementation of the lookup code.  The idea is to create files for
10063 each modalias and let the shell do the matching.  Please check out and
10064 try the
10065 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/hw-support-lookup?view=co">hw-support-lookup</a>
10066 shell script.  It run without any extra dependencies and fetch the
10067 hardware mappings from the Debian archive and the subversion
10068 repository where I currently work on my prototype.</p>
10069
10070 <p>When I use it on a machine with a yubikey inserted, it suggest to
10071 install yubikey-personalization:</p>
10072
10073 <p><blockquote>
10074 % ./hw-support-lookup
10075 <br>yubikey-personalization
10076 <br>%
10077 </blockquote></p>
10078
10079 <p>When I run it on my Thinkpad X40 with a PCMCIA/CardBus slot, it
10080 propose to install the pcmciautils package:</p>
10081
10082 <p><blockquote>
10083 % ./hw-support-lookup
10084 <br>pcmciautils
10085 <br>%
10086 </blockquote></p>
10087
10088 <p>If you know of any hardware-package mapping that should be added to
10089 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/modaliases?view=co">my
10090 database</a>, please tell me about it.</p>
10091
10092 <p>It could be possible to generate several of the mappings between
10093 packages and hardware.  One source would be to look at packages with
10094 kernel modules, ie packages with *.ko files in /lib/modules/, and
10095 extract their modalias information.  Another would be to look at
10096 packages with udev rules, ie packages with files in
10097 /lib/udev/rules.d/, and extract their vendor/model information to
10098 generate a modalias matching rule.  I have not tested any of these to
10099 see if it work.</p>
10100
10101 <p>If you want to help implementing a system to let us propose what
10102 packages to install when new hardware is plugged into a Debian
10103 machine, please send me an email or talk to me on
10104 <a href="irc://irc.debian.org/%23debian-devel">#debian-devel</a>.</p>
10105
10106       </div>
10107       <div class="tags">
10108
10109
10110         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram">isenkram</a>.
10111
10112
10113       </div>
10114     </div>
10115     <div class="padding"></div>
10116
10117     <div class="entry">
10118       <div class="title">
10119         <a href="https://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>
10120       </div>
10121       <div class="date">
10122         14th January 2013
10123       </div>
10124       <div class="body">
10125         <p>While looking into how to look up Debian packages based on hardware
10126 information, to find the packages that support a given piece of
10127 hardware, I refreshed my memory regarding modalias values, and decided
10128 to document the details.  Here are my findings so far, also available
10129 in
10130 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/">the
10131 Debian Edu subversion repository</a>:
10132
10133 <p><strong>Modalias decoded</strong></p>
10134
10135 <p>This document try to explain what the different types of modalias
10136 values stands for.  It is in part based on information from
10137 &lt;URL: <a href="https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Modalias">https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Modalias</a> &gt;,
10138 &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;,
10139 &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
10140 &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;.
10141
10142 <p>The modalias entries for a given Linux machine can be found using
10143 this shell script:</p>
10144
10145 <pre>
10146 find /sys -name modalias -print0 | xargs -0 cat | sort -u
10147 </pre>
10148
10149 <p>The supported modalias globs for a given kernel module can be found
10150 using modinfo:</p>
10151
10152 <pre>
10153 % /sbin/modinfo psmouse | grep alias:
10154 alias:          serio:ty05pr*id*ex*
10155 alias:          serio:ty01pr*id*ex*
10156 %
10157 </pre>
10158
10159 <p><strong>PCI subtype</strong></p>
10160
10161 <p>A typical PCI entry can look like this.  This is an Intel Host
10162 Bridge memory controller:</p>
10163
10164 <p><blockquote>
10165 pci:v00008086d00002770sv00001028sd000001ADbc06sc00i00
10166 </blockquote></p>
10167
10168 <p>This represent these values:</p>
10169
10170 <pre>
10171  v   00008086  (vendor)
10172  d   00002770  (device)
10173  sv  00001028  (subvendor)
10174  sd  000001AD  (subdevice)
10175  bc  06        (bus class)
10176  sc  00        (bus subclass)
10177  i   00        (interface)
10178 </pre>
10179
10180 <p>The vendor/device values are the same values outputted from 'lspci
10181 -n' as 8086:2770.  The bus class/subclass is also shown by lspci as
10182 0600.  The 0600 class is a host bridge.  Other useful bus values are
10183 0300 (VGA compatible card) and 0200 (Ethernet controller).</p>
10184
10185 <p>Not sure how to figure out the interface value, nor what it
10186 means.</p>
10187
10188 <p><strong>USB subtype</strong></p>
10189
10190 <p>Some typical USB entries can look like this.  This is an internal
10191 USB hub in a laptop:</p>
10192
10193 <p><blockquote>
10194 usb:v1D6Bp0001d0206dc09dsc00dp00ic09isc00ip00
10195 </blockquote></p>
10196
10197 <p>Here is the values included in this alias:</p>
10198
10199 <pre>
10200  v    1D6B  (device vendor)
10201  p    0001  (device product)
10202  d    0206  (bcddevice)
10203  dc     09  (device class)
10204  dsc    00  (device subclass)
10205  dp     00  (device protocol)
10206  ic     09  (interface class)
10207  isc    00  (interface subclass)
10208  ip     00  (interface protocol)
10209 </pre>
10210
10211 <p>The 0900 device class/subclass means hub.  Some times the relevant
10212 class is in the interface class section.  For a simple USB web camera,
10213 these alias entries show up:</p>
10214
10215 <p><blockquote>
10216 usb:v0AC8p3420d5000dcEFdsc02dp01ic01isc01ip00
10217 <br>usb:v0AC8p3420d5000dcEFdsc02dp01ic01isc02ip00
10218 <br>usb:v0AC8p3420d5000dcEFdsc02dp01ic0Eisc01ip00
10219 <br>usb:v0AC8p3420d5000dcEFdsc02dp01ic0Eisc02ip00
10220 </blockquote></p>
10221
10222 <p>Interface class 0E01 is video control, 0E02 is video streaming (aka
10223 camera), 0101 is audio control device and 0102 is audio streaming (aka
10224 microphone).  Thus this is a camera with microphone included.</p>
10225
10226 <p><strong>ACPI subtype</strong></p>
10227
10228 <p>The ACPI type is used for several non-PCI/USB stuff.  This is an IR
10229 receiver in a Thinkpad X40:</p>
10230
10231 <p><blockquote>
10232 acpi:IBM0071:PNP0511:
10233 </blockquote></p>
10234
10235 <p>The values between the colons are IDs.</p>
10236
10237 <p><strong>DMI subtype</strong></p>
10238
10239 <p>The DMI table contain lots of information about the computer case
10240 and model.  This is an entry for a IBM Thinkpad X40, fetched from
10241 /sys/devices/virtual/dmi/id/modalias:</p>
10242
10243 <p><blockquote>
10244 dmi:bvnIBM:bvr1UETB6WW(1.66):bd06/15/2005:svnIBM:pn2371H4G:pvrThinkPadX40:rvnIBM:rn2371H4G:rvrNotAvailable:cvnIBM:ct10:cvrNotAvailable:
10245 </blockquote></p>
10246
10247 <p>The values present are</p>
10248
10249 <pre>
10250  bvn  IBM            (BIOS vendor)
10251  bvr  1UETB6WW(1.66) (BIOS version)
10252  bd   06/15/2005     (BIOS date)
10253  svn  IBM            (system vendor)
10254  pn   2371H4G        (product name)
10255  pvr  ThinkPadX40    (product version)
10256  rvn  IBM            (board vendor)
10257  rn   2371H4G        (board name)
10258  rvr  NotAvailable   (board version)
10259  cvn  IBM            (chassis vendor)
10260  ct   10             (chassis type)
10261  cvr  NotAvailable   (chassis version)
10262 </pre>
10263
10264 <p>The chassis type 10 is Notebook.  Other interesting values can be
10265 found in the dmidecode source:</p>
10266
10267 <pre>
10268   3 Desktop
10269   4 Low Profile Desktop
10270   5 Pizza Box
10271   6 Mini Tower
10272   7 Tower
10273   8 Portable
10274   9 Laptop
10275  10 Notebook
10276  11 Hand Held
10277  12 Docking Station
10278  13 All In One
10279  14 Sub Notebook
10280  15 Space-saving
10281  16 Lunch Box
10282  17 Main Server Chassis
10283  18 Expansion Chassis
10284  19 Sub Chassis
10285  20 Bus Expansion Chassis
10286  21 Peripheral Chassis
10287  22 RAID Chassis
10288  23 Rack Mount Chassis
10289  24 Sealed-case PC
10290  25 Multi-system
10291  26 CompactPCI
10292  27 AdvancedTCA
10293  28 Blade
10294  29 Blade Enclosing
10295 </pre>
10296
10297 <p>The chassis type values are not always accurately set in the DMI
10298 table.  For example my home server is a tower, but the DMI modalias
10299 claim it is a desktop.</p>
10300
10301 <p><strong>SerIO subtype</strong></p>
10302
10303 <p>This type is used for PS/2 mouse plugs.  One example is from my
10304 test machine:</p>
10305
10306 <p><blockquote>
10307 serio:ty01pr00id00ex00
10308 </blockquote></p>
10309
10310 <p>The values present are</p>
10311
10312 <pre>
10313   ty  01  (type)
10314   pr  00  (prototype)
10315   id  00  (id)
10316   ex  00  (extra)
10317 </pre>
10318
10319 <p>This type is supported by the psmouse driver.  I am not sure what
10320 the valid values are.</p>
10321
10322 <p><strong>Other subtypes</strong></p>
10323
10324 <p>There are heaps of other modalias subtypes according to
10325 file2alias.c.  There is the rest of the list from that source: amba,
10326 ap, bcma, ccw, css, eisa, hid, i2c, ieee1394, input, ipack, isapnp,
10327 mdio, of, parisc, pcmcia, platform, scsi, sdio, spi, ssb, vio, virtio,
10328 vmbus, x86cpu and zorro.  I did not spend time documenting all of
10329 these, as they do not seem relevant for my intended use with mapping
10330 hardware to packages when new stuff is inserted during run time.</p>
10331
10332 <p><strong>Looking up kernel modules using modalias values</strong></p>
10333
10334 <p>To check which kernel modules provide support for a given modalias,
10335 one can use the following shell script:</p>
10336
10337 <pre>
10338   for id in $(find /sys -name modalias -print0 | xargs -0 cat | sort -u); do \
10339     echo "$id" ; \
10340     /sbin/modprobe --show-depends "$id"|sed 's/^/  /' ; \
10341   done
10342 </pre>
10343
10344 <p>The output can look like this (only the first few entries as the
10345 list is very long on my test machine):</p>
10346
10347 <pre>
10348   acpi:ACPI0003:
10349     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/drivers/acpi/ac.ko
10350   acpi:device:
10351   FATAL: Module acpi:device: not found.
10352   acpi:IBM0068:
10353     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/drivers/char/nvram.ko
10354     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/drivers/leds/led-class.ko
10355     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/net/rfkill/rfkill.ko
10356     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/drivers/platform/x86/thinkpad_acpi.ko
10357   acpi:IBM0071:PNP0511:
10358     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/lib/crc-ccitt.ko
10359     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/net/irda/irda.ko
10360     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/drivers/net/irda/nsc-ircc.ko
10361   [...]
10362 </pre>
10363
10364 <p>If you want to help implementing a system to let us propose what
10365 packages to install when new hardware is plugged into a Debian
10366 machine, please send me an email or talk to me on
10367 <a href="irc://irc.debian.org/%23debian-devel">#debian-devel</a>.</p>
10368
10369 <p><strong>Update 2013-01-15:</strong> Rewrite "cat $(find ...)" to
10370 "find ... -print0 | xargs -0 cat" to make sure it handle directories
10371 in /sys/ with space in them.</p>
10372
10373       </div>
10374       <div class="tags">
10375
10376
10377         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram">isenkram</a>.
10378
10379
10380       </div>
10381     </div>
10382     <div class="padding"></div>
10383
10384     <div class="entry">
10385       <div class="title">
10386         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Moved_the_pymissile_Debian_packaging_to_collab_maint.html">Moved the pymissile Debian packaging to collab-maint</a>
10387       </div>
10388       <div class="date">
10389         10th January 2013
10390       </div>
10391       <div class="body">
10392         <p>As part of my investigation on how to improve the support in Debian
10393 for hardware dongles, I dug up my old Mark and Spencer USB Rocket
10394 Launcher and updated the Debian package
10395 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/pymissile">pymissile</a> to make
10396 sure udev will fix the device permissions when it is plugged in.  I
10397 also added a "Modaliases" header to test it in the Debian archive and
10398 hopefully make the package be proposed by jockey in Ubuntu when a user
10399 plug in his rocket launcher.  In the process I moved the source to a
10400 git repository under collab-maint, to make it easier for any DD to
10401 contribute.  <a href="http://code.google.com/p/pymissile/">Upstream</a>
10402 is not very active, but the software still work for me even after five
10403 years of relative silence.  The new git repository is not listed in
10404 the uploaded package yet, because I want to test the other changes a
10405 bit more before I upload the new version.  If you want to check out
10406 the new version with a .desktop file included, visit the
10407 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/gitweb/?p=collab-maint/pymissile.git">gitweb
10408 view</a> or use "<tt>git clone
10409 git://anonscm.debian.org/collab-maint/pymissile.git</tt>".</p>
10410
10411       </div>
10412       <div class="tags">
10413
10414
10415         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram">isenkram</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/robot">robot</a>.
10416
10417
10418       </div>
10419     </div>
10420     <div class="padding"></div>
10421
10422     <div class="entry">
10423       <div class="title">
10424         <a href="https://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>
10425       </div>
10426       <div class="date">
10427          9th January 2013
10428       </div>
10429       <div class="body">
10430         <p>One thing that annoys me with Debian and Linux distributions in
10431 general, is that there is a great package management system with the
10432 ability to automatically install software packages by downloading them
10433 from the distribution mirrors, but no way to get it to automatically
10434 install the packages I need to use the hardware I plug into my
10435 machine.  Even if the package to use it is easily available from the
10436 Linux distribution.  When I plug in a LEGO Mindstorms NXT, it could
10437 suggest to automatically install the python-nxt, nbc and t2n packages
10438 I need to talk to it.  When I plug in a Yubikey, it could propose the
10439 yubikey-personalization package.  The information required to do this
10440 is available, but no-one have pulled all the pieces together.</p>
10441
10442 <p>Some years ago, I proposed to
10443 <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2010/05/msg01206.html">use
10444 the discover subsystem to implement this</a>.  The idea is fairly
10445 simple:
10446
10447 <ul>
10448
10449 <li>Add a desktop entry in /usr/share/autostart/ pointing to a program
10450   starting when a user log in.</li>
10451
10452 <li>Set this program up to listen for kernel events emitted when new
10453   hardware is inserted into the computer.</li>
10454
10455 <li>When new hardware is inserted, look up the hardware ID in a
10456   database mapping to packages, and take note of any non-installed
10457   packages.</li>
10458
10459 <li>Show a message to the user proposing to install the discovered
10460   package, and make it easy to install it.</li>
10461
10462 </ul>
10463
10464 <p>I am not sure what the best way to implement this is, but my
10465 initial idea was to use dbus events to discover new hardware, the
10466 discover database to find packages and
10467 <a href="http://www.packagekit.org/">PackageKit</a> to install
10468 packages.</p>
10469
10470 <p>Yesterday, I found time to try to implement this idea, and the
10471 draft package is now checked into
10472 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/">the
10473 Debian Edu subversion repository</a>.  In the process, I updated the
10474 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/d/discover-data.html">discover-data</a>
10475 package to map the USB ids of LEGO Mindstorms and Yubikey devices to
10476 the relevant packages in Debian, and uploaded a new version
10477 2.2013.01.09 to unstable.  I also discovered that the current
10478 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/d/discover.html">discover</a>
10479 package in Debian no longer discovered any USB devices, because
10480 /proc/bus/usb/devices is no longer present.  I ported it to use
10481 libusb as a fall back option to get it working.  The fixed package
10482 version 2.1.2-6 is now in experimental (didn't upload it to unstable
10483 because of the freeze).</p>
10484
10485 <p>With this prototype in place, I can insert my Yubikey, and get this
10486 desktop notification to show up (only once, the first time it is
10487 inserted):</p>
10488
10489 <p align="center"><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-01-09-hw-autoinstall.png"></p>
10490
10491 <p>For this prototype to be really useful, some way to automatically
10492 install the proposed packages by pressing the "Please install
10493 program(s)" button should to be implemented.</p>
10494
10495 <p>If this idea seem useful to you, and you want to help make it
10496 happen, please help me update the discover-data database with mappings
10497 from hardware to Debian packages.  Check if 'discover-pkginstall -l'
10498 list the package you would like to have installed when a given
10499 hardware device is inserted into your computer, and report bugs using
10500 reportbug if it isn't.  Or, if you know of a better way to provide
10501 such mapping, please let me know.</p>
10502
10503 <p>This prototype need more work, and there are several questions that
10504 should be considered before it is ready for production use.  Is dbus
10505 the correct way to detect new hardware?  At the moment I look for HAL
10506 dbus events on the system bus, because that is the events I could see
10507 on my Debian Squeeze KDE desktop.  Are there better events to use?
10508 How should the user be notified?  Is the desktop notification
10509 mechanism the best option, or should the background daemon raise a
10510 popup instead?  How should packages be installed?  When should they
10511 not be installed?</p>
10512
10513 <p>If you want to help getting such feature implemented in Debian,
10514 please send me an email. :)</p>
10515
10516       </div>
10517       <div class="tags">
10518
10519
10520         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram">isenkram</a>.
10521
10522
10523       </div>
10524     </div>
10525     <div class="padding"></div>
10526
10527     <div class="entry">
10528       <div class="title">
10529         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/New_IRC_channel_for_LEGO_designers_using_Debian.html">New IRC channel for LEGO designers using Debian</a>
10530       </div>
10531       <div class="date">
10532          2nd January 2013
10533       </div>
10534       <div class="body">
10535         <p>During Christmas, I have worked a bit on the Debian support for
10536 <a href="http://mindstorms.lego.com/en-us/Default.aspx">LEGO Mindstorm
10537 NXT</a>.  My son and I have played a bit with my NXT set, and I
10538 discovered I had to build all the tools myself because none were
10539 already in Debian Squeeze.  If Debian support for LEGO is something
10540 you care about, please join me on the IRC channel
10541 <a href="irc://irc.debian.org/%23debian-lego">#debian-lego</a> (server
10542 irc.debian.org).  There is a lot that could be done to improve the
10543 Debian support for LEGO designers.  For example both CAD software
10544 and Mindstorm compilers are missing. :)</p>
10545
10546 <p>Update 2012-01-03: A
10547 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/LegoDesigners">project page</a>
10548 including links to Lego related packages is now available.</p>
10549
10550       </div>
10551       <div class="tags">
10552
10553
10554         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/lego">lego</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/robot">robot</a>.
10555
10556
10557       </div>
10558     </div>
10559     <div class="padding"></div>
10560
10561     <div class="entry">
10562       <div class="title">
10563         <a href="https://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>
10564       </div>
10565       <div class="date">
10566         25th December 2012
10567       </div>
10568       <div class="body">
10569         <p>Let me start by wishing you all marry Christmas and a happy new
10570 year!  I hope next year will prove to be a good year.</p>
10571
10572 <p><a href="http://www.bitcoin.org/">Bitcoin</a>, the digital
10573 decentralised "currency" that allow people to transfer bitcoins
10574 between each other with minimal overhead, is a very interesting
10575 experiment.  And as I wrote a few days ago, the bitcoin situation in
10576 <a href="http://www.debian.org/">Debian</a> is about to improve a bit.
10577 The <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/bitcoin">new debian source
10578 package</a> (version 0.7.2-2) was uploaded yesterday, and is waiting
10579 in <a href="http://ftp-master.debian.org/new.html">the NEW queue</A>
10580 for one of the ftpmasters to approve the new bitcoin-qt package
10581 name.</p>
10582
10583 <p>And thanks to the great work of Jonas and the rest of the bitcoin
10584 team in Debian, you can easily test the package in Debian Squeeze
10585 using the following steps to get a set of working packages:</p>
10586
10587 <blockquote><pre>
10588 git clone git://git.debian.org/git/collab-maint/bitcoin
10589 cd bitcoin
10590 DEB_MAINTAINER_MODE=1 DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS=noupnp fakeroot debian/rules clean
10591 DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS=noupnp git-buildpackage --git-ignore-new
10592 </pre></blockquote>
10593
10594 <p>You might have to install some build dependencies as well.  The
10595 list of commands should give you two packages, bitcoind and
10596 bitcoin-qt, ready for use in a Squeeze environment.  Note that the
10597 client will download the complete set of bitcoin "blocks", which need
10598 around 5.6 GiB of data on my machine at the moment.  Make sure your
10599 ~/.bitcoin/ directory have lots of spare room if you want to download
10600 all the blocks.  The client will warn if the disk is getting full, so
10601 there is not really a problem if you got too little room, but you will
10602 not be able to get all the features out of the client.</p>
10603
10604 <p>As usual, if you use bitcoin and want to show your support of my
10605 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
10606 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
10607
10608       </div>
10609       <div class="tags">
10610
10611
10612         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bitcoin">bitcoin</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
10613
10614
10615       </div>
10616     </div>
10617     <div class="padding"></div>
10618
10619     <div class="entry">
10620       <div class="title">
10621         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/A_word_on_bitcoin_support_in_Debian.html">A word on bitcoin support in Debian</a>
10622       </div>
10623       <div class="date">
10624         21st December 2012
10625       </div>
10626       <div class="body">
10627         <p>It has been a while since I wrote about
10628 <a href="http://www.bitcoin.org/">bitcoin</a>, the decentralised
10629 peer-to-peer based crypto-currency, and the reason is simply that I
10630 have been busy elsewhere.  But two days ago, I started looking at the
10631 state of <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/bitcoin">bitcoin in
10632 Debian</a> again to try to recover my old bitcoin wallet.  The package
10633 is now maintained by a
10634 <a href="https://alioth.debian.org/projects/pkg-bitcoin/">team of
10635 people</a>, and the grunt work had already been done by this team.  We
10636 owe a huge thank you to all these team members. :)
10637 But I was sad to discover that the bitcoin client is missing in
10638 Wheezy.  It is only available in Sid (and an outdated client from
10639 backports).  The client had several RC bugs registered in BTS blocking
10640 it from entering testing.  To try to help the team and improve the
10641 situation, I spent some time providing patches and triaging the bug
10642 reports.  I also had a look at the bitcoin package available from Matt
10643 Corallo in a
10644 <a href="https://launchpad.net/~bitcoin/+archive/bitcoin">PPA for
10645 Ubuntu</a>, and moved the useful pieces from that version into the
10646 Debian package.</p>
10647
10648 <p>After checking with the main package maintainer Jonas Smedegaard on
10649 IRC, I pushed several patches into the collab-maint git repository to
10650 improve the package.  It now contains fixes for the RC issues (not from
10651 me, but fixed by Scott Howard), build rules for a Qt GUI client
10652 package, konqueror support for the bitcoin: URI and bash completion
10653 setup.  As I work on Debian Squeeze, I also created
10654 <a href="http://lists.alioth.debian.org/pipermail/pkg-bitcoin-devel/Week-of-Mon-20121217/000041.html">a
10655 patch to backport</a> the latest version.  Jonas is going to look at
10656 it and try to integrate it into the git repository before uploading a
10657 new version to unstable.
10658
10659 <p>I would very much like bitcoin to succeed, to get rid of the
10660 centralized control currently exercised in the monetary system.  I
10661 find it completely unacceptable that the USA government is collecting
10662 transaction data for almost all international money transfers (most are done in USD and transaction logs shipped to the spooks), and
10663 that the major credit card companies can block legal money
10664 transactions to Wikileaks.  But for bitcoin to succeed, more people
10665 need to use bitcoins, and more people need to accept bitcoins when
10666 they sell products and services.  Improving the bitcoin support in
10667 Debian is a small step in the right direction, but not enough.
10668 Unfortunately the user experience when browsing the web and wanting to
10669 pay with bitcoin is still not very good.  The bitcoin: URI is a step
10670 in the right direction, but need to work in most or every browser in
10671 use.  Also the bitcoin-qt client is too heavy to fire up to do a
10672 quick transaction.  I believe there are other clients available, but
10673 have not tested them.</p>
10674
10675 <p>My
10676 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Now_accepting_bitcoins___anonymous_and_distributed_p2p_crypto_money.html">experiment
10677 with bitcoins</a> showed that at least some of my readers use bitcoin.
10678 I received 20.15 BTC so far on the address I provided in my blog two
10679 years ago, as can be
10680 <a href="http://blockexplorer.com/address/15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">seen
10681 on the blockexplorer service</a>.  Thank you everyone for your
10682 donation.  The blockexplorer service demonstrates quite well that
10683 bitcoin is not quite anonymous and untracked. :) I wonder if the
10684 number of users have gone up since then.  If you use bitcoin and want
10685 to show your support of my activity, please send Bitcoin donations to
10686 the same address as last time,
10687 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
10688
10689       </div>
10690       <div class="tags">
10691
10692
10693         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bitcoin">bitcoin</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
10694
10695
10696       </div>
10697     </div>
10698     <div class="padding"></div>
10699
10700     <div class="entry">
10701       <div class="title">
10702         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Git_repository_for_song_book_for_Computer_Scientists.html">Git repository for song book for Computer Scientists</a>
10703       </div>
10704       <div class="date">
10705          7th September 2012
10706       </div>
10707       <div class="body">
10708         <p>As I
10709 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Song_book_for_Computer_Scientists.html">mentioned
10710 this summer</a>, I have created a Computer Science song book a few
10711 years ago, and today I finally found time to create a public
10712 <a href="https://gitorious.org/pere-cs-songbook/pere-cs-songbook">Gitorious
10713 repository for the project</a>.</p>
10714
10715 <p>If you want to help out, please clone the source and submit patches
10716 to the HTML version.  To generate the PDF and PostScript version,
10717 please use prince XML, or let me know about a useful free software
10718 processor capable of creating a good looking PDF from the HTML.</p>
10719
10720 <p>Want to sing?  You can still find the song book in HTML, PDF and
10721 PostScript formats at
10722 <a href="http://www.hungry.com/~pere/cs-songbook/">Petter's Computer
10723 Science Songbook</a>.</p>
10724
10725       </div>
10726       <div class="tags">
10727
10728
10729         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/multimedia">multimedia</a>.
10730
10731
10732       </div>
10733     </div>
10734     <div class="padding"></div>
10735
10736     <div class="entry">
10737       <div class="title">
10738         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Gratulerer_med_19__rsdagen__Debian_.html">Gratulerer med 19-årsdagen, Debian!</a>
10739       </div>
10740       <div class="date">
10741         16th August 2012
10742       </div>
10743       <div class="body">
10744         <p>I dag fyller
10745 <a href="http://www.debian.org/News/2012/20120813">Debian-prosjektet 19
10746 år</a>.  Jeg har fulgt det de siste 12 årene, og er veldig glad for å kunne
10747 si gratulerer med dagen, Debian!</p>
10748
10749       </div>
10750       <div class="tags">
10751
10752
10753         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/norsk">norsk</a>.
10754
10755
10756       </div>
10757     </div>
10758     <div class="padding"></div>
10759
10760     <div class="entry">
10761       <div class="title">
10762         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Song_book_for_Computer_Scientists.html">Song book for Computer Scientists</a>
10763       </div>
10764       <div class="date">
10765         24th June 2012
10766       </div>
10767       <div class="body">
10768         <p>Many years ago, while studying Computer Science at the
10769 <a href="http://www.uit.no/">University of Tromsø</a>, I started
10770 collecting computer related songs for use at parties.  The original
10771 version was written in LaTeX, but a few years ago I got help from
10772 Håkon W. Lie, one of the inventors of W3C CSS, to convert it to HTML
10773 while keeping the ability to create a nice book in PDF format.  I have
10774 not had time to maintain the book for a while now, and guess I should
10775 put it up on some public version control repository where others can
10776 help me extend and update the book.  If anyone is volunteering to help
10777 me with this, send me an email.  Also let me know if there are songs
10778 missing in my book.</p>
10779
10780 <p>I have not mentioned the book on my blog so far, and it occured to
10781 me today that I really should let all my readers share the joys of
10782 singing out load about programming, computers and computer networks.
10783 Especially now that <a href="http://debconf12.debconf.org/">Debconf
10784 12</a> is about to start (and I am not going).  Want to sing?  Check
10785 out <a href="http://www.hungry.com/~pere/cs-songbook/">Petter's
10786 Computer Science Songbook</a>.
10787
10788       </div>
10789       <div class="tags">
10790
10791
10792         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/multimedia">multimedia</a>.
10793
10794
10795       </div>
10796     </div>
10797     <div class="padding"></div>
10798
10799     <div class="entry">
10800       <div class="title">
10801         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Automatically_upgrading_server_firmware_on_Dell_PowerEdge.html">Automatically upgrading server firmware on Dell PowerEdge</a>
10802       </div>
10803       <div class="date">
10804         21st November 2011
10805       </div>
10806       <div class="body">
10807         <p>At work we have heaps of servers.  I believe the total count is
10808 around 1000 at the moment.  To be able to get help from the vendors
10809 when something go wrong, we want to keep the firmware on the servers
10810 up to date.  If the firmware isn't the latest and greatest, the
10811 vendors typically refuse to start debugging any problems until the
10812 firmware is upgraded.  So before every reboot, we want to upgrade the
10813 firmware, and we would really like everyone handling servers at the
10814 university to do this themselves when they plan to reboot a machine.
10815 For that to happen we at the unix server admin group need to provide
10816 the tools to do so.</p>
10817
10818 <p>To make firmware upgrading easier, I am working on a script to
10819 fetch and install the latest firmware for the servers we got.  Most of
10820 our hardware are from Dell and HP, so I have focused on these servers
10821 so far.  This blog post is about the Dell part.</P>
10822
10823 <p>On the Dell FTP site I was lucky enough to find
10824 <a href="ftp://ftp.us.dell.com/catalog/Catalog.xml.gz">an XML file</a>
10825 with firmware information for all 11th generation servers, listing
10826 which firmware should be used on a given model and where on the FTP
10827 site I can find it.  Using a simple perl XML parser I can then
10828 download the shell scripts Dell provides to do firmware upgrades from
10829 within Linux and reboot when all the firmware is primed and ready to
10830 be activated on the first reboot.</p>
10831
10832 <p>This is the Dell related fragment of the perl code I am working on.
10833 Are there anyone working on similar tools for firmware upgrading all
10834 servers at a site?  Please get in touch and lets share resources.</p>
10835
10836 <p><pre>
10837 #!/usr/bin/perl
10838 use strict;
10839 use warnings;
10840 use File::Temp qw(tempdir);
10841 BEGIN {
10842     # Install needed RHEL packages if missing
10843     my %rhelmodules = (
10844         'XML::Simple' => 'perl-XML-Simple',
10845         );
10846     for my $module (keys %rhelmodules) {
10847         eval "use $module;";
10848         if ($@) {
10849             my $pkg = $rhelmodules{$module};
10850             system("yum install -y $pkg");
10851             eval "use $module;";
10852         }
10853     }
10854 }
10855 my $errorsto = 'pere@hungry.com';
10856
10857 upgrade_dell();
10858
10859 exit 0;
10860
10861 sub run_firmware_script {
10862     my ($opts, $script) = @_;
10863     unless ($script) {
10864         print STDERR "fail: missing script name\n";
10865         exit 1
10866     }
10867     print STDERR "Running $script\n\n";
10868
10869     if (0 == system("sh $script $opts")) { # FIXME correct exit code handling
10870         print STDERR "success: firmware script ran succcessfully\n";
10871     } else {
10872         print STDERR "fail: firmware script returned error\n";
10873     }
10874 }
10875
10876 sub run_firmware_scripts {
10877     my ($opts, @dirs) = @_;
10878     # Run firmware packages
10879     for my $dir (@dirs) {
10880         print STDERR "info: Running scripts in $dir\n";
10881         opendir(my $dh, $dir) or die "Unable to open directory $dir: $!";
10882         while (my $s = readdir $dh) {
10883             next if $s =~ m/^\.\.?/;
10884             run_firmware_script($opts, "$dir/$s");
10885         }
10886         closedir $dh;
10887     }
10888 }
10889
10890 sub download {
10891     my $url = shift;
10892     print STDERR "info: Downloading $url\n";
10893     system("wget --quiet \"$url\"");
10894 }
10895
10896 sub upgrade_dell {
10897     my @dirs;
10898     my $product = `dmidecode -s system-product-name`;
10899     chomp $product;
10900
10901     if ($product =~ m/PowerEdge/) {
10902
10903         # on RHEL, these pacakges are needed by the firwmare upgrade scripts
10904         system('yum install -y compat-libstdc++-33.i686 libstdc++.i686 libxml2.i686 procmail');
10905
10906         my $tmpdir = tempdir(
10907             CLEANUP => 1
10908             );
10909         chdir($tmpdir);
10910         fetch_dell_fw('catalog/Catalog.xml.gz');
10911         system('gunzip Catalog.xml.gz');
10912         my @paths = fetch_dell_fw_list('Catalog.xml');
10913         # -q is quiet, disabling interactivity and reducing console output
10914         my $fwopts = "-q";
10915         if (@paths) {
10916             for my $url (@paths) {
10917                 fetch_dell_fw($url);
10918             }
10919             run_firmware_scripts($fwopts, $tmpdir);
10920         } else {
10921             print STDERR "error: Unsupported Dell model '$product'.\n";
10922             print STDERR "error: Please report to $errorsto.\n";
10923         }
10924         chdir('/');
10925     } else {
10926         print STDERR "error: Unsupported Dell model '$product'.\n";
10927         print STDERR "error: Please report to $errorsto.\n";
10928     }
10929 }
10930
10931 sub fetch_dell_fw {
10932     my $path = shift;
10933     my $url = "ftp://ftp.us.dell.com/$path";
10934     download($url);
10935 }
10936
10937 # Using ftp://ftp.us.dell.com/catalog/Catalog.xml.gz, figure out which
10938 # firmware packages to download from Dell.  Only work for Linux
10939 # machines and 11th generation Dell servers.
10940 sub fetch_dell_fw_list {
10941     my $filename = shift;
10942
10943     my $product = `dmidecode -s system-product-name`;
10944     chomp $product;
10945     my ($mybrand, $mymodel) = split(/\s+/, $product);
10946
10947     print STDERR "Finding firmware bundles for $mybrand $mymodel\n";
10948
10949     my $xml = XMLin($filename);
10950     my @paths;
10951     for my $bundle (@{$xml->{SoftwareBundle}}) {
10952         my $brand = $bundle->{TargetSystems}->{Brand}->{Display}->{content};
10953         my $model = $bundle->{TargetSystems}->{Brand}->{Model}->{Display}->{content};
10954         my $oscode;
10955         if ("ARRAY" eq ref $bundle->{TargetOSes}->{OperatingSystem}) {
10956             $oscode = $bundle->{TargetOSes}->{OperatingSystem}[0]->{osCode};
10957         } else {
10958             $oscode = $bundle->{TargetOSes}->{OperatingSystem}->{osCode};
10959         }
10960         if ($mybrand eq $brand && $mymodel eq $model && "LIN" eq $oscode)
10961         {
10962             @paths = map { $_->{path} } @{$bundle->{Contents}->{Package}};
10963         }
10964     }
10965     for my $component (@{$xml->{SoftwareComponent}}) {
10966         my $componenttype = $component->{ComponentType}->{value};
10967
10968         # Drop application packages, only firmware and BIOS
10969         next if 'APAC' eq $componenttype;
10970
10971         my $cpath = $component->{path};
10972         for my $path (@paths) {
10973             if ($cpath =~ m%/$path$%) {
10974                 push(@paths, $cpath);
10975             }
10976         }
10977     }
10978     return @paths;
10979 }
10980 </pre>
10981
10982 <p>The code is only tested on RedHat Enterprise Linux, but I suspect
10983 it could work on other platforms with some tweaking.  Anyone know a
10984 index like Catalog.xml is available from HP for HP servers?  At the
10985 moment I maintain a similar list manually and it is quickly getting
10986 outdated.</p>
10987
10988       </div>
10989       <div class="tags">
10990
10991
10992         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
10993
10994
10995       </div>
10996     </div>
10997     <div class="padding"></div>
10998
10999     <div class="entry">
11000       <div class="title">
11001         <a href="https://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>
11002       </div>
11003       <div class="date">
11004          4th August 2011
11005       </div>
11006       <div class="body">
11007         <p>Wouter Verhelst have some
11008 <a href="http://grep.be/blog/en/retorts/pere_kubuntu_boot">interesting
11009 comments and opinions</a> on my blog post on
11010 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/What_should_start_from__etc_rcS_d__in_Debian____almost_nothing.html">the
11011 need to clean up /etc/rcS.d/ in Debian</a> and my blog post about
11012 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/What_is_missing_in_the_Debian_desktop__or_why_my_parents_use_Kubuntu.html">the
11013 default KDE desktop in Debian</a>.  I only have time to address one
11014 small piece of his comment now, and though it best to address the
11015 misunderstanding he bring forward:</p>
11016
11017 <p><blockquote>
11018 Currently, a system admin has four options: [...] boot to a
11019 single-user system (by adding 'single' to the kernel command line;
11020 this runs rcS and rc1 scripts)
11021 </blockquote></p>
11022
11023 <p>This make me believe Wouter believe booting into single user mode
11024 and booting into runlevel 1 is the same.  I am not surprised he
11025 believe this, because it would make sense and is a quite sensible
11026 thing to believe.  But because the boot in Debian is slightly broken,
11027 runlevel 1 do not work properly and it isn't the same as single user
11028 mode.  I'll try to explain what is actually happing, but it is a bit
11029 hard to explain.</p>
11030
11031 <p>Single user mode is defined like this in /etc/inittab:
11032 "<tt>~~:S:wait:/sbin/sulogin</tt>".  This means the only thing that is
11033 executed in single user mode is sulogin.  Single user mode is a boot
11034 state "between" the runlevels, and when booting into single user mode,
11035 only the scripts in /etc/rcS.d/ are executed before the init process
11036 enters the single user state.  When switching to runlevel 1, the state
11037 is in fact not ending in runlevel 1, but it passes through runlevel 1
11038 and end up in the single user mode (see /etc/rc1.d/S03single, which
11039 runs "init -t1 S" to switch to single user mode at the end of runlevel
11040 1.  It is confusing that the 'S' (single user) init mode is not the
11041 mode enabled by /etc/rcS.d/ (which is more like the initial boot
11042 mode).</p>
11043
11044 <p>This summary might make it clearer.  When booting for the first
11045 time into single user mode, the following commands are executed:
11046 "<tt>/etc/init.d/rc S; /sbin/sulogin</tt>".  When booting into
11047 runlevel 1, the following commands are executed: "<tt>/etc/init.d/rc
11048 S; /etc/init.d/rc 1; /sbin/sulogin</tt>".  A problem show up when
11049 trying to continue after visiting single user mode.  Not all services
11050 are started again as they should, causing the machine to end up in an
11051 unpredicatble state.  This is why Debian admins recommend rebooting
11052 after visiting single user mode.</p>
11053
11054 <p>A similar problem with runlevel 1 is caused by the amount of
11055 scripts executed from /etc/rcS.d/.  When switching from say runlevel 2
11056 to runlevel 1, the services started from /etc/rcS.d/ are not properly
11057 stopped when passing through the scripts in /etc/rc1.d/, and not
11058 started again when switching away from runlevel 1 to the runlevels
11059 2-5.  I believe the problem is best fixed by moving all the scripts
11060 out of /etc/rcS.d/ that are not <strong>required</strong> to get a
11061 functioning single user mode during boot.</p>
11062
11063 <p>I have spent several years investigating the Debian boot system,
11064 and discovered this problem a few years ago.  I suspect it originates
11065 from when sysvinit was introduced into Debian, a long time ago.</p>
11066
11067       </div>
11068       <div class="tags">
11069
11070
11071         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bootsystem">bootsystem</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
11072
11073
11074       </div>
11075     </div>
11076     <div class="padding"></div>
11077
11078     <div class="entry">
11079       <div class="title">
11080         <a href="https://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>
11081       </div>
11082       <div class="date">
11083         30th July 2011
11084       </div>
11085       <div class="body">
11086         <p>In the Debian boot system, several packages include scripts that
11087 are started from /etc/rcS.d/.  In fact, there is a bite more of them
11088 than make sense, and this causes a few problems.  What kind of
11089 problems, you might ask.  There are at least two problems.  The first
11090 is that it is not possible to recover a machine after switching to
11091 runlevel 1.  One need to actually reboot to get the machine back to
11092 the expected state.  The other is that single user boot will sometimes
11093 run into problems because some of the subsystems are activated before
11094 the root login is presented, causing problems when trying to recover a
11095 machine from a problem in that subsystem.  A minor additional point is
11096 that moving more scripts out of rcS.d/ and into the other rc#.d/
11097 directories will increase the amount of scripts that can run in
11098 parallel during boot, and thus decrease the boot time.</p>
11099
11100 <p>So, which scripts should start from rcS.d/.  In short, only the
11101 scripts that _have_ to execute before the root login prompt is
11102 presented during a single user boot should go there.  Everything else
11103 should go into the numeric runlevels.  This means things like
11104 lm-sensors, fuse and x11-common should not run from rcS.d, but from
11105 the numeric runlevels.  Today in Debian, there are around 115 init.d
11106 scripts that are started from rcS.d/, and most of them should be moved
11107 out.  Do your package have one of them?  Please help us make single
11108 user and runlevel 1 better by moving it.</p>
11109
11110 <p>Scripts setting up the screen, keyboard, system partitions
11111 etc. should still be started from rcS.d/, but there is for example no
11112 need to have the network enabled before the single user login prompt
11113 is presented.</p>
11114
11115 <p>As always, things are not so easy to fix as they sound.  To keep
11116 Debian systems working while scripts migrate and during upgrades, the
11117 scripts need to be moved from rcS.d/ to rc2.d/ in reverse dependency
11118 order, ie the scripts that nothing in rcS.d/ depend on can be moved,
11119 and the next ones can only be moved when their dependencies have been
11120 moved first.  This migration must be done sequentially while we ensure
11121 that the package system upgrade packages in the right order to keep
11122 the system state correct.  This will require some coordination when it
11123 comes to network related packages, but most of the packages with
11124 scripts that should migrate do not have anything in rcS.d/ depending
11125 on them.  Some packages have already been updated, like the sudo
11126 package, while others are still left to do.  I wish I had time to work
11127 on this myself, but real live constrains make it unlikely that I will
11128 find time to push this forward.</p>
11129
11130       </div>
11131       <div class="tags">
11132
11133
11134         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bootsystem">bootsystem</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
11135
11136
11137       </div>
11138     </div>
11139     <div class="padding"></div>
11140
11141     <div class="entry">
11142       <div class="title">
11143         <a href="https://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>
11144       </div>
11145       <div class="date">
11146         29th July 2011
11147       </div>
11148       <div class="body">
11149         <p>While at Debconf11, I have several times during discussions
11150 mentioned the issues I believe should be improved in Debian for its
11151 desktop to be useful for more people.  The use case for this is my
11152 parents, which are currently running Kubuntu which solve the
11153 issues.</p>
11154
11155 <p>I suspect these four missing features are not very hard to
11156 implement.  After all, they are present in Ubuntu, so if we wanted to
11157 do this in Debian we would have a source.</p>
11158
11159 <ol>
11160
11161 <li><strong>Simple GUI based upgrade of packages.</strong> When there
11162 are new packages available for upgrades, a icon in the KDE status bar
11163 indicate this, and clicking on it will activate the simple upgrade
11164 tool to handle it.  I have no problem guiding both of my parents
11165 through the process over the phone.  If a kernel reboot is required,
11166 this too is indicated by the status bars and the upgrade tool.  Last
11167 time I checked, nothing with the same features was working in KDE in
11168 Debian.</li>
11169
11170 <li><strong>Simple handling of missing Firefox browser
11171 plugins.</strong> When the browser encounter a MIME type it do not
11172 currently have a handler for, it will ask the user if the system
11173 should search for a package that would add support for this MIME type,
11174 and if the user say yes, the APT sources will be searched for packages
11175 advertising the MIME type in their control file (visible in the
11176 Packages file in the APT archive).  If one or more packages are found,
11177 it is a simple click of the mouse to add support for the missing mime
11178 type.  If the package require the user to accept some non-free
11179 license, this is explained to the user.  The entire process make it
11180 more clear to the user why something do not work in the browser, and
11181 make the chances higher for the user to blame the web page authors and
11182 not the browser for any missing features.</li>
11183
11184 <li><strong>Simple handling of missing multimedia codec/format
11185 handlers.</strong> When the media players encounter a format or codec
11186 it is not supporting, a dialog pop up asking the user if the system
11187 should search for a package that would add support for it.  This
11188 happen with things like MP3, Windows Media or H.264.  The selection
11189 and installation procedure is very similar to the Firefox browser
11190 plugin handling.  This is as far as I know implemented using a
11191 gstreamer hook.  The end result is that the user easily get access to
11192 the codecs that are present from the APT archives available, while
11193 explaining more on why a given format is unsupported by Ubuntu.</li>
11194
11195 <li><strong>Better browser handling of some MIME types.</strong> When
11196 displaying a text/plain file in my Debian browser, it will propose to
11197 start emacs to show it.  If I remember correctly, when doing the same
11198 in Kunbutu it show the file as a text file in the browser.  At least I
11199 know Opera will show text files within the browser.  I much prefer the
11200 latter behaviour.</li>
11201
11202 </ol>
11203
11204 <p>There are other nice features as well, like the simplified suite
11205 upgrader, but given that I am the one mostly doing the dist-upgrade,
11206 it do not matter much.</p>
11207
11208 <p>I really hope we could get these features in place for the next
11209 Debian release.  It would require the coordinated effort of several
11210 maintainers, but would make the end user experience a lot better.</p>
11211
11212       </div>
11213       <div class="tags">
11214
11215
11216         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/h264">h264</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/multimedia">multimedia</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/web">web</a>.
11217
11218
11219       </div>
11220     </div>
11221     <div class="padding"></div>
11222
11223     <div class="entry">
11224       <div class="title">
11225         <a href="https://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>
11226       </div>
11227       <div class="date">
11228         26th July 2011
11229       </div>
11230       <div class="body">
11231         <p>The Norwegian <a href="http://www.fiksgatami.no/">FiksGataMi</A>
11232 site is build on Debian/Squeeze, and this platform was chosen because
11233 I am most familiar with Debian (being a Debian Developer for around 10
11234 years) because it is the latest stable Debian release which should get
11235 security support for a few years.</p>
11236
11237 <p>The web service is written in Perl, and depend on some perl modules
11238 that are missing in Debian at the moment.  It would be great if these
11239 modules were added to the Debian archive, allowing anyone to set up
11240 their own <a href="http://www.fixmystreet.com">FixMyStreet</a> clone
11241 in their own country using only Debian packages.  The list of modules
11242 missing in Debian/Squeeze isn't very long, and I hope the perl group
11243 will find time to package the 12 modules Catalyst::Plugin::SmartURI,
11244 Catalyst::Plugin::Unicode::Encoding, Catalyst::View::TT, Devel::Hide,
11245 Sort::Key, Statistics::Distributions, Template::Plugin::Comma,
11246 Template::Plugin::DateTime::Format, Term::Size::Any, Term::Size::Perl,
11247 URI::SmartURI and Web::Scraper to make the maintenance of FixMyStreet
11248 easier in the future.</p>
11249
11250 <p>Thanks to the great tools in Debian, getting the missing modules
11251 installed on my server was a simple call to 'cpan2deb Module::Name'
11252 and 'dpkg -i' to install the resulting package.  But this leave me
11253 with the responsibility of tracking security problems, which I really
11254 do not have time for.</p>
11255
11256       </div>
11257       <div class="tags">
11258
11259
11260         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/fiksgatami">fiksgatami</a>.
11261
11262
11263       </div>
11264     </div>
11265     <div class="padding"></div>
11266
11267     <div class="entry">
11268       <div class="title">
11269         <a href="https://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>
11270       </div>
11271       <div class="date">
11272          3rd April 2011
11273       </div>
11274       <div class="body">
11275         <p>Here is a small update for my English readers.  Most of my blog
11276 posts have been in Norwegian the last few weeks, so here is a short
11277 update in English.</p>
11278
11279 <p>The kids still keep me too busy to get much free software work
11280 done, but I did manage to organise a project to get a Norwegian port
11281 of the British service
11282 <a href="http://www.fixmystreet.com/">FixMyStreet</a> up and running,
11283 and it has been running for a month now.  The entire project has been
11284 organised by me and two others.  Around Christmas we gathered sponsors
11285 to fund the development work.  In January I drafted a contract with
11286 <a href="http://www.mysociety.org/">mySociety</a> on what to develop,
11287 and in February the development took place.  Most of it involved
11288 converting the source to use GPS coordinates instead of British
11289 easting/northing, and the resulting code should be a lot easier to get
11290 running in any country by now.  The Norwegian
11291 <a href="http://www.fiksgatami.no/">FiksGataMi</a> is using
11292 <a href="http://www.openstreetmap.org/">OpenStreetmap</a> as the map
11293 source and the source for administrative borders in Norway, and
11294 support for this had to be added/fixed.</p>
11295
11296 <p>The Norwegian version went live March 3th, and we spent the weekend
11297 polishing the system before we announced it March 7th.  The system is
11298 running on a KVM instance of Debian/Squeeze, and has seen almost 3000
11299 problem reports in a few weeks.  Soon we hope to announce the Android
11300 and iPhone versions making it even easier to report problems with the
11301 public infrastructure.</p>
11302
11303 <p>Perhaps something to consider for those of you in countries without
11304 such service?</p>
11305
11306       </div>
11307       <div class="tags">
11308
11309
11310         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/fiksgatami">fiksgatami</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/kart">kart</a>.
11311
11312
11313       </div>
11314     </div>
11315     <div class="padding"></div>
11316
11317     <div class="entry">
11318       <div class="title">
11319         <a href="https://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>
11320       </div>
11321       <div class="date">
11322         28th January 2011
11323       </div>
11324       <div class="body">
11325         <p>The last few days I have looked at ways to track open security
11326 issues here at my work with the University of Oslo.  My idea is that
11327 it should be possible to use the information about security issues
11328 available on the Internet, and check our locally
11329 maintained/distributed software against this information.  It should
11330 allow us to verify that no known security issues are forgotten.  The
11331 CVE database listing vulnerabilities seem like a great central point,
11332 and by using the package lists from Debian mapped to CVEs provided by
11333 the testing security team, I believed it should be possible to figure
11334 out which security holes were present in our free software
11335 collection.</p>
11336
11337 <p>After reading up on the topic, it became obvious that the first
11338 building block is to be able to name software packages in a unique and
11339 consistent way across data sources.  I considered several ways to do
11340 this, for example coming up with my own naming scheme like using URLs
11341 to project home pages or URLs to the Freshmeat entries, or using some
11342 existing naming scheme.  And it seem like I am not the first one to
11343 come across this problem, as MITRE already proposed and implemented a
11344 solution.  Enter the <a href="http://cpe.mitre.org/index.html">Common
11345 Platform Enumeration</a> dictionary, a vocabulary for referring to
11346 software, hardware and other platform components.  The CPE ids are
11347 mapped to CVEs in the <a href="http://web.nvd.nist.gov/">National
11348 Vulnerability Database</a>, allowing me to look up know security
11349 issues for any CPE name.  With this in place, all I need to do is to
11350 locate the CPE id for the software packages we use at the university.
11351 This is fairly trivial (I google for 'cve cpe $package' and check the
11352 NVD entry if a CVE for the package exist).</p>
11353
11354 <p>To give you an example.  The GNU gzip source package have the CPE
11355 name cpe:/a:gnu:gzip.  If the old version 1.3.3 was the package to
11356 check out, one could look up
11357 <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
11358 in NVD</a> and get a list of 6 security holes with public CVE entries.
11359 The most recent one is
11360 <a href="http://web.nvd.nist.gov/view/vuln/detail?vulnId=CVE-2010-0001">CVE-2010-0001</a>,
11361 and at the bottom of the NVD page for this vulnerability the complete
11362 list of affected versions is provided.</p>
11363
11364 <p>The NVD database of CVEs is also available as a XML dump, allowing
11365 for offline processing of issues.  Using this dump, I've written a
11366 small script taking a list of CPEs as input and list all CVEs
11367 affecting the packages represented by these CPEs.  One give it CPEs
11368 with version numbers as specified above and get a list of open
11369 security issues out.</p>
11370
11371 <p>Of course for this approach to be useful, the quality of the NVD
11372 information need to be high.  For that to happen, I believe as many as
11373 possible need to use and contribute to the NVD database.  I notice
11374 RHEL is providing
11375 <a href="https://www.redhat.com/security/data/metrics/rhsamapcpe.txt">a
11376 map from CVE to CPE</a>, indicating that they are using the CPE
11377 information.  I'm not aware of Debian and Ubuntu doing the same.</p>
11378
11379 <p>To get an idea about the quality for free software, I spent some
11380 time making it possible to compare the CVE database from Debian with
11381 the CVE database in NVD.  The result look fairly good, but there are
11382 some inconsistencies in NVD (same software package having several
11383 CPEs), and some inaccuracies (NVD not mentioning buggy packages that
11384 Debian believe are affected by a CVE).  Hope to find time to improve
11385 the quality of NVD, but that require being able to get in touch with
11386 someone maintaining it.  So far my three emails with questions and
11387 corrections have not seen any reply, but I hope contact can be
11388 established soon.</p>
11389
11390 <p>An interesting application for CPEs is cross platform package
11391 mapping.  It would be useful to know which packages in for example
11392 RHEL, OpenSuSe and Mandriva are missing from Debian and Ubuntu, and
11393 this would be trivial if all linux distributions provided CPE entries
11394 for their packages.</p>
11395
11396       </div>
11397       <div class="tags">
11398
11399
11400         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>.
11401
11402
11403       </div>
11404     </div>
11405     <div class="padding"></div>
11406
11407     <div class="entry">
11408       <div class="title">
11409         <a href="https://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>
11410       </div>
11411       <div class="date">
11412         23rd January 2011
11413       </div>
11414       <div class="body">
11415         <p>In the
11416 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/discover-data">discover-data</a>
11417 package in Debian, there is a script to report useful information
11418 about the running hardware for use when people report missing
11419 information.  One part of this script that I find very useful when
11420 debugging hardware problems, is the part mapping loaded kernel module
11421 to the PCI device it claims.  It allow me to quickly see if the kernel
11422 module I expect is driving the hardware I am struggling with.  To see
11423 the output, make sure discover-data is installed and run
11424 <tt>/usr/share/bug/discover-data 3>&1</tt>.  The relevant output on
11425 one of my machines like this:</p>
11426
11427 <pre>
11428 loaded modules:
11429 10de:03eb i2c_nforce2
11430 10de:03f1 ohci_hcd
11431 10de:03f2 ehci_hcd
11432 10de:03f0 snd_hda_intel
11433 10de:03ec pata_amd
11434 10de:03f6 sata_nv
11435 1022:1103 k8temp
11436 109e:036e bttv
11437 109e:0878 snd_bt87x
11438 11ab:4364 sky2
11439 </pre>
11440
11441 <p>The code in question look like this, slightly modified for
11442 readability and to drop the output to file descriptor 3:</p>
11443
11444 <pre>
11445 if [ -d /sys/bus/pci/devices/ ] ; then
11446     echo loaded pci modules:
11447     (
11448         cd /sys/bus/pci/devices/
11449         for address in * ; do
11450             if [ -d "$address/driver/module" ] ; then
11451                 module=`cd $address/driver/module ; pwd -P | xargs basename`
11452                 if grep -q "^$module " /proc/modules ; then
11453                     address=$(echo $address |sed s/0000://)
11454                     id=`lspci -n -s $address | tail -n 1 | awk '{print $3}'`
11455                     echo "$id $module"
11456                 fi
11457             fi
11458         done
11459     )
11460     echo
11461 fi
11462 </pre>
11463
11464 <p>Similar code could be used to extract USB device module
11465 mappings:</p>
11466
11467 <pre>
11468 if [ -d /sys/bus/usb/devices/ ] ; then
11469     echo loaded usb modules:
11470     (
11471         cd /sys/bus/usb/devices/
11472         for address in * ; do
11473             if [ -d "$address/driver/module" ] ; then
11474                 module=`cd $address/driver/module ; pwd -P | xargs basename`
11475                 if grep -q "^$module " /proc/modules ; then
11476                     address=$(echo $address |sed s/0000://)
11477                     id=$(lsusb -s $address | tail -n 1 | awk '{print $6}')
11478                     if [ "$id" ] ; then
11479                         echo "$id $module"
11480                     fi
11481                 fi
11482             fi
11483         done
11484     )
11485     echo
11486 fi
11487 </pre>
11488
11489 <p>This might perhaps be something to include in other tools as
11490 well.</p>
11491
11492       </div>
11493       <div class="tags">
11494
11495
11496         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
11497
11498
11499       </div>
11500     </div>
11501     <div class="padding"></div>
11502
11503     <div class="entry">
11504       <div class="title">
11505         <a href="https://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>
11506       </div>
11507       <div class="date">
11508         22nd December 2010
11509       </div>
11510       <div class="body">
11511         <p>The last few days I have spent at work here at the <a
11512 href="http://www.uio.no/">University of Oslo</a> testing if the new
11513 batch of computers will work with Linux.  Every year for the last few
11514 years the university have organised shared bid of a few thousand
11515 computers, and this year HP won the bid.  Two different desktops and
11516 five different laptops are on the list this year.  We in the UNIX
11517 group want to know which one of these computers work well with RHEL
11518 and Ubuntu, the two Linux distributions we currently handle at the
11519 university.</p>
11520
11521 <p>My test method is simple, and I share it here to get feedback and
11522 perhaps inspire others to test hardware as well.  To test, I PXE
11523 install the OS version of choice, and log in as my normal user and run
11524 a few applications and plug in selected pieces of hardware.  When
11525 something fail, I make a note about this in the test matrix and move
11526 on.  If I have some spare time I try to report the bug to the OS
11527 vendor, but as I only have the machines for a short time, I rarely
11528 have the time to do this for all the problems I find.</p>
11529
11530 <p>Anyway, to get to the point of this post.  Here is the simple tests
11531 I perform on a new model.</p>
11532
11533 <ul>
11534
11535 <li>Is PXE installation working?  I'm testing with RHEL6, Ubuntu Lucid
11536 and Ubuntu Maverik at the moment.  If I feel like it, I also test with
11537 RHEL5 and Debian Edu/Squeeze.</li>
11538
11539 <li>Is X.org working?  If the graphical login screen show up after
11540 installation, X.org is working.</li>
11541
11542 <li>Is hardware accelerated OpenGL working?  Running glxgears (in
11543 package mesa-utils on Ubuntu) and writing down the frames per second
11544 reported by the program.</li>
11545
11546 <li>Is sound working?  With Gnome and KDE, a sound is played when
11547 logging in, and if I can hear this the test is successful.  If there
11548 are several audio exits on the machine, I try them all and check if
11549 the Gnome/KDE audio mixer can control where to send the sound.  I
11550 normally test this by playing
11551 <a href="http://www.nuug.no/aktiviteter/20101012-chef/ ">a HTML5
11552 video</a> in Firefox/Iceweasel.</li>
11553
11554 <li>Is the USB subsystem working?  I test this by plugging in a USB
11555 memory stick and see if Gnome/KDE notices this.</li>
11556
11557 <li>Is the CD/DVD player working?  I test this by inserting any CD/DVD
11558 I have lying around, and see if Gnome/KDE notices this.</li>
11559
11560 <li>Is any built in camera working?  Test using cheese, and see if a
11561 picture from the v4l device show up.</li>
11562
11563 <li>Is bluetooth working?  Use the Gnome/KDE browsing tool to see if
11564 any bluetooth devices are discovered.  In my office, I normally see a
11565 few.</li>
11566
11567 <li>For laptops, is the SD or Compaq Flash reader working.  I have
11568 memory modules lying around, and stick them in and see if Gnome/KDE
11569 notice this.</li>
11570
11571 <li>For laptops, is suspend/hibernate working?  I'm testing if the
11572 special button work, and if the laptop continue to work after
11573 resume.</li>
11574
11575 <li>For laptops, is the extra buttons working, like audio level,
11576 adjusting background light, switching on/off external video output,
11577 switching on/off wifi, bluetooth, etc?  The set of buttons differ from
11578 laptop to laptop, so I just write down which are working and which are
11579 not.</li>
11580
11581 <li>Some laptops have smart card readers, finger print readers,
11582 acceleration sensors etc.  I rarely test these, as I do not know how
11583 to quickly test if they are working or not, so I only document their
11584 existence.</li>
11585
11586 </ul>
11587
11588 <p>By now I suspect you are really curious what the test results are
11589 for the HP machines I am testing.  I'm not done yet, so I will report
11590 the test results later.  For now I can report that HP 8100 Elite work
11591 fine, and hibernation fail with HP EliteBook 8440p on Ubuntu Lucid,
11592 and audio fail on RHEL6.  Ubuntu Maverik worked with 8440p.  As you
11593 can see, I have most machines left to test.  One interesting
11594 observation is that Ubuntu Lucid has almost twice the frame rate than
11595 RHEL6 with glxgears.  No idea why.</p>
11596
11597       </div>
11598       <div class="tags">
11599
11600
11601         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
11602
11603
11604       </div>
11605     </div>
11606     <div class="padding"></div>
11607
11608     <div class="entry">
11609       <div class="title">
11610         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Some_thoughts_on_BitCoins.html">Some thoughts on BitCoins</a>
11611       </div>
11612       <div class="date">
11613         11th December 2010
11614       </div>
11615       <div class="body">
11616         <p>As I continue to explore
11617 <a href="http://www.bitcoin.org/">BitCoin</a>, I've starting to wonder
11618 what properties the system have, and how it will be affected by laws
11619 and regulations here in Norway.  Here are some random notes.</p>
11620
11621 <p>One interesting thing to note is that since the transactions are
11622 verified using a peer to peer network, all details about a transaction
11623 is known to everyone.  This means that if a BitCoin address has been
11624 published like I did with mine in my initial post about BitCoin, it is
11625 possible for everyone to see how many BitCoins have been transfered to
11626 that address.  There is even a web service to look at the details for
11627 all transactions.  There I can see that my address
11628 <a href="http://blockexplorer.com/address/15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a>
11629 have received 16.06 Bitcoin, the
11630 <a href="http://blockexplorer.com/address/1LfdGnGuWkpSJgbQySxxCWhv8MHqvwst3">1LfdGnGuWkpSJgbQySxxCWhv8MHqvwst3</a>
11631 address of Simon Phipps have received 181.97 BitCoin and the address
11632 <a href="http://blockexplorer.com/address/1MCwBbhNGp5hRm5rC1Aims2YFRe2SXPYKt">1MCwBbhNGp5hRm5rC1Aims2YFRe2SXPYKt</A>
11633 of EFF have received 2447.38 BitCoins so far.  Thank you to each and
11634 every one of you that donated bitcoins to support my activity. The
11635 fact that anyone can see how much money was transfered to a given
11636 address make it more obvious why the BitCoin community recommend to
11637 generate and hand out a new address for each transaction.  I'm told
11638 there is no way to track which addresses belong to a given person or
11639 organisation without the person or organisation revealing it
11640 themselves, as Simon, EFF and I have done.</p>
11641
11642 <p>In Norway, and in most other countries, there are laws and
11643 regulations limiting how much money one can transfer across the border
11644 without declaring it.  There are money laundering, tax and accounting
11645 laws and regulations I would expect to apply to the use of BitCoin.
11646 If the Skolelinux foundation
11647 (<a href="http://linuxiskolen.no/slxdebianlabs/donations.html">SLX
11648 Debian Labs</a>) were to accept donations in BitCoin in addition to
11649 normal bank transfers like EFF is doing, how should this be accounted?
11650 Given that it is impossible to know if money can cross the border or
11651 not, should everything or nothing be declared?  What exchange rate
11652 should be used when calculating taxes?  Would receivers have to pay
11653 income tax if the foundation were to pay Skolelinux contributors in
11654 BitCoin?  I have no idea, but it would be interesting to know.</p>
11655
11656 <p>For a currency to be useful and successful, it must be trusted and
11657 accepted by a lot of users.  It must be possible to get easy access to
11658 the currency (as a wage or using currency exchanges), and it must be
11659 easy to spend it.  At the moment BitCoin seem fairly easy to get
11660 access to, but there are very few places to spend it.  I am not really
11661 a regular user of any of the vendor types currently accepting BitCoin,
11662 so I wonder when my kind of shop would start accepting BitCoins.  I
11663 would like to buy electronics, travels and subway tickets, not herbs
11664 and books. :) The currency is young, and this will improve over time
11665 if it become popular, but I suspect regular banks will start to lobby
11666 to get BitCoin declared illegal if it become popular.  I'm sure they
11667 will claim it is helping fund terrorism and money laundering (which
11668 probably would be true, as is any currency in existence), but I
11669 believe the problems should be solved elsewhere and not by blaming
11670 currencies.</p>
11671
11672 <p>The process of creating new BitCoins is called mining, and it is
11673 CPU intensive process that depend on a bit of luck as well (as one is
11674 competing against all the other miners currently spending CPU cycles
11675 to see which one get the next lump of cash).  The "winner" get 50
11676 BitCoin when this happen.  Yesterday I came across the obvious way to
11677 join forces to increase ones changes of getting at least some coins,
11678 by coordinating the work on mining BitCoins across several machines
11679 and people, and sharing the result if one is lucky and get the 50
11680 BitCoins.  Check out
11681 <a href="http://www.bluishcoder.co.nz/bitcoin-pool/">BitCoin Pool</a>
11682 if this sounds interesting.  I have not had time to try to set up a
11683 machine to participate there yet, but have seen that running on ones
11684 own for a few days have not yield any BitCoins througth mining
11685 yet.</p>
11686
11687 <p>Update 2010-12-15: Found an <a
11688 href="http://inertia.posterous.com/reply-to-the-underground-economist-why-bitcoi">interesting
11689 criticism</a> of bitcoin.  Not quite sure how valid it is, but thought
11690 it was interesting to read.  The arguments presented seem to be
11691 equally valid for gold, which was used as a currency for many years.</p>
11692
11693       </div>
11694       <div class="tags">
11695
11696
11697         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bitcoin">bitcoin</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/personvern">personvern</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>.
11698
11699
11700       </div>
11701     </div>
11702     <div class="padding"></div>
11703
11704     <div class="entry">
11705       <div class="title">
11706         <a href="https://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>
11707       </div>
11708       <div class="date">
11709         10th December 2010
11710       </div>
11711       <div class="body">
11712         <p>With this weeks lawless
11713 <a href="http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2010/12/06/wikileaks/index.html">governmental
11714 attacks</a> on Wikileak and
11715 <a href="http://www.salon.com/technology/dan_gillmor/2010/12/06/war_on_speech">free
11716 speech</a>, it has become obvious that PayPal, visa and mastercard can
11717 not be trusted to handle money transactions.
11718 A blog post from
11719 <a href="http://webmink.com/2010/12/06/now-accepting-bitcoin/">Simon
11720 Phipps on bitcoin</a> reminded me about a project that a friend of
11721 mine mentioned earlier.  I decided to follow Simon's example, and get
11722 involved with <a href="http://www.bitcoin.org/">BitCoin</a>.  I got
11723 some help from my friend to get it all running, and he even handed me
11724 some bitcoins to get started.  I even donated a few bitcoins to Simon
11725 for helping me remember BitCoin.</p>
11726
11727 <p>So, what is bitcoins, you probably wonder?  It is a digital
11728 crypto-currency, decentralised and handled using peer-to-peer
11729 networks.  It allows anonymous transactions and prohibits central
11730 control over the transactions, making it impossible for governments
11731 and companies alike to block donations and other transactions.  The
11732 source is free software, and while the key dependency wxWidgets 2.9
11733 for the graphical user interface is missing in Debian, the command
11734 line client builds just fine.  Hopefully Jonas
11735 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/578157">will get the package into
11736 Debian</a> soon.</p>
11737
11738 <p>Bitcoins can be converted to other currencies, like USD and EUR.
11739 There are <a href="http://www.bitcoin.org/trade">companies accepting
11740 bitcoins</a> when selling services and goods, and there are even
11741 currency "stock" markets where the exchange rate is decided.  There
11742 are not many users so far, but the concept seems promising.  If you
11743 want to get started and lack a friend with any bitcoins to spare,
11744 you can even get
11745 <a href="https://freebitcoins.appspot.com/">some for free</a> (0.05
11746 bitcoin at the time of writing).  Use
11747 <a href="http://www.bitcoinwatch.com/">BitcoinWatch</a> to keep an eye
11748 on the current exchange rates.</p>
11749
11750 <p>As an experiment, I have decided to set up bitcoind on one of my
11751 machines.  If you want to support my activity, please send Bitcoin
11752 donations to the address
11753 <b>15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</b>.  Thank you!</p>
11754
11755       </div>
11756       <div class="tags">
11757
11758
11759         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bitcoin">bitcoin</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/personvern">personvern</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>.
11760
11761
11762       </div>
11763     </div>
11764     <div class="padding"></div>
11765
11766     <div class="entry">
11767       <div class="title">
11768         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Why_isn_t_Debian_Edu_using_VLC_.html">Why isn't Debian Edu using VLC?</a>
11769       </div>
11770       <div class="date">
11771         27th November 2010
11772       </div>
11773       <div class="body">
11774         <p>In the latest issue of Linux Journal, the readers choices were
11775 presented, and the winner among the multimedia player were VLC.
11776 Personally, I like VLC, and it is my player of choice when I first try
11777 to play a video file or stream.  Only if VLC fail will I drag out
11778 gmplayer to see if it can do better.  The reason is mostly the failure
11779 model and trust.  When VLC fail, it normally pop up a error message
11780 reporting the problem.  When mplayer fail, it normally segfault or
11781 just hangs.  The latter failure mode drain my trust in the program.<p>
11782
11783 <p>But even if VLC is my player of choice, we have choosen to use
11784 mplayer in <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian
11785 Edu/Skolelinux</a>.  The reason is simple.  We need a good browser
11786 plugin to play web videos seamlessly, and the VLC browser plugin is
11787 not very good.  For example, it lack in-line control buttons, so there
11788 is no way for the user to pause the video.  Also, when I
11789 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/BrowserMultimedia">last
11790 tested the browser plugins</a> available in Debian, the VLC plugin
11791 failed on several video pages where mplayer based plugins worked.  If
11792 the browser plugin for VLC was as good as the gecko-mediaplayer
11793 package (which uses mplayer), we would switch.</P>
11794
11795 <p>While VLC is a good player, its user interface is slightly
11796 annoying.  The most annoying feature is its inconsistent use of
11797 keyboard shortcuts.  When the player is in full screen mode, its
11798 shortcuts are different from when it is playing the video in a window.
11799 For example, space only work as pause when in full screen mode.  I
11800 wish it had consisten shortcuts and that space also would work when in
11801 window mode.  Another nice shortcut in gmplayer is [enter] to restart
11802 the current video.  It is very nice when playing short videos from the
11803 web and want to restart it when new people arrive to have a look at
11804 what is going on.</p>
11805
11806       </div>
11807       <div class="tags">
11808
11809
11810         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/multimedia">multimedia</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/video">video</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/web">web</a>.
11811
11812
11813       </div>
11814     </div>
11815     <div class="padding"></div>
11816
11817     <div class="entry">
11818       <div class="title">
11819         <a href="https://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>
11820       </div>
11821       <div class="date">
11822         22nd November 2010
11823       </div>
11824       <div class="body">
11825         <p>Michael Biebl suggested to me on IRC, that I changed my automated
11826 upgrade testing of the
11827 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/~pere/debian-upgrade-testing/">Lenny
11828 Gnome and KDE Desktop</a> to do <tt>apt-get autoremove</tt> when using apt-get.
11829 This seem like a very good idea, so I adjusted by test scripts and
11830 can now present the updated result from today:</p>
11831
11832 <p>This is for Gnome:</p>
11833
11834 <p>Installed using apt-get, missing with aptitude</p>
11835
11836 <blockquote><p>
11837   apache2.2-bin
11838   aptdaemon
11839   baobab
11840   binfmt-support
11841   browser-plugin-gnash
11842   cheese-common
11843   cli-common
11844   cups-pk-helper
11845   dmz-cursor-theme
11846   empathy
11847   empathy-common
11848   freedesktop-sound-theme
11849   freeglut3
11850   gconf-defaults-service
11851   gdm-themes
11852   gedit-plugins
11853   geoclue
11854   geoclue-hostip
11855   geoclue-localnet
11856   geoclue-manual
11857   geoclue-yahoo
11858   gnash
11859   gnash-common
11860   gnome
11861   gnome-backgrounds
11862   gnome-cards-data
11863   gnome-codec-install
11864   gnome-core
11865   gnome-desktop-environment
11866   gnome-disk-utility
11867   gnome-screenshot
11868   gnome-search-tool
11869   gnome-session-canberra
11870   gnome-system-log
11871   gnome-themes-extras
11872   gnome-themes-more
11873   gnome-user-share
11874   gstreamer0.10-fluendo-mp3
11875   gstreamer0.10-tools
11876   gtk2-engines
11877   gtk2-engines-pixbuf
11878   gtk2-engines-smooth
11879   hamster-applet
11880   libapache2-mod-dnssd
11881   libapr1
11882   libaprutil1
11883   libaprutil1-dbd-sqlite3
11884   libaprutil1-ldap
11885   libart2.0-cil
11886   libboost-date-time1.42.0
11887   libboost-python1.42.0
11888   libboost-thread1.42.0
11889   libchamplain-0.4-0
11890   libchamplain-gtk-0.4-0
11891   libcheese-gtk18
11892   libclutter-gtk-0.10-0
11893   libcryptui0
11894   libdiscid0
11895   libelf1
11896   libepc-1.0-2
11897   libepc-common
11898   libepc-ui-1.0-2
11899   libfreerdp-plugins-standard
11900   libfreerdp0
11901   libgconf2.0-cil
11902   libgdata-common
11903   libgdata7
11904   libgdu-gtk0
11905   libgee2
11906   libgeoclue0
11907   libgexiv2-0
11908   libgif4
11909   libglade2.0-cil
11910   libglib2.0-cil
11911   libgmime2.4-cil
11912   libgnome-vfs2.0-cil
11913   libgnome2.24-cil
11914   libgnomepanel2.24-cil
11915   libgpod-common
11916   libgpod4
11917   libgtk2.0-cil
11918   libgtkglext1
11919   libgtksourceview2.0-common
11920   libmono-addins-gui0.2-cil
11921   libmono-addins0.2-cil
11922   libmono-cairo2.0-cil
11923   libmono-corlib2.0-cil
11924   libmono-i18n-west2.0-cil
11925   libmono-posix2.0-cil
11926   libmono-security2.0-cil
11927   libmono-sharpzip2.84-cil
11928   libmono-system2.0-cil
11929   libmtp8
11930   libmusicbrainz3-6
11931   libndesk-dbus-glib1.0-cil
11932   libndesk-dbus1.0-cil
11933   libopal3.6.8
11934   libpolkit-gtk-1-0
11935   libpt2.6.7
11936   libpython2.6
11937   librpm1
11938   librpmio1
11939   libsdl1.2debian
11940   libsrtp0
11941   libssh-4
11942   libtelepathy-farsight0
11943   libtelepathy-glib0
11944   libtidy-0.99-0
11945   media-player-info
11946   mesa-utils
11947   mono-2.0-gac
11948   mono-gac
11949   mono-runtime
11950   nautilus-sendto
11951   nautilus-sendto-empathy
11952   p7zip-full
11953   pkg-config
11954   python-aptdaemon
11955   python-aptdaemon-gtk
11956   python-axiom
11957   python-beautifulsoup
11958   python-bugbuddy
11959   python-clientform
11960   python-coherence
11961   python-configobj
11962   python-crypto
11963   python-cupshelpers
11964   python-elementtree
11965   python-epsilon
11966   python-evolution
11967   python-feedparser
11968   python-gdata
11969   python-gdbm
11970   python-gst0.10
11971   python-gtkglext1
11972   python-gtksourceview2
11973   python-httplib2
11974   python-louie
11975   python-mako
11976   python-markupsafe
11977   python-mechanize
11978   python-nevow
11979   python-notify
11980   python-opengl
11981   python-openssl
11982   python-pam
11983   python-pkg-resources
11984   python-pyasn1
11985   python-pysqlite2
11986   python-rdflib
11987   python-serial
11988   python-tagpy
11989   python-twisted-bin
11990   python-twisted-conch
11991   python-twisted-core
11992   python-twisted-web
11993   python-utidylib
11994   python-webkit
11995   python-xdg
11996   python-zope.interface
11997   remmina
11998   remmina-plugin-data
11999   remmina-plugin-rdp
12000   remmina-plugin-vnc
12001   rhythmbox-plugin-cdrecorder
12002   rhythmbox-plugins
12003   rpm-common
12004   rpm2cpio
12005   seahorse-plugins
12006   shotwell
12007   software-center
12008   system-config-printer-udev
12009   telepathy-gabble
12010   telepathy-mission-control-5
12011   telepathy-salut
12012   tomboy
12013   totem
12014   totem-coherence
12015   totem-mozilla
12016   totem-plugins
12017   transmission-common
12018   xdg-user-dirs
12019   xdg-user-dirs-gtk
12020   xserver-xephyr
12021 </p></blockquote>
12022
12023 <p>Installed using apt-get, removed with aptitude</p>
12024
12025 <blockquote><p>
12026   cheese
12027   ekiga
12028   eog
12029   epiphany-extensions
12030   evolution-exchange
12031   fast-user-switch-applet
12032   file-roller
12033   gcalctool
12034   gconf-editor
12035   gdm
12036   gedit
12037   gedit-common
12038   gnome-games
12039   gnome-games-data
12040   gnome-nettool
12041   gnome-system-tools
12042   gnome-themes
12043   gnuchess
12044   gucharmap
12045   guile-1.8-libs
12046   libavahi-ui0
12047   libdmx1
12048   libgalago3
12049   libgtk-vnc-1.0-0
12050   libgtksourceview2.0-0
12051   liblircclient0
12052   libsdl1.2debian-alsa
12053   libspeexdsp1
12054   libsvga1
12055   rhythmbox
12056   seahorse
12057   sound-juicer
12058   system-config-printer
12059   totem-common
12060   transmission-gtk
12061   vinagre
12062   vino
12063 </p></blockquote>
12064
12065 <p>Installed using aptitude, missing with apt-get</p>
12066
12067 <blockquote><p>
12068   gstreamer0.10-gnomevfs
12069 </p></blockquote>
12070
12071 <p>Installed using aptitude, removed with apt-get</p>
12072
12073 <blockquote><p>
12074 [nothing]
12075 </p></blockquote>
12076
12077 <p>This is for KDE:</p>
12078
12079 <p>Installed using apt-get, missing with aptitude</p>
12080
12081 <blockquote><p>
12082   ksmserver
12083 </p></blockquote>
12084
12085 <p>Installed using apt-get, removed with aptitude</p>
12086
12087 <blockquote><p>
12088   kwin
12089   network-manager-kde
12090 </p></blockquote>
12091
12092 <p>Installed using aptitude, missing with apt-get</p>
12093
12094 <blockquote><p>
12095   arts
12096   dolphin
12097   freespacenotifier
12098   google-gadgets-gst
12099   google-gadgets-xul
12100   kappfinder
12101   kcalc
12102   kcharselect
12103   kde-core
12104   kde-plasma-desktop
12105   kde-standard
12106   kde-window-manager
12107   kdeartwork
12108   kdeartwork-emoticons
12109   kdeartwork-style
12110   kdeartwork-theme-icon
12111   kdebase
12112   kdebase-apps
12113   kdebase-workspace
12114   kdebase-workspace-bin
12115   kdebase-workspace-data
12116   kdeeject
12117   kdelibs
12118   kdeplasma-addons
12119   kdeutils
12120   kdewallpapers
12121   kdf
12122   kfloppy
12123   kgpg
12124   khelpcenter4
12125   kinfocenter
12126   konq-plugins-l10n
12127   konqueror-nsplugins
12128   kscreensaver
12129   kscreensaver-xsavers
12130   ktimer
12131   kwrite
12132   libgle3
12133   libkde4-ruby1.8
12134   libkonq5
12135   libkonq5-templates
12136   libnetpbm10
12137   libplasma-ruby
12138   libplasma-ruby1.8
12139   libqt4-ruby1.8
12140   marble-data
12141   marble-plugins
12142   netpbm
12143   nuvola-icon-theme
12144   plasma-dataengines-workspace
12145   plasma-desktop
12146   plasma-desktopthemes-artwork
12147   plasma-runners-addons
12148   plasma-scriptengine-googlegadgets
12149   plasma-scriptengine-python
12150   plasma-scriptengine-qedje
12151   plasma-scriptengine-ruby
12152   plasma-scriptengine-webkit
12153   plasma-scriptengines
12154   plasma-wallpapers-addons
12155   plasma-widget-folderview
12156   plasma-widget-networkmanagement
12157   ruby
12158   sweeper
12159   update-notifier-kde
12160   xscreensaver-data-extra
12161   xscreensaver-gl
12162   xscreensaver-gl-extra
12163   xscreensaver-screensaver-bsod
12164 </p></blockquote>
12165
12166 <p>Installed using aptitude, removed with apt-get</p>
12167
12168 <blockquote><p>
12169   ark
12170   google-gadgets-common
12171   google-gadgets-qt
12172   htdig
12173   kate
12174   kdebase-bin
12175   kdebase-data
12176   kdepasswd
12177   kfind
12178   klipper
12179   konq-plugins
12180   konqueror
12181   ksysguard
12182   ksysguardd
12183   libarchive1
12184   libcln6
12185   libeet1
12186   libeina-svn-06
12187   libggadget-1.0-0b
12188   libggadget-qt-1.0-0b
12189   libgps19
12190   libkdecorations4
12191   libkephal4
12192   libkonq4
12193   libkonqsidebarplugin4a
12194   libkscreensaver5
12195   libksgrd4
12196   libksignalplotter4
12197   libkunitconversion4
12198   libkwineffects1a
12199   libmarblewidget4
12200   libntrack-qt4-1
12201   libntrack0
12202   libplasma-geolocation-interface4
12203   libplasmaclock4a
12204   libplasmagenericshell4
12205   libprocesscore4a
12206   libprocessui4a
12207   libqalculate5
12208   libqedje0a
12209   libqtruby4shared2
12210   libqzion0a
12211   libruby1.8
12212   libscim8c2a
12213   libsmokekdecore4-3
12214   libsmokekdeui4-3
12215   libsmokekfile3
12216   libsmokekhtml3
12217   libsmokekio3
12218   libsmokeknewstuff2-3
12219   libsmokeknewstuff3-3
12220   libsmokekparts3
12221   libsmokektexteditor3
12222   libsmokekutils3
12223   libsmokenepomuk3
12224   libsmokephonon3
12225   libsmokeplasma3
12226   libsmokeqtcore4-3
12227   libsmokeqtdbus4-3
12228   libsmokeqtgui4-3
12229   libsmokeqtnetwork4-3
12230   libsmokeqtopengl4-3
12231   libsmokeqtscript4-3
12232   libsmokeqtsql4-3
12233   libsmokeqtsvg4-3
12234   libsmokeqttest4-3
12235   libsmokeqtuitools4-3
12236   libsmokeqtwebkit4-3
12237   libsmokeqtxml4-3
12238   libsmokesolid3
12239   libsmokesoprano3
12240   libtaskmanager4a
12241   libtidy-0.99-0
12242   libweather-ion4a
12243   libxklavier16
12244   libxxf86misc1
12245   okteta
12246   oxygencursors
12247   plasma-dataengines-addons
12248   plasma-scriptengine-superkaramba
12249   plasma-widget-lancelot
12250   plasma-widgets-addons
12251   plasma-widgets-workspace
12252   polkit-kde-1
12253   ruby1.8
12254   systemsettings
12255   update-notifier-common
12256 </p></blockquote>
12257
12258 <p>Running apt-get autoremove made the results using apt-get and
12259 aptitude a bit more similar, but there are still quite a lott of
12260 differences.  I have no idea what packages should be installed after
12261 the upgrade, but hope those that do can have a look.</p>
12262
12263       </div>
12264       <div class="tags">
12265
12266
12267         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
12268
12269
12270       </div>
12271     </div>
12272     <div class="padding"></div>
12273
12274     <div class="entry">
12275       <div class="title">
12276         <a href="https://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>
12277       </div>
12278       <div class="date">
12279         22nd November 2010
12280       </div>
12281       <div class="body">
12282         <p>Most of the computers in use by the
12283 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu/Skolelinux project</a>
12284 are virtual machines.  And they have been Xen machines running on a
12285 fairly old IBM eserver xseries 345 machine, and we wanted to migrate
12286 them to KVM on a newer Dell PowerEdge 2950 host machine.  This was a
12287 bit harder that it could have been, because we set up the Xen virtual
12288 machines to get the virtual partitions from LVM, which as far as I
12289 know is not supported by KVM.  So to migrate, we had to convert
12290 several LVM logical volumes to partitions on a virtual disk file.</p>
12291
12292 <p>I found
12293 <a href="http://searchnetworking.techtarget.com.au/articles/35011-Six-steps-for-migrating-Xen-virtual-machines-to-KVM">a
12294 nice recipe</a> to do this, and wrote the following script to do the
12295 migration.  It uses qemu-img from the qemu package to make the disk
12296 image, parted to partition it, losetup and kpartx to present the disk
12297 image partions as devices, and dd to copy the data.  I NFS mounted the
12298 new servers storage area on the old server to do the migration.</p>
12299
12300 <pre>
12301 #!/bin/sh
12302
12303 # Based on
12304 # http://searchnetworking.techtarget.com.au/articles/35011-Six-steps-for-migrating-Xen-virtual-machines-to-KVM
12305
12306 set -e
12307 set -x
12308
12309 if [ -z "$1" ] ; then
12310     echo "Usage: $0 &lt;hostname&gt;"
12311     exit 1
12312 else
12313     host="$1"
12314 fi
12315
12316 if [ ! -e /dev/vg_data/$host-disk ] ; then
12317     echo "error: unable to find LVM volume for $host"
12318     exit 1
12319 fi
12320
12321 # Partitions need to be a bit bigger than the LVM LVs.  not sure why.
12322 disksize=$( lvs --units m | grep $host-disk | awk '{sum = sum + $4} END { print int(sum * 1.05) }')
12323 swapsize=$( lvs --units m | grep $host-swap | awk '{sum = sum + $4} END { print int(sum * 1.05) }')
12324 totalsize=$(( ( $disksize + $swapsize ) ))
12325
12326 img=$host.img
12327 #dd if=/dev/zero of=$img bs=1M count=$(( $disksize + $swapsize ))
12328 qemu-img create $img ${totalsize}MMaking room on the Debian Edu/Sqeeze DVD
12329
12330 parted $img mklabel msdos
12331 parted $img mkpart primary linux-swap 0 $disksize
12332 parted $img mkpart primary ext2 $disksize $totalsize
12333 parted $img set 1 boot on
12334
12335 modprobe dm-mod
12336 losetup /dev/loop0 $img
12337 kpartx -a /dev/loop0
12338
12339 dd if=/dev/vg_data/$host-disk of=/dev/mapper/loop0p1 bs=1M
12340 fsck.ext3 -f /dev/mapper/loop0p1 || true
12341 mkswap /dev/mapper/loop0p2
12342
12343 kpartx -d /dev/loop0
12344 losetup -d /dev/loop0
12345 </pre>
12346
12347 <p>The script is perhaps so simple that it is not copyrightable, but
12348 if it is, it is licenced using GPL v2 or later at your discretion.</p>
12349
12350 <p>After doing this, I booted a Debian CD in rescue mode in KVM with
12351 the new disk image attached, installed grub-pc and linux-image-686 and
12352 set up grub to boot from the disk image.  After this, the KVM machines
12353 seem to work just fine.</p>
12354
12355       </div>
12356       <div class="tags">
12357
12358
12359         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
12360
12361
12362       </div>
12363     </div>
12364     <div class="padding"></div>
12365
12366     <div class="entry">
12367       <div class="title">
12368         <a href="https://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>
12369       </div>
12370       <div class="date">
12371         20th November 2010
12372       </div>
12373       <div class="body">
12374         <p>I'm still running upgrade testing of the
12375 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/~pere/debian-upgrade-testing/">Lenny
12376 Gnome and KDE Desktop</a>, but have not had time to spend on reporting the
12377 status.  Here is a short update based on a test I ran 20101118.</p>
12378
12379 <p>I still do not know what a correct migration should look like, so I
12380 report any differences between apt and aptitude and hope someone else
12381 can see if anything should be changed.</p>
12382
12383 <p>This is for Gnome:</p>
12384
12385 <p>Installed using apt-get, missing with aptitude</p>
12386
12387 <blockquote><p>
12388   apache2.2-bin aptdaemon at-spi baobab binfmt-support
12389   browser-plugin-gnash cheese-common cli-common cpp-4.3 cups-pk-helper
12390   dmz-cursor-theme empathy empathy-common finger
12391   freedesktop-sound-theme freeglut3 gconf-defaults-service gdm-themes
12392   gedit-plugins geoclue geoclue-hostip geoclue-localnet geoclue-manual
12393   geoclue-yahoo gnash gnash-common gnome gnome-backgrounds
12394   gnome-cards-data gnome-codec-install gnome-core
12395   gnome-desktop-environment gnome-disk-utility gnome-screenshot
12396   gnome-search-tool gnome-session-canberra gnome-spell
12397   gnome-system-log gnome-themes-extras gnome-themes-more
12398   gnome-user-share gs-common gstreamer0.10-fluendo-mp3
12399   gstreamer0.10-tools gtk2-engines gtk2-engines-pixbuf
12400   gtk2-engines-smooth hal-info hamster-applet libapache2-mod-dnssd
12401   libapr1 libaprutil1 libaprutil1-dbd-sqlite3 libaprutil1-ldap
12402   libart2.0-cil libatspi1.0-0 libboost-date-time1.42.0
12403   libboost-python1.42.0 libboost-thread1.42.0 libchamplain-0.4-0
12404   libchamplain-gtk-0.4-0 libcheese-gtk18 libclutter-gtk-0.10-0
12405   libcryptui0 libcupsys2 libdiscid0 libeel2-data libelf1 libepc-1.0-2
12406   libepc-common libepc-ui-1.0-2 libfreerdp-plugins-standard
12407   libfreerdp0 libgail-common libgconf2.0-cil libgdata-common libgdata7
12408   libgdl-1-common libgdu-gtk0 libgee2 libgeoclue0 libgexiv2-0 libgif4
12409   libglade2.0-cil libglib2.0-cil libgmime2.4-cil libgnome-vfs2.0-cil
12410   libgnome2.24-cil libgnomepanel2.24-cil libgnomeprint2.2-data
12411   libgnomeprintui2.2-common libgnomevfs2-bin libgpod-common libgpod4
12412   libgtk2.0-cil libgtkglext1 libgtksourceview-common
12413   libgtksourceview2.0-common libmono-addins-gui0.2-cil
12414   libmono-addins0.2-cil libmono-cairo2.0-cil libmono-corlib2.0-cil
12415   libmono-i18n-west2.0-cil libmono-posix2.0-cil
12416   libmono-security2.0-cil libmono-sharpzip2.84-cil
12417   libmono-system2.0-cil libmtp8 libmusicbrainz3-6
12418   libndesk-dbus-glib1.0-cil libndesk-dbus1.0-cil libopal3.6.8
12419   libpolkit-gtk-1-0 libpt-1.10.10-plugins-alsa
12420   libpt-1.10.10-plugins-v4l libpt2.6.7 libpython2.6 librpm1 librpmio1
12421   libsdl1.2debian libservlet2.4-java libsrtp0 libssh-4
12422   libtelepathy-farsight0 libtelepathy-glib0 libtidy-0.99-0
12423   libxalan2-java libxerces2-java media-player-info mesa-utils
12424   mono-2.0-gac mono-gac mono-runtime nautilus-sendto
12425   nautilus-sendto-empathy openoffice.org-writer2latex
12426   openssl-blacklist p7zip p7zip-full pkg-config python-4suite-xml
12427   python-aptdaemon python-aptdaemon-gtk python-axiom
12428   python-beautifulsoup python-bugbuddy python-clientform
12429   python-coherence python-configobj python-crypto python-cupshelpers
12430   python-cupsutils python-eggtrayicon python-elementtree
12431   python-epsilon python-evolution python-feedparser python-gdata
12432   python-gdbm python-gst0.10 python-gtkglext1 python-gtkmozembed
12433   python-gtksourceview2 python-httplib2 python-louie python-mako
12434   python-markupsafe python-mechanize python-nevow python-notify
12435   python-opengl python-openssl python-pam python-pkg-resources
12436   python-pyasn1 python-pysqlite2 python-rdflib python-serial
12437   python-tagpy python-twisted-bin python-twisted-conch
12438   python-twisted-core python-twisted-web python-utidylib python-webkit
12439   python-xdg python-zope.interface remmina remmina-plugin-data
12440   remmina-plugin-rdp remmina-plugin-vnc rhythmbox-plugin-cdrecorder
12441   rhythmbox-plugins rpm-common rpm2cpio seahorse-plugins shotwell
12442   software-center svgalibg1 system-config-printer-udev
12443   telepathy-gabble telepathy-mission-control-5 telepathy-salut tomboy
12444   totem totem-coherence totem-mozilla totem-plugins
12445   transmission-common xdg-user-dirs xdg-user-dirs-gtk xserver-xephyr
12446   zip
12447 </p></blockquote>
12448
12449 Installed using apt-get, removed with aptitude
12450
12451 <blockquote><p>
12452   arj bluez-utils cheese dhcdbd djvulibre-desktop ekiga eog
12453   epiphany-extensions epiphany-gecko evolution-exchange
12454   fast-user-switch-applet file-roller gcalctool gconf-editor gdm gedit
12455   gedit-common gnome-app-install gnome-games gnome-games-data
12456   gnome-nettool gnome-system-tools gnome-themes gnome-utils
12457   gnome-vfs-obexftp gnome-volume-manager gnuchess gucharmap
12458   guile-1.8-libs hal libavahi-compat-libdnssd1 libavahi-core5
12459   libavahi-ui0 libbind9-50 libbluetooth2 libcamel1.2-11 libcdio7
12460   libcucul0 libcurl3 libdirectfb-1.0-0 libdmx1 libdvdread3
12461   libedata-cal1.2-6 libedataserver1.2-9 libeel2-2.20 libepc-1.0-1
12462   libepc-ui-1.0-1 libexchange-storage1.2-3 libfaad0 libgadu3
12463   libgalago3 libgd2-noxpm libgda3-3 libgda3-common libggz2 libggzcore9
12464   libggzmod4 libgksu1.2-0 libgksuui1.0-1 libgmyth0 libgnome-desktop-2
12465   libgnome-pilot2 libgnomecups1.0-1 libgnomeprint2.2-0
12466   libgnomeprintui2.2-0 libgpod3 libgraphviz4 libgtk-vnc-1.0-0
12467   libgtkhtml2-0 libgtksourceview1.0-0 libgtksourceview2.0-0
12468   libgucharmap6 libhesiod0 libicu38 libisccc50 libisccfg50 libiw29
12469   libjaxp1.3-java-gcj libkpathsea4 liblircclient0 libltdl3 liblwres50
12470   libmagick++10 libmagick10 libmalaga7 libmozjs1d libmpfr1ldbl libmtp7
12471   libmysqlclient15off libnautilus-burn4 libneon27 libnm-glib0
12472   libnm-util0 libopal-2.2 libosp5 libparted1.8-10 libpisock9
12473   libpisync1 libpoppler-glib3 libpoppler3 libpt-1.10.10 libraw1394-8
12474   libsdl1.2debian-alsa libsensors3 libsexy2 libsmbios2 libsoup2.2-8
12475   libspeexdsp1 libssh2-1 libsuitesparse-3.1.0 libsvga1
12476   libswfdec-0.6-90 libtalloc1 libtotem-plparser10 libtrackerclient0
12477   libvoikko1 libxalan2-java-gcj libxerces2-java-gcj libxklavier12
12478   libxtrap6 libxxf86misc1 libzephyr3 mysql-common rhythmbox seahorse
12479   sound-juicer swfdec-gnome system-config-printer totem-common
12480   totem-gstreamer transmission-gtk vinagre vino w3c-dtd-xhtml wodim
12481 </p></blockquote>
12482
12483 <p>Installed using aptitude, missing with apt-get</p>
12484
12485 <blockquote><p>
12486   gstreamer0.10-gnomevfs
12487 </p></blockquote>
12488
12489 <p>Installed using aptitude, removed with apt-get</p>
12490
12491 <blockquote><p>
12492 [nothing]
12493 </p></blockquote>
12494
12495 <p>This is for KDE:</p>
12496
12497 <p>Installed using apt-get, missing with aptitude</p>
12498
12499 <blockquote><p>
12500   autopoint bomber bovo cantor cantor-backend-kalgebra cpp-4.3 dcoprss
12501   edict espeak espeak-data eyesapplet fifteenapplet finger gettext
12502   ghostscript-x git gnome-audio gnugo granatier gs-common
12503   gstreamer0.10-pulseaudio indi kaddressbook-plugins kalgebra
12504   kalzium-data kanjidic kapman kate-plugins kblocks kbreakout kbstate
12505   kde-icons-mono kdeaccessibility kdeaddons-kfile-plugins
12506   kdeadmin-kfile-plugins kdeartwork-misc kdeartwork-theme-window
12507   kdeedu kdeedu-data kdeedu-kvtml-data kdegames kdegames-card-data
12508   kdegames-mahjongg-data kdegraphics-kfile-plugins kdelirc
12509   kdemultimedia-kfile-plugins kdenetwork-kfile-plugins
12510   kdepim-kfile-plugins kdepim-kio-plugins kdessh kdetoys kdewebdev
12511   kdiamond kdnssd kfilereplace kfourinline kgeography-data kigo
12512   killbots kiriki klettres-data kmoon kmrml knewsticker-scripts
12513   kollision kpf krosspython ksirk ksmserver ksquares kstars-data
12514   ksudoku kubrick kweather libasound2-plugins libboost-python1.42.0
12515   libcfitsio3 libconvert-binhex-perl libcrypt-ssleay-perl libdb4.6++
12516   libdjvulibre-text libdotconf1.0 liberror-perl libespeak1
12517   libfinance-quote-perl libgail-common libgsl0ldbl libhtml-parser-perl
12518   libhtml-tableextract-perl libhtml-tagset-perl libhtml-tree-perl
12519   libio-stringy-perl libkdeedu4 libkdegames5 libkiten4 libkpathsea5
12520   libkrossui4 libmailtools-perl libmime-tools-perl
12521   libnews-nntpclient-perl libopenbabel3 libportaudio2 libpulse-browse0
12522   libservlet2.4-java libspeechd2 libtiff-tools libtimedate-perl
12523   libunistring0 liburi-perl libwww-perl libxalan2-java libxerces2-java
12524   lirc luatex marble networkstatus noatun-plugins
12525   openoffice.org-writer2latex palapeli palapeli-data parley
12526   parley-data poster psutils pulseaudio pulseaudio-esound-compat
12527   pulseaudio-module-x11 pulseaudio-utils quanta-data rocs rsync
12528   speech-dispatcher step svgalibg1 texlive-binaries texlive-luatex
12529   ttf-sazanami-gothic
12530 </p></blockquote>
12531
12532 <p>Installed using apt-get, removed with aptitude</p>
12533
12534 <blockquote><p>
12535   amor artsbuilder atlantik atlantikdesigner blinken bluez-utils cvs
12536   dhcdbd djvulibre-desktop imlib-base imlib11 kalzium kanagram kandy
12537   kasteroids katomic kbackgammon kbattleship kblackbox kbounce kbruch
12538   kcron kdat kdemultimedia-kappfinder-data kdeprint kdict kdvi kedit
12539   keduca kenolaba kfax kfaxview kfouleggs kgeography kghostview
12540   kgoldrunner khangman khexedit kiconedit kig kimagemapeditor
12541   kitchensync kiten kjumpingcube klatin klettres klickety klines
12542   klinkstatus kmag kmahjongg kmailcvt kmenuedit kmid kmilo kmines
12543   kmousetool kmouth kmplot knetwalk kodo kolf kommander konquest kooka
12544   kpager kpat kpdf kpercentage kpilot kpoker kpovmodeler krec
12545   kregexpeditor kreversi ksame ksayit kshisen ksig ksim ksirc ksirtet
12546   ksmiletris ksnake ksokoban kspaceduel kstars ksvg ksysv kteatime
12547   ktip ktnef ktouch ktron kttsd ktuberling kturtle ktux kuickshow
12548   kverbos kview kviewshell kvoctrain kwifimanager kwin kwin4 kwordquiz
12549   kworldclock kxsldbg libakode2 libarts1-akode libarts1-audiofile
12550   libarts1-mpeglib libarts1-xine libavahi-compat-libdnssd1
12551   libavahi-core5 libavc1394-0 libbind9-50 libbluetooth2
12552   libboost-python1.34.1 libcucul0 libcurl3 libcvsservice0
12553   libdirectfb-1.0-0 libdjvulibre21 libdvdread3 libfaad0 libfreebob0
12554   libgd2-noxpm libgraphviz4 libgsmme1c2a libgtkhtml2-0 libicu38
12555   libiec61883-0 libindex0 libisccc50 libisccfg50 libiw29
12556   libjaxp1.3-java-gcj libk3b3 libkcal2b libkcddb1 libkdeedu3
12557   libkdegames1 libkdepim1a libkgantt0 libkleopatra1 libkmime2
12558   libkpathsea4 libkpimexchange1 libkpimidentities1 libkscan1
12559   libksieve0 libktnef1 liblockdev1 libltdl3 liblwres50 libmagick10
12560   libmimelib1c2a libmodplug0c2 libmozjs1d libmpcdec3 libmpfr1ldbl
12561   libneon27 libnm-util0 libopensync0 libpisock9 libpoppler-glib3
12562   libpoppler-qt2 libpoppler3 libraw1394-8 librss1 libsensors3
12563   libsmbios2 libssh2-1 libsuitesparse-3.1.0 libswfdec-0.6-90
12564   libtalloc1 libxalan2-java-gcj libxerces2-java-gcj libxtrap6 lskat
12565   mpeglib network-manager-kde noatun pmount tex-common texlive-base
12566   texlive-common texlive-doc-base texlive-fonts-recommended tidy
12567   ttf-dustin ttf-kochi-gothic ttf-sjfonts
12568 </p></blockquote>
12569
12570 <p>Installed using aptitude, missing with apt-get</p>
12571
12572 <blockquote><p>
12573   dolphin kde-core kde-plasma-desktop kde-standard kde-window-manager
12574   kdeartwork kdebase kdebase-apps kdebase-workspace
12575   kdebase-workspace-bin kdebase-workspace-data kdeutils kscreensaver
12576   kscreensaver-xsavers libgle3 libkonq5 libkonq5-templates libnetpbm10
12577   netpbm plasma-widget-folderview plasma-widget-networkmanagement
12578   xscreensaver-data-extra xscreensaver-gl xscreensaver-gl-extra
12579   xscreensaver-screensaver-bsod
12580 </p></blockquote>
12581
12582 <p>Installed using aptitude, removed with apt-get</p>
12583
12584 <blockquote><p>
12585   kdebase-bin konq-plugins konqueror
12586 </p></blockquote>
12587
12588       </div>
12589       <div class="tags">
12590
12591
12592         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
12593
12594
12595       </div>
12596     </div>
12597     <div class="padding"></div>
12598
12599     <div class="entry">
12600       <div class="title">
12601         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Gnash_buildbot_slave_and_Debian_kfreebsd.html">Gnash buildbot slave and Debian kfreebsd</a>
12602       </div>
12603       <div class="date">
12604         20th November 2010
12605       </div>
12606       <div class="body">
12607         <p>Answering
12608 <a href="http://www.listware.net/201011/gnash-dev/67431-gnash-dev-buildbot-looking-for-slaves.html">the
12609 call from the Gnash project</a> for
12610 <a href="http://www.gnashdev.org:8010">buildbot</a> slaves to test the
12611 current source, I have set up a virtual KVM machine on the Debian
12612 Edu/Skolelinux virtualization host to test the git source on
12613 Debian/Squeeze.  I hope this can help the developers in getting new
12614 releases out more often.</p>
12615
12616 <p>As the developers want less main-stream build platforms tested to,
12617 I have considered setting up a <a
12618 href="http://www.debian.org/ports/kfreebsd-gnu/">Debian/kfreebsd</a>
12619 machine as well.  I have also considered using the kfreebsd
12620 architecture in Debian as a file server in NUUG to get access to the 5
12621 TB zfs volume we currently use to store DV video.  Because of this, I
12622 finally got around to do a test installation of Debian/Squeeze with
12623 kfreebsd.  Installation went fairly smooth, thought I noticed some
12624 visual glitches in the cdebconf dialogs (black cursor left on the
12625 screen at random locations).  Have not gotten very far with the
12626 testing.  Noticed cfdisk did not work, but fdisk did so it was not a
12627 fatal problem.  Have to spend some more time on it to see if it is
12628 useful as a file server for NUUG.  Will try to find time to set up a
12629 gnash buildbot slave on the Debian Edu/Skolelinux this weekend.</p>
12630
12631       </div>
12632       <div class="tags">
12633
12634
12635         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
12636
12637
12638       </div>
12639     </div>
12640     <div class="padding"></div>
12641
12642     <div class="entry">
12643       <div class="title">
12644         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_in_3D.html">Debian in 3D</a>
12645       </div>
12646       <div class="date">
12647          9th November 2010
12648       </div>
12649       <div class="body">
12650         <p><img src="http://thingiverse-production.s3.amazonaws.com/renders/23/e0/c4/f9/2b/debswagtdose_preview_medium.jpg"></p>
12651
12652 <p>3D printing is just great.  I just came across this Debian logo in
12653 3D linked in from
12654 <a href="http://blog.thingiverse.com/2010/11/09/participatory-branding/">the
12655 thingiverse blog</a>.</p>
12656
12657       </div>
12658       <div class="tags">
12659
12660
12661         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/3d-printer">3d-printer</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
12662
12663
12664       </div>
12665     </div>
12666     <div class="padding"></div>
12667
12668     <div class="entry">
12669       <div class="title">
12670         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Software_updates_2010_10_24.html">Software updates 2010-10-24</a>
12671       </div>
12672       <div class="date">
12673         24th October 2010
12674       </div>
12675       <div class="body">
12676         <p>Some updates.</p>
12677
12678 <p>My <a href="http://pledgebank.com/gnash-avm2">gnash pledge</a> to
12679 raise money for the project is going well.  The lower limit of 10
12680 signers was reached in 24 hours, and so far 13 people have signed it.
12681 More signers and more funding is most welcome, and I am really curious
12682 how far we can get before the time limit of December 24 is reached.
12683 :)</p>
12684
12685 <p>On the #gnash IRC channel on irc.freenode.net, I was just tipped
12686 about what appear to be a great code coverage tool capable of
12687 generating code coverage stats without any changes to the source code.
12688 It is called
12689 <a href="http://simonkagstrom.github.com/kcov/index.html">kcov</a>,
12690 and can be used using <tt>kcov &lt;directory&gt; &lt;binary&gt;</tt>.
12691 It is missing in Debian, but the git source built just fine in Squeeze
12692 after I installed libelf-dev, libdwarf-dev, pkg-config and
12693 libglib2.0-dev.  Failed to build in Lenny, but suspect that is
12694 solvable.  I hope kcov make it into Debian soon.</p>
12695
12696 <p>Finally found time to wrap up the release notes for <a
12697 href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-edu-announce/2010/10/msg00002.html">a
12698 new alpha release of Debian Edu</a>, and just published the second
12699 alpha test release of the Squeeze based Debian Edu /
12700 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Skolelinux</a>
12701 release.  Give it a try if you need a complete linux solution for your
12702 school, including central infrastructure server, workstations, thin
12703 client servers and diskless workstations.  A nice touch added
12704 yesterday is RDP support on the thin client servers, for windows
12705 clients to get a Linux desktop on request.</p>
12706
12707       </div>
12708       <div class="tags">
12709
12710
12711         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/multimedia">multimedia</a>.
12712
12713
12714       </div>
12715     </div>
12716     <div class="padding"></div>
12717
12718     <div class="entry">
12719       <div class="title">
12720         <a href="https://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>
12721       </div>
12722       <div class="date">
12723          4th September 2010
12724       </div>
12725       <div class="body">
12726         <p>In the <a href="http://popcon.debian.org/unknown/by_vote">Debian
12727 popularity-contest numbers</a>, the adobe-flashplugin package the
12728 second most popular used package that is missing in Debian.  The sixth
12729 most popular is flashplayer-mozilla.  This is a clear indication that
12730 working flash is important for Debian users.  Around 10 percent of the
12731 users submitting data to popcon.debian.org have this package
12732 installed.</p>
12733
12734 <p>In the report written by Lars Risan in August 2008
12735 («<a href="http://wiki.skolelinux.no/Dokumentasjon/Rapporter?action=AttachFile&do=view&target=Skolelinux_i_bruk_rapport_1.0.pdf">Skolelinux
12736 i bruk – Rapport for Hurum kommune, Universitetet i Agder og
12737 stiftelsen SLX Debian Labs</a>»), one of the most important problems
12738 schools experienced with <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian
12739 Edu/Skolelinux</a> was the lack of working Flash.  A lot of educational
12740 web sites require Flash to work, and lacking working Flash support in
12741 the web browser and the problems with installing it was perceived as a
12742 good reason to stay with Windows.</p>
12743
12744 <p>I once saw a funny and sad comment in a web forum, where Linux was
12745 said to be the retarded cousin that did not really understand
12746 everything you told him but could work fairly well.  This was a
12747 comment regarding the problems Linux have with proprietary formats and
12748 non-standard web pages, and is sad because it exposes a fairly common
12749 understanding of whose fault it is if web pages that only work in for
12750 example Internet Explorer 6 fail to work on Firefox, and funny because
12751 it explain very well how annoying it is for users when Linux
12752 distributions do not work with the documents they receive or the web
12753 pages they want to visit.</p>
12754
12755 <p>This is part of the reason why I believe it is important for Debian
12756 and Debian Edu to have a well working Flash implementation in the
12757 distribution, to get at least popular sites as Youtube and Google
12758 Video to working out of the box.  For Squeeze, Debian have the chance
12759 to include the latest version of Gnash that will make this happen, as
12760 the new release 0.8.8 was published a few weeks ago and is resting in
12761 unstable.  The new version work with more sites that version 0.8.7.
12762 The Gnash maintainers have asked for a freeze exception, but the
12763 release team have not had time to reply to it yet.  I hope they agree
12764 with me that Flash is important for the Debian desktop users, and thus
12765 accept the new package into Squeeze.</p>
12766
12767       </div>
12768       <div class="tags">
12769
12770
12771         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/multimedia">multimedia</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/video">video</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/web">web</a>.
12772
12773
12774       </div>
12775     </div>
12776     <div class="padding"></div>
12777
12778     <div class="entry">
12779       <div class="title">
12780         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Circular_package_dependencies_harms_apt_recovery.html">Circular package dependencies harms apt recovery</a>
12781       </div>
12782       <div class="date">
12783         27th July 2010
12784       </div>
12785       <div class="body">
12786         <p>I discovered this while doing
12787 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Automatic_upgrade_testing_from_Lenny_to_Squeeze.html">automated
12788 testing of upgrades from Debian Lenny to Squeeze</a>.  A few packages
12789 in Debian still got circular dependencies, and it is often claimed
12790 that apt and aptitude should be able to handle this just fine, but
12791 some times these dependency loops causes apt to fail.</p>
12792
12793 <p>An example is from todays
12794 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/~pere/debian-upgrade-testing//test-20100727-lenny-squeeze-kde-aptitude.txt">upgrade
12795 of KDE using aptitude</a>.  In it, a bug in kdebase-workspace-data
12796 causes perl-modules to fail to upgrade.  The cause is simple.  If a
12797 package fail to unpack, then only part of packages with the circular
12798 dependency might end up being unpacked when unpacking aborts, and the
12799 ones already unpacked will fail to configure in the recovery phase
12800 because its dependencies are unavailable.</p>
12801
12802 <p>In this log, the problem manifest itself with this error:</p>
12803
12804 <blockquote><pre>
12805 dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of perl-modules:
12806  perl-modules depends on perl (>= 5.10.1-1); however:
12807   Version of perl on system is 5.10.0-19lenny2.
12808 dpkg: error processing perl-modules (--configure):
12809  dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
12810 </pre></blockquote>
12811
12812 <p>The perl/perl-modules circular dependency is already
12813 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/527917">reported as a bug</a>, and will
12814 hopefully be solved as soon as possible, but it is not the only one,
12815 and each one of these loops in the dependency tree can cause similar
12816 failures.  Of course, they only occur when there are bugs in other
12817 packages causing the unpacking to fail, but it is rather nasty when
12818 the failure of one package causes the problem to become worse because
12819 of dependency loops.</p>
12820
12821 <p>Thanks to
12822 <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2010/06/msg00116.html">the
12823 tireless effort by Bill Allombert</a>, the number of circular
12824 dependencies
12825 <a href="http://debian.semistable.com/debgraph.out.html">left in Debian
12826 is dropping</a>, and perhaps it will reach zero one day. :)</p>
12827
12828 <p>Todays testing also exposed a bug in
12829 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/590605">update-notifier</a> and
12830 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/590604">different behaviour</a> between
12831 apt-get and aptitude, the latter possibly caused by some circular
12832 dependency.  Reported both to BTS to try to get someone to look at
12833 it.</p>
12834
12835       </div>
12836       <div class="tags">
12837
12838
12839         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
12840
12841
12842       </div>
12843     </div>
12844     <div class="padding"></div>
12845
12846     <div class="entry">
12847       <div class="title">
12848         <a href="https://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>
12849       </div>
12850       <div class="date">
12851         17th July 2010
12852       </div>
12853       <div class="body">
12854         <p>This is a
12855 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Time_for_new__LDAP_schemas_replacing_RFC_2307_.html">followup</a>
12856 on my
12857 <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
12858 work</a> on
12859 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Combining_PowerDNS_and_ISC_DHCP_LDAP_objects.html">merging
12860 all</a> the computer related LDAP objects in Debian Edu.</p>
12861
12862 <p>As a step to try to see if it possible to merge the DNS and DHCP
12863 LDAP objects, I have had a look at how the packages pdns-backend-ldap
12864 and dhcp3-server-ldap in Debian use the LDAP server.  The two
12865 implementations are quite different in how they use LDAP.</p>
12866
12867 To get this information, I started slapd with debugging enabled and
12868 dumped the debug output to a file to get the LDAP searches performed
12869 on a Debian Edu main-server.  Here is a summary.
12870
12871 <p><strong>powerdns</strong></p>
12872
12873 <a href="http://www.linuxnetworks.de/doc/index.php/PowerDNS_LDAP_Backend">Clues
12874 on how to</a> set up PowerDNS to use a LDAP backend is available on
12875 the web.
12876
12877 <p>PowerDNS have two modes of operation using LDAP as its backend.
12878 One "strict" mode where the forward and reverse DNS lookups are done
12879 using the same LDAP objects, and a "tree" mode where the forward and
12880 reverse entries are in two different subtrees in LDAP with a structure
12881 based on the DNS names, as in tjener.intern and
12882 2.2.0.10.in-addr.arpa.</p>
12883
12884 <p>In tree mode, the server is set up to use a LDAP subtree as its
12885 base, and uses a "base" scoped search for the DNS name by adding
12886 "dc=tjener,dc=intern," to the base with a filter for
12887 "(associateddomain=tjener.intern)" for the forward entry and
12888 "dc=2,dc=2,dc=0,dc=10,dc=in-addr,dc=arpa," with a filter for
12889 "(associateddomain=2.2.0.10.in-addr.arpa)" for the reverse entry.  For
12890 forward entries, it is looking for attributes named dnsttl, arecord,
12891 nsrecord, cnamerecord, soarecord, ptrrecord, hinforecord, mxrecord,
12892 txtrecord, rprecord, afsdbrecord, keyrecord, aaaarecord, locrecord,
12893 srvrecord, naptrrecord, kxrecord, certrecord, dsrecord, sshfprecord,
12894 ipseckeyrecord, rrsigrecord, nsecrecord, dnskeyrecord, dhcidrecord,
12895 spfrecord and modifytimestamp.  For reverse entries it is looking for
12896 the attributes dnsttl, arecord, nsrecord, cnamerecord, soarecord,
12897 ptrrecord, hinforecord, mxrecord, txtrecord, rprecord, aaaarecord,
12898 locrecord, srvrecord, naptrrecord and modifytimestamp.  The equivalent
12899 ldapsearch commands could look like this:</p>
12900
12901 <blockquote><pre>
12902 ldapsearch -h ldap \
12903   -b dc=tjener,dc=intern,ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no \
12904   -s base -x '(associateddomain=tjener.intern)' dNSTTL aRecord nSRecord \
12905   cNAMERecord sOARecord pTRRecord hInfoRecord mXRecord tXTRecord \
12906   rPRecord aFSDBRecord KeyRecord aAAARecord lOCRecord sRVRecord \
12907   nAPTRRecord kXRecord certRecord dSRecord sSHFPRecord iPSecKeyRecord \
12908   rRSIGRecord nSECRecord dNSKeyRecord dHCIDRecord sPFRecord modifyTimestamp
12909
12910 ldapsearch -h ldap \
12911   -b dc=2,dc=2,dc=0,dc=10,dc=in-addr,dc=arpa,ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no \
12912   -s base -x '(associateddomain=2.2.0.10.in-addr.arpa)'
12913   dnsttl, arecord, nsrecord, cnamerecord soarecord ptrrecord \
12914   hinforecord mxrecord txtrecord rprecord aaaarecord locrecord \
12915   srvrecord naptrrecord modifytimestamp
12916 </pre></blockquote>
12917
12918 <p>In Debian Edu/Lenny, the PowerDNS tree mode is used with
12919 ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no as the base, and these are two
12920 example LDAP objects used there.  In addition to these objects, the
12921 parent objects all th way up to ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
12922 also exist.</p>
12923
12924 <blockquote><pre>
12925 dn: dc=tjener,dc=intern,ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
12926 objectclass: top
12927 objectclass: dnsdomain
12928 objectclass: domainrelatedobject
12929 dc: tjener
12930 arecord: 10.0.2.2
12931 associateddomain: tjener.intern
12932
12933 dn: dc=2,dc=2,dc=0,dc=10,dc=in-addr,dc=arpa,ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
12934 objectclass: top
12935 objectclass: dnsdomain2
12936 objectclass: domainrelatedobject
12937 dc: 2
12938 ptrrecord: tjener.intern
12939 associateddomain: 2.2.0.10.in-addr.arpa
12940 </pre></blockquote>
12941
12942 <p>In strict mode, the server behaves differently.  When looking for
12943 forward DNS entries, it is doing a "subtree" scoped search with the
12944 same base as in the tree mode for a object with filter
12945 "(associateddomain=tjener.intern)" and requests the attributes dnsttl,
12946 arecord, nsrecord, cnamerecord, soarecord, ptrrecord, hinforecord,
12947 mxrecord, txtrecord, rprecord, aaaarecord, locrecord, srvrecord,
12948 naptrrecord and modifytimestamp.  For reverse entires it also do a
12949 subtree scoped search but this time the filter is "(arecord=10.0.2.2)"
12950 and the requested attributes are associateddomain, dnsttl and
12951 modifytimestamp.  In short, in strict mode the objects with ptrrecord
12952 go away, and the arecord attribute in the forward object is used
12953 instead.</p>
12954
12955 <p>The forward and reverse searches can be simulated using ldapsearch
12956 like this:</p>
12957
12958 <blockquote><pre>
12959 ldapsearch -h ldap -b ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no -s sub -x \
12960   '(associateddomain=tjener.intern)' dNSTTL aRecord nSRecord \
12961   cNAMERecord sOARecord pTRRecord hInfoRecord mXRecord tXTRecord \
12962   rPRecord aFSDBRecord KeyRecord aAAARecord lOCRecord sRVRecord \
12963   nAPTRRecord kXRecord certRecord dSRecord sSHFPRecord iPSecKeyRecord \
12964   rRSIGRecord nSECRecord dNSKeyRecord dHCIDRecord sPFRecord modifyTimestamp
12965
12966 ldapsearch -h ldap -b ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no -s sub -x \
12967   '(arecord=10.0.2.2)' associateddomain dnsttl modifytimestamp
12968 </pre></blockquote>
12969
12970 <p>In addition to the forward and reverse searches , there is also a
12971 search for SOA records, which behave similar to the forward and
12972 reverse lookups.</p>
12973
12974 <p>A thing to note with the PowerDNS behaviour is that it do not
12975 specify any objectclass names, and instead look for the attributes it
12976 need to generate a DNS reply.  This make it able to work with any
12977 objectclass that provide the needed attributes.</p>
12978
12979 <p>The attributes are normally provided in the cosine (RFC 1274) and
12980 dnsdomain2 schemas.  The latter is used for reverse entries like
12981 ptrrecord and recent DNS additions like aaaarecord and srvrecord.</p>
12982
12983 <p>In Debian Edu, we have created DNS objects using the object classes
12984 dcobject (for dc), dnsdomain or dnsdomain2 (structural, for the DNS
12985 attributes) and domainrelatedobject (for associatedDomain).  The use
12986 of structural object classes make it impossible to combine these
12987 classes with the object classes used by DHCP.</p>
12988
12989 <p>There are other schemas that could be used too, for example the
12990 dnszone structural object class used by Gosa and bind-sdb for the DNS
12991 attributes combined with the domainrelatedobject object class, but in
12992 this case some unused attributes would have to be included as well
12993 (zonename and relativedomainname).</p>
12994
12995 <p>My proposal for Debian Edu would be to switch PowerDNS to strict
12996 mode and not use any of the existing objectclasses (dnsdomain,
12997 dnsdomain2 and dnszone) when one want to combine the DNS information
12998 with DHCP information, and instead create a auxiliary object class
12999 defined something like this (using the attributes defined for
13000 dnsdomain and dnsdomain2 or dnszone):</p>
13001
13002 <blockquote><pre>
13003 objectclass ( some-oid NAME 'dnsDomainAux'
13004     SUP top
13005     AUXILIARY
13006     MAY ( ARecord $ MDRecord $ MXRecord $ NSRecord $ SOARecord $ CNAMERecord $
13007           DNSTTL $ DNSClass $ PTRRecord $ HINFORecord $ MINFORecord $
13008           TXTRecord $ SIGRecord $ KEYRecord $ AAAARecord $ LOCRecord $
13009           NXTRecord $ SRVRecord $ NAPTRRecord $ KXRecord $ CERTRecord $
13010           A6Record $ DNAMERecord
13011     ))
13012 </pre></blockquote>
13013
13014 <p>This will allow any object to become a DNS entry when combined with
13015 the domainrelatedobject object class, and allow any entity to include
13016 all the attributes PowerDNS wants.  I've sent an email to the PowerDNS
13017 developers asking for their view on this schema and if they are
13018 interested in providing such schema with PowerDNS, and I hope my
13019 message will be accepted into their mailing list soon.</p>
13020
13021 <p><strong>ISC dhcp</strong></p>
13022
13023 <p>The DHCP server searches for specific objectclass and requests all
13024 the object attributes, and then uses the attributes it want.  This
13025 make it harder to figure out exactly what attributes are used, but
13026 thanks to the working example in Debian Edu I can at least get an idea
13027 what is needed without having to read the source code.</p>
13028
13029 <p>In the DHCP server configuration, the LDAP base to use and the
13030 search filter to use to locate the correct dhcpServer entity is
13031 stored.  These are the relevant entries from
13032 /etc/dhcp3/dhcpd.conf:</p>
13033
13034 <blockquote><pre>
13035 ldap-base-dn "dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no";
13036 ldap-dhcp-server-cn "dhcp";
13037 </pre></blockquote>
13038
13039 <p>The DHCP server uses this information to nest all the DHCP
13040 configuration it need.  The cn "dhcp" is located using the given LDAP
13041 base and the filter "(&(objectClass=dhcpServer)(cn=dhcp))".  The
13042 search result is this entry:</p>
13043
13044 <blockquote><pre>
13045 dn: cn=dhcp,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
13046 cn: dhcp
13047 objectClass: top
13048 objectClass: dhcpServer
13049 dhcpServiceDN: cn=DHCP Config,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
13050 </pre></blockquote>
13051
13052 <p>The content of the dhcpServiceDN attribute is next used to locate the
13053 subtree with DHCP configuration.  The DHCP configuration subtree base
13054 is located using a base scope search with base "cn=DHCP
13055 Config,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no" and filter
13056 "(&(objectClass=dhcpService)(|(dhcpPrimaryDN=cn=dhcp,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no)(dhcpSecondaryDN=cn=dhcp,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no)))".
13057 The search result is this entry:</p>
13058
13059 <blockquote><pre>
13060 dn: cn=DHCP Config,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
13061 cn: DHCP Config
13062 objectClass: top
13063 objectClass: dhcpService
13064 objectClass: dhcpOptions
13065 dhcpPrimaryDN: cn=dhcp, dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
13066 dhcpStatements: ddns-update-style none
13067 dhcpStatements: authoritative
13068 dhcpOption: smtp-server code 69 = array of ip-address
13069 dhcpOption: www-server code 72 = array of ip-address
13070 dhcpOption: wpad-url code 252 = text
13071 </pre></blockquote>
13072
13073 <p>Next, the entire subtree is processed, one level at the time.  When
13074 all the DHCP configuration is loaded, it is ready to receive requests.
13075 The subtree in Debian Edu contain objects with object classes
13076 top/dhcpService/dhcpOptions, top/dhcpSharedNetwork/dhcpOptions,
13077 top/dhcpSubnet, top/dhcpGroup and top/dhcpHost.  These provide options
13078 and information about netmasks, dynamic range etc.  Leaving out the
13079 details here because it is not relevant for the focus of my
13080 investigation, which is to see if it is possible to merge dns and dhcp
13081 related computer objects.</p>
13082
13083 <p>When a DHCP request come in, LDAP is searched for the MAC address
13084 of the client (00:00:00:00:00:00 in this example), using a subtree
13085 scoped search with "cn=DHCP Config,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no" as
13086 the base and "(&(objectClass=dhcpHost)(dhcpHWAddress=ethernet
13087 00:00:00:00:00:00))" as the filter.  This is what a host object look
13088 like:</p>
13089
13090 <blockquote><pre>
13091 dn: cn=hostname,cn=group1,cn=THINCLIENTS,cn=DHCP Config,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
13092 cn: hostname
13093 objectClass: top
13094 objectClass: dhcpHost
13095 dhcpHWAddress: ethernet 00:00:00:00:00:00
13096 dhcpStatements: fixed-address hostname
13097 </pre></blockquote>
13098
13099 <p>There is less flexiblity in the way LDAP searches are done here.
13100 The object classes need to have fixed names, and the configuration
13101 need to be stored in a fairly specific LDAP structure.  On the
13102 positive side, the invidiual dhcpHost entires can be anywhere without
13103 the DN pointed to by the dhcpServer entries.  The latter should make
13104 it possible to group all host entries in a subtree next to the
13105 configuration entries, and this subtree can also be shared with the
13106 DNS server if the schema proposed above is combined with the dhcpHost
13107 structural object class.
13108
13109 <p><strong>Conclusion</strong></p>
13110
13111 <p>The PowerDNS implementation seem to be very flexible when it come
13112 to which LDAP schemas to use.  While its "tree" mode is rigid when it
13113 come to the the LDAP structure, the "strict" mode is very flexible,
13114 allowing DNS objects to be stored anywhere under the base cn specified
13115 in the configuration.</p>
13116
13117 <p>The DHCP implementation on the other hand is very inflexible, both
13118 regarding which LDAP schemas to use and which LDAP structure to use.
13119 I guess one could implement ones own schema, as long as the
13120 objectclasses and attributes have the names used, but this do not
13121 really help when the DHCP subtree need to have a fairly fixed
13122 structure.</p>
13123
13124 <p>Based on the observed behaviour, I suspect a LDAP structure like
13125 this might work for Debian Edu:</p>
13126
13127 <blockquote><pre>
13128 ou=services
13129   cn=machine-info (dhcpService) - dhcpServiceDN points here
13130     cn=dhcp (dhcpServer)
13131     cn=dhcp-internal (dhcpSharedNetwork/dhcpOptions)
13132       cn=10.0.2.0 (dhcpSubnet)
13133         cn=group1 (dhcpGroup/dhcpOptions)
13134     cn=dhcp-thinclients (dhcpSharedNetwork/dhcpOptions)
13135       cn=192.168.0.0 (dhcpSubnet)
13136         cn=group1 (dhcpGroup/dhcpOptions)
13137     ou=machines - PowerDNS base points here
13138       cn=hostname (dhcpHost/domainrelatedobject/dnsDomainAux)
13139 </pre></blockquote>
13140
13141 <P>This is not tested yet.  If the DHCP server require the dhcpHost
13142 entries to be in the dhcpGroup subtrees, the entries can be stored
13143 there instead of a common machines subtree, and the PowerDNS base
13144 would have to be moved one level up to the machine-info subtree.</p>
13145
13146 <p>The combined object under the machines subtree would look something
13147 like this:</p>
13148
13149 <blockquote><pre>
13150 dn: dc=hostname,ou=machines,cn=machine-info,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
13151 dc: hostname
13152 objectClass: top
13153 objectClass: dhcpHost
13154 objectclass: domainrelatedobject
13155 objectclass: dnsDomainAux
13156 associateddomain: hostname.intern
13157 arecord: 10.11.12.13
13158 dhcpHWAddress: ethernet 00:00:00:00:00:00
13159 dhcpStatements: fixed-address hostname.intern
13160 </pre></blockquote>
13161
13162 </p>One could even add the LTSP configuration associated with a given
13163 machine, as long as the required attributes are available in a
13164 auxiliary object class.</p>
13165
13166       </div>
13167       <div class="tags">
13168
13169
13170         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ldap">ldap</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
13171
13172
13173       </div>
13174     </div>
13175     <div class="padding"></div>
13176
13177     <div class="entry">
13178       <div class="title">
13179         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Combining_PowerDNS_and_ISC_DHCP_LDAP_objects.html">Combining PowerDNS and ISC DHCP LDAP objects</a>
13180       </div>
13181       <div class="date">
13182         14th July 2010
13183       </div>
13184       <div class="body">
13185         <p>For a while now, I have wanted to find a way to change the DNS and
13186 DHCP services in Debian Edu to use the same LDAP objects for a given
13187 computer, to avoid the possibility of having a inconsistent state for
13188 a computer in LDAP (as in DHCP but no DNS entry or the other way
13189 around) and make it easier to add computers to LDAP.</p>
13190
13191 <p>I've looked at how powerdns and dhcpd is using LDAP, and using this
13192 information finally found a solution that seem to work.</p>
13193
13194 <p>The old setup required three LDAP objects for a given computer.
13195 One forward DNS entry, one reverse DNS entry and one DHCP entry.  If
13196 we switch powerdns to use its strict LDAP method (ldap-method=strict
13197 in pdns-debian-edu.conf), the forward and reverse DNS entries are
13198 merged into one while making it impossible to transfer the reverse map
13199 to a slave DNS server.</p>
13200
13201 <p>If we also replace the object class used to get the DNS related
13202 attributes to one allowing these attributes to be combined with the
13203 dhcphost object class, we can merge the DNS and DHCP entries into one.
13204 I've written such object class in the dnsdomainaux.schema file (need
13205 proper OIDs, but that is a minor issue), and tested the setup.  It
13206 seem to work.</p>
13207
13208 <p>With this test setup in place, we can get away with one LDAP object
13209 for both DNS and DHCP, and even the LTSP configuration I suggested in
13210 an earlier email.  The combined LDAP object will look something like
13211 this:</p>
13212
13213 <blockquote><pre>
13214   dn: cn=hostname,cn=group1,cn=THINCLIENTS,cn=DHCP Config,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
13215   cn: hostname
13216   objectClass: dhcphost
13217   objectclass: domainrelatedobject
13218   objectclass: dnsdomainaux
13219   associateddomain: hostname.intern
13220   arecord: 10.11.12.13
13221   dhcphwaddress: ethernet 00:00:00:00:00:00
13222   dhcpstatements: fixed-address hostname
13223   ldapconfigsound: Y
13224 </pre></blockquote>
13225
13226 <p>The DNS server uses the associateddomain and arecord entries, while
13227 the DHCP server uses the dhcphwaddress and dhcpstatements entries
13228 before asking DNS to resolve the fixed-adddress.  LTSP will use
13229 dhcphwaddress or associateddomain and the ldapconfig* attributes.</p>
13230
13231 <p>I am not yet sure if I can get the DHCP server to look for its
13232 dhcphost in a different location, to allow us to put the objects
13233 outside the "DHCP Config" subtree, but hope to figure out a way to do
13234 that.  If I can't figure out a way to do that, we can still get rid of
13235 the hosts subtree and move all its content into the DHCP Config tree
13236 (which probably should be renamed to be more related to the new
13237 content.  I suspect cn=dnsdhcp,ou=services or something like that
13238 might be a good place to put it.</p>
13239
13240 <p>If you want to help out with implementing this for Debian Edu,
13241 please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.</p>
13242
13243       </div>
13244       <div class="tags">
13245
13246
13247         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ldap">ldap</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
13248
13249
13250       </div>
13251     </div>
13252     <div class="padding"></div>
13253
13254     <div class="entry">
13255       <div class="title">
13256         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Idea_for_storing_LTSP_configuration_in_LDAP.html">Idea for storing LTSP configuration in LDAP</a>
13257       </div>
13258       <div class="date">
13259         11th July 2010
13260       </div>
13261       <div class="body">
13262         <p>Vagrant mentioned on IRC today that ltsp_config now support
13263 sourcing files from /usr/share/ltsp/ltsp_config.d/ on the thin
13264 clients, and that this can be used to fetch configuration from LDAP if
13265 Debian Edu choose to store configuration there.</p>
13266
13267 <p>Armed with this information, I got inspired and wrote a test module
13268 to get configuration from LDAP.  The idea is to look up the MAC
13269 address of the client in LDAP, and look for attributes on the form
13270 ltspconfigsetting=value, and use this to export SETTING=value to the
13271 LTSP clients.</p>
13272
13273 <p>The goal is to be able to store the LTSP configuration attributes
13274 in a "computer" LDAP object used by both DNS and DHCP, and thus
13275 allowing us to store all information about a computer in one place.</p>
13276
13277 <p>This is a untested draft implementation, and I welcome feedback on
13278 this approach.  A real LDAP schema for the ltspClientAux objectclass
13279 need to be written.  Comments, suggestions, etc?</p>
13280
13281 <blockquote><pre>
13282 # Store in /opt/ltsp/$arch/usr/share/ltsp/ltsp_config.d/ldap-config
13283 #
13284 # Fetch LTSP client settings from LDAP based on MAC address
13285 #
13286 # Uses ethernet address as stored in the dhcpHost objectclass using
13287 # the dhcpHWAddress attribute or ethernet address stored in the
13288 # ieee802Device objectclass with the macAddress attribute.
13289 #
13290 # This module is written to be schema agnostic, and only depend on the
13291 # existence of attribute names.
13292 #
13293 # The LTSP configuration variables are saved directly using a
13294 # ltspConfig prefix and uppercasing the rest of the attribute name.
13295 # To set the SERVER variable, set the ltspConfigServer attribute.
13296 #
13297 # Some LDAP schema should be created with all the relevant
13298 # configuration settings.  Something like this should work:
13299 #
13300 # objectclass ( 1.1.2.2 NAME 'ltspClientAux'
13301 #     SUP top
13302 #     AUXILIARY
13303 #     MAY ( ltspConfigServer $ ltsConfigSound $ ... )
13304
13305 LDAPSERVER=$(debian-edu-ldapserver)
13306 if [ "$LDAPSERVER" ] ; then
13307     LDAPBASE=$(debian-edu-ldapserver -b)
13308     for MAC in $(LANG=C ifconfig |grep -i hwaddr| awk '{print $5}'|sort -u) ; do
13309         filter="(|(dhcpHWAddress=ethernet $MAC)(macAddress=$MAC))"
13310         ldapsearch -h "$LDAPSERVER" -b "$LDAPBASE" -v -x "$filter" | \
13311             grep '^ltspConfig' | while read attr value ; do
13312             # Remove prefix and convert to upper case
13313             attr=$(echo $attr | sed 's/^ltspConfig//i' | tr a-z A-Z)
13314             # bass value on to clients
13315             eval "$attr=$value; export $attr"
13316         done
13317     done
13318 fi
13319 </pre></blockquote>
13320
13321 <p>I'm not sure this shell construction will work, because I suspect
13322 the while block might end up in a subshell causing the variables set
13323 there to not show up in ltsp-config, but if that is the case I am sure
13324 the code can be restructured to make sure the variables are passed on.
13325 I expect that can be solved with some testing. :)</p>
13326
13327 <p>If you want to help out with implementing this for Debian Edu,
13328 please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.</p>
13329
13330 <p>Update 2010-07-17: I am aware of another effort to store LTSP
13331 configuration in LDAP that was created around year 2000 by
13332 <a href="http://www.pcxperience.com/thinclient/documentation/ldap.html">PC
13333 Xperience, Inc., 2000</a>.  I found its
13334 <a href="http://people.redhat.com/alikins/ltsp/ldap/">files</a> on a
13335 personal home page over at redhat.com.</p>
13336
13337       </div>
13338       <div class="tags">
13339
13340
13341         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ldap">ldap</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
13342
13343
13344       </div>
13345     </div>
13346     <div class="padding"></div>
13347
13348     <div class="entry">
13349       <div class="title">
13350         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/jXplorer__a_very_nice_LDAP_GUI.html">jXplorer, a very nice LDAP GUI</a>
13351       </div>
13352       <div class="date">
13353          9th July 2010
13354       </div>
13355       <div class="body">
13356         <p>Since
13357 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/LUMA__a_very_nice_LDAP_GUI.html">my
13358 last post</a> about available LDAP tools in Debian, I was told about a
13359 LDAP GUI that is even better than luma.  The java application
13360 <a href="http://jxplorer.org/">jXplorer</a> is claimed to be capable of
13361 moving LDAP objects and subtrees using drag-and-drop, and can
13362 authenticate using Kerberos.  I have only tested the Kerberos
13363 authentication, but do not have a LDAP setup allowing me to rewrite
13364 LDAP with my test user yet.  It is
13365 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/j/jxplorer.html">available in
13366 Debian</a> testing and unstable at the moment.  The only problem I
13367 have with it is how it handle errors.  If something go wrong, its
13368 non-intuitive behaviour require me to go through some query work list
13369 and remove the failing query.  Nothing big, but very annoying.</p>
13370
13371       </div>
13372       <div class="tags">
13373
13374
13375         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ldap">ldap</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
13376
13377
13378       </div>
13379     </div>
13380     <div class="padding"></div>
13381
13382     <div class="entry">
13383       <div class="title">
13384         <a href="https://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>
13385       </div>
13386       <div class="date">
13387          3rd July 2010
13388       </div>
13389       <div class="body">
13390         <p>Here is a short update on my <a
13391 href="http://people.skolelinux.org/~pere/debian-upgrade-testing/">my
13392 Debian Lenny->Squeeze upgrade testing</a>.  Here is a summary of the
13393 difference for Gnome when it is upgraded by apt-get and aptitude.  I'm
13394 not reporting the status for KDE, because the upgrade crashes when
13395 aptitude try because of missing conflicts
13396 (<a href="http://bugs.debian.org/584861">#584861</a> and
13397 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/585716">#585716</a>).</p>
13398
13399 <p>At the end of the upgrade test script, dpkg -l is executed to get a
13400 complete list of the installed packages.  Based on this I see these
13401 differences when I did a test run today.  As usual, I do not really
13402 know what the correct set of packages would be, but thought it best to
13403 publish the difference.</p>
13404
13405 <p>Installed using apt-get, missing with aptitude</p>
13406
13407 <blockquote><p>
13408   at-spi cpp-4.3 finger gnome-spell gstreamer0.10-gnomevfs
13409   libatspi1.0-0 libcupsys2 libeel2-data libgail-common libgdl-1-common
13410   libgnomeprint2.2-data libgnomeprintui2.2-common libgnomevfs2-bin
13411   libgtksourceview-common libpt-1.10.10-plugins-alsa
13412   libpt-1.10.10-plugins-v4l libservlet2.4-java libxalan2-java
13413   libxerces2-java openoffice.org-writer2latex openssl-blacklist p7zip
13414   python-4suite-xml python-eggtrayicon python-gtkhtml2
13415   python-gtkmozembed svgalibg1 xserver-xephyr zip
13416 </p></blockquote>
13417
13418 <p>Installed using apt-get, removed with aptitude</p>
13419
13420 <blockquote><p>
13421   bluez-utils dhcdbd djvulibre-desktop epiphany-gecko
13422   gnome-app-install gnome-mount gnome-vfs-obexftp gnome-volume-manager
13423   libao2 libavahi-compat-libdnssd1 libavahi-core5 libbind9-50
13424   libbluetooth2 libcamel1.2-11 libcdio7 libcucul0 libcurl3
13425   libdirectfb-1.0-0 libdvdread3 libedata-cal1.2-6 libedataserver1.2-9
13426   libeel2-2.20 libepc-1.0-1 libepc-ui-1.0-1 libexchange-storage1.2-3
13427   libfaad0 libgd2-noxpm libgda3-3 libgda3-common libggz2 libggzcore9
13428   libggzmod4 libgksu1.2-0 libgksuui1.0-1 libgmyth0 libgnome-desktop-2
13429   libgnome-pilot2 libgnomecups1.0-1 libgnomeprint2.2-0
13430   libgnomeprintui2.2-0 libgpod3 libgraphviz4 libgtkhtml2-0
13431   libgtksourceview1.0-0 libgucharmap6 libhesiod0 libicu38 libisccc50
13432   libisccfg50 libiw29 libkpathsea4 libltdl3 liblwres50 libmagick++10
13433   libmagick10 libmalaga7 libmtp7 libmysqlclient15off libnautilus-burn4
13434   libneon27 libnm-glib0 libnm-util0 libopal-2.2 libosp5
13435   libparted1.8-10 libpisock9 libpisync1 libpoppler-glib3 libpoppler3
13436   libpt-1.10.10 libraw1394-8 libsensors3 libsmbios2 libsoup2.2-8
13437   libssh2-1 libsuitesparse-3.1.0 libswfdec-0.6-90 libtalloc1
13438   libtotem-plparser10 libtrackerclient0 libvoikko1 libxalan2-java-gcj
13439   libxerces2-java-gcj libxklavier12 libxtrap6 libxxf86misc1 libzephyr3
13440   mysql-common swfdec-gnome totem-gstreamer wodim
13441 </p></blockquote>
13442
13443 <p>Installed using aptitude, missing with apt-get</p>
13444
13445 <blockquote><p>
13446   gnome gnome-desktop-environment hamster-applet python-gnomeapplet
13447   python-gnomekeyring python-wnck rhythmbox-plugins xorg
13448   xserver-xorg-input-all xserver-xorg-input-evdev
13449   xserver-xorg-input-kbd xserver-xorg-input-mouse
13450   xserver-xorg-input-synaptics xserver-xorg-video-all
13451   xserver-xorg-video-apm xserver-xorg-video-ark xserver-xorg-video-ati
13452   xserver-xorg-video-chips xserver-xorg-video-cirrus
13453   xserver-xorg-video-dummy xserver-xorg-video-fbdev
13454   xserver-xorg-video-glint xserver-xorg-video-i128
13455   xserver-xorg-video-i740 xserver-xorg-video-mach64
13456   xserver-xorg-video-mga xserver-xorg-video-neomagic
13457   xserver-xorg-video-nouveau xserver-xorg-video-nv
13458   xserver-xorg-video-r128 xserver-xorg-video-radeon
13459   xserver-xorg-video-radeonhd xserver-xorg-video-rendition
13460   xserver-xorg-video-s3 xserver-xorg-video-s3virge
13461   xserver-xorg-video-savage xserver-xorg-video-siliconmotion
13462   xserver-xorg-video-sis xserver-xorg-video-sisusb
13463   xserver-xorg-video-tdfx xserver-xorg-video-tga
13464   xserver-xorg-video-trident xserver-xorg-video-tseng
13465   xserver-xorg-video-vesa xserver-xorg-video-vmware
13466   xserver-xorg-video-voodoo
13467 </p></blockquote>
13468
13469 <p>Installed using aptitude, removed with apt-get</p>
13470
13471 <blockquote><p>
13472   deskbar-applet xserver-xorg xserver-xorg-core
13473   xserver-xorg-input-wacom xserver-xorg-video-intel
13474   xserver-xorg-video-openchrome
13475 </p></blockquote>
13476
13477 <p>I was told on IRC that the xorg-xserver package was
13478 <a href="http://git.debian.org/?p=pkg-xorg/xserver/xorg-server.git;a=commit;h=9c8080d06c457932d3bfec021c69ac000aa60120">changed
13479 in git</a> today to try to get apt-get to not remove xorg completely.
13480 No idea when it hits Squeeze, but when it does I hope it will reduce
13481 the difference somewhat.
13482
13483       </div>
13484       <div class="tags">
13485
13486
13487         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
13488
13489
13490       </div>
13491     </div>
13492     <div class="padding"></div>
13493
13494     <div class="entry">
13495       <div class="title">
13496         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/LUMA__a_very_nice_LDAP_GUI.html">LUMA, a very nice LDAP GUI</a>
13497       </div>
13498       <div class="date">
13499         28th June 2010
13500       </div>
13501       <div class="body">
13502         <p>The last few days I have been looking into the status of the LDAP
13503 directory in Debian Edu, and in the process I started to miss a GUI
13504 tool to browse the LDAP tree.  The only one I was able to find in
13505 Debian/Squeeze and Lenny is
13506 <a href="http://luma.sourceforge.net/">LUMA</a>, which has proved to
13507 be a great tool to get a overview of the current LDAP directory
13508 populated by default in Skolelinux.  Thanks to it, I have been able to
13509 find empty and obsolete subtrees, misplaced objects and duplicate
13510 objects.  It will be installed by default in Debian/Squeeze.  If you
13511 are working with LDAP, give it a go. :)</p>
13512
13513 <p>I did notice one problem with it I have not had time to report to
13514 the BTS yet.  There is no .desktop file in the package, so the tool do
13515 not show up in the Gnome and KDE menus, but only deep down in in the
13516 Debian submenu in KDE.  I hope that can be fixed before Squeeze is
13517 released.</p>
13518
13519 <p>I have not yet been able to get it to modify the tree yet.  I would
13520 like to move objects and remove subtrees directly in the GUI, but have
13521 not found a way to do that with LUMA yet.  So in the mean time, I use
13522 <a href="http://www.lichteblau.com/ldapvi/">ldapvi</a> for that.</p>
13523
13524 <p>If you have tips on other GUI tools for LDAP that might be useful
13525 in Debian Edu, please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.</p>
13526
13527 <p>Update 2010-06-29: Ross Reedstrom tipped us about the
13528 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/g/gq.html">gq</a> package as a
13529 useful GUI alternative.  It seem like a good tool, but is unmaintained
13530 in Debian and got a RC bug keeping it out of Squeeze.  Unless that
13531 changes, it will not be an option for Debian Edu based on Squeeze.</p>
13532
13533       </div>
13534       <div class="tags">
13535
13536
13537         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ldap">ldap</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
13538
13539
13540       </div>
13541     </div>
13542     <div class="padding"></div>
13543
13544     <div class="entry">
13545       <div class="title">
13546         <a href="https://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>
13547       </div>
13548       <div class="date">
13549         24th June 2010
13550       </div>
13551       <div class="body">
13552         <p>A while back, I
13553 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Time_for_new__LDAP_schemas_replacing_RFC_2307_.html">complained
13554 about the fact</a> that it is not possible with the provided schemas
13555 for storing DNS and DHCP information in LDAP to combine the two sets
13556 of information into one LDAP object representing a computer.</p>
13557
13558 <p>In the mean time, I discovered that a simple fix would be to make
13559 the dhcpHost object class auxiliary, to allow it to be combined with
13560 the dNSDomain object class, and thus forming one object for one
13561 computer when storing both DHCP and DNS information in LDAP.</p>
13562
13563 <p>If I understand this correctly, it is not safe to do this change
13564 without also changing the assigned number for the object class, and I
13565 do not know enough about LDAP schema design to do that properly for
13566 Debian Edu.</p>
13567
13568 <p>Anyway, for future reference, this is how I believe we could change
13569 the
13570 <a href="http://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-ietf-dhc-ldap-schema-00">DHCP
13571 schema</a> to solve at least part of the problem with the LDAP schemas
13572 available today from IETF.</p>
13573
13574 <pre>
13575 --- dhcp.schema    (revision 65192)
13576 +++ dhcp.schema    (working copy)
13577 @@ -376,7 +376,7 @@
13578  objectclass ( 2.16.840.1.113719.1.203.6.6
13579         NAME 'dhcpHost'
13580         DESC 'This represents information about a particular client'
13581 -       SUP top
13582 +       SUP top AUXILIARY
13583         MUST cn
13584         MAY  (dhcpLeaseDN $ dhcpHWAddress $ dhcpOptionsDN $ dhcpStatements $ dhcpComments $ dhcpOption)
13585         X-NDS_CONTAINMENT ('dhcpService' 'dhcpSubnet' 'dhcpGroup') )
13586 </pre>
13587
13588 <p>I very much welcome clues on how to do this properly for Debian
13589 Edu/Squeeze.  We provide the DHCP schema in our debian-edu-config
13590 package, and should thus be free to rewrite it as we see fit.</p>
13591
13592 <p>If you want to help out with implementing this for Debian Edu,
13593 please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.</p>
13594
13595       </div>
13596       <div class="tags">
13597
13598
13599         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ldap">ldap</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
13600
13601
13602       </div>
13603     </div>
13604     <div class="padding"></div>
13605
13606     <div class="entry">
13607       <div class="title">
13608         <a href="https://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>
13609       </div>
13610       <div class="date">
13611         16th June 2010
13612       </div>
13613       <div class="body">
13614         <p>A few times I have had the need to simulate the way tasksel
13615 installs packages during the normal debian-installer run.  Until now,
13616 I have ended up letting tasksel do the work, with the annoying problem
13617 of not getting any feedback at all when something fails (like a
13618 conffile question from dpkg or a download that fails), using code like
13619 this:
13620
13621 <blockquote><pre>
13622 export DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive
13623 tasksel --new-install
13624 </pre></blockquote>
13625
13626 This would invoke tasksel, let its automatic task selection pick the
13627 tasks to install, and continue to install the requested tasks without
13628 any output what so ever.
13629
13630 Recently I revisited this problem while working on the automatic
13631 package upgrade testing, because tasksel would some times hang without
13632 any useful feedback, and I want to see what is going on when it
13633 happen.  Then it occured to me, I can parse the output from tasksel
13634 when asked to run in test mode, and use that aptitude command line
13635 printed by tasksel then to simulate the tasksel run.  I ended up using
13636 code like this:
13637
13638 <blockquote><pre>
13639 export DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive
13640 cmd="$(in_target tasksel -t --new-install | sed 's/debconf-apt-progress -- //')"
13641 $cmd
13642 </pre></blockquote>
13643
13644 <p>The content of $cmd is typically something like "<tt>aptitude -q
13645 --without-recommends -o APT::Install-Recommends=no -y install
13646 ~t^desktop$ ~t^gnome-desktop$ ~t^laptop$ ~pstandard ~prequired
13647 ~pimportant</tt>", which will install the gnome desktop task, the
13648 laptop task and all packages with priority standard , required and
13649 important, just like tasksel would have done it during
13650 installation.</p>
13651
13652 <p>A better approach is probably to extend tasksel to be able to
13653 install packages without using debconf-apt-progress, for use cases
13654 like this.</p>
13655
13656       </div>
13657       <div class="tags">
13658
13659
13660         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
13661
13662
13663       </div>
13664     </div>
13665     <div class="padding"></div>
13666
13667     <div class="entry">
13668       <div class="title">
13669         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lenny__Squeeze_upgrades__removals_by_apt_and_aptitude.html">Lenny->Squeeze upgrades, removals by apt and aptitude</a>
13670       </div>
13671       <div class="date">
13672         13th June 2010
13673       </div>
13674       <div class="body">
13675         <p>My
13676 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Automatic_upgrade_testing_from_Lenny_to_Squeeze.html">testing
13677 of Debian upgrades</a> from Lenny to Squeeze continues, and I've
13678 finally made the upgrade logs available from
13679 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/debian-upgrade-testing/">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/debian-upgrade-testing/</a>.
13680 I am now testing dist-upgrade of Gnome and KDE in a chroot using both
13681 apt and aptitude, and found their differences interesting.  This time
13682 I will only focus on their removal plans.</p>
13683
13684 <p>After installing a Gnome desktop and the laptop task, apt-get wants
13685 to remove 72 packages when dist-upgrading from Lenny to Squeeze.  The
13686 surprising part is that it want to remove xorg and all
13687 xserver-xorg-video* drivers.  Clearly not a good choice, but I am not
13688 sure why.  When asking aptitude to do the same, it want to remove 129
13689 packages, but most of them are library packages I suspect are no
13690 longer needed.  Both of them want to remove bluetooth packages, which
13691 I do not know.  Perhaps these bluetooth packages are obsolete?</p>
13692
13693 <p>For KDE, apt-get want to remove 82 packages, among them kdebase
13694 which seem like a bad idea and xorg the same way as with Gnome. Asking
13695 aptitude for the same, it wants to remove 192 packages, none which are
13696 too surprising.</p>
13697
13698 <p>I guess the removal of xorg during upgrades should be investigated
13699 and avoided, and perhaps others as well.  Here are the complete list
13700 of planned removals.  The complete logs is available from the URL
13701 above.  Note if you want to repeat these tests, that the upgrade test
13702 for kde+apt-get hung in the tasksel setup because of dpkg asking
13703 conffile questions.  No idea why.  I worked around it by using
13704 '<tt>echo >> /proc/<em>pidofdpkg</em>/fd/0</tt>' to tell dpkg to
13705 continue.</p>
13706
13707 <p><b>apt-get gnome 72</b>
13708 <br>bluez-gnome cupsddk-drivers deskbar-applet gnome
13709   gnome-desktop-environment gnome-network-admin gtkhtml3.14
13710   iceweasel-gnome-support libavcodec51 libdatrie0 libgdl-1-0
13711   libgnomekbd2 libgnomekbdui2 libmetacity0 libslab0 libxcb-xlib0
13712   nautilus-cd-burner python-gnome2-desktop python-gnome2-extras
13713   serpentine swfdec-mozilla update-manager xorg xserver-xorg
13714   xserver-xorg-core xserver-xorg-input-all xserver-xorg-input-evdev
13715   xserver-xorg-input-kbd xserver-xorg-input-mouse
13716   xserver-xorg-input-synaptics xserver-xorg-input-wacom
13717   xserver-xorg-video-all xserver-xorg-video-apm xserver-xorg-video-ark
13718   xserver-xorg-video-ati xserver-xorg-video-chips
13719   xserver-xorg-video-cirrus xserver-xorg-video-cyrix
13720   xserver-xorg-video-dummy xserver-xorg-video-fbdev
13721   xserver-xorg-video-glint xserver-xorg-video-i128
13722   xserver-xorg-video-i740 xserver-xorg-video-imstt
13723   xserver-xorg-video-intel xserver-xorg-video-mach64
13724   xserver-xorg-video-mga xserver-xorg-video-neomagic
13725   xserver-xorg-video-nsc xserver-xorg-video-nv
13726   xserver-xorg-video-openchrome xserver-xorg-video-r128
13727   xserver-xorg-video-radeon xserver-xorg-video-radeonhd
13728   xserver-xorg-video-rendition xserver-xorg-video-s3
13729   xserver-xorg-video-s3virge xserver-xorg-video-savage
13730   xserver-xorg-video-siliconmotion xserver-xorg-video-sis
13731   xserver-xorg-video-sisusb xserver-xorg-video-tdfx
13732   xserver-xorg-video-tga xserver-xorg-video-trident
13733   xserver-xorg-video-tseng xserver-xorg-video-v4l
13734   xserver-xorg-video-vesa xserver-xorg-video-vga
13735   xserver-xorg-video-vmware xserver-xorg-video-voodoo xulrunner-1.9
13736   xulrunner-1.9-gnome-support</p>
13737
13738 <p><b>aptitude gnome 129</b>
13739
13740 <br>bluez-gnome bluez-utils cpp-4.3 cupsddk-drivers dhcdbd
13741   djvulibre-desktop finger gnome-app-install gnome-mount
13742   gnome-network-admin gnome-spell gnome-vfs-obexftp
13743   gnome-volume-manager gstreamer0.10-gnomevfs gtkhtml3.14 libao2
13744   libavahi-compat-libdnssd1 libavahi-core5 libavcodec51 libbluetooth2
13745   libcamel1.2-11 libcdio7 libcucul0 libcupsys2 libcurl3 libdatrie0
13746   libdirectfb-1.0-0 libdvdread3 libedataserver1.2-9 libeel2-2.20
13747   libeel2-data libepc-1.0-1 libepc-ui-1.0-1 libfaad0 libgail-common
13748   libgd2-noxpm libgda3-3 libgda3-common libgdl-1-0 libgdl-1-common
13749   libggz2 libggzcore9 libggzmod4 libgksu1.2-0 libgksuui1.0-1 libgmyth0
13750   libgnomecups1.0-1 libgnomekbd2 libgnomekbdui2 libgnomeprint2.2-0
13751   libgnomeprint2.2-data libgnomeprintui2.2-0 libgnomeprintui2.2-common
13752   libgnomevfs2-bin libgpod3 libgraphviz4 libgtkhtml2-0
13753   libgtksourceview-common libgtksourceview1.0-0 libgucharmap6
13754   libhesiod0 libicu38 libiw29 libkpathsea4 libltdl3 libmagick++10
13755   libmagick10 libmalaga7 libmetacity0 libmtp7 libmysqlclient15off
13756   libnautilus-burn4 libneon27 libnm-glib0 libnm-util0 libopal-2.2
13757   libosp5 libparted1.8-10 libpoppler-glib3 libpoppler3 libpt-1.10.10
13758   libpt-1.10.10-plugins-alsa libpt-1.10.10-plugins-v4l libraw1394-8
13759   libsensors3 libslab0 libsmbios2 libsoup2.2-8 libssh2-1
13760   libsuitesparse-3.1.0 libswfdec-0.6-90 libtalloc1 libtotem-plparser10
13761   libtrackerclient0 libxalan2-java libxalan2-java-gcj libxcb-xlib0
13762   libxerces2-java libxerces2-java-gcj libxklavier12 libxtrap6
13763   libxxf86misc1 libzephyr3 mysql-common nautilus-cd-burner
13764   openoffice.org-writer2latex openssl-blacklist p7zip
13765   python-4suite-xml python-eggtrayicon python-gnome2-desktop
13766   python-gnome2-extras python-gtkhtml2 python-gtkmozembed
13767   python-numeric python-sexy serpentine svgalibg1 swfdec-gnome
13768   swfdec-mozilla totem-gstreamer update-manager wodim
13769   xserver-xorg-video-cyrix xserver-xorg-video-imstt
13770   xserver-xorg-video-nsc xserver-xorg-video-v4l xserver-xorg-video-vga
13771   zip</p>
13772
13773 <p><b>apt-get kde 82</b>
13774
13775 <br>cupsddk-drivers karm kaudiocreator kcoloredit kcontrol kde kde-core
13776   kdeaddons kdeartwork kdebase kdebase-bin kdebase-bin-kde3
13777   kdebase-kio-plugins kdesktop kdeutils khelpcenter kicker
13778   kicker-applets knewsticker kolourpaint konq-plugins konqueror korn
13779   kpersonalizer kscreensaver ksplash libavcodec51 libdatrie0 libkiten1
13780   libxcb-xlib0 quanta superkaramba texlive-base-bin xorg xserver-xorg
13781   xserver-xorg-core xserver-xorg-input-all xserver-xorg-input-evdev
13782   xserver-xorg-input-kbd xserver-xorg-input-mouse
13783   xserver-xorg-input-synaptics xserver-xorg-input-wacom
13784   xserver-xorg-video-all xserver-xorg-video-apm xserver-xorg-video-ark
13785   xserver-xorg-video-ati xserver-xorg-video-chips
13786   xserver-xorg-video-cirrus xserver-xorg-video-cyrix
13787   xserver-xorg-video-dummy xserver-xorg-video-fbdev
13788   xserver-xorg-video-glint xserver-xorg-video-i128
13789   xserver-xorg-video-i740 xserver-xorg-video-imstt
13790   xserver-xorg-video-intel xserver-xorg-video-mach64
13791   xserver-xorg-video-mga xserver-xorg-video-neomagic
13792   xserver-xorg-video-nsc xserver-xorg-video-nv
13793   xserver-xorg-video-openchrome xserver-xorg-video-r128
13794   xserver-xorg-video-radeon xserver-xorg-video-radeonhd
13795   xserver-xorg-video-rendition xserver-xorg-video-s3
13796   xserver-xorg-video-s3virge xserver-xorg-video-savage
13797   xserver-xorg-video-siliconmotion xserver-xorg-video-sis
13798   xserver-xorg-video-sisusb xserver-xorg-video-tdfx
13799   xserver-xorg-video-tga xserver-xorg-video-trident
13800   xserver-xorg-video-tseng xserver-xorg-video-v4l
13801   xserver-xorg-video-vesa xserver-xorg-video-vga
13802   xserver-xorg-video-vmware xserver-xorg-video-voodoo xulrunner-1.9</p>
13803
13804 <p><b>aptitude kde 192</b>
13805 <br>bluez-utils cpp-4.3 cupsddk-drivers cvs dcoprss dhcdbd
13806   djvulibre-desktop dosfstools eyesapplet fifteenapplet finger gettext
13807   ghostscript-x imlib-base imlib11 indi kandy karm kasteroids
13808   kaudiocreator kbackgammon kbstate kcoloredit kcontrol kcron kdat
13809   kdeadmin-kfile-plugins kdeartwork-misc kdeartwork-theme-window
13810   kdebase-bin-kde3 kdebase-kio-plugins kdeedu-data
13811   kdegraphics-kfile-plugins kdelirc kdemultimedia-kappfinder-data
13812   kdemultimedia-kfile-plugins kdenetwork-kfile-plugins
13813   kdepim-kfile-plugins kdepim-kio-plugins kdeprint kdesktop kdessh
13814   kdict kdnssd kdvi kedit keduca kenolaba kfax kfaxview kfouleggs
13815   kghostview khelpcenter khexedit kiconedit kitchensync klatin
13816   klickety kmailcvt kmenuedit kmid kmilo kmoon kmrml kodo kolourpaint
13817   kooka korn kpager kpdf kpercentage kpf kpilot kpoker kpovmodeler
13818   krec kregexpeditor ksayit ksim ksirc ksirtet ksmiletris ksmserver
13819   ksnake ksokoban ksplash ksvg ksysv ktip ktnef kuickshow kverbos
13820   kview kviewshell kvoctrain kwifimanager kwin kwin4 kworldclock
13821   kxsldbg libakode2 libao2 libarts1-akode libarts1-audiofile
13822   libarts1-mpeglib libarts1-xine libavahi-compat-libdnssd1
13823   libavahi-core5 libavc1394-0 libavcodec51 libbluetooth2
13824   libboost-python1.34.1 libcucul0 libcurl3 libcvsservice0 libdatrie0
13825   libdirectfb-1.0-0 libdjvulibre21 libdvdread3 libfaad0 libfreebob0
13826   libgail-common libgd2-noxpm libgraphviz4 libgsmme1c2a libgtkhtml2-0
13827   libicu38 libiec61883-0 libindex0 libiw29 libk3b3 libkcal2b libkcddb1
13828   libkdeedu3 libkdepim1a libkgantt0 libkiten1 libkleopatra1 libkmime2
13829   libkpathsea4 libkpimexchange1 libkpimidentities1 libkscan1
13830   libksieve0 libktnef1 liblockdev1 libltdl3 libmagick10 libmimelib1c2a
13831   libmozjs1d libmpcdec3 libneon27 libnm-util0 libopensync0 libpisock9
13832   libpoppler-glib3 libpoppler-qt2 libpoppler3 libraw1394-8 libsmbios2
13833   libssh2-1 libsuitesparse-3.1.0 libtalloc1 libtiff-tools
13834   libxalan2-java libxalan2-java-gcj libxcb-xlib0 libxerces2-java
13835   libxerces2-java-gcj libxtrap6 mpeglib networkstatus
13836   openoffice.org-writer2latex pmount poster psutils quanta quanta-data
13837   superkaramba svgalibg1 tex-common texlive-base texlive-base-bin
13838   texlive-common texlive-doc-base texlive-fonts-recommended
13839   xserver-xorg-video-cyrix xserver-xorg-video-imstt
13840   xserver-xorg-video-nsc xserver-xorg-video-v4l xserver-xorg-video-vga
13841   xulrunner-1.9</p>
13842
13843
13844       </div>
13845       <div class="tags">
13846
13847
13848         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
13849
13850
13851       </div>
13852     </div>
13853     <div class="padding"></div>
13854
13855     <div class="entry">
13856       <div class="title">
13857         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Automatic_upgrade_testing_from_Lenny_to_Squeeze.html">Automatic upgrade testing from Lenny to Squeeze</a>
13858       </div>
13859       <div class="date">
13860         11th June 2010
13861       </div>
13862       <div class="body">
13863         <p>The last few days I have done some upgrade testing in Debian, to
13864 see if the upgrade from Lenny to Squeeze will go smoothly.  A few bugs
13865 have been discovered and reported in the process
13866 (<a href="http://bugs.debian.org/585410">#585410</a> in nagios3-cgi,
13867 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/584879">#584879</a> already fixed in
13868 enscript and <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/584861">#584861</a> in
13869 kdebase-workspace-data), and to get a more regular testing going on, I
13870 am working on a script to automate the test.</p>
13871
13872 <p>The idea is to create a Lenny chroot and use tasksel to install a
13873 Gnome or KDE desktop installation inside the chroot before upgrading
13874 it.  To ensure no services are started in the chroot, a policy-rc.d
13875 script is inserted.  To make sure tasksel believe it is to install a
13876 desktop on a laptop, the tasksel tests are replaced in the chroot
13877 (only acceptable because this is a throw-away chroot).</p>
13878
13879 <p>A naive upgrade from Lenny to Squeeze using aptitude dist-upgrade
13880 currently always fail because udev refuses to upgrade with the kernel
13881 in Lenny, so to avoid that problem the file /etc/udev/kernel-upgrade
13882 is created.  The bug report
13883 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/566000">#566000</a> make me suspect
13884 this problem do not trigger in a chroot, but I touch the file anyway
13885 to make sure the upgrade go well.  Testing on virtual and real
13886 hardware have failed me because of udev so far, and creating this file
13887 do the trick in such settings anyway.  This is a
13888 <a href="http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/debian-26/failed-dist-upgrade-due-to-udev-config_sysfs_deprecated-nonsense-804130/">known
13889 issue</a> and the current udev behaviour is intended by the udev
13890 maintainer because he lack the resources to rewrite udev to keep
13891 working with old kernels or something like that.  I really wish the
13892 udev upstream would keep udev backwards compatible, to avoid such
13893 upgrade problem, but given that they fail to do so, I guess
13894 documenting the way out of this mess is the best option we got for
13895 Debian Squeeze.</p>
13896
13897 <p>Anyway, back to the task at hand, testing upgrades.  This test
13898 script, which I call <tt>upgrade-test</tt> for now, is doing the
13899 trick:</p>
13900
13901 <blockquote><pre>
13902 #!/bin/sh
13903 set -ex
13904
13905 if [ "$1" ] ; then
13906     desktop=$1
13907 else
13908     desktop=gnome
13909 fi
13910
13911 from=lenny
13912 to=squeeze
13913
13914 exec &lt; /dev/null
13915 unset LANG
13916 mirror=http://ftp.skolelinux.org/debian
13917 tmpdir=chroot-$from-upgrade-$to-$desktop
13918 fuser -mv .
13919 debootstrap $from $tmpdir $mirror
13920 chroot $tmpdir aptitude update
13921 cat > $tmpdir/usr/sbin/policy-rc.d &lt;&lt;EOF
13922 #!/bin/sh
13923 exit 101
13924 EOF
13925 chmod a+rx $tmpdir/usr/sbin/policy-rc.d
13926 exit_cleanup() {
13927     umount $tmpdir/proc
13928 }
13929 mount -t proc proc $tmpdir/proc
13930 # Make sure proc is unmounted also on failure
13931 trap exit_cleanup EXIT INT
13932
13933 chroot $tmpdir aptitude -y install debconf-utils
13934
13935 # Make sure tasksel autoselection trigger.  It need the test scripts
13936 # to return the correct answers.
13937 echo tasksel tasksel/desktop multiselect $desktop | \
13938     chroot $tmpdir debconf-set-selections
13939
13940 # Include the desktop and laptop task
13941 for test in desktop laptop ; do
13942     echo > $tmpdir/usr/lib/tasksel/tests/$test &lt;&lt;EOF
13943 #!/bin/sh
13944 exit 2
13945 EOF
13946     chmod a+rx $tmpdir/usr/lib/tasksel/tests/$test
13947 done
13948
13949 DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive
13950 DEBIAN_PRIORITY=critical
13951 export DEBIAN_FRONTEND DEBIAN_PRIORITY
13952 chroot $tmpdir tasksel --new-install
13953
13954 echo deb $mirror $to main > $tmpdir/etc/apt/sources.list
13955 chroot $tmpdir aptitude update
13956 touch $tmpdir/etc/udev/kernel-upgrade
13957 chroot $tmpdir aptitude -y dist-upgrade
13958 fuser -mv
13959 </pre></blockquote>
13960
13961 <p>I suspect it would be useful to test upgrades with both apt-get and
13962 with aptitude, but I have not had time to look at how they behave
13963 differently so far.  I hope to get a cron job running to do the test
13964 regularly and post the result on the web.  The Gnome upgrade currently
13965 work, while the KDE upgrade fail because of the bug in
13966 kdebase-workspace-data</p>
13967
13968 <p>I am not quite sure what kind of extract from the huge upgrade logs
13969 (KDE 167 KiB, Gnome 516 KiB) it make sense to include in this blog
13970 post, so I will refrain from trying.  I can report that for Gnome,
13971 aptitude report 760 packages upgraded, 448 newly installed, 129 to
13972 remove and 1 not upgraded and 1024MB need to be downloaded while for
13973 KDE the same numbers are 702 packages upgraded, 507 newly installed,
13974 193 to remove and 0 not upgraded and 1117MB need to be downloaded</p>
13975
13976 <p>I am very happy to notice that the Gnome desktop + laptop upgrade
13977 is able to migrate to dependency based boot sequencing and parallel
13978 booting without a hitch.  Was unsure if there were still bugs with
13979 packages failing to clean up their obsolete init.d script during
13980 upgrades, and no such problem seem to affect the Gnome desktop+laptop
13981 packages.</p>
13982
13983       </div>
13984       <div class="tags">
13985
13986
13987         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bootsystem">bootsystem</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
13988
13989
13990       </div>
13991     </div>
13992     <div class="padding"></div>
13993
13994     <div class="entry">
13995       <div class="title">
13996         <a href="https://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>
13997       </div>
13998       <div class="date">
13999          6th June 2010
14000       </div>
14001       <div class="body">
14002         <p>If Debian is to migrate to upstart on Linux, I expect some init.d
14003 scripts to migrate (some of) their operations to upstart job while
14004 keeping the init.d for hurd and kfreebsd.  The packages with such
14005 needs will need a way to get their init.d scripts to behave
14006 differently when used with sysvinit and with upstart.  Because of
14007 this, I had a look at the environment variables set when a init.d
14008 script is running under upstart, and when it is not.</p>
14009
14010 <p>With upstart, I notice these environment variables are set when a
14011 script is started from rcS.d/ (ignoring some irrelevant ones like
14012 COLUMNS):</p>
14013
14014 <blockquote><pre>
14015 DEFAULT_RUNLEVEL=2
14016 previous=N
14017 PREVLEVEL=
14018 RUNLEVEL=
14019 runlevel=S
14020 UPSTART_EVENTS=startup
14021 UPSTART_INSTANCE=
14022 UPSTART_JOB=rc-sysinit
14023 </pre></blockquote>
14024
14025 <p>With sysvinit, these environment variables are set for the same
14026 script.</p>
14027
14028 <blockquote><pre>
14029 INIT_VERSION=sysvinit-2.88
14030 previous=N
14031 PREVLEVEL=N
14032 RUNLEVEL=S
14033 runlevel=S
14034 </pre></blockquote>
14035
14036 <p>The RUNLEVEL and PREVLEVEL environment variables passed on from
14037 sysvinit are not set by upstart.  Not sure if it is intentional or not
14038 to not be compatible with sysvinit in this regard.</p>
14039
14040 <p>For scripts needing to behave differently when upstart is used,
14041 looking for the UPSTART_JOB environment variable seem to be a good
14042 choice.</p>
14043
14044       </div>
14045       <div class="tags">
14046
14047
14048         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bootsystem">bootsystem</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
14049
14050
14051       </div>
14052     </div>
14053     <div class="padding"></div>
14054
14055     <div class="entry">
14056       <div class="title">
14057         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/A_manual_for_standards_wars___.html">A manual for standards wars...</a>
14058       </div>
14059       <div class="date">
14060          6th June 2010
14061       </div>
14062       <div class="body">
14063         <p>Via the
14064 <a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/robweir/antic-atom/~3/QzU4RgoAGMg/weekly-links-10.html">blog
14065 of Rob Weir</a> I came across the very interesting essay named
14066 <a href="http://faculty.haas.berkeley.edu/shapiro/wars.pdf">The Art of
14067 Standards Wars</a> (PDF 25 pages).  I recommend it for everyone
14068 following the standards wars of today.</p>
14069
14070       </div>
14071       <div class="tags">
14072
14073
14074         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/standard">standard</a>.
14075
14076
14077       </div>
14078     </div>
14079     <div class="padding"></div>
14080
14081     <div class="entry">
14082       <div class="title">
14083         <a href="https://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>
14084       </div>
14085       <div class="date">
14086          3rd June 2010
14087       </div>
14088       <div class="body">
14089         <p>When using sitesummary at a site to track machines, it is possible
14090 to get a list of the machine types in use thanks to the DMI
14091 information extracted from each machine.  The script to do so is
14092 included in the sitesummary package, and here is example output from
14093 the Skolelinux build servers:</p>
14094
14095 <blockquote><pre>
14096 maintainer:~# /usr/lib/sitesummary/hardware-model-summary
14097   vendor                    count
14098   Dell Computer Corporation     1
14099     PowerEdge 1750              1
14100   IBM                           1
14101     eserver xSeries 345 -[8670M1X]-     1
14102   Intel                         2
14103   [no-dmi-info]                 3
14104 maintainer:~#
14105 </pre></blockquote>
14106
14107 <p>The quality of the report depend on the quality of the DMI tables
14108 provided in each machine.  Here there are Intel machines without model
14109 information listed with Intel as vendor and no model, and virtual Xen
14110 machines listed as [no-dmi-info].  One can add -l as a command line
14111 option to list the individual machines.</p>
14112
14113 <p>A larger list is
14114 <a href="http://narvikskolen.no/sitesummary/">available from the the
14115 city of Narvik</a>, which uses Skolelinux on all their shools and also
14116 provide the basic sitesummary report publicly.  In their report there
14117 are ~1400 machines. I know they use both Ubuntu and Skolelinux on
14118 their machines, and as sitesummary is available in both distributions,
14119 it is trivial to get all of them to report to the same central
14120 collector.</p>
14121
14122       </div>
14123       <div class="tags">
14124
14125
14126         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sitesummary">sitesummary</a>.
14127
14128
14129       </div>
14130     </div>
14131     <div class="padding"></div>
14132
14133     <div class="entry">
14134       <div class="title">
14135         <a href="https://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>
14136       </div>
14137       <div class="date">
14138          1st June 2010
14139       </div>
14140       <div class="body">
14141         <p>It is strange to watch how a bug in Debian causing KDM to fail to
14142 start at boot when an NVidia video card is used is handled.  The
14143 problem seem to be that the nvidia X.org driver uses a long time to
14144 initialize, and this duration is longer than kdm is configured to
14145 wait.</p>
14146
14147 <p>I came across two bugs related to this issue,
14148 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/583312">#583312</a> initially filed
14149 against initscripts and passed on to nvidia-glx when it became obvious
14150 that the nvidia drivers were involved, and
14151 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/524751">#524751</a> initially filed against
14152 kdm and passed on to src:nvidia-graphics-drivers for unknown reasons.</p>
14153
14154 <p>To me, it seem that no-one is interested in actually solving the
14155 problem nvidia video card owners experience and make sure the Debian
14156 distribution work out of the box for these users.  The nvidia driver
14157 maintainers expect kdm to be set up to wait longer, while kdm expect
14158 the nvidia driver maintainers to fix the driver to start faster, and
14159 while they wait for each other I guess the users end up switching to a
14160 distribution that work for them.  I have no idea what the solution is,
14161 but I am pretty sure that waiting for each other is not it.</p>
14162
14163 <p>I wonder why we end up handling bugs this way.</p>
14164
14165       </div>
14166       <div class="tags">
14167
14168
14169         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bootsystem">bootsystem</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
14170
14171
14172       </div>
14173     </div>
14174     <div class="padding"></div>
14175
14176     <div class="entry">
14177       <div class="title">
14178         <a href="https://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>
14179       </div>
14180       <div class="date">
14181         27th May 2010
14182       </div>
14183       <div class="body">
14184         <p>A few days ago, parallel booting was enabled in Debian/testing.
14185 The feature seem to hold up pretty well, but three fairly serious
14186 issues are known and should be solved:
14187
14188 <p><ul>
14189
14190 <li>The wicd package seen to
14191 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/508289">break NFS mounting</a> and
14192 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/581586">network setup</a> when
14193 parallel booting is enabled.  No idea why, but the wicd maintainer
14194 seem to be on the case.</li>
14195
14196 <li>The nvidia X driver seem to
14197 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/583312">have a race condition</a>
14198 triggered more easily when parallel booting is in effect.  The
14199 maintainer is on the case.</li>
14200
14201 <li>The sysv-rc package fail to properly enable dependency based boot
14202 sequencing (the shutdown is broken) when old file-rc users
14203 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/575080">try to switch back</a> to
14204 sysv-rc.  One way to solve it would be for file-rc to create
14205 /etc/init.d/.legacy-bootordering, and another is to try to make
14206 sysv-rc more robust.  Will investigate some more and probably upload a
14207 workaround in sysv-rc to help those trying to move from file-rc to
14208 sysv-rc get a working shutdown.</li>
14209
14210 </ul></p>
14211
14212 <p>All in all not many surprising issues, and all of them seem
14213 solvable before Squeeze is released.  In addition to these there are
14214 some packages with bugs in their dependencies and run level settings,
14215 which I expect will be fixed in a reasonable time span.</p>
14216
14217 <p>If you report any problems with dependencies in init.d scripts to
14218 the BTS, please usertag the report to get it to show up at
14219 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/pkgreport.cgi?users=initscripts-ng-devel@lists.alioth.debian.org">the
14220 list of usertagged bugs related to this</a>.</p>
14221
14222 <p>Update: Correct bug number to file-rc issue.</p>
14223
14224       </div>
14225       <div class="tags">
14226
14227
14228         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bootsystem">bootsystem</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
14229
14230
14231       </div>
14232     </div>
14233     <div class="padding"></div>
14234
14235     <div class="entry">
14236       <div class="title">
14237         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/More_flexible_firmware_handling_in_debian_installer.html">More flexible firmware handling in debian-installer</a>
14238       </div>
14239       <div class="date">
14240         22nd May 2010
14241       </div>
14242       <div class="body">
14243         <p>After a long break from debian-installer development, I finally
14244 found time today to return to the project.  Having to spend less time
14245 working dependency based boot in debian, as it is almost complete now,
14246 definitely helped freeing some time.</p>
14247
14248 <p>A while back, I ran into a problem while working on Debian Edu.  We
14249 include some firmware packages on the Debian Edu CDs, those needed to
14250 get disk and network controllers working.  Without having these
14251 firmware packages available during installation, it is impossible to
14252 install Debian Edu on the given machine, and because our target group
14253 are non-technical people, asking them to provide firmware packages on
14254 an external medium is a support pain.  Initially, I expected it to be
14255 enough to include the firmware packages on the CD to get
14256 debian-installer to find and use them.  This proved to be wrong.
14257 Next, I hoped it was enough to symlink the relevant firmware packages
14258 to some useful location on the CD (tried /cdrom/ and
14259 /cdrom/firmware/).  This also proved to not work, and at this point I
14260 found time to look at the debian-installer code to figure out what was
14261 going to work.</p>
14262
14263 <p>The firmware loading code is in the hw-detect package, and a closer
14264 look revealed that it would only look for firmware packages outside
14265 the installation media, so the CD was never checked for firmware
14266 packages.  It would only check USB sticks, floppies and other
14267 "external" media devices.  Today I changed it to also look in the
14268 /cdrom/firmware/ directory on the mounted CD or DVD, which should
14269 solve the problem I ran into with Debian edu.  I also changed it to
14270 look in /firmware/, to make sure the installer also find firmware
14271 provided in the initrd when booting the installer via PXE, to allow us
14272 to provide the same feature in the PXE setup included in Debian
14273 Edu.</p>
14274
14275 <p>To make sure firmware deb packages with a license questions are not
14276 activated without asking if the license is accepted, I extended
14277 hw-detect to look for preinst scripts in the firmware packages, and
14278 run these before activating the firmware during installation.  The
14279 license question is asked using debconf in the preinst, so this should
14280 solve the issue for the firmware packages I have looked at so far.</p>
14281
14282 <p>If you want to discuss the details of these features, please
14283 contact us on debian-boot@lists.debian.org.</p>
14284
14285       </div>
14286       <div class="tags">
14287
14288
14289         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
14290
14291
14292       </div>
14293     </div>
14294     <div class="padding"></div>
14295
14296     <div class="entry">
14297       <div class="title">
14298         <a href="https://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>
14299       </div>
14300       <div class="date">
14301         14th May 2010
14302       </div>
14303       <div class="body">
14304         <p>Since this evening, parallel booting is the default in
14305 Debian/unstable for machines using dependency based boot sequencing.
14306 Apparently the testing of concurrent booting has been wider than
14307 expected, if I am to believe the
14308 <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2010/05/msg00122.html">input
14309 on debian-devel@</a>, and I concluded a few days ago to move forward
14310 with the feature this weekend, to give us some time to detect any
14311 remaining problems before Squeeze is frozen.  If serious problems are
14312 detected, it is simple to change the default back to sequential boot.
14313 The upload of the new sysvinit package also activate a new upstream
14314 version.</p>
14315
14316 More information about
14317 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/LSBInitScripts/DependencyBasedBoot">dependency
14318 based boot sequencing</a> is available from the Debian wiki.  It is
14319 currently possible to disable parallel booting when one run into
14320 problems caused by it, by adding this line to /etc/default/rcS:</p>
14321
14322 <blockquote><pre>
14323 CONCURRENCY=none
14324 </pre></blockquote>
14325
14326 <p>If you report any problems with dependencies in init.d scripts to
14327 the BTS, please usertag the report to get it to show up at
14328 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/pkgreport.cgi?users=initscripts-ng-devel@lists.alioth.debian.org">the
14329 list of usertagged bugs related to this</a>.</p>
14330
14331       </div>
14332       <div class="tags">
14333
14334
14335         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bootsystem">bootsystem</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
14336
14337
14338       </div>
14339     </div>
14340     <div class="padding"></div>
14341
14342     <div class="entry">
14343       <div class="title">
14344         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Sitesummary_tip__Listing_MAC_address_of_all_clients.html">Sitesummary tip: Listing MAC address of all clients</a>
14345       </div>
14346       <div class="date">
14347         14th May 2010
14348       </div>
14349       <div class="body">
14350         <p>In the recent Debian Edu versions, the
14351 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/HowTo/SiteSummary">sitesummary
14352 system</a> is used to keep track of the machines in the school
14353 network.  Each machine will automatically report its status to the
14354 central server after boot and once per night.  The network setup is
14355 also reported, and using this information it is possible to get the
14356 MAC address of all network interfaces in the machines.  This is useful
14357 to update the DHCP configuration.</p>
14358
14359 <p>To give some idea how to use sitesummary, here is a one-liner to
14360 ist all MAC addresses of all machines reporting to sitesummary.  Run
14361 this on the collector host:</p>
14362
14363 <blockquote><pre>
14364 perl -MSiteSummary -e 'for_all_hosts(sub { print join(" ", get_macaddresses(shift)), "\n"; });'
14365 </pre></blockquote>
14366
14367 <p>This will list all MAC addresses assosiated with all machine, one
14368 line per machine and with space between the MAC addresses.</p>
14369
14370 <p>To allow system administrators easier job at adding static DHCP
14371 addresses for hosts, it would be possible to extend this to fetch
14372 machine information from sitesummary and update the DHCP and DNS
14373 tables in LDAP using this information.  Such tool is unfortunately not
14374 written yet.</p>
14375
14376       </div>
14377       <div class="tags">
14378
14379
14380         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sitesummary">sitesummary</a>.
14381
14382
14383       </div>
14384     </div>
14385     <div class="padding"></div>
14386
14387     <div class="entry">
14388       <div class="title">
14389         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/systemd__an_interesting_alternative_to_upstart.html">systemd, an interesting alternative to upstart</a>
14390       </div>
14391       <div class="date">
14392         13th May 2010
14393       </div>
14394       <div class="body">
14395         <p>The last few days a new boot system called
14396 <a href="http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/systemd">systemd</a>
14397 has been
14398 <a href="http://0pointer.de/blog/projects/systemd.html">introduced</a>
14399
14400 to the free software world.  I have not yet had time to play around
14401 with it, but it seem to be a very interesting alternative to
14402 <a href="http://upstart.ubuntu.com/">upstart</a>, and might prove to be
14403 a good alternative for Debian when we are able to switch to an event
14404 based boot system.  Tollef is
14405 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/580814">in the process</a> of getting
14406 systemd into Debian, and I look forward to seeing how well it work.  I
14407 like the fact that systemd handles init.d scripts with dependency
14408 information natively, allowing them to run in parallel where upstart
14409 at the moment do not.</p>
14410
14411 <p>Unfortunately do systemd have the same problem as upstart regarding
14412 platform support.  It only work on recent Linux kernels, and also need
14413 some new kernel features enabled to function properly.  This means
14414 kFreeBSD and Hurd ports of Debian will need a port or a different boot
14415 system.  Not sure how that will be handled if systemd proves to be the
14416 way forward.</p>
14417
14418 <p>In the mean time, based on the
14419 <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2010/05/msg00122.html">input
14420 on debian-devel@</a> regarding parallel booting in Debian, I have
14421 decided to enable full parallel booting as the default in Debian as
14422 soon as possible (probably this weekend or early next week), to see if
14423 there are any remaining serious bugs in the init.d dependencies.  A
14424 new version of the sysvinit package implementing this change is
14425 already in experimental.  If all go well, Squeeze will be released
14426 with parallel booting enabled by default.</p>
14427
14428       </div>
14429       <div class="tags">
14430
14431
14432         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bootsystem">bootsystem</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
14433
14434
14435       </div>
14436     </div>
14437     <div class="padding"></div>
14438
14439     <div class="entry">
14440       <div class="title">
14441         <a href="https://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>
14442       </div>
14443       <div class="date">
14444          6th May 2010
14445       </div>
14446       <div class="body">
14447         <p>These days, the init.d script dependencies in Squeeze are quite
14448 complete, so complete that it is actually possible to run all the
14449 init.d scripts in parallell based on these dependencies.  If you want
14450 to test your Squeeze system, make sure
14451 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/LSBInitScripts/DependencyBasedBoot">dependency
14452 based boot sequencing</a> is enabled, and add this line to
14453 /etc/default/rcS:</p>
14454
14455 <blockquote><pre>
14456 CONCURRENCY=makefile
14457 </pre></blockquote>
14458
14459 <p>That is it.  It will cause sysv-rc to use the startpar tool to run
14460 scripts in parallel using the dependency information stored in
14461 /etc/init.d/.depend.boot, /etc/init.d/.depend.start and
14462 /etc/init.d/.depend.stop to order the scripts.  Startpar is configured
14463 to try to start the kdm and gdm scripts as early as possible, and will
14464 start the facilities required by kdm or gdm as early as possible to
14465 make this happen.</p>
14466
14467 <p>Give it a try, and see if you like the result.  If some services
14468 fail to start properly, it is most likely because they have incomplete
14469 init.d script dependencies in their startup script (or some of their
14470 dependent scripts have incomplete dependencies).  Report bugs and get
14471 the package maintainers to fix it. :)</p>
14472
14473 <p>Running scripts in parallel could be the default in Debian when we
14474 manage to get the init.d script dependencies complete and correct.  I
14475 expect we will get there in Squeeze+1, if we get manage to test and
14476 fix the remaining issues.</p>
14477
14478 <p>If you report any problems with dependencies in init.d scripts to
14479 the BTS, please usertag the report to get it to show up at
14480 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/pkgreport.cgi?users=initscripts-ng-devel@lists.alioth.debian.org">the
14481 list of usertagged bugs related to this</a>.</p>
14482
14483       </div>
14484       <div class="tags">
14485
14486
14487         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bootsystem">bootsystem</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
14488
14489
14490       </div>
14491     </div>
14492     <div class="padding"></div>
14493
14494     <div class="entry">
14495       <div class="title">
14496         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_has_switched_to_dependency_based_boot_sequencing.html">Debian has switched to dependency based boot sequencing</a>
14497       </div>
14498       <div class="date">
14499         27th July 2009
14500       </div>
14501       <div class="body">
14502         <p>Since this evening, with the upload of sysvinit version 2.87dsf-2,
14503 and the upload of insserv version 1.12.0-10 yesterday, Debian unstable
14504 have been migrated to using dependency based boot sequencing.  This
14505 conclude work me and others have been doing for the last three days.
14506 It feels great to see this finally part of the default Debian
14507 installation.  Now we just need to weed out the last few problems that
14508 are bound to show up, to get everything ready for Squeeze.</p>
14509
14510 <p>The next step is migrating /sbin/init from sysvinit to upstart, and
14511 fixing the more fundamental problem of handing the event based
14512 non-predictable kernel in the early boot.</p>
14513
14514       </div>
14515       <div class="tags">
14516
14517
14518         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bootsystem">bootsystem</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
14519
14520
14521       </div>
14522     </div>
14523     <div class="padding"></div>
14524
14525     <div class="entry">
14526       <div class="title">
14527         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Taking_over_sysvinit_development.html">Taking over sysvinit development</a>
14528       </div>
14529       <div class="date">
14530         22nd July 2009
14531       </div>
14532       <div class="body">
14533         <p>After several years of frustration with the lack of activity from
14534 the existing sysvinit upstream developer, I decided a few weeks ago to
14535 take over the package and become the new upstream.  The number of
14536 patches to track for the Debian package was becoming a burden, and the
14537 lack of synchronization between the distribution made it hard to keep
14538 the package up to date.</p>
14539
14540 <p>On the new sysvinit team is the SuSe maintainer Dr. Werner Fink,
14541 and my Debian co-maintainer Kel Modderman.  About 10 days ago, I made
14542 a new upstream tarball with version number 2.87dsf (for Debian, SuSe
14543 and Fedora), based on the patches currently in use in these
14544 distributions.  We Debian maintainers plan to move to this tarball as
14545 the new upstream as soon as we find time to do the merge.  Since the
14546 new tarball was created, we agreed with Werner at SuSe to make a new
14547 upstream project at <a href="http://savannah.nongnu.org/">Savannah</a>, and continue
14548 development there.  The project is registered and currently waiting
14549 for approval by the Savannah administrators, and as soon as it is
14550 approved, we will import the old versions from svn and continue
14551 working on the future release.</p>
14552
14553 <p>It is a bit ironic that this is done now, when some of the involved
14554 distributions are moving to upstart as a syvinit replacement.</p>
14555
14556       </div>
14557       <div class="tags">
14558
14559
14560         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bootsystem">bootsystem</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
14561
14562
14563       </div>
14564     </div>
14565     <div class="padding"></div>
14566
14567     <div class="entry">
14568       <div class="title">
14569         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_boots_quicker_and_quicker.html">Debian boots quicker and quicker</a>
14570       </div>
14571       <div class="date">
14572         24th June 2009
14573       </div>
14574       <div class="body">
14575         <p>I spent Monday and tuesday this week in London with a lot of the
14576 people involved in the boot system on Debian and Ubuntu, to see if we
14577 could find more ways to speed up the boot system.  This was an Ubuntu
14578 funded
14579 <a href="https://wiki.ubuntu.com/FoundationsTeam/BootPerformance/DebianUbuntuSprint">developer
14580 gathering</a>. It was quite productive.  We also discussed the future
14581 of boot systems, and ways to handle the increasing number of boot
14582 issues introduced by the Linux kernel becoming more and more
14583 asynchronous and event base.  The Ubuntu approach using udev and
14584 upstart might be a good way forward.  Time will show.</p>
14585
14586 <p>Anyway, there are a few ways at the moment to speed up the boot
14587 process in Debian.  All of these should be applied to get a quick
14588 boot:</p>
14589
14590 <ul>
14591
14592 <li>Use dash as /bin/sh.</li>
14593
14594 <li>Disable the init.d/hwclock*.sh scripts and make sure the hardware
14595    clock is in UTC.</li>
14596
14597 <li>Install and activate the insserv package to enable
14598    <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/LSBInitScripts/DependencyBasedBoot">dependency
14599    based boot sequencing</a>, and enable concurrent booting.</li>
14600
14601 </ul>
14602
14603 These points are based on the Google summer of code work done by
14604 <a href="http://initscripts-ng.alioth.debian.org/soc2006-bootsystem/">Carlos
14605 Villegas</a>.
14606
14607 <p>Support for makefile-style concurrency during boot was uploaded to
14608 unstable yesterday.  When we tested it, we were able to cut 6 seconds
14609 from the boot sequence.  It depend on very correct dependency
14610 declaration in all init.d scripts, so I expect us to find edge cases
14611 where the dependences in some scripts are slightly wrong when we start
14612 using this.</p>
14613
14614 <p>On our IRC channel for this effort, #pkg-sysvinit, a new idea was
14615 introduced by Raphael Geissert today, one that could affect the
14616 startup speed as well.  Instead of starting some scripts concurrently
14617 from rcS.d/ and another set of scripts from rc2.d/, it would be
14618 possible to run a of them in the same process.  A quick way to test
14619 this would be to enable insserv and run 'mv /etc/rc2.d/S* /etc/rcS.d/;
14620 insserv'.  Will need to test if that work. :)</p>
14621
14622       </div>
14623       <div class="tags">
14624
14625
14626         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bootsystem">bootsystem</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
14627
14628
14629       </div>
14630     </div>
14631     <div class="padding"></div>
14632
14633     <div class="entry">
14634       <div class="title">
14635         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/BSAs_p_stander_om_piratkopiering_m_ter_motstand.html">BSAs påstander om piratkopiering møter motstand</a>
14636       </div>
14637       <div class="date">
14638         17th May 2009
14639       </div>
14640       <div class="body">
14641         <p>Hvert år de siste årene har BSA, lobbyfronten til de store
14642 programvareselskapene som Microsoft og Apple, publisert en rapport der
14643 de gjetter på hvor mye piratkopiering påfører i tapte inntekter i
14644 ulike land rundt om i verden.  Resultatene er tendensiøse.  For noen
14645 dager siden kom
14646 <a href="http://global.bsa.org/globalpiracy2008/studies/globalpiracy2008.pdf">siste
14647 rapport</a>, og det er flere kritiske kommentarer publisert de siste
14648 dagene.  Et spesielt interessant kommentar fra Sverige,
14649 <a href="http://www.idg.se/2.1085/1.229795/bsa-hoftade-sverigesiffror">BSA
14650 höftade Sverigesiffror</a>, oppsummeres slik:</p>
14651
14652 <blockquote>
14653 I sin senaste rapport slår BSA fast att 25 procent av all mjukvara i
14654 Sverige är piratkopierad. Det utan att ha pratat med ett enda svenskt
14655 företag. "Man bör nog kanske inte se de här siffrorna som helt
14656 exakta", säger BSAs Sverigechef John Hugosson.
14657 </blockquote>
14658
14659 <p>Mon tro om de er like metodiske når de gjetter på andelen piratkopiering i Norge?  To andre kommentarer er <a
14660 href="http://www.vnunet.com/vnunet/comment/2242134/bsa-piracy-figures-shot-reality">BSA
14661 piracy figures need a shot of reality</a> og <a
14662 href="http://www.michaelgeist.ca/content/view/3958/125/">Does The WIPO
14663 Copyright Treaty Work?</a></p>
14664
14665 <p>Fant lenkene via <a
14666 href="http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/05/17/1632242">oppslag
14667 på Slashdot</a>.</p>
14668
14669       </div>
14670       <div class="tags">
14671
14672
14673         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bsa">bsa</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/fildeling">fildeling</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/norsk">norsk</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/opphavsrett">opphavsrett</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/personvern">personvern</a>.
14674
14675
14676       </div>
14677     </div>
14678     <div class="padding"></div>
14679
14680     <div class="entry">
14681       <div class="title">
14682         <a href="https://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>
14683       </div>
14684       <div class="date">
14685          7th May 2009
14686       </div>
14687       <div class="body">
14688         <p>Kom over
14689 <a href="http://news.cnet.com/8301-13505_3-10216873-16.html">interessante
14690 tall</a> fra IDG om utviklingen av linuxservermarkedet.  Fikk meg til
14691 å tenke på antall tjenermaskiner ved Universitetet i Oslo der jeg
14692 jobber til daglig.  En rask opptelling forteller meg at vi har 490
14693 (61%) fysiske unix-tjener (mest linux men også noen solaris) og 196
14694 (25%) windowstjenere, samt 112 (14%) virtuelle unix-tjenere.  Med den
14695 bakgrunnskunnskapen kan jeg godt tro at IDG er inne på noe.</p>
14696
14697       </div>
14698       <div class="tags">
14699
14700
14701         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/norsk">norsk</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
14702
14703
14704       </div>
14705     </div>
14706     <div class="padding"></div>
14707
14708     <div class="entry">
14709       <div class="title">
14710         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Kryptert_harddisk___naturligvis.html">Kryptert harddisk - naturligvis</a>
14711       </div>
14712       <div class="date">
14713          2nd May 2009
14714       </div>
14715       <div class="body">
14716         <p><a href="http://www.dagensit.no/trender/article1658676.ece">Dagens
14717 IT melder</a> at Intel hevder at det er dyrt å miste en datamaskin,
14718 når en tar tap av arbeidstid, fortrolige dokumenter,
14719 personopplysninger og alt annet det innebærer.  Det er ingen tvil om
14720 at det er en kostbar affære å miste sin datamaskin, og det er årsaken
14721 til at jeg har kryptert harddisken på både kontormaskinen og min
14722 bærbare.  Begge inneholder personopplysninger jeg ikke ønsker skal
14723 komme på avveie, den første informasjon relatert til jobben min ved
14724 Universitetet i Oslo, og den andre relatert til blant annet
14725 foreningsarbeide.  Kryptering av diskene gjør at det er lite
14726 sannsynlig at dophoder som kan finne på å rappe maskinene får noe ut
14727 av dem.  Maskinene låses automatisk etter noen minutter uten bruk,
14728 og en reboot vil gjøre at de ber om passord før de vil starte opp.
14729 Jeg bruker Debian på begge maskinene, og installasjonssystemet der
14730 gjør det trivielt å sette opp krypterte disker.  Jeg har LVM på toppen
14731 av krypterte partisjoner, slik at alt av datapartisjoner er kryptert.
14732 Jeg anbefaler alle å kryptere diskene på sine bærbare.  Kostnaden når
14733 det er gjort slik jeg gjør det er minimale, og gevinstene er
14734 betydelige.  En bør dog passe på passordet.  Hvis det går tapt, må
14735 maskinen reinstalleres og alt er tapt.</p>
14736
14737 <p>Krypteringen vil ikke stoppe kompetente angripere som f.eks. kjøler
14738 ned minnebrikkene før maskinen rebootes med programvare for å hente ut
14739 krypteringsnøklene.  Kostnaden med å forsvare seg mot slike angripere
14740 er for min del høyere enn gevinsten.  Jeg tror oddsene for at
14741 f.eks. etteretningsorganisasjoner har glede av å titte på mine
14742 maskiner er minimale, og ulempene jeg ville oppnå ved å forsøke å
14743 gjøre det vanskeligere for angripere med kompetanse og ressurser er
14744 betydelige.</p>
14745
14746       </div>
14747       <div class="tags">
14748
14749
14750         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/norsk">norsk</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>.
14751
14752
14753       </div>
14754     </div>
14755     <div class="padding"></div>
14756
14757     <div class="entry">
14758       <div class="title">
14759         <a href="https://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>
14760       </div>
14761       <div class="date">
14762          2nd May 2009
14763       </div>
14764       <div class="body">
14765         <p>There are two software projects that have had huge influence on the
14766 quality of free software, and I wanted to mention both in case someone
14767 do not yet know them.</p>
14768
14769 <p>The first one is <a href="http://valgrind.org/">valgrind</a>, a
14770 tool to detect and expose errors in the memory handling of programs.
14771 It is easy to use, all one need to do is to run 'valgrind program',
14772 and it will report any problems on stdout.  It is even better if the
14773 program include debug information.  With debug information, it is able
14774 to report the source file name and line number where the problem
14775 occurs.  It can report things like 'reading past memory block in file
14776 X line N, the memory block was allocated in file Y, line M', and
14777 'using uninitialised value in control logic'.  This tool has made it
14778 trivial to investigate reproducible crash bugs in programs, and have
14779 reduced the number of this kind of bugs in free software a lot.
14780
14781 <p>The second one is
14782 <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coverity">Coverity</a> which is
14783 a source code checker.  It is able to process the source of a program
14784 and find problems in the logic without running the program.  It
14785 started out as the Stanford Checker and became well known when it was
14786 used to find bugs in the Linux kernel.  It is now a commercial tool
14787 and the company behind it is running
14788 <a href="http://www.scan.coverity.com/">a community service</a> for the
14789 free software community, where a lot of free software projects get
14790 their source checked for free.  Several thousand defects have been
14791 found and fixed so far.  It can find errors like 'lock L taken in file
14792 X line N is never released if exiting in line M', or 'the code in file
14793 Y lines O to P can never be executed'.  The projects included in the
14794 community service project have managed to get rid of a lot of
14795 reliability problems thanks to Coverity.</p>
14796
14797 <p>I believe tools like this, that are able to automatically find
14798 errors in the source, are vital to improve the quality of software and
14799 make sure we can get rid of the crashing and failing software we are
14800 surrounded by today.</p>
14801
14802       </div>
14803       <div class="tags">
14804
14805
14806         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
14807
14808
14809       </div>
14810     </div>
14811     <div class="padding"></div>
14812
14813     <div class="entry">
14814       <div class="title">
14815         <a href="https://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>
14816       </div>
14817       <div class="date">
14818         28th April 2009
14819       </div>
14820       <div class="body">
14821         <p>Julien Blache
14822 <a href="http://blog.technologeek.org/2009/04/12/214">claim that no
14823 patch is better than a useless patch</a>.  I completely disagree, as a
14824 patch allow one to discuss a concrete and proposed solution, and also
14825 prove that the issue at hand is important enough for someone to spent
14826 time on fixing it.  No patch do not provide any of these positive
14827 properties.</p>
14828
14829       </div>
14830       <div class="tags">
14831
14832
14833         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
14834
14835
14836       </div>
14837     </div>
14838     <div class="padding"></div>
14839
14840     <div class="entry">
14841       <div class="title">
14842         <a href="https://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>
14843       </div>
14844       <div class="date">
14845         30th March 2009
14846       </div>
14847       <div class="body">
14848         <p>Where I work at the University of Oslo, one decision stand out as a
14849 very good one to form a long lived computer infrastructure.  It is the
14850 simple one, lost by many in todays computer industry: Standardize on
14851 open network protocols and open exchange/storage formats, not applications.
14852 Applications come and go, while protocols and files tend to stay, and
14853 thus one want to make it easy to change application and vendor, while
14854 avoiding conversion costs and locking users to a specific platform or
14855 application.</p>
14856
14857 <p>This approach make it possible to replace the client applications
14858 independently of the server applications.  One can even allow users to
14859 use several different applications as long as they handle the selected
14860 protocol and format.  In the normal case, only one client application
14861 is recommended and users only get help if they choose to use this
14862 application, but those that want to deviate from the easy path are not
14863 blocked from doing so.</p>
14864
14865 <p>It also allow us to replace the server side without forcing the
14866 users to replace their applications, and thus allow us to select the
14867 best server implementation at any moment, when scale and resouce
14868 requirements change.</p>
14869
14870 <p>I strongly recommend standardizing - on open network protocols and
14871 open formats, but I would never recommend standardizing on a single
14872 application that do not use open network protocol or open formats.</p>
14873
14874       </div>
14875       <div class="tags">
14876
14877
14878         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/standard">standard</a>.
14879
14880
14881       </div>
14882     </div>
14883     <div class="padding"></div>
14884
14885     <div class="entry">
14886       <div class="title">
14887         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Returning_from_Skolelinux_developer_gathering.html">Returning from Skolelinux developer gathering</a>
14888       </div>
14889       <div class="date">
14890         29th March 2009
14891       </div>
14892       <div class="body">
14893         <p>I'm sitting on the train going home from this weekends Debian
14894 Edu/Skolelinux development gathering.  I got a bit done tuning the
14895 desktop, and looked into the dynamic service location protocol
14896 implementation avahi.  It look like it could be useful for us.  Almost
14897 30 people participated, and I believe it was a great environment to
14898 get to know the Skolelinux system.  Walter Bender, involved in the
14899 development of the Sugar educational platform, presented his stuff and
14900 also helped me improve my OLPC installation.  He also showed me that
14901 his Turtle Art application can be used in standalone mode, and we
14902 agreed that I would help getting it packaged for Debian.  As a
14903 standalone application it would be great for Debian Edu.  We also
14904 tried to get the video conferencing working with two OLPCs, but that
14905 proved to be too hard for us.  The application seem to need more work
14906 before it is ready for me.  I look forward to getting home and relax
14907 now. :)</p>
14908
14909       </div>
14910       <div class="tags">
14911
14912
14913         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
14914
14915
14916       </div>
14917     </div>
14918     <div class="padding"></div>
14919
14920     <div class="entry">
14921       <div class="title">
14922         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Time_for_new__LDAP_schemas_replacing_RFC_2307_.html">Time for new  LDAP schemas replacing RFC 2307?</a>
14923       </div>
14924       <div class="date">
14925         29th March 2009
14926       </div>
14927       <div class="body">
14928         <p>The state of standardized LDAP schemas on Linux is far from
14929 optimal.  There is RFC 2307 documenting one way to store NIS maps in
14930 LDAP, and a modified version of this normally called RFC 2307bis, with
14931 some modifications to be compatible with Active Directory.  The RFC
14932 specification handle the content of a lot of system databases, but do
14933 not handle DNS zones and DHCP configuration.</p>
14934
14935 <p>In <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu/Skolelinux</a>,
14936 we would like to store information about users, SMB clients/hosts,
14937 filegroups, netgroups (users and hosts), DHCP and DNS configuration,
14938 and LTSP configuration in LDAP.  These objects have a lot in common,
14939 but with the current LDAP schemas it is not possible to have one
14940 object per entity.  For example, one need to have at least three LDAP
14941 objects for a given computer, one with the SMB related stuff, one with
14942 DNS information and another with DHCP information.  The schemas
14943 provided for DNS and DHCP are impossible to combine into one LDAP
14944 object.  In addition, it is impossible to implement quick queries for
14945 netgroup membership, because of the way NIS triples are implemented.
14946 It just do not scale.  I believe it is time for a few RFC
14947 specifications to cleam up this mess.</p>
14948
14949 <p>I would like to have one LDAP object representing each computer in
14950 the network, and this object can then keep the SMB (ie host key), DHCP
14951 (mac address/name) and DNS (name/IP address) settings in one place.
14952 It need to be efficently stored to make sure it scale well.</p>
14953
14954 <p>I would also like to have a quick way to map from a user or
14955 computer and to the net group this user or computer is a member.</p>
14956
14957 <p>Active Directory have done a better job than unix heads like myself
14958 in this regard, and the unix side need to catch up.  Time to start a
14959 new IETF work group?</p>
14960
14961       </div>
14962       <div class="tags">
14963
14964
14965         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ldap">ldap</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
14966
14967
14968       </div>
14969     </div>
14970     <div class="padding"></div>
14971
14972     <div class="entry">
14973       <div class="title">
14974         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Endelig_er_Debian_Lenny_gitt_ut.html">Endelig er Debian Lenny gitt ut</a>
14975       </div>
14976       <div class="date">
14977         15th February 2009
14978       </div>
14979       <div class="body">
14980         <p>Endelig er <a href="http://www.debian.org/">Debian</a>
14981 <a href="http://www.debian.org/News/2009/20090214">Lenny</a> gitt ut.
14982 Et langt steg videre for Debian-prosjektet, og en rekke nye
14983 programpakker blir nå tilgjengelig for de av oss som bruker den
14984 stabile utgaven av Debian.  Neste steg er nå å få
14985 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Skolelinux</a> /
14986 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/">Debian Edu</a> ferdig
14987 oppdatert for den nye utgaven, slik at en oppdatert versjon kan
14988 slippes løs på skolene.  Takk til alle debian-utviklerne som har
14989 gjort dette mulig.  Endelig er f.eks. fungerende avhengighetsstyrt
14990 bootsekvens tilgjengelig i stabil utgave, vha pakken
14991 <tt>insserv</tt>.</p>
14992
14993       </div>
14994       <div class="tags">
14995
14996
14997         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/norsk">norsk</a>.
14998
14999
15000       </div>
15001     </div>
15002     <div class="padding"></div>
15003
15004     <div class="entry">
15005       <div class="title">
15006         <a href="https://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>
15007       </div>
15008       <div class="date">
15009          7th December 2008
15010       </div>
15011       <div class="body">
15012         <p>This weekend we had a small developer gathering for Debian Edu in
15013 Oslo.  Most of Saturday was used for the general assemly for the
15014 member organization, but the rest of the weekend I used to tune the
15015 LTSP installation.  LTSP now work out of the box on the 10-network.
15016 Acer Aspire One proved to be a very nice thin client, with both
15017 screen, mouse and keybard in a small box.  Was working on getting the
15018 diskless workstation setup configured out of the box, but did not
15019 finish it before the weekend was up.</p>
15020
15021 <p>Did not find time to look at the 4 VGA cards in one box we got from
15022 the Brazilian group, so that will have to wait for the next
15023 development gathering.  Would love to have the Debian Edu installer
15024 automatically detect and configure a multiseat setup when it find one
15025 of these cards.</p>
15026
15027       </div>
15028       <div class="tags">
15029
15030
15031         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ltsp">ltsp</a>.
15032
15033
15034       </div>
15035     </div>
15036     <div class="padding"></div>
15037
15038     <div class="entry">
15039       <div class="title">
15040         <a href="https://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>
15041       </div>
15042       <div class="date">
15043         25th November 2008
15044       </div>
15045       <div class="body">
15046         <p>Recently I have spent some time evaluating the multimedia browser
15047 plugins available in Debian Lenny, to see which one we should use by
15048 default in Debian Edu.  We need an embedded video playing plugin with
15049 control buttons to pause or stop the video, and capable of streaming
15050 all the multimedia content available on the web.  The test results and
15051 notes are available on
15052 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/BrowserMultimedia">the
15053 Debian wiki</a>.  I was surprised how few of the plugins are able to
15054 fill this need.  My personal video player favorite, VLC, has a really
15055 bad plugin which fail on a lot of the test pages.  A lot of the MIME
15056 types I would expect to work with any free software player (like
15057 video/ogg), just do not work.  And simple formats like the
15058 audio/x-mplegurl format (m3u playlists), just isn't supported by the
15059 totem and vlc plugins.  I hope the situation will improve soon.  No
15060 wonder sites use the proprietary Adobe flash to play video.</p>
15061
15062 <p>For Lenny, we seem to end up with the mplayer plugin.  It seem to
15063 be the only one fitting our needs. :/</p>
15064
15065       </div>
15066       <div class="tags">
15067
15068
15069         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/multimedia">multimedia</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/web">web</a>.
15070
15071
15072       </div>
15073     </div>
15074     <div class="padding"></div>
15075
15076     <p style="text-align: right;"><a href="debian.rss"><img src="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/xml.gif" alt="RSS Feed" width="36" height="14" /></a></p>
15077     <div id="sidebar">
15078
15079
15080
15081 <h2>Archive</h2>
15082 <ul>
15083
15084 <li>2023
15085 <ul>
15086
15087 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2023/01/">January (2)</a></li>
15088
15089 </ul></li>
15090
15091 <li>2022
15092 <ul>
15093
15094 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2022/02/">February (1)</a></li>
15095
15096 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2022/03/">March (3)</a></li>
15097
15098 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2022/04/">April (2)</a></li>
15099
15100 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2022/06/">June (2)</a></li>
15101
15102 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2022/07/">July (1)</a></li>
15103
15104 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2022/09/">September (1)</a></li>
15105
15106 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2022/10/">October (1)</a></li>
15107
15108 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2022/12/">December (1)</a></li>
15109
15110 </ul></li>
15111
15112 <li>2021
15113 <ul>
15114
15115 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2021/01/">January (2)</a></li>
15116
15117 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2021/02/">February (1)</a></li>
15118
15119 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2021/05/">May (1)</a></li>
15120
15121 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2021/06/">June (1)</a></li>
15122
15123 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2021/07/">July (3)</a></li>
15124
15125 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2021/08/">August (1)</a></li>
15126
15127 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2021/09/">September (1)</a></li>
15128
15129 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2021/10/">October (1)</a></li>
15130
15131 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2021/12/">December (1)</a></li>
15132
15133 </ul></li>
15134
15135 <li>2020
15136 <ul>
15137
15138 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2020/02/">February (2)</a></li>
15139
15140 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2020/03/">March (2)</a></li>
15141
15142 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2020/04/">April (2)</a></li>
15143
15144 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2020/05/">May (3)</a></li>
15145
15146 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2020/06/">June (2)</a></li>
15147
15148 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2020/07/">July (1)</a></li>
15149
15150 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2020/09/">September (1)</a></li>
15151
15152 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2020/10/">October (1)</a></li>
15153
15154 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2020/11/">November (1)</a></li>
15155
15156 </ul></li>
15157
15158 <li>2019
15159 <ul>
15160
15161 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2019/01/">January (4)</a></li>
15162
15163 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2019/02/">February (3)</a></li>
15164
15165 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2019/03/">March (3)</a></li>
15166
15167 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2019/05/">May (2)</a></li>
15168
15169 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2019/06/">June (5)</a></li>
15170
15171 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2019/07/">July (2)</a></li>
15172
15173 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2019/08/">August (1)</a></li>
15174
15175 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2019/09/">September (1)</a></li>
15176
15177 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2019/11/">November (1)</a></li>
15178
15179 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2019/12/">December (4)</a></li>
15180
15181 </ul></li>
15182
15183 <li>2018
15184 <ul>
15185
15186 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2018/01/">January (1)</a></li>
15187
15188 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2018/02/">February (5)</a></li>
15189
15190 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2018/03/">March (5)</a></li>
15191
15192 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2018/04/">April (3)</a></li>
15193
15194 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2018/06/">June (2)</a></li>
15195
15196 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2018/07/">July (5)</a></li>
15197
15198 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2018/08/">August (3)</a></li>
15199
15200 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2018/09/">September (3)</a></li>
15201
15202 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2018/10/">October (5)</a></li>
15203
15204 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2018/11/">November (2)</a></li>
15205
15206 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2018/12/">December (4)</a></li>
15207
15208 </ul></li>
15209
15210 <li>2017
15211 <ul>
15212
15213 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2017/01/">January (4)</a></li>
15214
15215 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2017/02/">February (3)</a></li>
15216
15217 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2017/03/">March (5)</a></li>
15218
15219 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2017/04/">April (2)</a></li>
15220
15221 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2017/06/">June (5)</a></li>
15222
15223 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2017/07/">July (1)</a></li>
15224
15225 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2017/08/">August (1)</a></li>
15226
15227 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2017/09/">September (3)</a></li>
15228
15229 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2017/10/">October (5)</a></li>
15230
15231 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2017/11/">November (3)</a></li>
15232
15233 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2017/12/">December (4)</a></li>
15234
15235 </ul></li>
15236
15237 <li>2016
15238 <ul>
15239
15240 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2016/01/">January (3)</a></li>
15241
15242 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2016/02/">February (2)</a></li>
15243
15244 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2016/03/">March (3)</a></li>
15245
15246 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2016/04/">April (8)</a></li>
15247
15248 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2016/05/">May (8)</a></li>
15249
15250 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2016/06/">June (2)</a></li>
15251
15252 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2016/07/">July (2)</a></li>
15253
15254 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2016/08/">August (5)</a></li>
15255
15256 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2016/09/">September (2)</a></li>
15257
15258 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2016/10/">October (3)</a></li>
15259
15260 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2016/11/">November (8)</a></li>
15261
15262 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2016/12/">December (5)</a></li>
15263
15264 </ul></li>
15265
15266 <li>2015
15267 <ul>
15268
15269 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/01/">January (7)</a></li>
15270
15271 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/02/">February (6)</a></li>
15272
15273 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/03/">March (1)</a></li>
15274
15275 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/04/">April (4)</a></li>
15276
15277 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/05/">May (3)</a></li>
15278
15279 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/06/">June (4)</a></li>
15280
15281 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/07/">July (6)</a></li>
15282
15283 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/08/">August (2)</a></li>
15284
15285 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/09/">September (2)</a></li>
15286
15287 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/10/">October (9)</a></li>
15288
15289 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/11/">November (6)</a></li>
15290
15291 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/12/">December (3)</a></li>
15292
15293 </ul></li>
15294
15295 <li>2014
15296 <ul>
15297
15298 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/01/">January (2)</a></li>
15299
15300 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/02/">February (3)</a></li>
15301
15302 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/03/">March (8)</a></li>
15303
15304 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/04/">April (7)</a></li>
15305
15306 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/05/">May (1)</a></li>
15307
15308 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/06/">June (2)</a></li>
15309
15310 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/07/">July (2)</a></li>
15311
15312 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/08/">August (2)</a></li>
15313
15314 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/09/">September (5)</a></li>
15315
15316 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/10/">October (6)</a></li>
15317
15318 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/11/">November (3)</a></li>
15319
15320 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/12/">December (5)</a></li>
15321
15322 </ul></li>
15323
15324 <li>2013
15325 <ul>
15326
15327 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/01/">January (11)</a></li>
15328
15329 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/02/">February (9)</a></li>
15330
15331 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/03/">March (9)</a></li>
15332
15333 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/04/">April (6)</a></li>
15334
15335 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/05/">May (9)</a></li>
15336
15337 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/06/">June (10)</a></li>
15338
15339 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/07/">July (7)</a></li>
15340
15341 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/08/">August (3)</a></li>
15342
15343 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/09/">September (5)</a></li>
15344
15345 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/10/">October (7)</a></li>
15346
15347 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/11/">November (9)</a></li>
15348
15349 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/12/">December (3)</a></li>
15350
15351 </ul></li>
15352
15353 <li>2012
15354 <ul>
15355
15356 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/01/">January (7)</a></li>
15357
15358 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/02/">February (10)</a></li>
15359
15360 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/03/">March (17)</a></li>
15361
15362 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/04/">April (12)</a></li>
15363
15364 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/05/">May (12)</a></li>
15365
15366 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/06/">June (20)</a></li>
15367
15368 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/07/">July (17)</a></li>
15369
15370 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/08/">August (6)</a></li>
15371
15372 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/09/">September (9)</a></li>
15373
15374 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/10/">October (17)</a></li>
15375
15376 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/11/">November (10)</a></li>
15377
15378 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/12/">December (7)</a></li>
15379
15380 </ul></li>
15381
15382 <li>2011
15383 <ul>
15384
15385 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/01/">January (16)</a></li>
15386
15387 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/02/">February (6)</a></li>
15388
15389 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/03/">March (6)</a></li>
15390
15391 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/04/">April (7)</a></li>
15392
15393 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/05/">May (3)</a></li>
15394
15395 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/06/">June (2)</a></li>
15396
15397 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/07/">July (7)</a></li>
15398
15399 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/08/">August (6)</a></li>
15400
15401 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/09/">September (4)</a></li>
15402
15403 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/10/">October (2)</a></li>
15404
15405 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/11/">November (3)</a></li>
15406
15407 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/12/">December (1)</a></li>
15408
15409 </ul></li>
15410
15411 <li>2010
15412 <ul>
15413
15414 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/01/">January (2)</a></li>
15415
15416 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/02/">February (1)</a></li>
15417
15418 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/03/">March (3)</a></li>
15419
15420 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/04/">April (3)</a></li>
15421
15422 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/05/">May (9)</a></li>
15423
15424 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/06/">June (14)</a></li>
15425
15426 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/07/">July (12)</a></li>
15427
15428 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/08/">August (13)</a></li>
15429
15430 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/09/">September (7)</a></li>
15431
15432 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/10/">October (9)</a></li>
15433
15434 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/11/">November (13)</a></li>
15435
15436 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/12/">December (12)</a></li>
15437
15438 </ul></li>
15439
15440 <li>2009
15441 <ul>
15442
15443 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/01/">January (8)</a></li>
15444
15445 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/02/">February (8)</a></li>
15446
15447 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/03/">March (12)</a></li>
15448
15449 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/04/">April (10)</a></li>
15450
15451 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/05/">May (9)</a></li>
15452
15453 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/06/">June (3)</a></li>
15454
15455 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/07/">July (4)</a></li>
15456
15457 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/08/">August (3)</a></li>
15458
15459 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/09/">September (1)</a></li>
15460
15461 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/10/">October (2)</a></li>
15462
15463 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/11/">November (3)</a></li>
15464
15465 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/12/">December (3)</a></li>
15466
15467 </ul></li>
15468
15469 <li>2008
15470 <ul>
15471
15472 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2008/11/">November (5)</a></li>
15473
15474 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2008/12/">December (7)</a></li>
15475
15476 </ul></li>
15477
15478 </ul>
15479
15480
15481
15482 <h2>Tags</h2>
15483 <ul>
15484
15485  <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/3d-printer">3d-printer (19)</a></li>
15486
15487  <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/amiga">amiga (1)</a></li>
15488
15489  <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/aros">aros (1)</a></li>
15490
15491  <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bankid">bankid (4)</a></li>
15492
15493  <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/betalkontant">betalkontant (9)</a></li>
15494
15495  <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bitcoin">bitcoin (12)</a></li>
15496
15497  <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bootsystem">bootsystem (17)</a></li>
15498
15499  <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bsa">bsa (2)</a></li>
15500
15501  <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/chrpath">chrpath (2)</a></li>
15502
15503  <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian (186)</a></li>
15504
15505  <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu (159)</a></li>
15506
15507  <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian-handbook">debian-handbook (9)</a></li>
15508
15509  <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/digistan">digistan (11)</a></li>
15510
15511  <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/dld">dld (18)</a></li>
15512
15513  <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/docbook">docbook (30)</a></li>
15514
15515  <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/drivstoffpriser">drivstoffpriser (4)</a></li>
15516
15517  <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english (442)</a></li>
15518
15519  <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/fiksgatami">fiksgatami (23)</a></li>
15520
15521  <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/fildeling">fildeling (14)</a></li>
15522
15523  <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freeculture">freeculture (34)</a></li>
15524
15525  <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freedombox">freedombox (9)</a></li>
15526
15527  <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/frikanalen">frikanalen (20)</a></li>
15528
15529  <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/h264">h264 (20)</a></li>
15530
15531  <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/intervju">intervju (43)</a></li>
15532
15533  <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram">isenkram (16)</a></li>
15534
15535  <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/kart">kart (23)</a></li>
15536
15537  <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/kodi">kodi (4)</a></li>
15538
15539  <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ldap">ldap (9)</a></li>
15540
15541  <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/lego">lego (5)</a></li>
15542
15543  <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/lenker">lenker (8)</a></li>
15544
15545  <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/linuxcnc">linuxcnc (4)</a></li>
15546
15547  <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/lsdvd">lsdvd (2)</a></li>
15548
15549  <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ltsp">ltsp (1)</a></li>
15550
15551  <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/madewithcc">madewithcc (3)</a></li>
15552
15553  <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/mesh network">mesh network (8)</a></li>
15554
15555  <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/multimedia">multimedia (44)</a></li>
15556
15557  <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nice free software">nice free software (13)</a></li>
15558
15559  <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/noark5">noark5 (23)</a></li>
15560
15561  <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/norsk">norsk (320)</a></li>
15562
15563  <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug (198)</a></li>
15564
15565  <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/offentlig innsyn">offentlig innsyn (40)</a></li>
15566
15567  <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/open311">open311 (2)</a></li>
15568
15569  <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/opphavsrett">opphavsrett (75)</a></li>
15570
15571  <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/personvern">personvern (114)</a></li>
15572
15573  <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/raid">raid (2)</a></li>
15574
15575  <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/reactos">reactos (1)</a></li>
15576
15577  <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/reprap">reprap (11)</a></li>
15578
15579  <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/rfid">rfid (3)</a></li>
15580
15581  <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/robot">robot (17)</a></li>
15582
15583  <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/rss">rss (1)</a></li>
15584
15585  <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ruter">ruter (7)</a></li>
15586
15587  <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/scraperwiki">scraperwiki (2)</a></li>
15588
15589  <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet (59)</a></li>
15590
15591  <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sitesummary">sitesummary (4)</a></li>
15592
15593  <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/skepsis">skepsis (5)</a></li>
15594
15595  <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/standard">standard (74)</a></li>
15596
15597  <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/stavekontroll">stavekontroll (7)</a></li>
15598
15599  <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/stortinget">stortinget (14)</a></li>
15600
15601  <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance (64)</a></li>
15602
15603  <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sysadmin">sysadmin (5)</a></li>
15604
15605  <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/usenix">usenix (2)</a></li>
15606
15607  <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/valg">valg (9)</a></li>
15608
15609  <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/verkidetfri">verkidetfri (20)</a></li>
15610
15611  <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/video">video (77)</a></li>
15612
15613  <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/vitenskap">vitenskap (4)</a></li>
15614
15615  <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/web">web (42)</a></li>
15616
15617 </ul>
15618
15619
15620     </div>
15621     <p style="text-align: right">
15622  Created by <a href="http://steve.org.uk/Software/chronicle">Chronicle v4.6</a>
15623 </p>
15624
15625   </body>
15626 </html>