blog/archive/2010/05/index.html

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   5   <title>Petter Reinholdtsen: entries from May 2010</title>
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  13   <h1>
  14        <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/">Petter Reinholdtsen</a>
  15
  16   </h1>
  17
  18  </div>
  19
  20  <p>Entries from May 2010.</p>
  21
  22
  23 <div class="entry">
  24  <div class="title">
  25  <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Forcing_new_users_to_change_their_password_on_first_login.html">Forcing new users to change their password on first login</a>
  26  </div>
  27  <div class="date">
  28   2010-05-02 13:47
  29  </div>
  30
  31  <div class="body">
  32
  33 <p>One interesting feature in Active Directory, is the ability to
  34 create a new user with an expired password, and thus force the user to
  35 change the password on the first login attempt.</p>
  36
  37 <p>I'm not quite sure how to do that with the LDAP setup in Debian
  38 Edu, but did some initial testing with a local account.  The account
  39 and password aging information is available in /etc/shadow, but
  40 unfortunately, it is not possible to specify an expiration time for
  41 passwords, only a maximum age for passwords.</p>
  42
  43 <p>A freshly created account (using adduser test) will have these
  44 settings in /etc/shadow:</p>
  45
  46 <blockquote><pre>
  47 root@tjener:~# chage -l test
  48 Last password change                                    : May 02, 2010
  49 Password expires                                        : never
  50 Password inactive                                       : never
  51 Account expires                                         : never
  52 Minimum number of days between password change          : 0
  53 Maximum number of days between password change          : 99999
  54 Number of days of warning before password expires       : 7
  55 root@tjener:~#
  56 </pre></blockquote>
  57
  58 <p>The only way I could come up with to create a user with an expired
  59 account, is to change the date of the last password change to the
  60 lowest value possible (January 1th 1970), and the maximum password age
  61 to the difference in days between that date and today.  To make it
  62 simple, I went for 30 years (30 * 365 = 10950) and January 2th (to
  63 avoid testing if 0 is a valid value).</p>
  64
  65 <p>After using these commands to set it up, it seem to work as
  66 intended:</p>
  67
  68 <blockquote><pre>
  69 root@tjener:~# chage -d 1 test; chage -M 10950 test
  70 root@tjener:~# chage -l test
  71 Last password change                                    : Jan 02, 1970
  72 Password expires                                        : never
  73 Password inactive                                       : never
  74 Account expires                                         : never
  75 Minimum number of days between password change          : 0
  76 Maximum number of days between password change          : 10950
  77 Number of days of warning before password expires       : 7
  78 root@tjener:~#
  79 </pre></blockquote>
  80
  81 <p>So far I have tested this with ssh and console, and kdm (in
  82 Squeeze) login, and all ask for a new password before login in the
  83 user (with ssh, I was thrown out and had to log in again).</p>
  84
  85 <p>Perhaps we should set up something similar for Debian Edu, to make
  86 sure only the user itself have the account password?</p>
  87
  88 <p>If you want to comment on or help out with implementing this for
  89 Debian Edu, please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.</p>
  90
  91 <p>Update 2010-05-02 17:20: Paul Tötterman tells me on IRC that the
  92 shadow(8) page in Debian/testing now state that setting the date of
  93 last password change to zero (0) will force the password to be changed
  94 on the first login.  This was not mentioned in the manual in Lenny, so
  95 I did not notice this in my initial testing.  I have tested it on
  96 Squeeze, and '<tt>chage -d 0 username</tt>' do work there.  I have not
  97 tested it on Lenny yet.</p>
  98
  99 <p>Update 2010-05-02-19:05: Jim Paris tells me via email that an
 100 equivalent command to expire a password is '<tt>passwd -e
 101 username</tt>', which insert zero into the date of the last password
 102 change.</p>
 103
 104  </div>
 105  <div class="tags">
 106
 107
 108
 109   Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>.
 110
 111  </div>
 112 </div>
 113  <div class="padding"></div>
 114
 115 <div class="entry">
 116  <div class="title">
 117  <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Parallellizing_the_boot_in_Debian_Squeeze___ready_for_wider_testing.html">Parallellizing the boot in Debian Squeeze - ready for wider testing</a>
 118  </div>
 119  <div class="date">
 120   2010-05-06 23:25
 121  </div>
 122
 123  <div class="body">
 124
 125 <p>These days, the init.d script dependencies in Squeeze are quite
 126 complete, so complete that it is actually possible to run all the
 127 init.d scripts in parallell based on these dependencies.  If you want
 128 to test your Squeeze system, make sure
 129 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/LSBInitScripts/DependencyBasedBoot">dependency
 130 based boot sequencing</a> is enabled, and add this line to
 131 /etc/default/rcS:</p>
 132
 133 <blockquote><pre>
 134 CONCURRENCY=makefile
 135 </pre></blockquote>
 136
 137 <p>That is it.  It will cause sysv-rc to use the startpar tool to run
 138 scripts in parallel using the dependency information stored in
 139 /etc/init.d/.depend.boot, /etc/init.d/.depend.start and
 140 /etc/init.d/.depend.stop to order the scripts.  Startpar is configured
 141 to try to start the kdm and gdm scripts as early as possible, and will
 142 start the facilities required by kdm or gdm as early as possible to
 143 make this happen.</p>
 144
 145 <p>Give it a try, and see if you like the result.  If some services
 146 fail to start properly, it is most likely because they have incomplete
 147 init.d script dependencies in their startup script (or some of their
 148 dependent scripts have incomplete dependencies).  Report bugs and get
 149 the package maintainers to fix it. :)</p>
 150
 151 <p>Running scripts in parallel could be the default in Debian when we
 152 manage to get the init.d script dependencies complete and correct.  I
 153 expect we will get there in Squeeze+1, if we get manage to test and
 154 fix the remaining issues.</p>
 155
 156 <p>If you report any problems with dependencies in init.d scripts to
 157 the BTS, please usertag the report to get it to show up at
 158 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/pkgreport.cgi?users=initscripts-ng-devel@lists.alioth.debian.org">the
 159 list of usertagged bugs related to this</a>.</p>
 160
 161  </div>
 162  <div class="tags">
 163
 164
 165
 166   Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
 167
 168  </div>
 169 </div>
 170  <div class="padding"></div>
 171
 172 <div class="entry">
 173  <div class="title">
 174  <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/systemd__an_interesting_alternative_to_upstart.html">systemd, an interesting alternative to upstart</a>
 175  </div>
 176  <div class="date">
 177   2010-05-13 22:20
 178  </div>
 179
 180  <div class="body">
 181
 182 <p>The last few days a new boot system called
 183 <a href="http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/systemd">systemd</a>
 184 has been
 185 <a href="http://0pointer.de/blog/projects/systemd.html">introduced</a>
 186
 187 to the free software world.  I have not yet had time to play around
 188 with it, but it seem to be a very interesting alternative to
 189 <a href="http://upstart.ubuntu.com/">upstart</a>, and might prove to be
 190 a good alternative for Debian when we are able to switch to an event
 191 based boot system.  Tollef is
 192 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/580814">in the process</a> of getting
 193 systemd into Debian, and I look forward to seeing how well it work.  I
 194 like the fact that systemd handles init.d scripts with dependency
 195 information natively, allowing them to run in parallel where upstart
 196 at the moment do not.</p>
 197
 198 <p>Unfortunately do systemd have the same problem as upstart regarding
 199 platform support.  It only work on recent Linux kernels, and also need
 200 some new kernel features enabled to function properly.  This means
 201 kFreeBSD and Hurd ports of Debian will need a port or a different boot
 202 system.  Not sure how that will be handled if systemd proves to be the
 203 way forward.</p>
 204
 205 <p>In the mean time, based on the
 206 <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2010/05/msg00122.html">input
 207 on debian-devel@</a> regarding parallel booting in Debian, I have
 208 decided to enable full parallel booting as the default in Debian as
 209 soon as possible (probably this weekend or early next week), to see if
 210 there are any remaining serious bugs in the init.d dependencies.  A
 211 new version of the sysvinit package implementing this change is
 212 already in experimental.  If all go well, Squeeze will be released
 213 with parallel booting enabled by default.</p>
 214
 215  </div>
 216  <div class="tags">
 217
 218
 219
 220   Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
 221
 222  </div>
 223 </div>
 224  <div class="padding"></div>
 225
 226  <p style="text-align: right;"><a href="05.rss"><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/xml.gif" alt="RSS Feed" width="36" height="14"></a></p>
 227
 228
 229
 230 <div id="sidebar">
 231
 232 <h2>Archive</h2>
 233 <ul>
 234
 235 <li>2010
 236 <ul>
 237
 238 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/01/">January (2)</a></li>
 239
 240 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/02/">February (1)</a></li>
 241
 242 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/03/">March (3)</a></li>
 243
 244 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/04/">April (3)</a></li>
 245
 246 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/05/">May (3)</a></li>
 247
 248 </ul></li>
 249
 250 <li>2009
 251 <ul>
 252
 253 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/01/">January (8)</a></li>
 254
 255 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/02/">February (8)</a></li>
 256
 257 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/03/">March (12)</a></li>
 258
 259 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/04/">April (10)</a></li>
 260
 261 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/05/">May (9)</a></li>
 262
 263 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/06/">June (3)</a></li>
 264
 265 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/07/">July (4)</a></li>
 266
 267 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/08/">August (3)</a></li>
 268
 269 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/09/">September (1)</a></li>
 270
 271 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/10/">October (2)</a></li>
 272
 273 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/11/">November (3)</a></li>
 274
 275 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/12/">December (3)</a></li>
 276
 277 </ul></li>
 278
 279 <li>2008
 280 <ul>
 281
 282 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2008/11/">November (5)</a></li>
 283
 284 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2008/12/">December (7)</a></li>
 285
 286 </ul></li>
 287
 288 </ul>
 289
 290
 291
 292 <h2>Tags</h2>
 293 <ul>
 294
 295  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/3d-printer">3d-printer (11)</a></li>
 296
 297  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/amiga">amiga (1)</a></li>
 298
 299  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/aros">aros (1)</a></li>
 300
 301  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian (16)</a></li>
 302
 303  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu (15)</a></li>
 304
 305  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english (26)</a></li>
 306
 307  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/fiksgatami">fiksgatami (1)</a></li>
 308
 309  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/fildeling">fildeling (6)</a></li>
 310
 311  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/kart">kart (2)</a></li>
 312
 313  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/lenker">lenker (1)</a></li>
 314
 315  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ltsp">ltsp (1)</a></li>
 316
 317  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/multimedia">multimedia (5)</a></li>
 318
 319  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/norsk">norsk (64)</a></li>
 320
 321  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug (71)</a></li>
 322
 323  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/opphavsrett">opphavsrett (12)</a></li>
 324
 325  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/personvern">personvern (11)</a></li>
 326
 327  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/reprap">reprap (10)</a></li>
 328
 329  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/rss">rss (1)</a></li>
 330
 331  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet (7)</a></li>
 332
 333  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/standard">standard (11)</a></li>
 334
 335  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/stavekontroll">stavekontroll (1)</a></li>
 336
 337  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/video">video (10)</a></li>
 338
 339  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/vitenskap">vitenskap (1)</a></li>
 340
 341  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/web">web (6)</a></li>
 342
 343 </ul>
 344
 345 </div>
 346 </body>
 347 </html>