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  13  <h1>
  14      <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/">Petter Reinholdtsen</a>
  15
  16  </h1>
  17
  18 </div>
  19
  20
  21     <h3>Entries tagged "debian".</h3>
  22
  23     <div class="entry">
  24       <div class="title">
  25         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Teaching_vmdebootstrap_to_create_Raspberry_Pi_SD_card_images.html">Teaching vmdebootstrap to create Raspberry Pi SD card images</a>
  26       </div>
  27       <div class="date">
  28         27th October 2013
  29       </div>
  30       <div class="body">
  31         <p>The
  32 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/v/vmdebootstrap.html">vmdebootstrap</a>
  33 program is a a very nice system to create virtual machine images.  It
  34 create a image file, add a partition table, mount it and run
  35 debootstrap in the mounted directory to create a Debian system on a
  36 stick.  Yesterday, I decided to try to teach it how to make images for
  37 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/RaspberryPi">Raspberry Pi</a>, as part
  38 of a plan to simplify the build system for the FreedomBox project.
  39 The FreedomBox project already uses vmdebootstrap for the virtualbox
  40 images, but its home made multistrap based system for Dreamplug
  41 images, and it is lacking support for Raspberry Pi.</p>
  42
  43 <p>Armed with the knowledge on how to build "foreign" (aka non-native
  44 architecture) chroots for Raspberry Pi, I dived into the vmdebootstrap
  45 code and adjusted it to be able to build armel images on my amd64
  46 Debian laptop.  I ended up giving vmdebootstrap five new options,
  47 allowing me to replicate the image creation process I use to make
  48 <a href=http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/A_Raspberry_Pi_based_batman_adv_Mesh_network_node.html"">Debian
  49 Jessie based mesh node images for the Raspberry Pi</a>.  First, the
  50 <tt>--foreign /path/to/binfm_handler</tt> option tell vmdebootstrap to
  51 call debootstrap with --foreign and to copy the handler into the
  52 generated chroot before running the second stage.  This allow
  53 vmdebootstrap to create armel images on an amd64 host.  Next I added
  54 two new options <tt>--bootsize size</tt> and <tt>--boottype
  55 fstype</tt> to teach it to create a separate /boot/ partition with the
  56 given file system type, allowing me to create an image with a vfat
  57 partition for the /boot/ stuff.  I also added a <tt>--variant
  58 variant</tt> option to allow me to create smaller images without the
  59 Debian base system packages installed.  Finally, I added an option
  60 <tt>--no-extlinux</tt> to tell vmdebootstrap to not install extlinux
  61 as a boot loader.  It is not needed on the Raspberry Pi and probably
  62 most other non-x86 architectures.  The changes were accepted by the
  63 upstream author of vmdebootstrap yesterday and today, and is now
  64 available from
  65 <a href="http://git.liw.fi/cgi-bin/cgit/cgit.cgi/vmdebootstrap/">the
  66 upstream project page</a>.</p>
  67
  68 <p>To use it to build a Raspberry Pi image using Debian Jessie, first
  69 create a small script (the customize script) to add the non-free
  70 binary blob needed to boot the Raspberry Pi and the APT source
  71 list:</p>
  72
  73 <p><pre>
  74 #!/bin/sh
  75 set -e # Exit on first error
  76 rootdir="$1"
  77 cd "$rootdir"
  78 cat &lt;&lt;EOF > etc/apt/sources.list
  79 deb http://http.debian.net/debian/ jessie main contrib non-free
  80 EOF
  81 # Install non-free binary blob needed to boot Raspberry Pi.  This
  82 # install a kernel somewhere too.
  83 wget https://raw.github.com/Hexxeh/rpi-update/master/rpi-update \
  84     -O $rootdir/usr/bin/rpi-update
  85 chmod a+x $rootdir/usr/bin/rpi-update
  86 mkdir -p $rootdir/lib/modules
  87 touch $rootdir/boot/start.elf
  88 chroot $rootdir rpi-update
  89 </pre></p>
  90
  91 <p>Next, fetch the latest vmdebootstrap script and call it like this
  92 to build the image:</p>
  93
  94 <pre>
  95 sudo ./vmdebootstrap \
  96     --variant minbase \
  97     --arch armel \
  98     --distribution jessie \
  99     --mirror http://http.debian.net/debian \
 100     --image test.img \
 101     --size 600M \
 102     --bootsize 64M \
 103     --boottype vfat \
 104     --log-level debug \
 105     --verbose \
 106     --no-kernel \
 107     --no-extlinux \
 108     --root-password raspberry \
 109     --hostname raspberrypi \
 110     --foreign /usr/bin/qemu-arm-static \
 111     --customize `pwd`/customize \
 112     --package netbase \
 113     --package git-core \
 114     --package binutils \
 115     --package ca-certificates \
 116     --package wget \
 117     --package kmod
 118 </pre></p>
 119
 120 <p>The list of packages being installed are the ones needed by
 121 rpi-update to make the image bootable on the Raspberry Pi, with the
 122 exception of netbase, which is needed by debootstrap to find
 123 /etc/hosts with the minbase variant.  I really wish there was a way to
 124 set up an Raspberry Pi using only packages in the Debian archive, but
 125 that is not possible as far as I know, because it boots from the GPU
 126 using a non-free binary blob.</p>
 127
 128 <p>The build host need debootstrap, kpartx and qemu-user-static and
 129 probably a few others installed.  I have not checked the complete
 130 build dependency list.</p>
 131
 132 <p>The resulting image will not use the hardware floating point unit
 133 on the Raspberry PI, because the armel architecture in Debian is not
 134 optimized for that use.  So the images created will be a bit slower
 135 than <a href="http://www.raspbian.org/">Raspbian</a> based images.</p>
 136
 137       </div>
 138       <div class="tags">
 139
 140
 141         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freedombox">freedombox</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/mesh network">mesh network</a>.
 142
 143
 144       </div>
 145     </div>
 146     <div class="padding"></div>
 147
 148     <div class="entry">
 149       <div class="title">
 150         <a href="http://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>
 151       </div>
 152       <div class="date">
 153         15th October 2013
 154       </div>
 155       <div class="body">
 156         <p>The last few days I came across a few good causes that should get
 157 wider attention.  I recommend signing and donating to each one of
 158 these. :)</p>
 159
 160 <p>Via <a href="http://www.debian.org/News/weekly/2013/18/">Debian
 161 Project News for 2013-10-14</a> I came across the Outreach Program for
 162 Women program which is a Google Summer of Code like initiative to get
 163 more women involved in free software.  One debian sponsor has offered
 164 to match <a href="http://debian.ch/opw2013">any donation done to Debian
 165 earmarked</a> for this initiative.  I donated a few minutes ago, and
 166 hope you will to. :)</p>
 167
 168 <p>And the Electronic Frontier Foundation just announced plans to
 169 create <a href="https://supporters.eff.org/donate/nsa-videos">video
 170 documentaries about the excessive spying</a> on every Internet user that
 171 take place these days, and their need to fund the work.  I've already
 172 donated.  Are you next?</p>
 173
 174 <p>For my Norwegian audience, the organisation Studentenes og
 175 Akademikernes Internasjonale Hjelpefond is collecting signatures for a
 176 statement under the heading
 177 <a href="http://saih.no/Bloggers_United/">Bloggers United for Open
 178 Access</a> for those of us asking for more focus on open access in the
 179 Norwegian government.  So far 499 signatures.  I hope you will sign it
 180 too.</p>
 181
 182       </div>
 183       <div class="tags">
 184
 185
 186         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/opphavsrett">opphavsrett</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance</a>.
 187
 188
 189       </div>
 190     </div>
 191     <div class="padding"></div>
 192
 193     <div class="entry">
 194       <div class="title">
 195         <a href="http://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>
 196       </div>
 197       <div class="date">
 198         27th September 2013
 199       </div>
 200       <div class="body">
 201         <p>The <a href="http://www.freedomboxfoundation.org/">Freedombox
 202 project</a> have been going on for a while, and have presented the
 203 vision, ideas and solution several places.  Here is a little
 204 collection of videos of talks and presentation of the project.</p>
 205
 206 <ul>
 207
 208 <li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ukvUz5taxvA">FreedomBox -
 209 2,5 minute marketing film</a> (Youtube)</li>
 210
 211 <li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SzW25QTVWsE">Eben Moglen
 212 discusses the Freedombox on CBS news 2011</a> (Youtube)</li>
 213
 214 <li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ae8SZbxfE0g">Eben Moglen -
 215 Freedom in the Cloud - Software Freedom, Privacy and and Security for
 216 Web 2.0 and Cloud computing at ISOC-NY Public Meeting 2010</a>
 217 (Youtube)</li>
 218
 219 <li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNaIji_3xBE">Fosdem 2011
 220 Keynote by Eben Moglen presenting the Freedombox</a> (Youtube)</li>
 221
 222 <li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bDDUyJSQ9s">Presentation of
 223 the Freedombox by James Vasile at Elevate in Gratz 2011</a> (Youtube)</li>
 224
 225 <li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQTmnk27g9s"> Freedombox -
 226 Discovery, Identity, and Trust by Nick Daly at Freedombox Hackfest New
 227 York City in 2012</a> (Youtube)</li>
 228
 229 <li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tkbSB4Ba7Ck">Introduction
 230 to the Freedombox at Freedombox Hackfest New York City in 2012</a>
 231 (Youtube)</li>
 232
 233 <li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-P2Jaeg0aQ">Freedom, Out
 234 of the Box! by Bdale Garbee at linux.conf.au Ballarat, 2012</a> (Youtube) </li>
 235
 236 <li><a href="https://archive.fosdem.org/2013/schedule/event/freedombox/">Freedombox
 237 1.0 by Eben Moglen and Bdale Garbee at Fosdem 2013</a> (FOSDEM) </li>
 238
 239 <li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e1LpYX2zVYg">What is the
 240 FreedomBox today by Bdale Garbee at Debconf13 in Vaumarcus
 241 2013</a> (Youtube)</li>
 242
 243 </ul>
 244
 245 <p>A larger list is available from
 246 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/FreedomBox/TalksAndPresentations">the
 247 Freedombox Wiki</a>.</p>
 248
 249 <p>On other news, I am happy to report that Freedombox based on Debian
 250 Jessie is coming along quite well, and soon both Owncloud and using
 251 Tor should be available for testers of the Freedombox solution. :) In
 252 a few weeks I hope everything needed to test it is included in Debian.
 253 The withsqlite package is already in Debian, and the plinth package is
 254 pending in NEW.  The third and vital part of that puzzle is the
 255 metapackage/setup framework, which is still pending an upload.  Join
 256 us on <a href="irc://irc.debian.org:6667/%23freedombox">IRC
 257 (#freedombox on irc.debian.org)</a> and
 258 <a href="http://lists.alioth.debian.org/mailman/listinfo/freedombox-discuss">the
 259 mailing list</a> if you want to help make this vision come true.</p>
 260
 261       </div>
 262       <div class="tags">
 263
 264
 265         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freedombox">freedombox</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/web">web</a>.
 266
 267
 268       </div>
 269     </div>
 270     <div class="padding"></div>
 271
 272     <div class="entry">
 273       <div class="title">
 274         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Recipe_to_test_the_Freedombox_project_on_amd64_or_Raspberry_Pi.html">Recipe to test the Freedombox project on amd64 or Raspberry Pi</a>
 275       </div>
 276       <div class="date">
 277         10th September 2013
 278       </div>
 279       <div class="body">
 280         <p>I was introduced to the
 281 <a href="http://www.freedomboxfoundation.org/">Freedombox project</a>
 282 in 2010, when Eben Moglen presented his vision about serving the need
 283 of non-technical people to keep their personal information private and
 284 within the legal protection of their own homes.  The idea is to give
 285 people back the power over their network and machines, and return
 286 Internet back to its intended peer-to-peer architecture.  Instead of
 287 depending on a central service, the Freedombox will give everyone
 288 control over their own basic infrastructure.</p>
 289
 290 <p>I've intended to join the effort since then, but other tasks have
 291 taken priority.  But this summers nasty news about the misuse of trust
 292 and privilege exercised by the "western" intelligence gathering
 293 communities increased my eagerness to contribute to a point where I
 294 actually started working on the project a while back.</p>
 295
 296 <p>The <a href="https://alioth.debian.org/projects/freedombox/">initial
 297 Debian initiative</a> based on the vision from Eben Moglen, is to
 298 create a simple and cheap Debian based appliance that anyone can hook
 299 up in their home and get access to secure and private services and
 300 communication.  The initial deployment platform have been the
 301 <a href="http://www.globalscaletechnologies.com/t-dreamplugdetails.aspx">Dreamplug</a>,
 302 which is a piece of hardware I do not own.  So to be able to test what
 303 the current Freedombox setup look like, I had to come up with a way to install
 304 it on some hardware I do have access to.  I have rewritten the
 305 <a href="https://github.com/NickDaly/freedom-maker">freedom-maker</a>
 306 image build framework to use .deb packages instead of only copying
 307 setup into the boot images, and thanks to this rewrite I am able to
 308 set up any machine supported by Debian Wheezy as a Freedombox, using
 309 the previously mentioned deb (and a few support debs for packages
 310 missing in Debian).</p>
 311
 312 <p>The current Freedombox setup consist of a set of bootstrapping
 313 scripts
 314 (<a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/freedombox-setup">freedombox-setup</a>),
 315 and a administrative web interface
 316 (<a href="https://github.com/NickDaly/Plinth">plinth</a> + exmachina +
 317 withsqlite), as well as a privacy enhancing proxy based on
 318 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/privoxy">privoxy</a>
 319 (freedombox-privoxy).  There is also a web/javascript based XMPP
 320 client (<a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/jwchat">jwchat</a>)
 321 trying (unsuccessfully so far) to talk to the XMPP server
 322 (<a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/ejabberd">ejabberd</a>).  The
 323 web interface is pluggable, and the goal is to use it to enable OpenID
 324 services, mesh network connectivity, use of TOR, etc, etc.  Not much of
 325 this is really working yet, see
 326 <a href="https://github.com/NickDaly/freedombox-todos/blob/master/TODO">the
 327 project TODO</a> for links to GIT repositories.  Most of the code is
 328 on github at the moment.  The HTTP proxy is operational out of the
 329 box, and the admin web interface can be used to add/remove plinth
 330 users.  I've not been able to do anything else with it so far, but
 331 know there are several branches spread around github and other places
 332 with lots of half baked features.</p>
 333
 334 <p>Anyway, if you want to have a look at the current state, the
 335 following recipes should work to give you a test machine to poke
 336 at.</p>
 337
 338 <p><strong>Debian Wheezy amd64</strong></p>
 339
 340 <ol>
 341
 342 <li>Fetch normal Debian Wheezy installation ISO.</li>
 343 <li>Boot from it, either as CD or USB stick.</li>
 344 <li><p>Press [tab] on the boot prompt and add this as a boot argument
 345 to the Debian installer:<p>
 346 <pre>url=<a href="http://www.reinholdtsen.name/freedombox/preseed-wheezy.dat">http://www.reinholdtsen.name/freedombox/preseed-wheezy.dat</a></pre></li>
 347
 348 <li>Answer the few language/region/password questions and pick disk to
 349 install on.</li>
 350
 351 <li>When the installation is finished and the machine have rebooted a
 352 few times, your Freedombox is ready for testing.</li>
 353
 354 </ol>
 355
 356 <p><strong>Raspberry Pi Raspbian</strong></p>
 357
 358 <ol>
 359
 360 <li>Fetch a Raspbian SD card image, create SD card.</li>
 361 <li>Boot from SD card, extend file system to fill the card completely.</li>
 362 <li><p>Log in and add this to /etc/sources.list:</p>
 363 <pre>
 364 deb <a href="http://www.reinholdtsen.name/freedombox/">http://www.reinholdtsen.name/freedombox</a> wheezy main
 365 </pre></li>
 366 <li><p>Run this as root:</p>
 367 <pre>
 368 wget -O - http://www.reinholdtsen.name/freedombox/BE1A583D.asc | \
 369    apt-key add -
 370 apt-get update
 371 apt-get install freedombox-setup
 372 /usr/lib/freedombox/setup
 373 </pre></li>
 374 <li>Reboot into your freshly created Freedombox.</li>
 375
 376 </ol>
 377
 378 <p>You can test it on other architectures too, but because the
 379 freedombox-privoxy package is binary, it will only work as intended on
 380 the architectures where I have had time to build the binary and put it
 381 in my APT repository.  But do not let this stop you.  It is only a
 382 short "<tt>apt-get source -b freedombox-privoxy</tt>" away. :)</p>
 383
 384 <p>Note that by default Freedombox is a DHCP server on the
 385 192.168.1.0/24 subnet, so if this is your subnet be careful and turn
 386 off the DHCP server by running "<tt>update-rc.d isc-dhcp-server
 387 disable</tt>" as root.</p>
 388
 389 <p>Please let me know if this works for you, or if you have any
 390 problems.  We gather on the IRC channel
 391 <a href="irc://irc.debian.org:6667/%23freedombox">#freedombox</a> on
 392 irc.debian.org and the
 393 <a href="http://lists.alioth.debian.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/freedombox-discuss">project
 394 mailing list</a>.</p>
 395
 396 <p>Once you get your freedombox operational, you can visit
 397 <tt>http://your-host-name:8001/</tt> to see the state of the plint
 398 welcome screen (dead end - do not be surprised if you are unable to
 399 get past it), and next visit <tt>http://your-host-name:8001/help/</tt>
 400 to look at the rest of plinth.  The default user is 'admin' and the
 401 default password is 'secret'.</p>
 402
 403       </div>
 404       <div class="tags">
 405
 406
 407         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freedombox">freedombox</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/web">web</a>.
 408
 409
 410       </div>
 411     </div>
 412     <div class="padding"></div>
 413
 414     <div class="entry">
 415       <div class="title">
 416         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Intel_180_SSD_disk_with_Lenovo_firmware_can_not_use_Intel_firmware.html">Intel 180 SSD disk with Lenovo firmware can not use Intel firmware</a>
 417       </div>
 418       <div class="date">
 419         18th August 2013
 420       </div>
 421       <div class="body">
 422         <p>Earlier, I reported about
 423 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_fix_a_Thinkpad_X230_with_a_broken_180_GB_SSD_disk.html">my
 424 problems using an Intel SSD 520 Series 180 GB disk</a>.  Friday I was
 425 told by IBM that the original disk should be thrown away.  And as
 426 there no longer was a problem if I bricked the firmware, I decided
 427 today to try to install Intel firmware to replace the Lenovo firmware
 428 currently on the disk.</p>
 429
 430 <p>I searched the Intel site for firmware, and found
 431 <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>
 432 (aka Intel SATA Solid-State Drive Firmware Update Tool) which
 433 according to the site should contain the latest firmware for SSD
 434 disks.  I inserted the broken disk in one of my spare laptops and
 435 booted the ISO from a USB stick.  The disk was recognized, but the
 436 program claimed the newest firmware already were installed and refused
 437 to insert any Intel firmware.  So no change, and the disk is still
 438 unable to handle write load. :( I guess the only way to get them
 439 working would be if Lenovo releases new firmware.  No idea how likely
 440 that is.  Anyway, just blogging about this test for completeness.  I
 441 got a working Samsung disk, and see no point in spending more time on
 442 the broken disks.</p>
 443
 444       </div>
 445       <div class="tags">
 446
 447
 448         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>.
 449
 450
 451       </div>
 452     </div>
 453     <div class="padding"></div>
 454
 455     <div class="entry">
 456       <div class="title">
 457         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_fix_a_Thinkpad_X230_with_a_broken_180_GB_SSD_disk.html">How to fix a Thinkpad X230 with a broken 180 GB SSD disk</a>
 458       </div>
 459       <div class="date">
 460         17th July 2013
 461       </div>
 462       <div class="body">
 463         <p>Today I switched to
 464 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_Thinkpad_is_dead__long_live_the_Thinkpad_X230_.html">my
 465 new laptop</a>.  I've previously written about the problems I had with
 466 my new Thinkpad X230, which was delivered with an
 467 <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
 468 GB Intel SSD disk with Lenovo firmware</a> that did not handle
 469 sustained writes.  My hardware supplier have been very forthcoming in
 470 trying to find a solution, and after first trying with another
 471 identical 180 GB disks they decided to send me a 256 GB Samsung SSD
 472 disk instead to fix it once and for all.  The Samsung disk survived
 473 the installation of Debian with encrypted disks (filling the disk with
 474 random data during installation killed the first two), and I thus
 475 decided to trust it with my data.  I have installed it as a Debian Edu
 476 Wheezy roaming workstation hooked up with my Debian Edu Squeeze main
 477 server at home using Kerberos and LDAP, and will use it as my work
 478 station from now on.</p>
 479
 480 <p>As this is a solid state disk with no moving parts, I believe the
 481 Debian Wheezy default installation need to be tuned a bit to increase
 482 performance and increase life time of the disk.  The Linux kernel and
 483 user space applications do not yet adjust automatically to such
 484 environment.  To make it easier for my self, I created a draft Debian
 485 package <tt>ssd-setup</tt> to handle this tuning.  The
 486 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/gitweb/?p=collab-maint/ssd-setup.git">source
 487 for the ssd-setup package</a> is available from collab-maint, and it
 488 is set up to adjust the setup of the machine by just installing the
 489 package.  If there is any non-SSD disk in the machine, the package
 490 will refuse to install, as I did not try to write any logic to sort
 491 file systems in SSD and non-SSD file systems.</p>
 492
 493 <p>I consider the package a draft, as I am a bit unsure how to best
 494 set up Debian Wheezy with an SSD.  It is adjusted to my use case,
 495 where I set up the machine with one large encrypted partition (in
 496 addition to /boot), put LVM on top of this and set up partitions on
 497 top of this again.  See the README file in the package source for the
 498 references I used to pick the settings.  At the moment these
 499 parameters are tuned:</p>
 500
 501 <ul>
 502
 503 <li>Set up cryptsetup to pass TRIM commands to the physical disk
 504     (adding discard to /etc/crypttab)</li>
 505
 506 <li>Set up LVM to pass on TRIM commands to the underlying device (in
 507     this case a cryptsetup partition) by changing issue_discards from
 508     0 to 1 in /etc/lvm/lvm.conf.</li>
 509
 510 <li>Set relatime as a file system option for ext3 and ext4 file
 511     systems.</li>
 512
 513 <li>Tell swap to use TRIM commands by adding 'discard' to
 514     /etc/fstab.</li>
 515
 516 <li>Change I/O scheduler from cfq to deadline using a udev rule.</li>
 517
 518 <li>Run fstrim on every ext3 and ext4 file system every night (from
 519     cron.daily).</li>
 520
 521 <li>Adjust sysctl values vm.swappiness to 1 and vm.vfs_cache_pressure
 522     to 50 to reduce the kernel eagerness to swap out processes.</li>
 523
 524 </ul>
 525
 526 <p>During installation, I cancelled the part where the installer fill
 527 the disk with random data, as this would kill the SSD performance for
 528 little gain.  My goal with the encrypted file system is to ensure
 529 those stealing my laptop end up with a brick and not a working
 530 computer.  I have no hope in keeping the really resourceful people
 531 from getting the data on the disk (see
 532 <a href="http://xkcd.com/538/">XKCD #538</a> for an explanation why).
 533 Thus I concluded that adding the discard option to crypttab is the
 534 right thing to do.</p>
 535
 536 <p>I considered using the noop I/O scheduler, as several recommended
 537 it for SSD, but others recommended deadline and a benchmark I found
 538 indicated that deadline might be better for interactive use.</p>
 539
 540 <p>I also considered using the 'discard' file system option for ext3
 541 and ext4, but read that it would give a performance hit ever time a
 542 file is removed, and thought it best to that that slowdown once a day
 543 instead of during my work.</p>
 544
 545 <p>My package do not set up tmpfs on /var/run, /var/lock and /tmp, as
 546 this is already done by Debian Edu.</p>
 547
 548 <p>I have not yet started on the user space tuning.  I expect
 549 iceweasel need some tuning, and perhaps other applications too, but
 550 have not yet had time to investigate those parts.</p>
 551
 552 <p>The package should work on Ubuntu too, but I have not yet tested it
 553 there.</p>
 554
 555 <p>As for the answer to the question in the title of this blog post,
 556 as far as I know, the only solution I know about is to replace the
 557 disk.  It might be possible to flash it with Intel firmware instead of
 558 the Lenovo firmware.  But I have not tried and did not want to do so
 559 without approval from Lenovo as I wanted to keep the warranty on the
 560 disk until a solution was found and they wanted the broken disks
 561 back.</p>
 562
 563       </div>
 564       <div class="tags">
 565
 566
 567         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>.
 568
 569
 570       </div>
 571     </div>
 572     <div class="padding"></div>
 573
 574     <div class="entry">
 575       <div class="title">
 576         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Intel_SSD_520_Series_180_GB_with_Lenovo_firmware_still_lock_up_from_sustained_writes.html">Intel SSD 520 Series 180 GB with Lenovo firmware still lock up from sustained writes</a>
 577       </div>
 578       <div class="date">
 579         10th July 2013
 580       </div>
 581       <div class="body">
 582         <p>A few days ago, I wrote about
 583 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_Thinkpad_is_dead__long_live_the_Thinkpad_X230_.html">the
 584 problems I experienced with my new X230 and its SSD disk</a>, which
 585 was dying during installation because it is unable to cope with
 586 sustained write.  My supplier is in contact with
 587 <a href="http://www.lenovo.com/">Lenovo</a>, and they wanted to send a
 588 replacement disk to try to fix the problem.  They decided to send an
 589 identical model, so my hopes for a permanent fix was slim.</p>
 590
 591 <p>Anyway, today I got the replacement disk and tried to install
 592 Debian Edu Wheezy with encrypted disk on it.  The new disk have the
 593 same firmware version as the original.  This time my hope raised
 594 slightly as the installation progressed, as the original disk used to
 595 die after 4-7% of the disk was written to, while this time it kept
 596 going past 10%, 20%, 40% and even past 50%.  But around 60%, the disk
 597 died again and I was back on square one.  I still do not have a new
 598 laptop with a disk I can trust.  I can not live with a disk that might
 599 lock up when I download a new
 600 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux</a> ISO or
 601 other large files.  I look forward to hearing from my supplier with
 602 the next proposal from Lenovo.</p>
 603
 604 <p>The original disk is marked Intel SSD 520 Series 180 GB,
 605 11S0C38722Z1ZNME35X1TR, ISN: CVCV321407HB180EGN, SA: G57560302, FW:
 606 LF1i, 29MAY2013, PBA: G39779-300, LBA 351,651,888, LI P/N: 0C38722,
 607 Pb-free 2LI, LC P/N: 16-200366, WWN: 55CD2E40002756C4, Model:
 608 SSDSC2BW180A3L 2.5" 6Gb/s SATA SSD 180G 5V 1A, ASM P/N 0C38732, FRU
 609 P/N 45N8295, P0C38732.</p>
 610
 611 <p>The replacement disk is marked Intel SSD 520 Series 180 GB,
 612 11S0C38722Z1ZNDE34N0L0, ISN: CVCV315306RK180EGN, SA: G57560-302, FW:
 613 LF1i, 22APR2013, PBA: G39779-300, LBA 351,651,888, LI P/N: 0C38722,
 614 Pb-free 2LI, LC P/N: 16-200366, WWN: 55CD2E40000AB69E, Model:
 615 SSDSC2BW180A3L 2.5" 6Gb/s SATA SSD 180G 5V 1A, ASM P/N 0C38732, FRU
 616 P/N 45N8295, P0C38732.</p>
 617
 618 <p>The only difference is in the first number (serial number?), ISN,
 619 SA, date and WNPP values.  Mentioning all the details here in case
 620 someone is able to use the information to find a way to identify the
 621 failing disk among working ones (if any such working disk actually
 622 exist).</p>
 623
 624       </div>
 625       <div class="tags">
 626
 627
 628         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>.
 629
 630
 631       </div>
 632     </div>
 633     <div class="padding"></div>
 634
 635     <div class="entry">
 636       <div class="title">
 637         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/July_13th__Debian_Ubuntu_BSP_and_Skolelinux_Debian_Edu_developer_gathering_in_Oslo.html">July 13th: Debian/Ubuntu BSP and Skolelinux/Debian Edu developer gathering in Oslo</a>
 638       </div>
 639       <div class="date">
 640          9th July 2013
 641       </div>
 642       <div class="body">
 643         <p>The upcoming Saturday, 2013-07-13, we are organising a combined
 644 Debian Edu developer gathering and Debian and Ubuntu bug squashing
 645 party in Oslo.  It is organised by <a href="http://www.nuug.no/">the
 646 member assosiation NUUG</a> and
 647 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">the Debian Edu / Skolelinux
 648 project</a> together with <a href="http://bitraf.no/">the hack space
 649 Bitraf</a>.</p>
 650
 651 <p>It starts 10:00 and continue until late evening.  Everyone is
 652 welcome, and there is no fee to participate.  There is on the other
 653 hand limited space, and only room for 30 people.  Please put your name
 654 on <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/BSP/2013/07/13/no/Oslo">the event
 655 wiki page</a> if you plan to join us.</p>
 656
 657       </div>
 658       <div class="tags">
 659
 660
 661         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
 662
 663
 664       </div>
 665     </div>
 666     <div class="padding"></div>
 667
 668     <div class="entry">
 669       <div class="title">
 670         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_Thinkpad_is_dead__long_live_the_Thinkpad_X230_.html">The Thinkpad is dead, long live the Thinkpad X230?</a>
 671       </div>
 672       <div class="date">
 673          5th July 2013
 674       </div>
 675       <div class="body">
 676         <p>Half a year ago, I reported that I had to find a
 677 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Thank_you_Thinkpad_X41__for_your_long_and_trustworthy_service.html">replacement
 678 for my trusty old Thinkpad X41</a>.  Unfortunately I did not have much
 679 time to spend on it, and it took a while to find a model I believe
 680 will do the job, but two days ago the replacement finally arrived.  I
 681 ended up picking a
 682 <a href="http://www.linlap.com/lenovo_thinkpad_x230">Thinkpad X230</a>
 683 with SSD disk (NZDAJMN).  I first test installed Debian Edu Wheezy as
 684 a roaming workstation, and it seemed to work flawlessly.  But my
 685 second installation with encrypted disk was not as successful.  More
 686 on that below.</p>
 687
 688 <p>I had a hard time trying to track down a good laptop, as my most
 689 important requirements (robust and with a good keyboard) are never
 690 listed in the feature list.  But I did get good help from the search
 691 feature at <a href="http://www.prisjakt.no/">Prisjakt</a>, which
 692 allowed me to limit the list of interesting laptops based on my other
 693 requirements.  A bit surprising that SSD disk are not disks according
 694 to that search interface, so I had to drop specifying the number of
 695 disks from my search parameters.  I also asked around among friends to
 696 get their impression on keyboards and robustness.</p>
 697
 698 <p>So the new laptop arrived, and it is quite a lot wider than the
 699 X41.  I am not quite convinced about the keyboard, as it is
 700 significantly wider than my old keyboard, and I have to stretch my
 701 hand a lot more to reach the edges.  But the key response is fairly
 702 good and the individual key shape is fairly easy to handle, so I hope
 703 I will get used to it.  My old X40 was starting to fail, and I really
 704 needed a new laptop now. :)</p>
 705
 706 <p>Turning off the touch pad was simple.  All it took was a quick
 707 visit to the BIOS during boot it disable it.</p>
 708
 709 <p>But there is a fatal problem with the laptop.  The 180 GB SSD disk
 710 lock up during load.  And this happen when installing Debian Wheezy
 711 with encrypted disk, while the disk is being filled with random data.
 712 I also tested to install Ubuntu Raring, and it happen there too if I
 713 reenable the code to fill the disk with random data (it is disabled by
 714 default in Ubuntu).  And the bug with is already known.  It was
 715 reported to Debian as <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/691427">BTS
 716 report #691427 2012-10-25</a> (journal commit I/O error on brand-new
 717 Thinkpad T430s ext4 on lvm on SSD).  It is also reported to the Linux
 718 kernel developers as
 719 <a href="https://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=51861">Kernel bugzilla
 720 report #51861 2012-12-20</a> (Intel SSD 520 stops working under load
 721 (SSDSC2BW180A3L in Lenovo ThinkPad T430s)). It is also reported on the
 722 Lenovo forums, both for
 723 <a href="http://forums.lenovo.com/t5/T400-T500-and-newer-T-series/T430s-Intel-SSD-520-180GB-issue/m-p/1070549">T430
 724 2012-11-10</a> and for
 725 <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
 726 03-20-2013</a>.  The problem do not only affect installation.  The
 727 reports state that the disk lock up during use if many writes are done
 728 on the disk, so it is much no use to work around the installation
 729 problem and end up with a computer that can lock up at any moment.
 730 There is even a
 731 <a href="https://git.efficios.com/?p=test-ssd.git">small C program
 732 available</a> that will lock up the hard drive after running a few
 733 minutes by writing to a file.</p>
 734
 735 <p>I've contacted my supplier and asked how to handle this, and after
 736 contacting PCHELP Norway (request 01D1FDP) which handle support
 737 requests for Lenovo, his first suggestion was to upgrade the disk
 738 firmware.  Unfortunately there is no newer firmware available from
 739 Lenovo, as my disk already have the most recent one (version LF1i).  I
 740 hope to hear more from him today and hope the problem can be
 741 fixed. :)</p>
 742
 743       </div>
 744       <div class="tags">
 745
 746
 747         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>.
 748
 749
 750       </div>
 751     </div>
 752     <div class="padding"></div>
 753
 754     <div class="entry">
 755       <div class="title">
 756         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_Thinkpad_is_dead__long_live_the_Thinkpad_X230.html">The Thinkpad is dead, long live the Thinkpad X230</a>
 757       </div>
 758       <div class="date">
 759          4th July 2013
 760       </div>
 761       <div class="body">
 762         <p>Half a year ago, I reported that I had to find a replacement for my
 763 trusty old Thinkpad X41.  Unfortunately I did not have much time to
 764 spend on it, but today the replacement finally arrived.  I ended up
 765 picking a <a href="http://www.linlap.com/lenovo_thinkpad_x230">Thinkpad
 766 X230</a> with SSD disk (NZDAJMN).  I first test installed Debian Edu
 767 Wheezy as a roaming workstation, and it worked flawlessly.  As I write
 768 this, it is installing what I hope will be a more final installation,
 769 with a encrypted hard drive to ensure any dope head stealing it end up
 770 with an expencive door stop.</p>
 771
 772 <p>I had a hard time trying to track down a good laptop, as my most
 773 important requirements (robust and with a good keyboard) are never
 774 listed in the feature list.  But I did get good help from the search
 775 feature at <ahref="http://www.prisjakt.no/">Prisjakt</a>, which
 776 allowed me to limit the list of interesting laptops based on my other
 777 requirements.  A bit surprising that SSD disk are not disks, so I had
 778 to drop number of disks from my search parameters.</p>
 779
 780 <p>I am not quite convinced about the keyboard, as it is significantly
 781 wider than my old keyboard, and I have to stretch my hand a lot more
 782 to reach the edges.  But the key response is fairly good and the
 783 individual key shape is fairly easy to handle, so I hope I will get
 784 used to it.  My old X40 was starting to fail, and I really needed a
 785 new laptop now. :)</p>
 786
 787 <p>I look forward to figuring out how to turn off the touch pad.</p>
 788
 789       </div>
 790       <div class="tags">
 791
 792
 793         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>.
 794
 795
 796       </div>
 797     </div>
 798     <div class="padding"></div>
 799
 800     <div class="entry">
 801       <div class="title">
 802         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Automatically_locate_and_install_required_firmware_packages_on_Debian__Isenkram_0_4_.html">Automatically locate and install required firmware packages on Debian (Isenkram 0.4)</a>
 803       </div>
 804       <div class="date">
 805         25th June 2013
 806       </div>
 807       <div class="body">
 808         <p>It annoys me when the computer fail to do automatically what it is
 809 perfectly capable of, and I have to do it manually to get things
 810 working.  One such task is to find out what firmware packages are
 811 needed to get the hardware on my computer working.  Most often this
 812 affect the wifi card, but some times it even affect the RAID
 813 controller or the ethernet card.  Today I pushed version 0.4 of the
 814 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/isenkram">Isenkram package</a>
 815 including a new script isenkram-autoinstall-firmware handling the
 816 process of asking all the loaded kernel modules what firmware files
 817 they want, find debian packages providing these files and install the
 818 debian packages.  Here is a test run on my laptop:</p>
 819
 820 <p><pre>
 821 # isenkram-autoinstall-firmware
 822 info: kernel drivers requested extra firmware: ipw2200-bss.fw ipw2200-ibss.fw ipw2200-sniffer.fw
 823 info: fetching http://http.debian.net/debian/dists/squeeze/Contents-i386.gz
 824 info: locating packages with the requested firmware files
 825 info: Updating APT sources after adding non-free APT source
 826 info: trying to install firmware-ipw2x00
 827 firmware-ipw2x00
 828 firmware-ipw2x00
 829 Preconfiguring packages ...
 830 Selecting previously deselected package firmware-ipw2x00.
 831 (Reading database ... 259727 files and directories currently installed.)
 832 Unpacking firmware-ipw2x00 (from .../firmware-ipw2x00_0.28+squeeze1_all.deb) ...
 833 Setting up firmware-ipw2x00 (0.28+squeeze1) ...
 834 #
 835 </pre></p>
 836
 837 <p>When all the requested firmware is present, a simple message is
 838 printed instead:</p>
 839
 840 <p><pre>
 841 # isenkram-autoinstall-firmware
 842 info: did not find any firmware files requested by loaded kernel modules.  exiting
 843 #
 844 </pre></p>
 845
 846 <p>It could use some polish, but it is already working well and saving
 847 me some time when setting up new machines. :)</p>
 848
 849 <p>So, how does it work?  It look at the set of currently loaded
 850 kernel modules, and look up each one of them using modinfo, to find
 851 the firmware files listed in the module meta-information.  Next, it
 852 download the Contents file from a nearby APT mirror, and search for
 853 the firmware files in this file to locate the package with the
 854 requested firmware file.  If the package is in the non-free section, a
 855 non-free APT source is added and the package is installed using
 856 <tt>apt-get install</tt>.  The end result is a slightly better working
 857 machine.</p>
 858
 859 <p>I hope someone find time to implement a more polished version of
 860 this script as part of the hw-detect debian-installer module, to
 861 finally fix <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/655507">BTS report
 862 #655507</a>.  There really is no need to insert USB sticks with
 863 firmware during a PXE install when the packages already are available
 864 from the nearby Debian mirror.</p>
 865
 866       </div>
 867       <div class="tags">
 868
 869
 870         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram">isenkram</a>.
 871
 872
 873       </div>
 874     </div>
 875     <div class="padding"></div>
 876
 877     <div class="entry">
 878       <div class="title">
 879         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Fixing_the_Linux_black_screen_of_death_on_machines_with_Intel_HD_video.html">Fixing the Linux black screen of death on machines with Intel HD video</a>
 880       </div>
 881       <div class="date">
 882         11th June 2013
 883       </div>
 884       <div class="body">
 885         <p>When installing RedHat, Fedora, Debian and Ubuntu on some machines,
 886 the screen just turn black when Linux boot, either during installation
 887 or on first boot from the hard disk.  I've seen it once in a while the
 888 last few years, but only recently understood the cause.  I've seen it
 889 on HP laptops, and on my latest acquaintance the Packard Bell laptop.
 890 The reason seem to be in the wiring of some laptops.  The system to
 891 control the screen background light is inverted, so when Linux try to
 892 turn the brightness fully on, it end up turning it off instead.  I do
 893 not know which Linux drivers are affected, but this post is about the
 894 i915 driver used by the
 895 <a href="http://www.linlap.com/packard_bell_easynote_lv">Packard Bell
 896 EasyNote LV</a>, Thinkpad X40 and many other laptops.</p>
 897
 898 <p>The problem can be worked around two ways.  Either by adding
 899 i915.invert_brightness=1 as a kernel option, or by adding a file in
 900 /etc/modprobe.d/ to tell modprobe to add the invert_brightness=1
 901 option when it load the i915 kernel module.  On Debian and Ubuntu, it
 902 can be done by running these commands as root:</p>
 903
 904 <pre>
 905 echo options i915 invert_brightness=1 | tee /etc/modprobe.d/i915.conf
 906 update-initramfs -u -k all
 907 </pre>
 908
 909 <p>Since March 2012 there is
 910 <a href="http://git.kernel.org/cgit/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/commit/?id=4dca20efb1a9c2efefc28ad2867e5d6c3f5e1955">a
 911 mechanism in the Linux kernel</a> to tell the i915 driver which
 912 hardware have this problem, and get the driver to invert the
 913 brightness setting automatically.  To use it, one need to add a row in
 914 <a href="http://git.kernel.org/cgit/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/tree/drivers/gpu/drm/i915/intel_display.c">the
 915 intel_quirks array</a> in the driver source
 916 <tt>drivers/gpu/drm/i915/intel_display.c</tt> (look for "<tt>static
 917 struct intel_quirk intel_quirks</tt>"), specifying the PCI device
 918 number (vendor number 8086 is assumed) and subdevice vendor and device
 919 number.</p>
 920
 921 <p>My Packard Bell EasyNote LV got this output from <tt>lspci
 922 -vvnn</tt> for the video card in question:</p>
 923
 924 <p><pre>
 925 00:02.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: Intel Corporation \
 926     3rd Gen Core processor Graphics Controller [8086:0156] \
 927     (rev 09) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
 928  Subsystem: Acer Incorporated [ALI] Device [1025:0688]
 929  Control: I/O+ Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- \
 930     ParErr- Stepping- SE RR- FastB2B- DisINTx+
 931  Status: Cap+ 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B+ ParErr- DEVSEL=fast >TAbort- \
 932     <TAbort- <MAbort->SERR- <PERR- INTx-
 933  Latency: 0
 934  Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 42
 935  Region 0: Memory at c2000000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4M]
 936  Region 2: Memory at b0000000 (64-bit, prefetchable) [size=256M]
 937  Region 4: I/O ports at 4000 [size=64]
 938  Expansion ROM at <unassigned> [disabled]
 939  Capabilities: <access denied>
 940  Kernel driver in use: i915
 941 </pre></p>
 942
 943 <p>The resulting intel_quirks entry would then look like this:</p>
 944
 945 <p><pre>
 946 struct intel_quirk intel_quirks[] = {
 947        ...
 948         /* Packard Bell EasyNote LV11HC needs invert brightness quirk */
 949         { 0x0156, 0x1025, 0x0688, quirk_invert_brightness },
 950        ...
 951 }
 952 </pre></p>
 953
 954 <p>According to the kernel module instructions (as seen using
 955 <tt>modinfo i915</tt>), information about hardware needing the
 956 invert_brightness flag should be sent to the
 957 <a href="http://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/dri-devel">dri-devel
 958 (at) lists.freedesktop.org</a> mailing list to reach the kernel
 959 developers.  But my email about the laptop sent 2013-06-03 have not
 960 yet shown up in
 961 <a href="http://lists.freedesktop.org/archives/dri-devel/2013-June/thread.html">the
 962 web archive for the mailing list</a>, so I suspect they do not accept
 963 emails from non-subscribers.  Because of this, I sent my patch also to
 964 the Debian bug tracking system instead as
 965 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/710938">BTS report #710938</a>, to make
 966 sure the patch is not lost.</p>
 967
 968 <p>Unfortunately, it is not enough to fix the kernel to get Laptops
 969 with this problem working properly with Linux.  If you use Gnome, your
 970 worries should be over at this point.  But if you use KDE, there is
 971 something in KDE ignoring the invert_brightness setting and turning on
 972 the screen during login.  I've reported it to Debian as
 973 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/711237">BTS report #711237</a>, and
 974 have no idea yet how to figure out exactly what subsystem is doing
 975 this.  Perhaps you can help?  Perhaps you know what the Gnome
 976 developers did to handle this, and this can give a clue to the KDE
 977 developers?  Or you know where in KDE the screen brightness is changed
 978 during login?  If so, please update the BTS report (or get in touch if
 979 you do not know how to update BTS).</p>
 980
 981 <p>Update 2013-07-19: The correct fix for this machine seem to be
 982 acpi_backlight=vendor, to disable ACPI backlight support completely,
 983 as the ACPI information on the machine is trash and it is better to
 984 leave it to the intel video driver to control the screen
 985 backlight.</p>
 986
 987       </div>
 988       <div class="tags">
 989
 990
 991         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>.
 992
 993
 994       </div>
 995     </div>
 996     <div class="padding"></div>
 997
 998     <div class="entry">
 999       <div class="title">
1000         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_install_Linux_on_a_Packard_Bell_Easynote_LV_preinstalled_with_Windows_8.html">How to install Linux on a Packard Bell Easynote LV preinstalled with Windows 8</a>
1001       </div>
1002       <div class="date">
1003         27th May 2013
1004       </div>
1005       <div class="body">
1006         <p>Two days ago, I asked
1007 <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
1008 I could install Linux on a Packard Bell EasyNote LV computer
1009 preinstalled with Windows 8</a>.  I found a solution, but am horrified
1010 with the obstacles put in the way of Linux users on a laptop with UEFI
1011 and Windows 8.</p>
1012
1013 <p>I never found out if the cause of my problems were the use of UEFI
1014 secure booting or fast boot.  I suspect fast boot was the problem,
1015 causing the firmware to boot directly from HD without considering any
1016 key presses and alternative devices, but do not know UEFI settings
1017 enough to tell.</p>
1018
1019 <p>There is no way to install Linux on the machine in question without
1020 opening the box and disconnecting the hard drive!  This is as far as I
1021 can tell, the only way to get access to the firmware setup menu
1022 without accepting the Windows 8 license agreement.  I am told (and
1023 found description on how to) that it is possible to configure the
1024 firmware setup once booted into Windows 8.  But as I believe the terms
1025 of that agreement are completely unacceptable, accepting the license
1026 was never an alternative.  I do not enter agreements I do not intend
1027 to follow.</p>
1028
1029 <p>I feared I had to return the laptops and ask for a refund, and
1030 waste many hours on this, but luckily there was a way to get it to
1031 work.  But I would not recommend it to anyone planning to run Linux on
1032 it, and I have become sceptical to Windows 8 certified laptops.  Is
1033 this the way Linux will be forced out of the market place, by making
1034 it close to impossible for "normal" users to install Linux without
1035 accepting the Microsoft Windows license terms?  Or at least not
1036 without risking to loose the warranty?</p>
1037
1038 <p>I've updated the
1039 <a href="http://www.linlap.com/packard_bell_easynote_lv">Linux Laptop
1040 wiki page for Packard Bell EasyNote LV</a>, to ensure the next person
1041 do not have to struggle as much as I did to get Linux into the
1042 machine.</p>
1043
1044 <p>Thanks to Bob Rosbag, Florian Weimer, Philipp Kern, Ben Hutching,
1045 Michael Tokarev and others for feedback and ideas.</p>
1046
1047       </div>
1048       <div class="tags">
1049
1050
1051         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>.
1052
1053
1054       </div>
1055     </div>
1056     <div class="padding"></div>
1057
1058     <div class="entry">
1059       <div class="title">
1060         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_can_I_install_Linux_on_a_Packard_Bell_Easynote_LV_preinstalled_with_Windows_8_.html">How can I install Linux on a Packard Bell Easynote LV preinstalled with Windows 8?</a>
1061       </div>
1062       <div class="date">
1063         25th May 2013
1064       </div>
1065       <div class="body">
1066         <p>I've run into quite a problem the last few days.  I bought three
1067 new laptops for my parents and a few others.  I bought Packard Bell
1068 Easynote LV to run Kubuntu on and use as their home computer.  But I
1069 am completely unable to figure out how to install Linux on it.  The
1070 computer is preinstalled with Windows 8, and I suspect it uses UEFI
1071 instead of a BIOS to boot.</p>
1072
1073 <p>The problem is that I am unable to get it to PXE boot, and unable
1074 to get it to boot the Linux installer from my USB stick.  I have yet
1075 to try the DVD install, and still hope it will work.  when I turn on
1076 the computer, there is no information on what buttons to press to get
1077 the normal boot menu.  I expect to get some boot menu to select PXE or
1078 USB stick booting.  When booting, it first ask for the language to
1079 use, then for some regional settings, and finally if I will accept the
1080 Windows 8 terms of use.  As these terms are completely unacceptable to
1081 me, I have no other choice but to turn off the computer and try again
1082 to get it to boot the Linux installer.</p>
1083
1084 <p>I have gathered my findings so far on a Linlap page about the
1085 <a href="http://www.linlap.com/packard_bell_easynote_lv">Packard Bell
1086 EasyNote LV</a> model.  If you have any idea how to get Linux
1087 installed on this machine, please get in touch or update that wiki
1088 page.  If I can't find a way to install Linux, I will have to return
1089 the laptop to the seller and find another machine for my parents.</p>
1090
1091 <p>I wonder, is this the way Linux will be forced out of the market
1092 using UEFI and "secure boot" by making it impossible to install Linux
1093 on new Laptops?</p>
1094
1095       </div>
1096       <div class="tags">
1097
1098
1099         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>.
1100
1101
1102       </div>
1103     </div>
1104     <div class="padding"></div>
1105
1106     <div class="entry">
1107       <div class="title">
1108         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_transform_a_Debian_based_system_to_a_Debian_Edu_installation.html">How to transform a Debian based system to a Debian Edu installation</a>
1109       </div>
1110       <div class="date">
1111         17th May 2013
1112       </div>
1113       <div class="body">
1114         <p><a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux</a> is
1115 an operating system based on Debian intended for use in schools.  It
1116 contain a turn-key solution for the computer network provided to
1117 pupils in the primary schools.  It provide both the central server,
1118 network boot servers and desktop environments with heaps of
1119 educational software.  The project was founded almost 12 years ago,
1120 2001-07-02.  If you want to support the project, which is in need for
1121 cash to fund developer gatherings and other project related activity,
1122 <a href="http://www.linuxiskolen.no/slxdebianlabs/donations.html">please
1123 donate some money</a>.
1124
1125 <p>A topic that come up again and again on the Debian Edu mailing
1126 lists and elsewhere, is the question on how to transform a Debian or
1127 Ubuntu installation into a Debian Edu installation.  It isn't very
1128 hard, and last week I wrote a script to replicate the steps done by
1129 the Debian Edu installer.</p>
1130
1131 <p>The script,
1132 <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/>
1133 in the debian-edu-config package, will go through these six steps and
1134 transform an existing Debian Wheezy or Ubuntu (untested) installation
1135 into a Debian Edu Workstation:</p>
1136
1137 <ol>
1138
1139 <li>Add skolelinux related APT sources.</li>
1140 <li>Create /etc/debian-edu/config with the wanted configuration.</li>
1141 <li>Install debian-edu-install to load preseeding values and pull in
1142     our configuration.</li>
1143 <li>Preseed debconf database with profile setup in
1144     /etc/debian-edu/config, and run tasksel to install packages
1145     according to the profile specified in the config above,
1146     overriding some of the Debian automation machinery.</li>
1147 <li>Run debian-edu-cfengine-D installation to configure everything
1148     that could not be done using preseeding.</li>
1149 <li>Ask for a reboot to enable all the configuration changes.</li>
1150
1151 </ol>
1152
1153 <p>There are some steps in the Debian Edu installation that can not be
1154 replicated like this.  Disk partitioning and LVM setup, for example.
1155 So this script just assume there is enough disk space to install all
1156 the needed packages.</p>
1157
1158 <p>The script was created to help a Debian Edu student working on
1159 setting up <a href="http://www.raspberrypi.org">Raspberry Pi</a> as a
1160 Debian Edu client, and using it he can take the existing
1161 <a href="http://www.raspbian.org/FrontPage‎">Raspbian</a> installation and
1162 transform it into a fully functioning Debian Edu Workstation (or
1163 Roaming Workstation, or whatever :).</p>
1164
1165 <p>The default setting in the script is to create a KDE Workstation.
1166 If a LXDE based Roaming workstation is wanted instead, modify the
1167 PROFILE and DESKTOP values at the top to look like this instead:</p>
1168
1169 <p><pre>
1170 PROFILE="Roaming-Workstation"
1171 DESKTOP="lxde"
1172 </pre></p>
1173
1174 <p>The script could even become useful to set up Debian Edu servers in
1175 the cloud, by starting with a virtual Debian installation at some
1176 virtual hosting service and setting up all the services on first
1177 boot.</p>
1178
1179       </div>
1180       <div class="tags">
1181
1182
1183         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
1184
1185
1186       </div>
1187     </div>
1188     <div class="padding"></div>
1189
1190     <div class="entry">
1191       <div class="title">
1192         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian__the_Linux_distribution_of_choice_for_LEGO_designers_.html">Debian, the Linux distribution of choice for LEGO designers?</a>
1193       </div>
1194       <div class="date">
1195         11th May 2013
1196       </div>
1197       <div class="body">
1198         <P>In January,
1199 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/New_IRC_channel_for_LEGO_designers_using_Debian.html">I
1200 announced a</a> new <a href="irc://irc.debian.org/%23debian-lego">IRC
1201 channel #debian-lego</a>, for those of us in the Debian and Linux
1202 community interested in <a href="http://www.lego.com/">LEGO</a>, the
1203 marvellous construction system from Denmark.  We also created
1204 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/LegoDesigners">a wiki page</a> to have
1205 a place to take notes and write down our plans and hopes.  And several
1206 people showed up to help.  I was very happy to see the effect of my
1207 call.  Since the small start, we have a debtags tag
1208 <a href="http://debtags.debian.net/search/bytag?wl=hardware::hobby:lego">hardware::hobby:lego</a>
1209 tag for LEGO related packages, and now count 10 packages related to
1210 LEGO and <a href="http://mindstorms.lego.com/">Mindstorms</a>:</p>
1211
1212 <p><table>
1213 <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>
1214 <tr><td><a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/leocad">leocad</a></td><td>virtual brick CAD software</td></tr>
1215 <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>
1216 <tr><td><a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/lnpd">lnpd</a></td><td>daemon for LNP communication with BrickOS</td></tr>
1217 <tr><td><a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/nbc">nbc</a></td><td>compiler for LEGO Mindstorms NXT bricks</td></tr>
1218 <tr><td><a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/nqc">nqc</a></td><td>Not Quite C compiler for LEGO Mindstorms RCX</td></tr>
1219 <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>
1220 <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>
1221 <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>
1222 <tr><td><a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/t2n">t2n</a></td><td>simple command-line tool for Lego NXT</td></tr>
1223 </table></p>
1224
1225 <p>Some of these are available in Wheezy, and all but one are
1226 currently available in Jessie/testing.  leocad is so far only
1227 available in experimental.</p>
1228
1229 <p>If you care about LEGO in Debian, please join us on IRC and help
1230 adding the rest of the great free software tools available on Linux
1231 for LEGO designers.</p>
1232
1233       </div>
1234       <div class="tags">
1235
1236
1237         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/robot">robot</a>.
1238
1239
1240       </div>
1241     </div>
1242     <div class="padding"></div>
1243
1244     <div class="entry">
1245       <div class="title">
1246         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Wheezy_is_out___and_Debian_Edu___Skolelinux_should_soon_follow___newinwheezy.html">Debian Wheezy is out - and Debian Edu / Skolelinux should soon follow! #newinwheezy</a>
1247       </div>
1248       <div class="date">
1249          5th May 2013
1250       </div>
1251       <div class="body">
1252         <p>When I woke up this morning, I was very happy to see that the
1253 <a href="http://www.debian.org/News/2013/20130504">release announcement
1254 for Debian Wheezy</a> was waiting in my mail box.  This is a great
1255 Debian release, and I expect to move my machines at home over to it fairly
1256 soon.</p>
1257
1258 <p>The new debian release contain heaps of new stuff, and one program
1259 in particular make me very happy to see included.  The
1260 <a href="http://scratch.mit.edu/">Scratch</a> program, made famous by
1261 the <a href="http://www.code.org/">Teach kids code</a> movement, is
1262 included for the first time.  Alongside similar programs like
1263 <a href="http://edu.kde.org/kturtle/">kturtle</a> and
1264 <a href="http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Activities/Turtle_Art">turtleart</a>,
1265 it allow for visual programming where syntax errors can not happen,
1266 and a friendly programming environment for learning to control the
1267 computer.  Scratch will also be included in the next release of Debian
1268 Edu.</a>
1269
1270 <p>And now that Wheezy is wrapped up, we can wrap up the next Debian
1271 Edu/Skolelinux release too.  The
1272 <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-edu/2013/04/msg00132.html">first
1273 alpha release</a> went out last week, and the next should soon
1274 follow.<p>
1275
1276       </div>
1277       <div class="tags">
1278
1279
1280         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
1281
1282
1283       </div>
1284     </div>
1285     <div class="padding"></div>
1286
1287     <div class="entry">
1288       <div class="title">
1289         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Isenkram_0_2_finally_in_the_Debian_archive.html">Isenkram 0.2 finally in the Debian archive</a>
1290       </div>
1291       <div class="date">
1292          3rd April 2013
1293       </div>
1294       <div class="body">
1295         <p>Today the <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/isenkram">Isenkram
1296 package</a> finally made it into the archive, after lingering in NEW
1297 for many months.  I uploaded it to the Debian experimental suite
1298 2013-01-27, and today it was accepted into the archive.</p>
1299
1300 <p>Isenkram is a system for suggesting to users what packages to
1301 install to work with a pluggable hardware device.  The suggestion pop
1302 up when the device is plugged in.  For example if a Lego Mindstorm NXT
1303 is inserted, it will suggest to install the program needed to program
1304 the NXT controller.  Give it a go, and report bugs and suggestions to
1305 BTS. :)</p>
1306
1307       </div>
1308       <div class="tags">
1309
1310
1311         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram">isenkram</a>.
1312
1313
1314       </div>
1315     </div>
1316     <div class="padding"></div>
1317
1318     <div class="entry">
1319       <div class="title">
1320         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Bitcoin_GUI_now_available_from_Debian_unstable__and_Ubuntu_raring_.html">Bitcoin GUI now available from Debian/unstable (and Ubuntu/raring)</a>
1321       </div>
1322       <div class="date">
1323          2nd February 2013
1324       </div>
1325       <div class="body">
1326         <p>My
1327 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_backport_bitcoin_qt_version_0_7_2_2_to_Debian_Squeeze.html">last
1328 bitcoin related blog post</a> mentioned that the new
1329 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/bitcoin">bitcoin package</a> for
1330 Debian was waiting in NEW.  It was accepted by the Debian ftp-masters
1331 2013-01-19, and have been available in unstable since then.  It was
1332 automatically copied to Ubuntu, and is available in their Raring
1333 version too.</p>
1334
1335 <p>But there is a strange problem with the build that block this new
1336 version from being available on the i386 and kfreebsd-i386
1337 architectures.  For some strange reason, the autobuilders in Debian
1338 for these architectures fail to run the test suite on these
1339 architectures (<a href="http://bugs.debian.org/672524">BTS #672524</a>).
1340 We are so far unable to reproduce it when building it manually, and
1341 no-one have been able to propose a fix.  If you got an idea what is
1342 failing, please let us know via the BTS.</p>
1343
1344 <p>One feature that is annoying me with of the bitcoin client, because
1345 I often run low on disk space, is the fact that the client will exit
1346 if it run short on space (<a href="http://bugs.debian.org/696715">BTS
1347 #696715</a>).  So make sure you have enough disk space when you run
1348 it. :)</p>
1349
1350 <p>As usual, if you use bitcoin and want to show your support of my
1351 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
1352 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b&label=PetterReinholdtsenBlog">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
1353
1354       </div>
1355       <div class="tags">
1356
1357
1358         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bitcoin">bitcoin</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
1359
1360
1361       </div>
1362     </div>
1363     <div class="padding"></div>
1364
1365     <div class="entry">
1366       <div class="title">
1367         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Welcome_to_the_world__Isenkram_.html">Welcome to the world, Isenkram!</a>
1368       </div>
1369       <div class="date">
1370         22nd January 2013
1371       </div>
1372       <div class="body">
1373         <p>Yesterday, I
1374 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/First_prototype_ready_making_hardware_easier_to_use_in_Debian.html">asked
1375 for testers</a> for my prototype for making Debian better at handling
1376 pluggable hardware devices, which I
1377 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lets_make_hardware_dongles_easier_to_use_in_Debian.html">set
1378 out to create</a> earlier this month.  Several valuable testers showed
1379 up, and caused me to really want to to open up the development to more
1380 people.  But before I did this, I want to come up with a sensible name
1381 for this project.  Today I finally decided on a new name, and I have
1382 renamed the project from hw-support-handler to this new name.  In the
1383 process, I moved the source to git and made it available as a
1384 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/gitweb/?p=collab-maint/isenkram.git">collab-maint</a>
1385 repository in Debian.  The new name?  It is <strong>Isenkram</strong>.
1386 To fetch and build the latest version of the source, use</p>
1387
1388 <pre>
1389 git clone http://anonscm.debian.org/git/collab-maint/isenkram.git
1390 cd isenkram && git-buildpackage -us -uc
1391 </pre>
1392
1393 <p>I have not yet adjusted all files to use the new name yet.  If you
1394 want to hack on the source or improve the package, please go ahead.
1395 But please talk to me first on IRC or via email before you do major
1396 changes, to make sure we do not step on each others toes. :)</p>
1397
1398 <p>If you wonder what 'isenkram' is, it is a Norwegian word for iron
1399 stuff, typically meaning tools, nails, screws, etc.  Typical hardware
1400 stuff, in other words.  I've been told it is the Norwegian variant of
1401 the German word eisenkram, for those that are familiar with that
1402 word.</p>
1403
1404 <p><strong>Update 2013-01-26</strong>: Added -us -us to build
1405 instructions, to avoid confusing people with an error from the signing
1406 process.</p>
1407
1408 <p><strong>Update 2013-01-27</strong>: Switch to HTTP URL for the git
1409 clone argument to avoid the need for authentication.</p>
1410
1411       </div>
1412       <div class="tags">
1413
1414
1415         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram">isenkram</a>.
1416
1417
1418       </div>
1419     </div>
1420     <div class="padding"></div>
1421
1422     <div class="entry">
1423       <div class="title">
1424         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/First_prototype_ready_making_hardware_easier_to_use_in_Debian.html">First prototype ready making hardware easier to use in Debian</a>
1425       </div>
1426       <div class="date">
1427         21st January 2013
1428       </div>
1429       <div class="body">
1430         <p>Early this month I set out to try to
1431 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lets_make_hardware_dongles_easier_to_use_in_Debian.html">improve
1432 the Debian support for pluggable hardware devices</a>.  Now my
1433 prototype is working, and it is ready for a larger audience.  To test
1434 it, fetch the
1435 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/">source
1436 from the Debian Edu subversion repository</a>, build and install the
1437 package.  You might have to log out and in again activate the
1438 autostart script.</p>
1439
1440 <p>The design is simple:</p>
1441
1442 <ul>
1443
1444 <li>Add desktop entry in /usr/share/autostart/ causing a program
1445 hw-support-handlerd to start when the user log in.</li>
1446
1447 <li>This program listen for kernel events about new hardware (directly
1448 from the kernel like udev does), not using HAL dbus events as I
1449 initially did.</li>
1450
1451 <li>When new hardware is inserted, look up the hardware modalias in
1452 the APT database, a database
1453 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/modaliases?view=markup">available
1454 via HTTP</a> and a database available as part of the package.</li>
1455
1456 <li>If a package is mapped to the hardware in question, the package
1457 isn't installed yet and this is the first time the hardware was
1458 plugged in, show a desktop notification suggesting to install the
1459 package or packages.</li>
1460
1461 <li>If the user click on the 'install package now' button, ask
1462 aptdaemon via the PackageKit API to install the requrired package.</li>
1463
1464 <li>aptdaemon ask for root password or sudo password, and install the
1465 package while showing progress information in a window.</li>
1466
1467 </ul>
1468
1469 <p>I still need to come up with a better name for the system.  Here
1470 are some screen shots showing the prototype in action.  First the
1471 notification, then the password request, and finally the request to
1472 approve all the dependencies.  Sorry for the Norwegian Bokmål GUI.</p>
1473
1474 <p><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-01-21-hw-support-1-notification.png">
1475 <br><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-01-21-hw-support-2-password.png">
1476 <br><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-01-21-hw-support-3-dependencies.png">
1477 <br><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-01-21-hw-support-4-installing.png">
1478 <br><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-01-21-hw-support-5-installing-details.png" width="70%"></p>
1479
1480 <p>The prototype still need to be improved with longer timeouts, but
1481 is already useful.  The database of hardware to package mappings also
1482 need more work.  It is currently compatible with the Ubuntu way of
1483 storing such information in the package control file, but could be
1484 changed to use other formats instead or in addition to the current
1485 method.  I've dropped the use of discover for this mapping, as the
1486 modalias approach is more flexible and easier to use on Linux as long
1487 as the Linux kernel expose its modalias strings directly.</p>
1488
1489 <p><strong>Update 2013-01-21 16:50</strong>: Due to popular demand,
1490 here is the command required to check out and build the source: Use
1491 '<tt>svn checkout
1492 svn://svn.debian.org/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/; cd
1493 hw-support-handler; debuild</tt>'.  If you lack debuild, install the
1494 devscripts package.</p>
1495
1496 <p><strong>Update 2013-01-23 12:00</strong>: The project is now
1497 renamed to Isenkram and the source moved from the Debian Edu
1498 subversion repository to a Debian collab-maint git repository.  See
1499 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Welcome_to_the_world__Isenkram_.html">build
1500 instructions</a> for details.</p>
1501
1502       </div>
1503       <div class="tags">
1504
1505
1506         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram">isenkram</a>.
1507
1508
1509       </div>
1510     </div>
1511     <div class="padding"></div>
1512
1513     <div class="entry">
1514       <div class="title">
1515         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Thank_you_Thinkpad_X41__for_your_long_and_trustworthy_service.html">Thank you Thinkpad X41, for your long and trustworthy service</a>
1516       </div>
1517       <div class="date">
1518         19th January 2013
1519       </div>
1520       <div class="body">
1521         <p>This Christmas my trusty old laptop died.  It died quietly and
1522 suddenly in bed.  With a quiet whimper, it went completely quiet and
1523 black.  The power button was no longer able to turn it on.  It was a
1524 IBM Thinkpad X41, and the best laptop I ever had.  Better than both
1525 Thinkpads X30, X31, X40, X60, X61 and X61S.  Far better than the
1526 Compaq I had before that.  Now I need to find a replacement.  To keep
1527 going during Christmas, I moved the one year old SSD disk to my old
1528 X40 where it fitted (only one I had left that could use it), but it is
1529 not a durable solution.
1530
1531 <p>My laptop needs are fairly modest.  This is my wishlist from when I
1532 got a new one more than 10 years ago.  It still holds true.:)</p>
1533
1534 <ul>
1535
1536 <li>Lightweight (around 1 kg) and small volume (preferably smaller
1537   than A4).</li>
1538 <li>Robust, it will be in my backpack every day.</li>
1539 <li>Three button mouse and a mouse pin instead of touch pad.</li>
1540 <li>Long battery life time.  Preferable a week.</li>
1541 <li>Internal WIFI network card.</li>
1542 <li>Internal Twisted Pair network card.</li>
1543 <li>Some USB slots (2-3 is plenty)</li>
1544 <li>Good keyboard - similar to the Thinkpad.</li>
1545 <li>Video resolution at least 1024x768, with size around 12" (A4 paper
1546 size).</li>
1547 <li>Hardware supported by Debian Stable, ie the default kernel and
1548   X.org packages.</li>
1549 <li>Quiet, preferably fan free (or at least not using the fan most of
1550   the time).
1551
1552 </ul>
1553
1554 <p>You will notice that there are no RAM and CPU requirements in the
1555 list.  The reason is simply that the specifications on laptops the
1556 last 10-15 years have been sufficient for my needs, and I have to look
1557 at other features to choose my laptop.  But are there still made as
1558 robust laptops as my X41?  The Thinkpad X60/X61 proved to be less
1559 robust, and Thinkpads seem to be heading in the wrong direction since
1560 Lenovo took over.  But I've been told that X220 and X1 Carbon might
1561 still be useful.</p>
1562
1563 <p>Perhaps I should rethink my needs, and look for a pad with an
1564 external keyboard?  I'll have to check the
1565 <a href="http://www.linux-laptop.net/">Linux Laptops site</a> for
1566 well-supported laptops, or perhaps just buy one preinstalled from one
1567 of the vendors listed on the <a href="http://linuxpreloaded.com/">Linux
1568 Pre-loaded site</a>.</p>
1569
1570       </div>
1571       <div class="tags">
1572
1573
1574         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>.
1575
1576
1577       </div>
1578     </div>
1579     <div class="padding"></div>
1580
1581     <div class="entry">
1582       <div class="title">
1583         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_find_a_browser_plugin_supporting_a_given_MIME_type.html">How to find a browser plugin supporting a given MIME type</a>
1584       </div>
1585       <div class="date">
1586         18th January 2013
1587       </div>
1588       <div class="body">
1589         <p>Some times I try to figure out which Iceweasel browser plugin to
1590 install to get support for a given MIME type.  Thanks to
1591 <a href="https://wiki.ubuntu.com/MozillaTeam/Plugins">specifications
1592 done by Ubuntu</a> and Mozilla, it is possible to do this in Debian.
1593 Unfortunately, not very many packages provide the needed meta
1594 information, Anyway, here is a small script to look up all browser
1595 plugin packages announcing ther MIME support using this specification:</p>
1596
1597 <pre>
1598 #!/usr/bin/python
1599 import sys
1600 import apt
1601 def pkgs_handling_mimetype(mimetype):
1602     cache = apt.Cache()
1603     cache.open(None)
1604     thepkgs = []
1605     for pkg in cache:
1606         version = pkg.candidate
1607         if version is None:
1608             version = pkg.installed
1609         if version is None:
1610             continue
1611         record = version.record
1612         if not record.has_key('Npp-MimeType'):
1613             continue
1614         mime_types = record['Npp-MimeType'].split(',')
1615         for t in mime_types:
1616             t = t.rstrip().strip()
1617             if t == mimetype:
1618                 thepkgs.append(pkg.name)
1619     return thepkgs
1620 mimetype = "audio/ogg"
1621 if 1 < len(sys.argv):
1622     mimetype = sys.argv[1]
1623 print "Browser plugin packages supporting %s:" % mimetype
1624 for pkg in pkgs_handling_mimetype(mimetype):
1625     print "  %s" %pkg
1626 </pre>
1627
1628 <p>It can be used like this to look up a given MIME type:</p>
1629
1630 <pre>
1631 % ./apt-find-browserplug-for-mimetype
1632 Browser plugin packages supporting audio/ogg:
1633   gecko-mediaplayer
1634 % ./apt-find-browserplug-for-mimetype application/x-shockwave-flash
1635 Browser plugin packages supporting application/x-shockwave-flash:
1636   browser-plugin-gnash
1637 %
1638 </pre>
1639
1640 <p>In Ubuntu this mechanism is combined with support in the browser
1641 itself to query for plugins and propose to install the needed
1642 packages.  It would be great if Debian supported such feature too.  Is
1643 anyone working on adding it?</p>
1644
1645 <p><strong>Update 2013-01-18 14:20</strong>: The Debian BTS
1646 request for icweasel support for this feature is
1647 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/484010">#484010</a> from 2008 (and
1648 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/698426">#698426</a> from today).  Lack
1649 of manpower and wish for a different design is the reason thus feature
1650 is not yet in iceweasel from Debian.</p>
1651
1652       </div>
1653       <div class="tags">
1654
1655
1656         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>.
1657
1658
1659       </div>
1660     </div>
1661     <div class="padding"></div>
1662
1663     <div class="entry">
1664       <div class="title">
1665         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/What_is_the_most_supported_MIME_type_in_Debian_.html">What is the most supported MIME type in Debian?</a>
1666       </div>
1667       <div class="date">
1668         16th January 2013
1669       </div>
1670       <div class="body">
1671         <p>The <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/AppStreamDebianProposal">DEP-11
1672 proposal to add AppStream information to the Debian archive</a>, is a
1673 proposal to make it possible for a Desktop application to propose to
1674 the user some package to install to gain support for a given MIME
1675 type, font, library etc. that is currently missing.  With such
1676 mechanism in place, it would be possible for the desktop to
1677 automatically propose and install leocad if some LDraw file is
1678 downloaded by the browser.</p>
1679
1680 <p>To get some idea about the current content of the archive, I decided
1681 to write a simple program to extract all .desktop files from the
1682 Debian archive and look up the claimed MIME support there.  The result
1683 can be found on the
1684 <a href="http://ftp.skolelinux.org/pub/AppStreamTest">Skolelinux FTP
1685 site</a>.  Using the collected information, it become possible to
1686 answer the question in the title.  Here are the 20 most supported MIME
1687 types in Debian stable (Squeeze), testing (Wheezy) and unstable (Sid).
1688 The complete list is available from the link above.</p>
1689
1690 <p><strong>Debian Stable:</strong></p>
1691
1692 <pre>
1693   count MIME type
1694   ----- -----------------------
1695      32 text/plain
1696      30 audio/mpeg
1697      29 image/png
1698      28 image/jpeg
1699      27 application/ogg
1700      26 audio/x-mp3
1701      25 image/tiff
1702      25 image/gif
1703      22 image/bmp
1704      22 audio/x-wav
1705      20 audio/x-flac
1706      19 audio/x-mpegurl
1707      18 video/x-ms-asf
1708      18 audio/x-musepack
1709      18 audio/x-mpeg
1710      18 application/x-ogg
1711      17 video/mpeg
1712      17 audio/x-scpls
1713      17 audio/ogg
1714      16 video/x-ms-wmv
1715 </pre>
1716
1717 <p><strong>Debian Testing:</strong></p>
1718
1719 <pre>
1720   count MIME type
1721   ----- -----------------------
1722      33 text/plain
1723      32 image/png
1724      32 image/jpeg
1725      29 audio/mpeg
1726      27 image/gif
1727      26 image/tiff
1728      26 application/ogg
1729      25 audio/x-mp3
1730      22 image/bmp
1731      21 audio/x-wav
1732      19 audio/x-mpegurl
1733      19 audio/x-mpeg
1734      18 video/mpeg
1735      18 audio/x-scpls
1736      18 audio/x-flac
1737      18 application/x-ogg
1738      17 video/x-ms-asf
1739      17 text/html
1740      17 audio/x-musepack
1741      16 image/x-xbitmap
1742 </pre>
1743
1744 <p><strong>Debian Unstable:</strong></p>
1745
1746 <pre>
1747   count MIME type
1748   ----- -----------------------
1749      31 text/plain
1750      31 image/png
1751      31 image/jpeg
1752      29 audio/mpeg
1753      28 application/ogg
1754      27 image/gif
1755      26 image/tiff
1756      26 audio/x-mp3
1757      23 audio/x-wav
1758      22 image/bmp
1759      21 audio/x-flac
1760      20 audio/x-mpegurl
1761      19 audio/x-mpeg
1762      18 video/x-ms-asf
1763      18 video/mpeg
1764      18 audio/x-scpls
1765      18 application/x-ogg
1766      17 audio/x-musepack
1767      16 video/x-ms-wmv
1768      16 video/x-msvideo
1769 </pre>
1770
1771 <p>I am told that PackageKit can provide an API to access the kind of
1772 information mentioned in DEP-11.  I have not yet had time to look at
1773 it, but hope the PackageKit people in Debian are on top of these
1774 issues.</p>
1775
1776 <p><strong>Update 2013-01-16 13:35</strong>: Updated numbers after
1777 discovering a typo in my script.</p>
1778
1779       </div>
1780       <div class="tags">
1781
1782
1783         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>.
1784
1785
1786       </div>
1787     </div>
1788     <div class="padding"></div>
1789
1790     <div class="entry">
1791       <div class="title">
1792         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Using_modalias_info_to_find_packages_handling_my_hardware.html">Using modalias info to find packages handling my hardware</a>
1793       </div>
1794       <div class="date">
1795         15th January 2013
1796       </div>
1797       <div class="body">
1798         <p>Yesterday, I wrote about the
1799 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Modalias_strings___a_practical_way_to_map__stuff__to_hardware.html">modalias
1800 values provided by the Linux kernel</a> following my hope for
1801 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lets_make_hardware_dongles_easier_to_use_in_Debian.html">better
1802 dongle support in Debian</a>.  Using this knowledge, I have tested how
1803 modalias values attached to package names can be used to map packages
1804 to hardware.  This allow the system to look up and suggest relevant
1805 packages when I plug in some new hardware into my machine, and replace
1806 discover and discover-data as the database used to map hardware to
1807 packages.</p>
1808
1809 <p>I create a modaliases file with entries like the following,
1810 containing package name, kernel module name (if relevant, otherwise
1811 the package name) and globs matching the relevant hardware
1812 modalias.</p>
1813
1814 <p><blockquote>
1815 Package: package-name
1816 <br>Modaliases: module(modaliasglob, modaliasglob, modaliasglob)</p>
1817 </blockquote></p>
1818
1819 <p>It is fairly trivial to write code to find the relevant packages
1820 for a given modalias value using this file.</p>
1821
1822 <p>An entry like this would suggest the video and picture application
1823 cheese for many USB web cameras (interface bus class 0E01):</p>
1824
1825 <p><blockquote>
1826 Package: cheese
1827 <br>Modaliases: cheese(usb:v*p*d*dc*dsc*dp*ic0Eisc01ip*)</p>
1828 </blockquote></p>
1829
1830 <p>An entry like this would suggest the pcmciautils package when a
1831 CardBus bridge (bus class 0607) PCI device is present:</p>
1832
1833 <p><blockquote>
1834 Package: pcmciautils
1835 <br>Modaliases: pcmciautils(pci:v*d*sv*sd*bc06sc07i*)
1836 </blockquote></p>
1837
1838 <p>An entry like this would suggest the package colorhug-client when
1839 plugging in a ColorHug with USB IDs 04D8:F8DA:</p>
1840
1841 <p><blockquote>
1842 Package: colorhug-client
1843 <br>Modaliases: colorhug-client(usb:v04D8pF8DAd*)</p>
1844 </blockquote></p>
1845
1846 <p>I believe the format is compatible with the format of the Packages
1847 file in the Debian archive.  Ubuntu already uses their Packages file
1848 to store their mappings from packages to hardware.</p>
1849
1850 <p>By adding a XB-Modaliases: header in debian/control, any .deb can
1851 announce the hardware it support in a way my prototype understand.
1852 This allow those publishing packages in an APT source outside the
1853 Debian archive as well as those backporting packages to make sure the
1854 hardware mapping are included in the package meta information.  I've
1855 tested such header in the pymissile package, and its modalias mapping
1856 is working as it should with my prototype.  It even made it to Ubuntu
1857 Raring.</p>
1858
1859 <p>To test if it was possible to look up supported hardware using only
1860 the shell tools available in the Debian installer, I wrote a shell
1861 implementation of the lookup code.  The idea is to create files for
1862 each modalias and let the shell do the matching.  Please check out and
1863 try the
1864 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/hw-support-lookup?view=co">hw-support-lookup</a>
1865 shell script.  It run without any extra dependencies and fetch the
1866 hardware mappings from the Debian archive and the subversion
1867 repository where I currently work on my prototype.</p>
1868
1869 <p>When I use it on a machine with a yubikey inserted, it suggest to
1870 install yubikey-personalization:</p>
1871
1872 <p><blockquote>
1873 % ./hw-support-lookup
1874 <br>yubikey-personalization
1875 <br>%
1876 </blockquote></p>
1877
1878 <p>When I run it on my Thinkpad X40 with a PCMCIA/CardBus slot, it
1879 propose to install the pcmciautils package:</p>
1880
1881 <p><blockquote>
1882 % ./hw-support-lookup
1883 <br>pcmciautils
1884 <br>%
1885 </blockquote></p>
1886
1887 <p>If you know of any hardware-package mapping that should be added to
1888 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/modaliases?view=co">my
1889 database</a>, please tell me about it.</p>
1890
1891 <p>It could be possible to generate several of the mappings between
1892 packages and hardware.  One source would be to look at packages with
1893 kernel modules, ie packages with *.ko files in /lib/modules/, and
1894 extract their modalias information.  Another would be to look at
1895 packages with udev rules, ie packages with files in
1896 /lib/udev/rules.d/, and extract their vendor/model information to
1897 generate a modalias matching rule.  I have not tested any of these to
1898 see if it work.</p>
1899
1900 <p>If you want to help implementing a system to let us propose what
1901 packages to install when new hardware is plugged into a Debian
1902 machine, please send me an email or talk to me on
1903 <a href="irc://irc.debian.org/%23debian-devel">#debian-devel</a>.</p>
1904
1905       </div>
1906       <div class="tags">
1907
1908
1909         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram">isenkram</a>.
1910
1911
1912       </div>
1913     </div>
1914     <div class="padding"></div>
1915
1916     <div class="entry">
1917       <div class="title">
1918         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Modalias_strings___a_practical_way_to_map__stuff__to_hardware.html">Modalias strings - a practical way to map "stuff" to hardware</a>
1919       </div>
1920       <div class="date">
1921         14th January 2013
1922       </div>
1923       <div class="body">
1924         <p>While looking into how to look up Debian packages based on hardware
1925 information, to find the packages that support a given piece of
1926 hardware, I refreshed my memory regarding modalias values, and decided
1927 to document the details.  Here are my findings so far, also available
1928 in
1929 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/">the
1930 Debian Edu subversion repository</a>:
1931
1932 <p><strong>Modalias decoded</strong></p>
1933
1934 <p>This document try to explain what the different types of modalias
1935 values stands for.  It is in part based on information from
1936 &lt;URL: <a href="https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Modalias">https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Modalias</a> &gt;,
1937 &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;,
1938 &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
1939 &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;.
1940
1941 <p>The modalias entries for a given Linux machine can be found using
1942 this shell script:</p>
1943
1944 <pre>
1945 find /sys -name modalias -print0 | xargs -0 cat | sort -u
1946 </pre>
1947
1948 <p>The supported modalias globs for a given kernel module can be found
1949 using modinfo:</p>
1950
1951 <pre>
1952 % /sbin/modinfo psmouse | grep alias:
1953 alias:          serio:ty05pr*id*ex*
1954 alias:          serio:ty01pr*id*ex*
1955 %
1956 </pre>
1957
1958 <p><strong>PCI subtype</strong></p>
1959
1960 <p>A typical PCI entry can look like this.  This is an Intel Host
1961 Bridge memory controller:</p>
1962
1963 <p><blockquote>
1964 pci:v00008086d00002770sv00001028sd000001ADbc06sc00i00
1965 </blockquote></p>
1966
1967 <p>This represent these values:</p>
1968
1969 <pre>
1970  v   00008086  (vendor)
1971  d   00002770  (device)
1972  sv  00001028  (subvendor)
1973  sd  000001AD  (subdevice)
1974  bc  06        (bus class)
1975  sc  00        (bus subclass)
1976  i   00        (interface)
1977 </pre>
1978
1979 <p>The vendor/device values are the same values outputted from 'lspci
1980 -n' as 8086:2770.  The bus class/subclass is also shown by lspci as
1981 0600.  The 0600 class is a host bridge.  Other useful bus values are
1982 0300 (VGA compatible card) and 0200 (Ethernet controller).</p>
1983
1984 <p>Not sure how to figure out the interface value, nor what it
1985 means.</p>
1986
1987 <p><strong>USB subtype</strong></p>
1988
1989 <p>Some typical USB entries can look like this.  This is an internal
1990 USB hub in a laptop:</p>
1991
1992 <p><blockquote>
1993 usb:v1D6Bp0001d0206dc09dsc00dp00ic09isc00ip00
1994 </blockquote></p>
1995
1996 <p>Here is the values included in this alias:</p>
1997
1998 <pre>
1999  v    1D6B  (device vendor)
2000  p    0001  (device product)
2001  d    0206  (bcddevice)
2002  dc     09  (device class)
2003  dsc    00  (device subclass)
2004  dp     00  (device protocol)
2005  ic     09  (interface class)
2006  isc    00  (interface subclass)
2007  ip     00  (interface protocol)
2008 </pre>
2009
2010 <p>The 0900 device class/subclass means hub.  Some times the relevant
2011 class is in the interface class section.  For a simple USB web camera,
2012 these alias entries show up:</p>
2013
2014 <p><blockquote>
2015 usb:v0AC8p3420d5000dcEFdsc02dp01ic01isc01ip00
2016 <br>usb:v0AC8p3420d5000dcEFdsc02dp01ic01isc02ip00
2017 <br>usb:v0AC8p3420d5000dcEFdsc02dp01ic0Eisc01ip00
2018 <br>usb:v0AC8p3420d5000dcEFdsc02dp01ic0Eisc02ip00
2019 </blockquote></p>
2020
2021 <p>Interface class 0E01 is video control, 0E02 is video streaming (aka
2022 camera), 0101 is audio control device and 0102 is audio streaming (aka
2023 microphone).  Thus this is a camera with microphone included.</p>
2024
2025 <p><strong>ACPI subtype</strong></p>
2026
2027 <p>The ACPI type is used for several non-PCI/USB stuff.  This is an IR
2028 receiver in a Thinkpad X40:</p>
2029
2030 <p><blockquote>
2031 acpi:IBM0071:PNP0511:
2032 </blockquote></p>
2033
2034 <p>The values between the colons are IDs.</p>
2035
2036 <p><strong>DMI subtype</strong></p>
2037
2038 <p>The DMI table contain lots of information about the computer case
2039 and model.  This is an entry for a IBM Thinkpad X40, fetched from
2040 /sys/devices/virtual/dmi/id/modalias:</p>
2041
2042 <p><blockquote>
2043 dmi:bvnIBM:bvr1UETB6WW(1.66):bd06/15/2005:svnIBM:pn2371H4G:pvrThinkPadX40:rvnIBM:rn2371H4G:rvrNotAvailable:cvnIBM:ct10:cvrNotAvailable:
2044 </blockquote></p>
2045
2046 <p>The values present are</p>
2047
2048 <pre>
2049  bvn  IBM            (BIOS vendor)
2050  bvr  1UETB6WW(1.66) (BIOS version)
2051  bd   06/15/2005     (BIOS date)
2052  svn  IBM            (system vendor)
2053  pn   2371H4G        (product name)
2054  pvr  ThinkPadX40    (product version)
2055  rvn  IBM            (board vendor)
2056  rn   2371H4G        (board name)
2057  rvr  NotAvailable   (board version)
2058  cvn  IBM            (chassis vendor)
2059  ct   10             (chassis type)
2060  cvr  NotAvailable   (chassis version)
2061 </pre>
2062
2063 <p>The chassis type 10 is Notebook.  Other interesting values can be
2064 found in the dmidecode source:</p>
2065
2066 <pre>
2067   3 Desktop
2068   4 Low Profile Desktop
2069   5 Pizza Box
2070   6 Mini Tower
2071   7 Tower
2072   8 Portable
2073   9 Laptop
2074  10 Notebook
2075  11 Hand Held
2076  12 Docking Station
2077  13 All In One
2078  14 Sub Notebook
2079  15 Space-saving
2080  16 Lunch Box
2081  17 Main Server Chassis
2082  18 Expansion Chassis
2083  19 Sub Chassis
2084  20 Bus Expansion Chassis
2085  21 Peripheral Chassis
2086  22 RAID Chassis
2087  23 Rack Mount Chassis
2088  24 Sealed-case PC
2089  25 Multi-system
2090  26 CompactPCI
2091  27 AdvancedTCA
2092  28 Blade
2093  29 Blade Enclosing
2094 </pre>
2095
2096 <p>The chassis type values are not always accurately set in the DMI
2097 table.  For example my home server is a tower, but the DMI modalias
2098 claim it is a desktop.</p>
2099
2100 <p><strong>SerIO subtype</strong></p>
2101
2102 <p>This type is used for PS/2 mouse plugs.  One example is from my
2103 test machine:</p>
2104
2105 <p><blockquote>
2106 serio:ty01pr00id00ex00
2107 </blockquote></p>
2108
2109 <p>The values present are</p>
2110
2111 <pre>
2112   ty  01  (type)
2113   pr  00  (prototype)
2114   id  00  (id)
2115   ex  00  (extra)
2116 </pre>
2117
2118 <p>This type is supported by the psmouse driver.  I am not sure what
2119 the valid values are.</p>
2120
2121 <p><strong>Other subtypes</strong></p>
2122
2123 <p>There are heaps of other modalias subtypes according to
2124 file2alias.c.  There is the rest of the list from that source: amba,
2125 ap, bcma, ccw, css, eisa, hid, i2c, ieee1394, input, ipack, isapnp,
2126 mdio, of, parisc, pcmcia, platform, scsi, sdio, spi, ssb, vio, virtio,
2127 vmbus, x86cpu and zorro.  I did not spend time documenting all of
2128 these, as they do not seem relevant for my intended use with mapping
2129 hardware to packages when new stuff is inserted during run time.</p>
2130
2131 <p><strong>Looking up kernel modules using modalias values</strong></p>
2132
2133 <p>To check which kernel modules provide support for a given modalias,
2134 one can use the following shell script:</p>
2135
2136 <pre>
2137   for id in $(find /sys -name modalias -print0 | xargs -0 cat | sort -u); do \
2138     echo "$id" ; \
2139     /sbin/modprobe --show-depends "$id"|sed 's/^/  /' ; \
2140   done
2141 </pre>
2142
2143 <p>The output can look like this (only the first few entries as the
2144 list is very long on my test machine):</p>
2145
2146 <pre>
2147   acpi:ACPI0003:
2148     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/drivers/acpi/ac.ko
2149   acpi:device:
2150   FATAL: Module acpi:device: not found.
2151   acpi:IBM0068:
2152     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/drivers/char/nvram.ko
2153     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/drivers/leds/led-class.ko
2154     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/net/rfkill/rfkill.ko
2155     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/drivers/platform/x86/thinkpad_acpi.ko
2156   acpi:IBM0071:PNP0511:
2157     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/lib/crc-ccitt.ko
2158     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/net/irda/irda.ko
2159     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/drivers/net/irda/nsc-ircc.ko
2160   [...]
2161 </pre>
2162
2163 <p>If you want to help implementing a system to let us propose what
2164 packages to install when new hardware is plugged into a Debian
2165 machine, please send me an email or talk to me on
2166 <a href="irc://irc.debian.org/%23debian-devel">#debian-devel</a>.</p>
2167
2168 <p><strong>Update 2013-01-15:</strong> Rewrite "cat $(find ...)" to
2169 "find ... -print0 | xargs -0 cat" to make sure it handle directories
2170 in /sys/ with space in them.</p>
2171
2172       </div>
2173       <div class="tags">
2174
2175
2176         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram">isenkram</a>.
2177
2178
2179       </div>
2180     </div>
2181     <div class="padding"></div>
2182
2183     <div class="entry">
2184       <div class="title">
2185         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Moved_the_pymissile_Debian_packaging_to_collab_maint.html">Moved the pymissile Debian packaging to collab-maint</a>
2186       </div>
2187       <div class="date">
2188         10th January 2013
2189       </div>
2190       <div class="body">
2191         <p>As part of my investigation on how to improve the support in Debian
2192 for hardware dongles, I dug up my old Mark and Spencer USB Rocket
2193 Launcher and updated the Debian package
2194 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/pymissile">pymissile</a> to make
2195 sure udev will fix the device permissions when it is plugged in.  I
2196 also added a "Modaliases" header to test it in the Debian archive and
2197 hopefully make the package be proposed by jockey in Ubuntu when a user
2198 plug in his rocket launcher.  In the process I moved the source to a
2199 git repository under collab-maint, to make it easier for any DD to
2200 contribute.  <a href="http://code.google.com/p/pymissile/">Upstream</a>
2201 is not very active, but the software still work for me even after five
2202 years of relative silence.  The new git repository is not listed in
2203 the uploaded package yet, because I want to test the other changes a
2204 bit more before I upload the new version.  If you want to check out
2205 the new version with a .desktop file included, visit the
2206 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/gitweb/?p=collab-maint/pymissile.git">gitweb
2207 view</a> or use "<tt>git clone
2208 git://anonscm.debian.org/collab-maint/pymissile.git</tt>".</p>
2209
2210       </div>
2211       <div class="tags">
2212
2213
2214         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/robot">robot</a>.
2215
2216
2217       </div>
2218     </div>
2219     <div class="padding"></div>
2220
2221     <div class="entry">
2222       <div class="title">
2223         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lets_make_hardware_dongles_easier_to_use_in_Debian.html">Lets make hardware dongles easier to use in Debian</a>
2224       </div>
2225       <div class="date">
2226          9th January 2013
2227       </div>
2228       <div class="body">
2229         <p>One thing that annoys me with Debian and Linux distributions in
2230 general, is that there is a great package management system with the
2231 ability to automatically install software packages by downloading them
2232 from the distribution mirrors, but no way to get it to automatically
2233 install the packages I need to use the hardware I plug into my
2234 machine.  Even if the package to use it is easily available from the
2235 Linux distribution.  When I plug in a LEGO Mindstorms NXT, it could
2236 suggest to automatically install the python-nxt, nbc and t2n packages
2237 I need to talk to it.  When I plug in a Yubikey, it could propose the
2238 yubikey-personalization package.  The information required to do this
2239 is available, but no-one have pulled all the pieces together.</p>
2240
2241 <p>Some years ago, I proposed to
2242 <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2010/05/msg01206.html">use
2243 the discover subsystem to implement this</a>.  The idea is fairly
2244 simple:
2245
2246 <ul>
2247
2248 <li>Add a desktop entry in /usr/share/autostart/ pointing to a program
2249   starting when a user log in.</li>
2250
2251 <li>Set this program up to listen for kernel events emitted when new
2252   hardware is inserted into the computer.</li>
2253
2254 <li>When new hardware is inserted, look up the hardware ID in a
2255   database mapping to packages, and take note of any non-installed
2256   packages.</li>
2257
2258 <li>Show a message to the user proposing to install the discovered
2259   package, and make it easy to install it.</li>
2260
2261 </ul>
2262
2263 <p>I am not sure what the best way to implement this is, but my
2264 initial idea was to use dbus events to discover new hardware, the
2265 discover database to find packages and
2266 <a href="http://www.packagekit.org/">PackageKit</a> to install
2267 packages.</p>
2268
2269 <p>Yesterday, I found time to try to implement this idea, and the
2270 draft package is now checked into
2271 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/">the
2272 Debian Edu subversion repository</a>.  In the process, I updated the
2273 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/d/discover-data.html">discover-data</a>
2274 package to map the USB ids of LEGO Mindstorms and Yubikey devices to
2275 the relevant packages in Debian, and uploaded a new version
2276 2.2013.01.09 to unstable.  I also discovered that the current
2277 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/d/discover.html">discover</a>
2278 package in Debian no longer discovered any USB devices, because
2279 /proc/bus/usb/devices is no longer present.  I ported it to use
2280 libusb as a fall back option to get it working.  The fixed package
2281 version 2.1.2-6 is now in experimental (didn't upload it to unstable
2282 because of the freeze).</p>
2283
2284 <p>With this prototype in place, I can insert my Yubikey, and get this
2285 desktop notification to show up (only once, the first time it is
2286 inserted):</p>
2287
2288 <p align="center"><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-01-09-hw-autoinstall.png"></p>
2289
2290 <p>For this prototype to be really useful, some way to automatically
2291 install the proposed packages by pressing the "Please install
2292 program(s)" button should to be implemented.</p>
2293
2294 <p>If this idea seem useful to you, and you want to help make it
2295 happen, please help me update the discover-data database with mappings
2296 from hardware to Debian packages.  Check if 'discover-pkginstall -l'
2297 list the package you would like to have installed when a given
2298 hardware device is inserted into your computer, and report bugs using
2299 reportbug if it isn't.  Or, if you know of a better way to provide
2300 such mapping, please let me know.</p>
2301
2302 <p>This prototype need more work, and there are several questions that
2303 should be considered before it is ready for production use.  Is dbus
2304 the correct way to detect new hardware?  At the moment I look for HAL
2305 dbus events on the system bus, because that is the events I could see
2306 on my Debian Squeeze KDE desktop.  Are there better events to use?
2307 How should the user be notified?  Is the desktop notification
2308 mechanism the best option, or should the background daemon raise a
2309 popup instead?  How should packages be installed?  When should they
2310 not be installed?</p>
2311
2312 <p>If you want to help getting such feature implemented in Debian,
2313 please send me an email. :)</p>
2314
2315       </div>
2316       <div class="tags">
2317
2318
2319         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram">isenkram</a>.
2320
2321
2322       </div>
2323     </div>
2324     <div class="padding"></div>
2325
2326     <div class="entry">
2327       <div class="title">
2328         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/New_IRC_channel_for_LEGO_designers_using_Debian.html">New IRC channel for LEGO designers using Debian</a>
2329       </div>
2330       <div class="date">
2331          2nd January 2013
2332       </div>
2333       <div class="body">
2334         <p>During Christmas, I have worked a bit on the Debian support for
2335 <a href="http://mindstorms.lego.com/en-us/Default.aspx">LEGO Mindstorm
2336 NXT</a>.  My son and I have played a bit with my NXT set, and I
2337 discovered I had to build all the tools myself because none were
2338 already in Debian Squeeze.  If Debian support for LEGO is something
2339 you care about, please join me on the IRC channel
2340 <a href="irc://irc.debian.org/%23debian-lego">#debian-lego</a> (server
2341 irc.debian.org).  There is a lot that could be done to improve the
2342 Debian support for LEGO designers.  For example both CAD software
2343 and Mindstorm compilers are missing. :)</p>
2344
2345 <p>Update 2012-01-03: A
2346 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/LegoDesigners">project page</a>
2347 including links to Lego related packages is now available.</p>
2348
2349       </div>
2350       <div class="tags">
2351
2352
2353         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/robot">robot</a>.
2354
2355
2356       </div>
2357     </div>
2358     <div class="padding"></div>
2359
2360     <div class="entry">
2361       <div class="title">
2362         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_backport_bitcoin_qt_version_0_7_2_2_to_Debian_Squeeze.html">How to backport bitcoin-qt version 0.7.2-2 to Debian Squeeze</a>
2363       </div>
2364       <div class="date">
2365         25th December 2012
2366       </div>
2367       <div class="body">
2368         <p>Let me start by wishing you all marry Christmas and a happy new
2369 year!  I hope next year will prove to be a good year.</p>
2370
2371 <p><a href="http://www.bitcoin.org/">Bitcoin</a>, the digital
2372 decentralised "currency" that allow people to transfer bitcoins
2373 between each other with minimal overhead, is a very interesting
2374 experiment.  And as I wrote a few days ago, the bitcoin situation in
2375 <a href="http://www.debian.org/">Debian</a> is about to improve a bit.
2376 The <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/bitcoin">new debian source
2377 package</a> (version 0.7.2-2) was uploaded yesterday, and is waiting
2378 in <a href="http://ftp-master.debian.org/new.html">the NEW queue</A>
2379 for one of the ftpmasters to approve the new bitcoin-qt package
2380 name.</p>
2381
2382 <p>And thanks to the great work of Jonas and the rest of the bitcoin
2383 team in Debian, you can easily test the package in Debian Squeeze
2384 using the following steps to get a set of working packages:</p>
2385
2386 <blockquote><pre>
2387 git clone git://git.debian.org/git/collab-maint/bitcoin
2388 cd bitcoin
2389 DEB_MAINTAINER_MODE=1 DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS=noupnp fakeroot debian/rules clean
2390 DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS=noupnp git-buildpackage --git-ignore-new
2391 </pre></blockquote>
2392
2393 <p>You might have to install some build dependencies as well.  The
2394 list of commands should give you two packages, bitcoind and
2395 bitcoin-qt, ready for use in a Squeeze environment.  Note that the
2396 client will download the complete set of bitcoin "blocks", which need
2397 around 5.6 GiB of data on my machine at the moment.  Make sure your
2398 ~/.bitcoin/ directory have lots of spare room if you want to download
2399 all the blocks.  The client will warn if the disk is getting full, so
2400 there is not really a problem if you got too little room, but you will
2401 not be able to get all the features out of the client.</p>
2402
2403 <p>As usual, if you use bitcoin and want to show your support of my
2404 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
2405 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b&label=PetterReinholdtsenBlog">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
2406
2407       </div>
2408       <div class="tags">
2409
2410
2411         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bitcoin">bitcoin</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
2412
2413
2414       </div>
2415     </div>
2416     <div class="padding"></div>
2417
2418     <div class="entry">
2419       <div class="title">
2420         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/A_word_on_bitcoin_support_in_Debian.html">A word on bitcoin support in Debian</a>
2421       </div>
2422       <div class="date">
2423         21st December 2012
2424       </div>
2425       <div class="body">
2426         <p>It has been a while since I wrote about
2427 <a href="http://www.bitcoin.org/">bitcoin</a>, the decentralised
2428 peer-to-peer based crypto-currency, and the reason is simply that I
2429 have been busy elsewhere.  But two days ago, I started looking at the
2430 state of <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/bitcoin">bitcoin in
2431 Debian</a> again to try to recover my old bitcoin wallet.  The package
2432 is now maintained by a
2433 <a href="https://alioth.debian.org/projects/pkg-bitcoin/">team of
2434 people</a>, and the grunt work had already been done by this team.  We
2435 owe a huge thank you to all these team members. :)
2436 But I was sad to discover that the bitcoin client is missing in
2437 Wheezy.  It is only available in Sid (and an outdated client from
2438 backports).  The client had several RC bugs registered in BTS blocking
2439 it from entering testing.  To try to help the team and improve the
2440 situation, I spent some time providing patches and triaging the bug
2441 reports.  I also had a look at the bitcoin package available from Matt
2442 Corallo in a
2443 <a href="https://launchpad.net/~bitcoin/+archive/bitcoin">PPA for
2444 Ubuntu</a>, and moved the useful pieces from that version into the
2445 Debian package.</p>
2446
2447 <p>After checking with the main package maintainer Jonas Smedegaard on
2448 IRC, I pushed several patches into the collab-maint git repository to
2449 improve the package.  It now contains fixes for the RC issues (not from
2450 me, but fixed by Scott Howard), build rules for a Qt GUI client
2451 package, konqueror support for the bitcoin: URI and bash completion
2452 setup.  As I work on Debian Squeeze, I also created
2453 <a href="http://lists.alioth.debian.org/pipermail/pkg-bitcoin-devel/Week-of-Mon-20121217/000041.html">a
2454 patch to backport</a> the latest version.  Jonas is going to look at
2455 it and try to integrate it into the git repository before uploading a
2456 new version to unstable.
2457
2458 <p>I would very much like bitcoin to succeed, to get rid of the
2459 centralized control currently exercised in the monetary system.  I
2460 find it completely unacceptable that the USA government is collecting
2461 transaction data for almost all international money transfers (most are done in USD and transaction logs shipped to the spooks), and
2462 that the major credit card companies can block legal money
2463 transactions to Wikileaks.  But for bitcoin to succeed, more people
2464 need to use bitcoins, and more people need to accept bitcoins when
2465 they sell products and services.  Improving the bitcoin support in
2466 Debian is a small step in the right direction, but not enough.
2467 Unfortunately the user experience when browsing the web and wanting to
2468 pay with bitcoin is still not very good.  The bitcoin: URI is a step
2469 in the right direction, but need to work in most or every browser in
2470 use.  Also the bitcoin-qt client is too heavy to fire up to do a
2471 quick transaction.  I believe there are other clients available, but
2472 have not tested them.</p>
2473
2474 <p>My
2475 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Now_accepting_bitcoins___anonymous_and_distributed_p2p_crypto_money.html">experiment
2476 with bitcoins</a> showed that at least some of my readers use bitcoin.
2477 I received 20.15 BTC so far on the address I provided in my blog two
2478 years ago, as can be
2479 <a href="http://blockexplorer.com/address/15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">seen
2480 on the blockexplorer service</a>.  Thank you everyone for your
2481 donation.  The blockexplorer service demonstrates quite well that
2482 bitcoin is not quite anonymous and untracked. :) I wonder if the
2483 number of users have gone up since then.  If you use bitcoin and want
2484 to show your support of my activity, please send Bitcoin donations to
2485 the same address as last time,
2486 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b&label=PetterReinholdtsenBlog">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
2487
2488       </div>
2489       <div class="tags">
2490
2491
2492         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bitcoin">bitcoin</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
2493
2494
2495       </div>
2496     </div>
2497     <div class="padding"></div>
2498
2499     <div class="entry">
2500       <div class="title">
2501         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Git_repository_for_song_book_for_Computer_Scientists.html">Git repository for song book for Computer Scientists</a>
2502       </div>
2503       <div class="date">
2504          7th September 2012
2505       </div>
2506       <div class="body">
2507         <p>As I
2508 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Song_book_for_Computer_Scientists.html">mentioned
2509 this summer</a>, I have created a Computer Science song book a few
2510 years ago, and today I finally found time to create a public
2511 <a href="https://gitorious.org/pere-cs-songbook/pere-cs-songbook">Gitorious
2512 repository for the project</a>.</p>
2513
2514 <p>If you want to help out, please clone the source and submit patches
2515 to the HTML version.  To generate the PDF and PostScript version,
2516 please use prince XML, or let me know about a useful free software
2517 processor capable of creating a good looking PDF from the HTML.</p>
2518
2519 <p>Want to sing?  You can still find the song book in HTML, PDF and
2520 PostScript formats at
2521 <a href="http://www.hungry.com/~pere/cs-songbook/">Petter's Computer
2522 Science Songbook</a>.</p>
2523
2524       </div>
2525       <div class="tags">
2526
2527
2528         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/multimedia">multimedia</a>.
2529
2530
2531       </div>
2532     </div>
2533     <div class="padding"></div>
2534
2535     <div class="entry">
2536       <div class="title">
2537         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Gratulerer_med_19__rsdagen__Debian_.html">Gratulerer med 19-årsdagen, Debian!</a>
2538       </div>
2539       <div class="date">
2540         16th August 2012
2541       </div>
2542       <div class="body">
2543         <p>I dag fyller
2544 <a href="http://www.debian.org/News/2012/20120813">Debian-prosjektet 19
2545 år</a>.  Jeg har fulgt det de siste 12 årene, og er veldig glad for å kunne
2546 si gratulerer med dagen, Debian!</p>
2547
2548       </div>
2549       <div class="tags">
2550
2551
2552         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/norsk">norsk</a>.
2553
2554
2555       </div>
2556     </div>
2557     <div class="padding"></div>
2558
2559     <div class="entry">
2560       <div class="title">
2561         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Song_book_for_Computer_Scientists.html">Song book for Computer Scientists</a>
2562       </div>
2563       <div class="date">
2564         24th June 2012
2565       </div>
2566       <div class="body">
2567         <p>Many years ago, while studying Computer Science at the
2568 <a href="http://www.uit.no/">University of Tromsø</a>, I started
2569 collecting computer related songs for use at parties.  The original
2570 version was written in LaTeX, but a few years ago I got help from
2571 Håkon W. Lie, one of the inventors of W3C CSS, to convert it to HTML
2572 while keeping the ability to create a nice book in PDF format.  I have
2573 not had time to maintain the book for a while now, and guess I should
2574 put it up on some public version control repository where others can
2575 help me extend and update the book.  If anyone is volunteering to help
2576 me with this, send me an email.  Also let me know if there are songs
2577 missing in my book.</p>
2578
2579 <p>I have not mentioned the book on my blog so far, and it occured to
2580 me today that I really should let all my readers share the joys of
2581 singing out load about programming, computers and computer networks.
2582 Especially now that <a href="http://debconf12.debconf.org/">Debconf
2583 12</a> is about to start (and I am not going).  Want to sing?  Check
2584 out <a href="http://www.hungry.com/~pere/cs-songbook/">Petter's
2585 Computer Science Songbook</a>.
2586
2587       </div>
2588       <div class="tags">
2589
2590
2591         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/multimedia">multimedia</a>.
2592
2593
2594       </div>
2595     </div>
2596     <div class="padding"></div>
2597
2598     <div class="entry">
2599       <div class="title">
2600         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Automatically_upgrading_server_firmware_on_Dell_PowerEdge.html">Automatically upgrading server firmware on Dell PowerEdge</a>
2601       </div>
2602       <div class="date">
2603         21st November 2011
2604       </div>
2605       <div class="body">
2606         <p>At work we have heaps of servers.  I believe the total count is
2607 around 1000 at the moment.  To be able to get help from the vendors
2608 when something go wrong, we want to keep the firmware on the servers
2609 up to date.  If the firmware isn't the latest and greatest, the
2610 vendors typically refuse to start debugging any problems until the
2611 firmware is upgraded.  So before every reboot, we want to upgrade the
2612 firmware, and we would really like everyone handling servers at the
2613 university to do this themselves when they plan to reboot a machine.
2614 For that to happen we at the unix server admin group need to provide
2615 the tools to do so.</p>
2616
2617 <p>To make firmware upgrading easier, I am working on a script to
2618 fetch and install the latest firmware for the servers we got.  Most of
2619 our hardware are from Dell and HP, so I have focused on these servers
2620 so far.  This blog post is about the Dell part.</P>
2621
2622 <p>On the Dell FTP site I was lucky enough to find
2623 <a href="ftp://ftp.us.dell.com/catalog/Catalog.xml.gz">an XML file</a>
2624 with firmware information for all 11th generation servers, listing
2625 which firmware should be used on a given model and where on the FTP
2626 site I can find it.  Using a simple perl XML parser I can then
2627 download the shell scripts Dell provides to do firmware upgrades from
2628 within Linux and reboot when all the firmware is primed and ready to
2629 be activated on the first reboot.</p>
2630
2631 <p>This is the Dell related fragment of the perl code I am working on.
2632 Are there anyone working on similar tools for firmware upgrading all
2633 servers at a site?  Please get in touch and lets share resources.</p>
2634
2635 <p><pre>
2636 #!/usr/bin/perl
2637 use strict;
2638 use warnings;
2639 use File::Temp qw(tempdir);
2640 BEGIN {
2641     # Install needed RHEL packages if missing
2642     my %rhelmodules = (
2643         'XML::Simple' => 'perl-XML-Simple',
2644         );
2645     for my $module (keys %rhelmodules) {
2646         eval "use $module;";
2647         if ($@) {
2648             my $pkg = $rhelmodules{$module};
2649             system("yum install -y $pkg");
2650             eval "use $module;";
2651         }
2652     }
2653 }
2654 my $errorsto = 'pere@hungry.com';
2655
2656 upgrade_dell();
2657
2658 exit 0;
2659
2660 sub run_firmware_script {
2661     my ($opts, $script) = @_;
2662     unless ($script) {
2663         print STDERR "fail: missing script name\n";
2664         exit 1
2665     }
2666     print STDERR "Running $script\n\n";
2667
2668     if (0 == system("sh $script $opts")) { # FIXME correct exit code handling
2669         print STDERR "success: firmware script ran succcessfully\n";
2670     } else {
2671         print STDERR "fail: firmware script returned error\n";
2672     }
2673 }
2674
2675 sub run_firmware_scripts {
2676     my ($opts, @dirs) = @_;
2677     # Run firmware packages
2678     for my $dir (@dirs) {
2679         print STDERR "info: Running scripts in $dir\n";
2680         opendir(my $dh, $dir) or die "Unable to open directory $dir: $!";
2681         while (my $s = readdir $dh) {
2682             next if $s =~ m/^\.\.?/;
2683             run_firmware_script($opts, "$dir/$s");
2684         }
2685         closedir $dh;
2686     }
2687 }
2688
2689 sub download {
2690     my $url = shift;
2691     print STDERR "info: Downloading $url\n";
2692     system("wget --quiet \"$url\"");
2693 }
2694
2695 sub upgrade_dell {
2696     my @dirs;
2697     my $product = `dmidecode -s system-product-name`;
2698     chomp $product;
2699
2700     if ($product =~ m/PowerEdge/) {
2701
2702         # on RHEL, these pacakges are needed by the firwmare upgrade scripts
2703         system('yum install -y compat-libstdc++-33.i686 libstdc++.i686 libxml2.i686 procmail');
2704
2705         my $tmpdir = tempdir(
2706             CLEANUP => 1
2707             );
2708         chdir($tmpdir);
2709         fetch_dell_fw('catalog/Catalog.xml.gz');
2710         system('gunzip Catalog.xml.gz');
2711         my @paths = fetch_dell_fw_list('Catalog.xml');
2712         # -q is quiet, disabling interactivity and reducing console output
2713         my $fwopts = "-q";
2714         if (@paths) {
2715             for my $url (@paths) {
2716                 fetch_dell_fw($url);
2717             }
2718             run_firmware_scripts($fwopts, $tmpdir);
2719         } else {
2720             print STDERR "error: Unsupported Dell model '$product'.\n";
2721             print STDERR "error: Please report to $errorsto.\n";
2722         }
2723         chdir('/');
2724     } else {
2725         print STDERR "error: Unsupported Dell model '$product'.\n";
2726         print STDERR "error: Please report to $errorsto.\n";
2727     }
2728 }
2729
2730 sub fetch_dell_fw {
2731     my $path = shift;
2732     my $url = "ftp://ftp.us.dell.com/$path";
2733     download($url);
2734 }
2735
2736 # Using ftp://ftp.us.dell.com/catalog/Catalog.xml.gz, figure out which
2737 # firmware packages to download from Dell.  Only work for Linux
2738 # machines and 11th generation Dell servers.
2739 sub fetch_dell_fw_list {
2740     my $filename = shift;
2741
2742     my $product = `dmidecode -s system-product-name`;
2743     chomp $product;
2744     my ($mybrand, $mymodel) = split(/\s+/, $product);
2745
2746     print STDERR "Finding firmware bundles for $mybrand $mymodel\n";
2747
2748     my $xml = XMLin($filename);
2749     my @paths;
2750     for my $bundle (@{$xml->{SoftwareBundle}}) {
2751         my $brand = $bundle->{TargetSystems}->{Brand}->{Display}->{content};
2752         my $model = $bundle->{TargetSystems}->{Brand}->{Model}->{Display}->{content};
2753         my $oscode;
2754         if ("ARRAY" eq ref $bundle->{TargetOSes}->{OperatingSystem}) {
2755             $oscode = $bundle->{TargetOSes}->{OperatingSystem}[0]->{osCode};
2756         } else {
2757             $oscode = $bundle->{TargetOSes}->{OperatingSystem}->{osCode};
2758         }
2759         if ($mybrand eq $brand && $mymodel eq $model && "LIN" eq $oscode)
2760         {
2761             @paths = map { $_->{path} } @{$bundle->{Contents}->{Package}};
2762         }
2763     }
2764     for my $component (@{$xml->{SoftwareComponent}}) {
2765         my $componenttype = $component->{ComponentType}->{value};
2766
2767         # Drop application packages, only firmware and BIOS
2768         next if 'APAC' eq $componenttype;
2769
2770         my $cpath = $component->{path};
2771         for my $path (@paths) {
2772             if ($cpath =~ m%/$path$%) {
2773                 push(@paths, $cpath);
2774             }
2775         }
2776     }
2777     return @paths;
2778 }
2779 </pre>
2780
2781 <p>The code is only tested on RedHat Enterprise Linux, but I suspect
2782 it could work on other platforms with some tweaking.  Anyone know a
2783 index like Catalog.xml is available from HP for HP servers?  At the
2784 moment I maintain a similar list manually and it is quickly getting
2785 outdated.</p>
2786
2787       </div>
2788       <div class="tags">
2789
2790
2791         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>.
2792
2793
2794       </div>
2795     </div>
2796     <div class="padding"></div>
2797
2798     <div class="entry">
2799       <div class="title">
2800         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_is_booting_into_runlevel_1_different_from_single_user_boots_.html">How is booting into runlevel 1 different from single user boots?</a>
2801       </div>
2802       <div class="date">
2803          4th August 2011
2804       </div>
2805       <div class="body">
2806         <p>Wouter Verhelst have some
2807 <a href="http://grep.be/blog/en/retorts/pere_kubuntu_boot">interesting
2808 comments and opinions</a> on my blog post on
2809 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/What_should_start_from__etc_rcS_d__in_Debian____almost_nothing.html">the
2810 need to clean up /etc/rcS.d/ in Debian</a> and my blog post about
2811 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/What_is_missing_in_the_Debian_desktop__or_why_my_parents_use_Kubuntu.html">the
2812 default KDE desktop in Debian</a>.  I only have time to address one
2813 small piece of his comment now, and though it best to address the
2814 misunderstanding he bring forward:</p>
2815
2816 <p><blockquote>
2817 Currently, a system admin has four options: [...] boot to a
2818 single-user system (by adding 'single' to the kernel command line;
2819 this runs rcS and rc1 scripts)
2820 </blockquote></p>
2821
2822 <p>This make me believe Wouter believe booting into single user mode
2823 and booting into runlevel 1 is the same.  I am not surprised he
2824 believe this, because it would make sense and is a quite sensible
2825 thing to believe.  But because the boot in Debian is slightly broken,
2826 runlevel 1 do not work properly and it isn't the same as single user
2827 mode.  I'll try to explain what is actually happing, but it is a bit
2828 hard to explain.</p>
2829
2830 <p>Single user mode is defined like this in /etc/inittab:
2831 "<tt>~~:S:wait:/sbin/sulogin</tt>".  This means the only thing that is
2832 executed in single user mode is sulogin.  Single user mode is a boot
2833 state "between" the runlevels, and when booting into single user mode,
2834 only the scripts in /etc/rcS.d/ are executed before the init process
2835 enters the single user state.  When switching to runlevel 1, the state
2836 is in fact not ending in runlevel 1, but it passes through runlevel 1
2837 and end up in the single user mode (see /etc/rc1.d/S03single, which
2838 runs "init -t1 S" to switch to single user mode at the end of runlevel
2839 1.  It is confusing that the 'S' (single user) init mode is not the
2840 mode enabled by /etc/rcS.d/ (which is more like the initial boot
2841 mode).</p>
2842
2843 <p>This summary might make it clearer.  When booting for the first
2844 time into single user mode, the following commands are executed:
2845 "<tt>/etc/init.d/rc S; /sbin/sulogin</tt>".  When booting into
2846 runlevel 1, the following commands are executed: "<tt>/etc/init.d/rc
2847 S; /etc/init.d/rc 1; /sbin/sulogin</tt>".  A problem show up when
2848 trying to continue after visiting single user mode.  Not all services
2849 are started again as they should, causing the machine to end up in an
2850 unpredicatble state.  This is why Debian admins recommend rebooting
2851 after visiting single user mode.</p>
2852
2853 <p>A similar problem with runlevel 1 is caused by the amount of
2854 scripts executed from /etc/rcS.d/.  When switching from say runlevel 2
2855 to runlevel 1, the services started from /etc/rcS.d/ are not properly
2856 stopped when passing through the scripts in /etc/rc1.d/, and not
2857 started again when switching away from runlevel 1 to the runlevels
2858 2-5.  I believe the problem is best fixed by moving all the scripts
2859 out of /etc/rcS.d/ that are not <strong>required</strong> to get a
2860 functioning single user mode during boot.</p>
2861
2862 <p>I have spent several years investigating the Debian boot system,
2863 and discovered this problem a few years ago.  I suspect it originates
2864 from when sysvinit was introduced into Debian, a long time ago.</p>
2865
2866       </div>
2867       <div class="tags">
2868
2869
2870         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bootsystem">bootsystem</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
2871
2872
2873       </div>
2874     </div>
2875     <div class="padding"></div>
2876
2877     <div class="entry">
2878       <div class="title">
2879         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/What_should_start_from__etc_rcS_d__in_Debian____almost_nothing.html">What should start from /etc/rcS.d/ in Debian? - almost nothing</a>
2880       </div>
2881       <div class="date">
2882         30th July 2011
2883       </div>
2884       <div class="body">
2885         <p>In the Debian boot system, several packages include scripts that
2886 are started from /etc/rcS.d/.  In fact, there is a bite more of them
2887 than make sense, and this causes a few problems.  What kind of
2888 problems, you might ask.  There are at least two problems.  The first
2889 is that it is not possible to recover a machine after switching to
2890 runlevel 1.  One need to actually reboot to get the machine back to
2891 the expected state.  The other is that single user boot will sometimes
2892 run into problems because some of the subsystems are activated before
2893 the root login is presented, causing problems when trying to recover a
2894 machine from a problem in that subsystem.  A minor additional point is
2895 that moving more scripts out of rcS.d/ and into the other rc#.d/
2896 directories will increase the amount of scripts that can run in
2897 parallel during boot, and thus decrease the boot time.</p>
2898
2899 <p>So, which scripts should start from rcS.d/.  In short, only the
2900 scripts that _have_ to execute before the root login prompt is
2901 presented during a single user boot should go there.  Everything else
2902 should go into the numeric runlevels.  This means things like
2903 lm-sensors, fuse and x11-common should not run from rcS.d, but from
2904 the numeric runlevels.  Today in Debian, there are around 115 init.d
2905 scripts that are started from rcS.d/, and most of them should be moved
2906 out.  Do your package have one of them?  Please help us make single
2907 user and runlevel 1 better by moving it.</p>
2908
2909 <p>Scripts setting up the screen, keyboard, system partitions
2910 etc. should still be started from rcS.d/, but there is for example no
2911 need to have the network enabled before the single user login prompt
2912 is presented.</p>
2913
2914 <p>As always, things are not so easy to fix as they sound.  To keep
2915 Debian systems working while scripts migrate and during upgrades, the
2916 scripts need to be moved from rcS.d/ to rc2.d/ in reverse dependency
2917 order, ie the scripts that nothing in rcS.d/ depend on can be moved,
2918 and the next ones can only be moved when their dependencies have been
2919 moved first.  This migration must be done sequentially while we ensure
2920 that the package system upgrade packages in the right order to keep
2921 the system state correct.  This will require some coordination when it
2922 comes to network related packages, but most of the packages with
2923 scripts that should migrate do not have anything in rcS.d/ depending
2924 on them.  Some packages have already been updated, like the sudo
2925 package, while others are still left to do.  I wish I had time to work
2926 on this myself, but real live constrains make it unlikely that I will
2927 find time to push this forward.</p>
2928
2929       </div>
2930       <div class="tags">
2931
2932
2933         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bootsystem">bootsystem</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
2934
2935
2936       </div>
2937     </div>
2938     <div class="padding"></div>
2939
2940     <div class="entry">
2941       <div class="title">
2942         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/What_is_missing_in_the_Debian_desktop__or_why_my_parents_use_Kubuntu.html">What is missing in the Debian desktop, or why my parents use Kubuntu</a>
2943       </div>
2944       <div class="date">
2945         29th July 2011
2946       </div>
2947       <div class="body">
2948         <p>While at Debconf11, I have several times during discussions
2949 mentioned the issues I believe should be improved in Debian for its
2950 desktop to be useful for more people.  The use case for this is my
2951 parents, which are currently running Kubuntu which solve the
2952 issues.</p>
2953
2954 <p>I suspect these four missing features are not very hard to
2955 implement.  After all, they are present in Ubuntu, so if we wanted to
2956 do this in Debian we would have a source.</p>
2957
2958 <ol>
2959
2960 <li><strong>Simple GUI based upgrade of packages.</strong> When there
2961 are new packages available for upgrades, a icon in the KDE status bar
2962 indicate this, and clicking on it will activate the simple upgrade
2963 tool to handle it.  I have no problem guiding both of my parents
2964 through the process over the phone.  If a kernel reboot is required,
2965 this too is indicated by the status bars and the upgrade tool.  Last
2966 time I checked, nothing with the same features was working in KDE in
2967 Debian.</li>
2968
2969 <li><strong>Simple handling of missing Firefox browser
2970 plugins.</strong> When the browser encounter a MIME type it do not
2971 currently have a handler for, it will ask the user if the system
2972 should search for a package that would add support for this MIME type,
2973 and if the user say yes, the APT sources will be searched for packages
2974 advertising the MIME type in their control file (visible in the
2975 Packages file in the APT archive).  If one or more packages are found,
2976 it is a simple click of the mouse to add support for the missing mime
2977 type.  If the package require the user to accept some non-free
2978 license, this is explained to the user.  The entire process make it
2979 more clear to the user why something do not work in the browser, and
2980 make the chances higher for the user to blame the web page authors and
2981 not the browser for any missing features.</li>
2982
2983 <li><strong>Simple handling of missing multimedia codec/format
2984 handlers.</strong> When the media players encounter a format or codec
2985 it is not supporting, a dialog pop up asking the user if the system
2986 should search for a package that would add support for it.  This
2987 happen with things like MP3, Windows Media or H.264.  The selection
2988 and installation procedure is very similar to the Firefox browser
2989 plugin handling.  This is as far as I know implemented using a
2990 gstreamer hook.  The end result is that the user easily get access to
2991 the codecs that are present from the APT archives available, while
2992 explaining more on why a given format is unsupported by Ubuntu.</li>
2993
2994 <li><strong>Better browser handling of some MIME types.</strong> When
2995 displaying a text/plain file in my Debian browser, it will propose to
2996 start emacs to show it.  If I remember correctly, when doing the same
2997 in Kunbutu it show the file as a text file in the browser.  At least I
2998 know Opera will show text files within the browser.  I much prefer the
2999 latter behaviour.</li>
3000
3001 </ol>
3002
3003 <p>There are other nice features as well, like the simplified suite
3004 upgrader, but given that I am the one mostly doing the dist-upgrade,
3005 it do not matter much.</p>
3006
3007 <p>I really hope we could get these features in place for the next
3008 Debian release.  It would require the coordinated effort of several
3009 maintainers, but would make the end user experience a lot better.</p>
3010
3011       </div>
3012       <div class="tags">
3013
3014
3015         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/multimedia">multimedia</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/web">web</a>.
3016
3017
3018       </div>
3019     </div>
3020     <div class="padding"></div>
3021
3022     <div class="entry">
3023       <div class="title">
3024         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Perl_modules_used_by_FixMyStreet_which_are_missing_in_Debian_Squeeze.html">Perl modules used by FixMyStreet which are missing in Debian/Squeeze</a>
3025       </div>
3026       <div class="date">
3027         26th July 2011
3028       </div>
3029       <div class="body">
3030         <p>The Norwegian <a href="http://www.fiksgatami.no/">FiksGataMi</A>
3031 site is build on Debian/Squeeze, and this platform was chosen because
3032 I am most familiar with Debian (being a Debian Developer for around 10
3033 years) because it is the latest stable Debian release which should get
3034 security support for a few years.</p>
3035
3036 <p>The web service is written in Perl, and depend on some perl modules
3037 that are missing in Debian at the moment.  It would be great if these
3038 modules were added to the Debian archive, allowing anyone to set up
3039 their own <a href="http://www.fixmystreet.com">FixMyStreet</a> clone
3040 in their own country using only Debian packages.  The list of modules
3041 missing in Debian/Squeeze isn't very long, and I hope the perl group
3042 will find time to package the 12 modules Catalyst::Plugin::SmartURI,
3043 Catalyst::Plugin::Unicode::Encoding, Catalyst::View::TT, Devel::Hide,
3044 Sort::Key, Statistics::Distributions, Template::Plugin::Comma,
3045 Template::Plugin::DateTime::Format, Term::Size::Any, Term::Size::Perl,
3046 URI::SmartURI and Web::Scraper to make the maintenance of FixMyStreet
3047 easier in the future.</p>
3048
3049 <p>Thanks to the great tools in Debian, getting the missing modules
3050 installed on my server was a simple call to 'cpan2deb Module::Name'
3051 and 'dpkg -i' to install the resulting package.  But this leave me
3052 with the responsibility of tracking security problems, which I really
3053 do not have time for.</p>
3054
3055       </div>
3056       <div class="tags">
3057
3058
3059         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/fiksgatami">fiksgatami</a>.
3060
3061
3062       </div>
3063     </div>
3064     <div class="padding"></div>
3065
3066     <div class="entry">
3067       <div class="title">
3068         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/A_Norwegian_FixMyStreet_have_kept_me_busy_the_last_few_weeks.html">A Norwegian FixMyStreet have kept me busy the last few weeks</a>
3069       </div>
3070       <div class="date">
3071          3rd April 2011
3072       </div>
3073       <div class="body">
3074         <p>Here is a small update for my English readers.  Most of my blog
3075 posts have been in Norwegian the last few weeks, so here is a short
3076 update in English.</p>
3077
3078 <p>The kids still keep me too busy to get much free software work
3079 done, but I did manage to organise a project to get a Norwegian port
3080 of the British service
3081 <a href="http://www.fixmystreet.com/">FixMyStreet</a> up and running,
3082 and it has been running for a month now.  The entire project has been
3083 organised by me and two others.  Around Christmas we gathered sponsors
3084 to fund the development work.  In January I drafted a contract with
3085 <a href="http://www.mysociety.org/">mySociety</a> on what to develop,
3086 and in February the development took place.  Most of it involved
3087 converting the source to use GPS coordinates instead of British
3088 easting/northing, and the resulting code should be a lot easier to get
3089 running in any country by now.  The Norwegian
3090 <a href="http://www.fiksgatami.no/">FiksGataMi</a> is using
3091 <a href="http://www.openstreetmap.org/">OpenStreetmap</a> as the map
3092 source and the source for administrative borders in Norway, and
3093 support for this had to be added/fixed.</p>
3094
3095 <p>The Norwegian version went live March 3th, and we spent the weekend
3096 polishing the system before we announced it March 7th.  The system is
3097 running on a KVM instance of Debian/Squeeze, and has seen almost 3000
3098 problem reports in a few weeks.  Soon we hope to announce the Android
3099 and iPhone versions making it even easier to report problems with the
3100 public infrastructure.</p>
3101
3102 <p>Perhaps something to consider for those of you in countries without
3103 such service?</p>
3104
3105       </div>
3106       <div class="tags">
3107
3108
3109         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/fiksgatami">fiksgatami</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/kart">kart</a>.
3110
3111
3112       </div>
3113     </div>
3114     <div class="padding"></div>
3115
3116     <div class="entry">
3117       <div class="title">
3118         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Using_NVD_and_CPE_to_track_CVEs_in_locally_maintained_software.html">Using NVD and CPE to track CVEs in locally maintained software</a>
3119       </div>
3120       <div class="date">
3121         28th January 2011
3122       </div>
3123       <div class="body">
3124         <p>The last few days I have looked at ways to track open security
3125 issues here at my work with the University of Oslo.  My idea is that
3126 it should be possible to use the information about security issues
3127 available on the Internet, and check our locally
3128 maintained/distributed software against this information.  It should
3129 allow us to verify that no known security issues are forgotten.  The
3130 CVE database listing vulnerabilities seem like a great central point,
3131 and by using the package lists from Debian mapped to CVEs provided by
3132 the testing security team, I believed it should be possible to figure
3133 out which security holes were present in our free software
3134 collection.</p>
3135
3136 <p>After reading up on the topic, it became obvious that the first
3137 building block is to be able to name software packages in a unique and
3138 consistent way across data sources.  I considered several ways to do
3139 this, for example coming up with my own naming scheme like using URLs
3140 to project home pages or URLs to the Freshmeat entries, or using some
3141 existing naming scheme.  And it seem like I am not the first one to
3142 come across this problem, as MITRE already proposed and implemented a
3143 solution.  Enter the <a href="http://cpe.mitre.org/index.html">Common
3144 Platform Enumeration</a> dictionary, a vocabulary for referring to
3145 software, hardware and other platform components.  The CPE ids are
3146 mapped to CVEs in the <a href="http://web.nvd.nist.gov/">National
3147 Vulnerability Database</a>, allowing me to look up know security
3148 issues for any CPE name.  With this in place, all I need to do is to
3149 locate the CPE id for the software packages we use at the university.
3150 This is fairly trivial (I google for 'cve cpe $package' and check the
3151 NVD entry if a CVE for the package exist).</p>
3152
3153 <p>To give you an example.  The GNU gzip source package have the CPE
3154 name cpe:/a:gnu:gzip.  If the old version 1.3.3 was the package to
3155 check out, one could look up
3156 <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
3157 in NVD</a> and get a list of 6 security holes with public CVE entries.
3158 The most recent one is
3159 <a href="http://web.nvd.nist.gov/view/vuln/detail?vulnId=CVE-2010-0001">CVE-2010-0001</a>,
3160 and at the bottom of the NVD page for this vulnerability the complete
3161 list of affected versions is provided.</p>
3162
3163 <p>The NVD database of CVEs is also available as a XML dump, allowing
3164 for offline processing of issues.  Using this dump, I've written a
3165 small script taking a list of CPEs as input and list all CVEs
3166 affecting the packages represented by these CPEs.  One give it CPEs
3167 with version numbers as specified above and get a list of open
3168 security issues out.</p>
3169
3170 <p>Of course for this approach to be useful, the quality of the NVD
3171 information need to be high.  For that to happen, I believe as many as
3172 possible need to use and contribute to the NVD database.  I notice
3173 RHEL is providing
3174 <a href="https://www.redhat.com/security/data/metrics/rhsamapcpe.txt">a
3175 map from CVE to CPE</a>, indicating that they are using the CPE
3176 information.  I'm not aware of Debian and Ubuntu doing the same.</p>
3177
3178 <p>To get an idea about the quality for free software, I spent some
3179 time making it possible to compare the CVE database from Debian with
3180 the CVE database in NVD.  The result look fairly good, but there are
3181 some inconsistencies in NVD (same software package having several
3182 CPEs), and some inaccuracies (NVD not mentioning buggy packages that
3183 Debian believe are affected by a CVE).  Hope to find time to improve
3184 the quality of NVD, but that require being able to get in touch with
3185 someone maintaining it.  So far my three emails with questions and
3186 corrections have not seen any reply, but I hope contact can be
3187 established soon.</p>
3188
3189 <p>An interesting application for CPEs is cross platform package
3190 mapping.  It would be useful to know which packages in for example
3191 RHEL, OpenSuSe and Mandriva are missing from Debian and Ubuntu, and
3192 this would be trivial if all linux distributions provided CPE entries
3193 for their packages.</p>
3194
3195       </div>
3196       <div class="tags">
3197
3198
3199         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>.
3200
3201
3202       </div>
3203     </div>
3204     <div class="padding"></div>
3205
3206     <div class="entry">
3207       <div class="title">
3208         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Which_module_is_loaded_for_a_given_PCI_and_USB_device_.html">Which module is loaded for a given PCI and USB device?</a>
3209       </div>
3210       <div class="date">
3211         23rd January 2011
3212       </div>
3213       <div class="body">
3214         <p>In the
3215 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/discover-data">discover-data</a>
3216 package in Debian, there is a script to report useful information
3217 about the running hardware for use when people report missing
3218 information.  One part of this script that I find very useful when
3219 debugging hardware problems, is the part mapping loaded kernel module
3220 to the PCI device it claims.  It allow me to quickly see if the kernel
3221 module I expect is driving the hardware I am struggling with.  To see
3222 the output, make sure discover-data is installed and run
3223 <tt>/usr/share/bug/discover-data 3>&1</tt>.  The relevant output on
3224 one of my machines like this:</p>
3225
3226 <pre>
3227 loaded modules:
3228 10de:03eb i2c_nforce2
3229 10de:03f1 ohci_hcd
3230 10de:03f2 ehci_hcd
3231 10de:03f0 snd_hda_intel
3232 10de:03ec pata_amd
3233 10de:03f6 sata_nv
3234 1022:1103 k8temp
3235 109e:036e bttv
3236 109e:0878 snd_bt87x
3237 11ab:4364 sky2
3238 </pre>
3239
3240 <p>The code in question look like this, slightly modified for
3241 readability and to drop the output to file descriptor 3:</p>
3242
3243 <pre>
3244 if [ -d /sys/bus/pci/devices/ ] ; then
3245     echo loaded pci modules:
3246     (
3247         cd /sys/bus/pci/devices/
3248         for address in * ; do
3249             if [ -d "$address/driver/module" ] ; then
3250                 module=`cd $address/driver/module ; pwd -P | xargs basename`
3251                 if grep -q "^$module " /proc/modules ; then
3252                     address=$(echo $address |sed s/0000://)
3253                     id=`lspci -n -s $address | tail -n 1 | awk '{print $3}'`
3254                     echo "$id $module"
3255                 fi
3256             fi
3257         done
3258     )
3259     echo
3260 fi
3261 </pre>
3262
3263 <p>Similar code could be used to extract USB device module
3264 mappings:</p>
3265
3266 <pre>
3267 if [ -d /sys/bus/usb/devices/ ] ; then
3268     echo loaded usb modules:
3269     (
3270         cd /sys/bus/usb/devices/
3271         for address in * ; do
3272             if [ -d "$address/driver/module" ] ; then
3273                 module=`cd $address/driver/module ; pwd -P | xargs basename`
3274                 if grep -q "^$module " /proc/modules ; then
3275                     address=$(echo $address |sed s/0000://)
3276                     id=$(lsusb -s $address | tail -n 1 | awk '{print $6}')
3277                     if [ "$id" ] ; then
3278                         echo "$id $module"
3279                     fi
3280                 fi
3281             fi
3282         done
3283     )
3284     echo
3285 fi
3286 </pre>
3287
3288 <p>This might perhaps be something to include in other tools as
3289 well.</p>
3290
3291       </div>
3292       <div class="tags">
3293
3294
3295         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>.
3296
3297
3298       </div>
3299     </div>
3300     <div class="padding"></div>
3301
3302     <div class="entry">
3303       <div class="title">
3304         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_test_if_a_laptop_is_working_with_Linux.html">How to test if a laptop is working with Linux</a>
3305       </div>
3306       <div class="date">
3307         22nd December 2010
3308       </div>
3309       <div class="body">
3310         <p>The last few days I have spent at work here at the <a
3311 href="http://www.uio.no/">University of Oslo</a> testing if the new
3312 batch of computers will work with Linux.  Every year for the last few
3313 years the university have organised shared bid of a few thousand
3314 computers, and this year HP won the bid.  Two different desktops and
3315 five different laptops are on the list this year.  We in the UNIX
3316 group want to know which one of these computers work well with RHEL
3317 and Ubuntu, the two Linux distributions we currently handle at the
3318 university.</p>
3319
3320 <p>My test method is simple, and I share it here to get feedback and
3321 perhaps inspire others to test hardware as well.  To test, I PXE
3322 install the OS version of choice, and log in as my normal user and run
3323 a few applications and plug in selected pieces of hardware.  When
3324 something fail, I make a note about this in the test matrix and move
3325 on.  If I have some spare time I try to report the bug to the OS
3326 vendor, but as I only have the machines for a short time, I rarely
3327 have the time to do this for all the problems I find.</p>
3328
3329 <p>Anyway, to get to the point of this post.  Here is the simple tests
3330 I perform on a new model.</p>
3331
3332 <ul>
3333
3334 <li>Is PXE installation working?  I'm testing with RHEL6, Ubuntu Lucid
3335 and Ubuntu Maverik at the moment.  If I feel like it, I also test with
3336 RHEL5 and Debian Edu/Squeeze.</li>
3337
3338 <li>Is X.org working?  If the graphical login screen show up after
3339 installation, X.org is working.</li>
3340
3341 <li>Is hardware accelerated OpenGL working?  Running glxgears (in
3342 package mesa-utils on Ubuntu) and writing down the frames per second
3343 reported by the program.</li>
3344
3345 <li>Is sound working?  With Gnome and KDE, a sound is played when
3346 logging in, and if I can hear this the test is successful.  If there
3347 are several audio exits on the machine, I try them all and check if
3348 the Gnome/KDE audio mixer can control where to send the sound.  I
3349 normally test this by playing
3350 <a href="http://www.nuug.no/aktiviteter/20101012-chef/ ">a HTML5
3351 video</a> in Firefox/Iceweasel.</li>
3352
3353 <li>Is the USB subsystem working?  I test this by plugging in a USB
3354 memory stick and see if Gnome/KDE notices this.</li>
3355
3356 <li>Is the CD/DVD player working?  I test this by inserting any CD/DVD
3357 I have lying around, and see if Gnome/KDE notices this.</li>
3358
3359 <li>Is any built in camera working?  Test using cheese, and see if a
3360 picture from the v4l device show up.</li>
3361
3362 <li>Is bluetooth working?  Use the Gnome/KDE browsing tool to see if
3363 any bluetooth devices are discovered.  In my office, I normally see a
3364 few.</li>
3365
3366 <li>For laptops, is the SD or Compaq Flash reader working.  I have
3367 memory modules lying around, and stick them in and see if Gnome/KDE
3368 notice this.</li>
3369
3370 <li>For laptops, is suspend/hibernate working?  I'm testing if the
3371 special button work, and if the laptop continue to work after
3372 resume.</li>
3373
3374 <li>For laptops, is the extra buttons working, like audio level,
3375 adjusting background light, switching on/off external video output,
3376 switching on/off wifi, bluetooth, etc?  The set of buttons differ from
3377 laptop to laptop, so I just write down which are working and which are
3378 not.</li>
3379
3380 <li>Some laptops have smart card readers, finger print readers,
3381 acceleration sensors etc.  I rarely test these, as I do not know how
3382 to quickly test if they are working or not, so I only document their
3383 existence.</li>
3384
3385 </ul>
3386
3387 <p>By now I suspect you are really curious what the test results are
3388 for the HP machines I am testing.  I'm not done yet, so I will report
3389 the test results later.  For now I can report that HP 8100 Elite work
3390 fine, and hibernation fail with HP EliteBook 8440p on Ubuntu Lucid,
3391 and audio fail on RHEL6.  Ubuntu Maverik worked with 8440p.  As you
3392 can see, I have most machines left to test.  One interesting
3393 observation is that Ubuntu Lucid has almost twice the frame rate than
3394 RHEL6 with glxgears.  No idea why.</p>
3395
3396       </div>
3397       <div class="tags">
3398
3399
3400         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
3401
3402
3403       </div>
3404     </div>
3405     <div class="padding"></div>
3406
3407     <div class="entry">
3408       <div class="title">
3409         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Some_thoughts_on_BitCoins.html">Some thoughts on BitCoins</a>
3410       </div>
3411       <div class="date">
3412         11th December 2010
3413       </div>
3414       <div class="body">
3415         <p>As I continue to explore
3416 <a href="http://www.bitcoin.org/">BitCoin</a>, I've starting to wonder
3417 what properties the system have, and how it will be affected by laws
3418 and regulations here in Norway.  Here are some random notes.</p>
3419
3420 <p>One interesting thing to note is that since the transactions are
3421 verified using a peer to peer network, all details about a transaction
3422 is known to everyone.  This means that if a BitCoin address has been
3423 published like I did with mine in my initial post about BitCoin, it is
3424 possible for everyone to see how many BitCoins have been transfered to
3425 that address.  There is even a web service to look at the details for
3426 all transactions.  There I can see that my address
3427 <a href="http://blockexplorer.com/address/15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a>
3428 have received 16.06 Bitcoin, the
3429 <a href="http://blockexplorer.com/address/1LfdGnGuWkpSJgbQySxxCWhv8MHqvwst3">1LfdGnGuWkpSJgbQySxxCWhv8MHqvwst3</a>
3430 address of Simon Phipps have received 181.97 BitCoin and the address
3431 <a href="http://blockexplorer.com/address/1MCwBbhNGp5hRm5rC1Aims2YFRe2SXPYKt">1MCwBbhNGp5hRm5rC1Aims2YFRe2SXPYKt</A>
3432 of EFF have received 2447.38 BitCoins so far.  Thank you to each and
3433 every one of you that donated bitcoins to support my activity. The
3434 fact that anyone can see how much money was transfered to a given
3435 address make it more obvious why the BitCoin community recommend to
3436 generate and hand out a new address for each transaction.  I'm told
3437 there is no way to track which addresses belong to a given person or
3438 organisation without the person or organisation revealing it
3439 themselves, as Simon, EFF and I have done.</p>
3440
3441 <p>In Norway, and in most other countries, there are laws and
3442 regulations limiting how much money one can transfer across the border
3443 without declaring it.  There are money laundering, tax and accounting
3444 laws and regulations I would expect to apply to the use of BitCoin.
3445 If the Skolelinux foundation
3446 (<a href="http://linuxiskolen.no/slxdebianlabs/donations.html">SLX
3447 Debian Labs</a>) were to accept donations in BitCoin in addition to
3448 normal bank transfers like EFF is doing, how should this be accounted?
3449 Given that it is impossible to know if money can cross the border or
3450 not, should everything or nothing be declared?  What exchange rate
3451 should be used when calculating taxes?  Would receivers have to pay
3452 income tax if the foundation were to pay Skolelinux contributors in
3453 BitCoin?  I have no idea, but it would be interesting to know.</p>
3454
3455 <p>For a currency to be useful and successful, it must be trusted and
3456 accepted by a lot of users.  It must be possible to get easy access to
3457 the currency (as a wage or using currency exchanges), and it must be
3458 easy to spend it.  At the moment BitCoin seem fairly easy to get
3459 access to, but there are very few places to spend it.  I am not really
3460 a regular user of any of the vendor types currently accepting BitCoin,
3461 so I wonder when my kind of shop would start accepting BitCoins.  I
3462 would like to buy electronics, travels and subway tickets, not herbs
3463 and books. :) The currency is young, and this will improve over time
3464 if it become popular, but I suspect regular banks will start to lobby
3465 to get BitCoin declared illegal if it become popular.  I'm sure they
3466 will claim it is helping fund terrorism and money laundering (which
3467 probably would be true, as is any currency in existence), but I
3468 believe the problems should be solved elsewhere and not by blaming
3469 currencies.</p>
3470
3471 <p>The process of creating new BitCoins is called mining, and it is
3472 CPU intensive process that depend on a bit of luck as well (as one is
3473 competing against all the other miners currently spending CPU cycles
3474 to see which one get the next lump of cash).  The "winner" get 50
3475 BitCoin when this happen.  Yesterday I came across the obvious way to
3476 join forces to increase ones changes of getting at least some coins,
3477 by coordinating the work on mining BitCoins across several machines
3478 and people, and sharing the result if one is lucky and get the 50
3479 BitCoins.  Check out
3480 <a href="http://www.bluishcoder.co.nz/bitcoin-pool/">BitCoin Pool</a>
3481 if this sounds interesting.  I have not had time to try to set up a
3482 machine to participate there yet, but have seen that running on ones
3483 own for a few days have not yield any BitCoins througth mining
3484 yet.</p>
3485
3486 <p>Update 2010-12-15: Found an <a
3487 href="http://inertia.posterous.com/reply-to-the-underground-economist-why-bitcoi">interesting
3488 criticism</a> of bitcoin.  Not quite sure how valid it is, but thought
3489 it was interesting to read.  The arguments presented seem to be
3490 equally valid for gold, which was used as a currency for many years.</p>
3491
3492       </div>
3493       <div class="tags">
3494
3495
3496         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bitcoin">bitcoin</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/personvern">personvern</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>.
3497
3498
3499       </div>
3500     </div>
3501     <div class="padding"></div>
3502
3503     <div class="entry">
3504       <div class="title">
3505         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Now_accepting_bitcoins___anonymous_and_distributed_p2p_crypto_money.html">Now accepting bitcoins - anonymous and distributed p2p crypto-money</a>
3506       </div>
3507       <div class="date">
3508         10th December 2010
3509       </div>
3510       <div class="body">
3511         <p>With this weeks lawless
3512 <a href="http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2010/12/06/wikileaks/index.html">governmental
3513 attacks</a> on Wikileak and
3514 <a href="http://www.salon.com/technology/dan_gillmor/2010/12/06/war_on_speech">free
3515 speech</a>, it has become obvious that PayPal, visa and mastercard can
3516 not be trusted to handle money transactions.
3517 A blog post from
3518 <a href="http://webmink.com/2010/12/06/now-accepting-bitcoin/">Simon
3519 Phipps on bitcoin</a> reminded me about a project that a friend of
3520 mine mentioned earlier.  I decided to follow Simon's example, and get
3521 involved with <a href="http://www.bitcoin.org/">BitCoin</a>.  I got
3522 some help from my friend to get it all running, and he even handed me
3523 some bitcoins to get started.  I even donated a few bitcoins to Simon
3524 for helping me remember BitCoin.</p>
3525
3526 <p>So, what is bitcoins, you probably wonder?  It is a digital
3527 crypto-currency, decentralised and handled using peer-to-peer
3528 networks.  It allows anonymous transactions and prohibits central
3529 control over the transactions, making it impossible for governments
3530 and companies alike to block donations and other transactions.  The
3531 source is free software, and while the key dependency wxWidgets 2.9
3532 for the graphical user interface is missing in Debian, the command
3533 line client builds just fine.  Hopefully Jonas
3534 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/578157">will get the package into
3535 Debian</a> soon.</p>
3536
3537 <p>Bitcoins can be converted to other currencies, like USD and EUR.
3538 There are <a href="http://www.bitcoin.org/trade">companies accepting
3539 bitcoins</a> when selling services and goods, and there are even
3540 currency "stock" markets where the exchange rate is decided.  There
3541 are not many users so far, but the concept seems promising.  If you
3542 want to get started and lack a friend with any bitcoins to spare,
3543 you can even get
3544 <a href="https://freebitcoins.appspot.com/">some for free</a> (0.05
3545 bitcoin at the time of writing).  Use
3546 <a href="http://www.bitcoinwatch.com/">BitcoinWatch</a> to keep an eye
3547 on the current exchange rates.</p>
3548
3549 <p>As an experiment, I have decided to set up bitcoind on one of my
3550 machines.  If you want to support my activity, please send Bitcoin
3551 donations to the address
3552 <b>15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</b>.  Thank you!</p>
3553
3554       </div>
3555       <div class="tags">
3556
3557
3558         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bitcoin">bitcoin</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/personvern">personvern</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>.
3559
3560
3561       </div>
3562     </div>
3563     <div class="padding"></div>
3564
3565     <div class="entry">
3566       <div class="title">
3567         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Why_isn_t_Debian_Edu_using_VLC_.html">Why isn't Debian Edu using VLC?</a>
3568       </div>
3569       <div class="date">
3570         27th November 2010
3571       </div>
3572       <div class="body">
3573         <p>In the latest issue of Linux Journal, the readers choices were
3574 presented, and the winner among the multimedia player were VLC.
3575 Personally, I like VLC, and it is my player of choice when I first try
3576 to play a video file or stream.  Only if VLC fail will I drag out
3577 gmplayer to see if it can do better.  The reason is mostly the failure
3578 model and trust.  When VLC fail, it normally pop up a error message
3579 reporting the problem.  When mplayer fail, it normally segfault or
3580 just hangs.  The latter failure mode drain my trust in the program.<p>
3581
3582 <p>But even if VLC is my player of choice, we have choosen to use
3583 mplayer in <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian
3584 Edu/Skolelinux</a>.  The reason is simple.  We need a good browser
3585 plugin to play web videos seamlessly, and the VLC browser plugin is
3586 not very good.  For example, it lack in-line control buttons, so there
3587 is no way for the user to pause the video.  Also, when I
3588 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/BrowserMultimedia">last
3589 tested the browser plugins</a> available in Debian, the VLC plugin
3590 failed on several video pages where mplayer based plugins worked.  If
3591 the browser plugin for VLC was as good as the gecko-mediaplayer
3592 package (which uses mplayer), we would switch.</P>
3593
3594 <p>While VLC is a good player, its user interface is slightly
3595 annoying.  The most annoying feature is its inconsistent use of
3596 keyboard shortcuts.  When the player is in full screen mode, its
3597 shortcuts are different from when it is playing the video in a window.
3598 For example, space only work as pause when in full screen mode.  I
3599 wish it had consisten shortcuts and that space also would work when in
3600 window mode.  Another nice shortcut in gmplayer is [enter] to restart
3601 the current video.  It is very nice when playing short videos from the
3602 web and want to restart it when new people arrive to have a look at
3603 what is going on.</p>
3604
3605       </div>
3606       <div class="tags">
3607
3608
3609         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/multimedia">multimedia</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/video">video</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/web">web</a>.
3610
3611
3612       </div>
3613     </div>
3614     <div class="padding"></div>
3615
3616     <div class="entry">
3617       <div class="title">
3618         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lenny__Squeeze_upgrades_of_the_Gnome_and_KDE_desktop__now_with_apt_get_autoremove.html">Lenny->Squeeze upgrades of the Gnome and KDE desktop, now with apt-get autoremove</a>
3619       </div>
3620       <div class="date">
3621         22nd November 2010
3622       </div>
3623       <div class="body">
3624         <p>Michael Biebl suggested to me on IRC, that I changed my automated
3625 upgrade testing of the
3626 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/~pere/debian-upgrade-testing/">Lenny
3627 Gnome and KDE Desktop</a> to do <tt>apt-get autoremove</tt> when using apt-get.
3628 This seem like a very good idea, so I adjusted by test scripts and
3629 can now present the updated result from today:</p>
3630
3631 <p>This is for Gnome:</p>
3632
3633 <p>Installed using apt-get, missing with aptitude</p>
3634
3635 <blockquote><p>
3636   apache2.2-bin
3637   aptdaemon
3638   baobab
3639   binfmt-support
3640   browser-plugin-gnash
3641   cheese-common
3642   cli-common
3643   cups-pk-helper
3644   dmz-cursor-theme
3645   empathy
3646   empathy-common
3647   freedesktop-sound-theme
3648   freeglut3
3649   gconf-defaults-service
3650   gdm-themes
3651   gedit-plugins
3652   geoclue
3653   geoclue-hostip
3654   geoclue-localnet
3655   geoclue-manual
3656   geoclue-yahoo
3657   gnash
3658   gnash-common
3659   gnome
3660   gnome-backgrounds
3661   gnome-cards-data
3662   gnome-codec-install
3663   gnome-core
3664   gnome-desktop-environment
3665   gnome-disk-utility
3666   gnome-screenshot
3667   gnome-search-tool
3668   gnome-session-canberra
3669   gnome-system-log
3670   gnome-themes-extras
3671   gnome-themes-more
3672   gnome-user-share
3673   gstreamer0.10-fluendo-mp3
3674   gstreamer0.10-tools
3675   gtk2-engines
3676   gtk2-engines-pixbuf
3677   gtk2-engines-smooth
3678   hamster-applet
3679   libapache2-mod-dnssd
3680   libapr1
3681   libaprutil1
3682   libaprutil1-dbd-sqlite3
3683   libaprutil1-ldap
3684   libart2.0-cil
3685   libboost-date-time1.42.0
3686   libboost-python1.42.0
3687   libboost-thread1.42.0
3688   libchamplain-0.4-0
3689   libchamplain-gtk-0.4-0
3690   libcheese-gtk18
3691   libclutter-gtk-0.10-0
3692   libcryptui0
3693   libdiscid0
3694   libelf1
3695   libepc-1.0-2
3696   libepc-common
3697   libepc-ui-1.0-2
3698   libfreerdp-plugins-standard
3699   libfreerdp0
3700   libgconf2.0-cil
3701   libgdata-common
3702   libgdata7
3703   libgdu-gtk0
3704   libgee2
3705   libgeoclue0
3706   libgexiv2-0
3707   libgif4
3708   libglade2.0-cil
3709   libglib2.0-cil
3710   libgmime2.4-cil
3711   libgnome-vfs2.0-cil
3712   libgnome2.24-cil
3713   libgnomepanel2.24-cil
3714   libgpod-common
3715   libgpod4
3716   libgtk2.0-cil
3717   libgtkglext1
3718   libgtksourceview2.0-common
3719   libmono-addins-gui0.2-cil
3720   libmono-addins0.2-cil
3721   libmono-cairo2.0-cil
3722   libmono-corlib2.0-cil
3723   libmono-i18n-west2.0-cil
3724   libmono-posix2.0-cil
3725   libmono-security2.0-cil
3726   libmono-sharpzip2.84-cil
3727   libmono-system2.0-cil
3728   libmtp8
3729   libmusicbrainz3-6
3730   libndesk-dbus-glib1.0-cil
3731   libndesk-dbus1.0-cil
3732   libopal3.6.8
3733   libpolkit-gtk-1-0
3734   libpt2.6.7
3735   libpython2.6
3736   librpm1
3737   librpmio1
3738   libsdl1.2debian
3739   libsrtp0
3740   libssh-4
3741   libtelepathy-farsight0
3742   libtelepathy-glib0
3743   libtidy-0.99-0
3744   media-player-info
3745   mesa-utils
3746   mono-2.0-gac
3747   mono-gac
3748   mono-runtime
3749   nautilus-sendto
3750   nautilus-sendto-empathy
3751   p7zip-full
3752   pkg-config
3753   python-aptdaemon
3754   python-aptdaemon-gtk
3755   python-axiom
3756   python-beautifulsoup
3757   python-bugbuddy
3758   python-clientform
3759   python-coherence
3760   python-configobj
3761   python-crypto
3762   python-cupshelpers
3763   python-elementtree
3764   python-epsilon
3765   python-evolution
3766   python-feedparser
3767   python-gdata
3768   python-gdbm
3769   python-gst0.10
3770   python-gtkglext1
3771   python-gtksourceview2
3772   python-httplib2
3773   python-louie
3774   python-mako
3775   python-markupsafe
3776   python-mechanize
3777   python-nevow
3778   python-notify
3779   python-opengl
3780   python-openssl
3781   python-pam
3782   python-pkg-resources
3783   python-pyasn1
3784   python-pysqlite2
3785   python-rdflib
3786   python-serial
3787   python-tagpy
3788   python-twisted-bin
3789   python-twisted-conch
3790   python-twisted-core
3791   python-twisted-web
3792   python-utidylib
3793   python-webkit
3794   python-xdg
3795   python-zope.interface
3796   remmina
3797   remmina-plugin-data
3798   remmina-plugin-rdp
3799   remmina-plugin-vnc
3800   rhythmbox-plugin-cdrecorder
3801   rhythmbox-plugins
3802   rpm-common
3803   rpm2cpio
3804   seahorse-plugins
3805   shotwell
3806   software-center
3807   system-config-printer-udev
3808   telepathy-gabble
3809   telepathy-mission-control-5
3810   telepathy-salut
3811   tomboy
3812   totem
3813   totem-coherence
3814   totem-mozilla
3815   totem-plugins
3816   transmission-common
3817   xdg-user-dirs
3818   xdg-user-dirs-gtk
3819   xserver-xephyr
3820 </p></blockquote>
3821
3822 <p>Installed using apt-get, removed with aptitude</p>
3823
3824 <blockquote><p>
3825   cheese
3826   ekiga
3827   eog
3828   epiphany-extensions
3829   evolution-exchange
3830   fast-user-switch-applet
3831   file-roller
3832   gcalctool
3833   gconf-editor
3834   gdm
3835   gedit
3836   gedit-common
3837   gnome-games
3838   gnome-games-data
3839   gnome-nettool
3840   gnome-system-tools
3841   gnome-themes
3842   gnuchess
3843   gucharmap
3844   guile-1.8-libs
3845   libavahi-ui0
3846   libdmx1
3847   libgalago3
3848   libgtk-vnc-1.0-0
3849   libgtksourceview2.0-0
3850   liblircclient0
3851   libsdl1.2debian-alsa
3852   libspeexdsp1
3853   libsvga1
3854   rhythmbox
3855   seahorse
3856   sound-juicer
3857   system-config-printer
3858   totem-common
3859   transmission-gtk
3860   vinagre
3861   vino
3862 </p></blockquote>
3863
3864 <p>Installed using aptitude, missing with apt-get</p>
3865
3866 <blockquote><p>
3867   gstreamer0.10-gnomevfs
3868 </p></blockquote>
3869
3870 <p>Installed using aptitude, removed with apt-get</p>
3871
3872 <blockquote><p>
3873 [nothing]
3874 </p></blockquote>
3875
3876 <p>This is for KDE:</p>
3877
3878 <p>Installed using apt-get, missing with aptitude</p>
3879
3880 <blockquote><p>
3881   ksmserver
3882 </p></blockquote>
3883
3884 <p>Installed using apt-get, removed with aptitude</p>
3885
3886 <blockquote><p>
3887   kwin
3888   network-manager-kde
3889 </p></blockquote>
3890
3891 <p>Installed using aptitude, missing with apt-get</p>
3892
3893 <blockquote><p>
3894   arts
3895   dolphin
3896   freespacenotifier
3897   google-gadgets-gst
3898   google-gadgets-xul
3899   kappfinder
3900   kcalc
3901   kcharselect
3902   kde-core
3903   kde-plasma-desktop
3904   kde-standard
3905   kde-window-manager
3906   kdeartwork
3907   kdeartwork-emoticons
3908   kdeartwork-style
3909   kdeartwork-theme-icon
3910   kdebase
3911   kdebase-apps
3912   kdebase-workspace
3913   kdebase-workspace-bin
3914   kdebase-workspace-data
3915   kdeeject
3916   kdelibs
3917   kdeplasma-addons
3918   kdeutils
3919   kdewallpapers
3920   kdf
3921   kfloppy
3922   kgpg
3923   khelpcenter4
3924   kinfocenter
3925   konq-plugins-l10n
3926   konqueror-nsplugins
3927   kscreensaver
3928   kscreensaver-xsavers
3929   ktimer
3930   kwrite
3931   libgle3
3932   libkde4-ruby1.8
3933   libkonq5
3934   libkonq5-templates
3935   libnetpbm10
3936   libplasma-ruby
3937   libplasma-ruby1.8
3938   libqt4-ruby1.8
3939   marble-data
3940   marble-plugins
3941   netpbm
3942   nuvola-icon-theme
3943   plasma-dataengines-workspace
3944   plasma-desktop
3945   plasma-desktopthemes-artwork
3946   plasma-runners-addons
3947   plasma-scriptengine-googlegadgets
3948   plasma-scriptengine-python
3949   plasma-scriptengine-qedje
3950   plasma-scriptengine-ruby
3951   plasma-scriptengine-webkit
3952   plasma-scriptengines
3953   plasma-wallpapers-addons
3954   plasma-widget-folderview
3955   plasma-widget-networkmanagement
3956   ruby
3957   sweeper
3958   update-notifier-kde
3959   xscreensaver-data-extra
3960   xscreensaver-gl
3961   xscreensaver-gl-extra
3962   xscreensaver-screensaver-bsod
3963 </p></blockquote>
3964
3965 <p>Installed using aptitude, removed with apt-get</p>
3966
3967 <blockquote><p>
3968   ark
3969   google-gadgets-common
3970   google-gadgets-qt
3971   htdig
3972   kate
3973   kdebase-bin
3974   kdebase-data
3975   kdepasswd
3976   kfind
3977   klipper
3978   konq-plugins
3979   konqueror
3980   ksysguard
3981   ksysguardd
3982   libarchive1
3983   libcln6
3984   libeet1
3985   libeina-svn-06
3986   libggadget-1.0-0b
3987   libggadget-qt-1.0-0b
3988   libgps19
3989   libkdecorations4
3990   libkephal4
3991   libkonq4
3992   libkonqsidebarplugin4a
3993   libkscreensaver5
3994   libksgrd4
3995   libksignalplotter4
3996   libkunitconversion4
3997   libkwineffects1a
3998   libmarblewidget4
3999   libntrack-qt4-1
4000   libntrack0
4001   libplasma-geolocation-interface4
4002   libplasmaclock4a
4003   libplasmagenericshell4
4004   libprocesscore4a
4005   libprocessui4a
4006   libqalculate5
4007   libqedje0a
4008   libqtruby4shared2
4009   libqzion0a
4010   libruby1.8
4011   libscim8c2a
4012   libsmokekdecore4-3
4013   libsmokekdeui4-3
4014   libsmokekfile3
4015   libsmokekhtml3
4016   libsmokekio3
4017   libsmokeknewstuff2-3
4018   libsmokeknewstuff3-3
4019   libsmokekparts3
4020   libsmokektexteditor3
4021   libsmokekutils3
4022   libsmokenepomuk3
4023   libsmokephonon3
4024   libsmokeplasma3
4025   libsmokeqtcore4-3
4026   libsmokeqtdbus4-3
4027   libsmokeqtgui4-3
4028   libsmokeqtnetwork4-3
4029   libsmokeqtopengl4-3
4030   libsmokeqtscript4-3
4031   libsmokeqtsql4-3
4032   libsmokeqtsvg4-3
4033   libsmokeqttest4-3
4034   libsmokeqtuitools4-3
4035   libsmokeqtwebkit4-3
4036   libsmokeqtxml4-3
4037   libsmokesolid3
4038   libsmokesoprano3
4039   libtaskmanager4a
4040   libtidy-0.99-0
4041   libweather-ion4a
4042   libxklavier16
4043   libxxf86misc1
4044   okteta
4045   oxygencursors
4046   plasma-dataengines-addons
4047   plasma-scriptengine-superkaramba
4048   plasma-widget-lancelot
4049   plasma-widgets-addons
4050   plasma-widgets-workspace
4051   polkit-kde-1
4052   ruby1.8
4053   systemsettings
4054   update-notifier-common
4055 </p></blockquote>
4056
4057 <p>Running apt-get autoremove made the results using apt-get and
4058 aptitude a bit more similar, but there are still quite a lott of
4059 differences.  I have no idea what packages should be installed after
4060 the upgrade, but hope those that do can have a look.</p>
4061
4062       </div>
4063       <div class="tags">
4064
4065
4066         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
4067
4068
4069       </div>
4070     </div>
4071     <div class="padding"></div>
4072
4073     <div class="entry">
4074       <div class="title">
4075         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Migrating_Xen_virtual_machines_using_LVM_to_KVM_using_disk_images.html">Migrating Xen virtual machines using LVM to KVM using disk images</a>
4076       </div>
4077       <div class="date">
4078         22nd November 2010
4079       </div>
4080       <div class="body">
4081         <p>Most of the computers in use by the
4082 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu/Skolelinux project</a>
4083 are virtual machines.  And they have been Xen machines running on a
4084 fairly old IBM eserver xseries 345 machine, and we wanted to migrate
4085 them to KVM on a newer Dell PowerEdge 2950 host machine.  This was a
4086 bit harder that it could have been, because we set up the Xen virtual
4087 machines to get the virtual partitions from LVM, which as far as I
4088 know is not supported by KVM.  So to migrate, we had to convert
4089 several LVM logical volumes to partitions on a virtual disk file.</p>
4090
4091 <p>I found
4092 <a href="http://searchnetworking.techtarget.com.au/articles/35011-Six-steps-for-migrating-Xen-virtual-machines-to-KVM">a
4093 nice recipe</a> to do this, and wrote the following script to do the
4094 migration.  It uses qemu-img from the qemu package to make the disk
4095 image, parted to partition it, losetup and kpartx to present the disk
4096 image partions as devices, and dd to copy the data.  I NFS mounted the
4097 new servers storage area on the old server to do the migration.</p>
4098
4099 <pre>
4100 #!/bin/sh
4101
4102 # Based on
4103 # http://searchnetworking.techtarget.com.au/articles/35011-Six-steps-for-migrating-Xen-virtual-machines-to-KVM
4104
4105 set -e
4106 set -x
4107
4108 if [ -z "$1" ] ; then
4109     echo "Usage: $0 &lt;hostname&gt;"
4110     exit 1
4111 else
4112     host="$1"
4113 fi
4114
4115 if [ ! -e /dev/vg_data/$host-disk ] ; then
4116     echo "error: unable to find LVM volume for $host"
4117     exit 1
4118 fi
4119
4120 # Partitions need to be a bit bigger than the LVM LVs.  not sure why.
4121 disksize=$( lvs --units m | grep $host-disk | awk '{sum = sum + $4} END { print int(sum * 1.05) }')
4122 swapsize=$( lvs --units m | grep $host-swap | awk '{sum = sum + $4} END { print int(sum * 1.05) }')
4123 totalsize=$(( ( $disksize + $swapsize ) ))
4124
4125 img=$host.img
4126 #dd if=/dev/zero of=$img bs=1M count=$(( $disksize + $swapsize ))
4127 qemu-img create $img ${totalsize}MMaking room on the Debian Edu/Sqeeze DVD
4128
4129 parted $img mklabel msdos
4130 parted $img mkpart primary linux-swap 0 $disksize
4131 parted $img mkpart primary ext2 $disksize $totalsize
4132 parted $img set 1 boot on
4133
4134 modprobe dm-mod
4135 losetup /dev/loop0 $img
4136 kpartx -a /dev/loop0
4137
4138 dd if=/dev/vg_data/$host-disk of=/dev/mapper/loop0p1 bs=1M
4139 fsck.ext3 -f /dev/mapper/loop0p1 || true
4140 mkswap /dev/mapper/loop0p2
4141
4142 kpartx -d /dev/loop0
4143 losetup -d /dev/loop0
4144 </pre>
4145
4146 <p>The script is perhaps so simple that it is not copyrightable, but
4147 if it is, it is licenced using GPL v2 or later at your discretion.</p>
4148
4149 <p>After doing this, I booted a Debian CD in rescue mode in KVM with
4150 the new disk image attached, installed grub-pc and linux-image-686 and
4151 set up grub to boot from the disk image.  After this, the KVM machines
4152 seem to work just fine.</p>
4153
4154       </div>
4155       <div class="tags">
4156
4157
4158         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
4159
4160
4161       </div>
4162     </div>
4163     <div class="padding"></div>
4164
4165     <div class="entry">
4166       <div class="title">
4167         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lenny__Squeeze_upgrades__apt_vs_aptitude_with_the_Gnome_and_KDE_desktop.html">Lenny->Squeeze upgrades, apt vs aptitude with the Gnome and KDE desktop</a>
4168       </div>
4169       <div class="date">
4170         20th November 2010
4171       </div>
4172       <div class="body">
4173         <p>I'm still running upgrade testing of the
4174 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/~pere/debian-upgrade-testing/">Lenny
4175 Gnome and KDE Desktop</a>, but have not had time to spend on reporting the
4176 status.  Here is a short update based on a test I ran 20101118.</p>
4177
4178 <p>I still do not know what a correct migration should look like, so I
4179 report any differences between apt and aptitude and hope someone else
4180 can see if anything should be changed.</p>
4181
4182 <p>This is for Gnome:</p>
4183
4184 <p>Installed using apt-get, missing with aptitude</p>
4185
4186 <blockquote><p>
4187   apache2.2-bin aptdaemon at-spi baobab binfmt-support
4188   browser-plugin-gnash cheese-common cli-common cpp-4.3 cups-pk-helper
4189   dmz-cursor-theme empathy empathy-common finger
4190   freedesktop-sound-theme freeglut3 gconf-defaults-service gdm-themes
4191   gedit-plugins geoclue geoclue-hostip geoclue-localnet geoclue-manual
4192   geoclue-yahoo gnash gnash-common gnome gnome-backgrounds
4193   gnome-cards-data gnome-codec-install gnome-core
4194   gnome-desktop-environment gnome-disk-utility gnome-screenshot
4195   gnome-search-tool gnome-session-canberra gnome-spell
4196   gnome-system-log gnome-themes-extras gnome-themes-more
4197   gnome-user-share gs-common gstreamer0.10-fluendo-mp3
4198   gstreamer0.10-tools gtk2-engines gtk2-engines-pixbuf
4199   gtk2-engines-smooth hal-info hamster-applet libapache2-mod-dnssd
4200   libapr1 libaprutil1 libaprutil1-dbd-sqlite3 libaprutil1-ldap
4201   libart2.0-cil libatspi1.0-0 libboost-date-time1.42.0
4202   libboost-python1.42.0 libboost-thread1.42.0 libchamplain-0.4-0
4203   libchamplain-gtk-0.4-0 libcheese-gtk18 libclutter-gtk-0.10-0
4204   libcryptui0 libcupsys2 libdiscid0 libeel2-data libelf1 libepc-1.0-2
4205   libepc-common libepc-ui-1.0-2 libfreerdp-plugins-standard
4206   libfreerdp0 libgail-common libgconf2.0-cil libgdata-common libgdata7
4207   libgdl-1-common libgdu-gtk0 libgee2 libgeoclue0 libgexiv2-0 libgif4
4208   libglade2.0-cil libglib2.0-cil libgmime2.4-cil libgnome-vfs2.0-cil
4209   libgnome2.24-cil libgnomepanel2.24-cil libgnomeprint2.2-data
4210   libgnomeprintui2.2-common libgnomevfs2-bin libgpod-common libgpod4
4211   libgtk2.0-cil libgtkglext1 libgtksourceview-common
4212   libgtksourceview2.0-common libmono-addins-gui0.2-cil
4213   libmono-addins0.2-cil libmono-cairo2.0-cil libmono-corlib2.0-cil
4214   libmono-i18n-west2.0-cil libmono-posix2.0-cil
4215   libmono-security2.0-cil libmono-sharpzip2.84-cil
4216   libmono-system2.0-cil libmtp8 libmusicbrainz3-6
4217   libndesk-dbus-glib1.0-cil libndesk-dbus1.0-cil libopal3.6.8
4218   libpolkit-gtk-1-0 libpt-1.10.10-plugins-alsa
4219   libpt-1.10.10-plugins-v4l libpt2.6.7 libpython2.6 librpm1 librpmio1
4220   libsdl1.2debian libservlet2.4-java libsrtp0 libssh-4
4221   libtelepathy-farsight0 libtelepathy-glib0 libtidy-0.99-0
4222   libxalan2-java libxerces2-java media-player-info mesa-utils
4223   mono-2.0-gac mono-gac mono-runtime nautilus-sendto
4224   nautilus-sendto-empathy openoffice.org-writer2latex
4225   openssl-blacklist p7zip p7zip-full pkg-config python-4suite-xml
4226   python-aptdaemon python-aptdaemon-gtk python-axiom
4227   python-beautifulsoup python-bugbuddy python-clientform
4228   python-coherence python-configobj python-crypto python-cupshelpers
4229   python-cupsutils python-eggtrayicon python-elementtree
4230   python-epsilon python-evolution python-feedparser python-gdata
4231   python-gdbm python-gst0.10 python-gtkglext1 python-gtkmozembed
4232   python-gtksourceview2 python-httplib2 python-louie python-mako
4233   python-markupsafe python-mechanize python-nevow python-notify
4234   python-opengl python-openssl python-pam python-pkg-resources
4235   python-pyasn1 python-pysqlite2 python-rdflib python-serial
4236   python-tagpy python-twisted-bin python-twisted-conch
4237   python-twisted-core python-twisted-web python-utidylib python-webkit
4238   python-xdg python-zope.interface remmina remmina-plugin-data
4239   remmina-plugin-rdp remmina-plugin-vnc rhythmbox-plugin-cdrecorder
4240   rhythmbox-plugins rpm-common rpm2cpio seahorse-plugins shotwell
4241   software-center svgalibg1 system-config-printer-udev
4242   telepathy-gabble telepathy-mission-control-5 telepathy-salut tomboy
4243   totem totem-coherence totem-mozilla totem-plugins
4244   transmission-common xdg-user-dirs xdg-user-dirs-gtk xserver-xephyr
4245   zip
4246 </p></blockquote>
4247
4248 Installed using apt-get, removed with aptitude
4249
4250 <blockquote><p>
4251   arj bluez-utils cheese dhcdbd djvulibre-desktop ekiga eog
4252   epiphany-extensions epiphany-gecko evolution-exchange
4253   fast-user-switch-applet file-roller gcalctool gconf-editor gdm gedit
4254   gedit-common gnome-app-install gnome-games gnome-games-data
4255   gnome-nettool gnome-system-tools gnome-themes gnome-utils
4256   gnome-vfs-obexftp gnome-volume-manager gnuchess gucharmap
4257   guile-1.8-libs hal libavahi-compat-libdnssd1 libavahi-core5
4258   libavahi-ui0 libbind9-50 libbluetooth2 libcamel1.2-11 libcdio7
4259   libcucul0 libcurl3 libdirectfb-1.0-0 libdmx1 libdvdread3
4260   libedata-cal1.2-6 libedataserver1.2-9 libeel2-2.20 libepc-1.0-1
4261   libepc-ui-1.0-1 libexchange-storage1.2-3 libfaad0 libgadu3
4262   libgalago3 libgd2-noxpm libgda3-3 libgda3-common libggz2 libggzcore9
4263   libggzmod4 libgksu1.2-0 libgksuui1.0-1 libgmyth0 libgnome-desktop-2
4264   libgnome-pilot2 libgnomecups1.0-1 libgnomeprint2.2-0
4265   libgnomeprintui2.2-0 libgpod3 libgraphviz4 libgtk-vnc-1.0-0
4266   libgtkhtml2-0 libgtksourceview1.0-0 libgtksourceview2.0-0
4267   libgucharmap6 libhesiod0 libicu38 libisccc50 libisccfg50 libiw29
4268   libjaxp1.3-java-gcj libkpathsea4 liblircclient0 libltdl3 liblwres50
4269   libmagick++10 libmagick10 libmalaga7 libmozjs1d libmpfr1ldbl libmtp7
4270   libmysqlclient15off libnautilus-burn4 libneon27 libnm-glib0
4271   libnm-util0 libopal-2.2 libosp5 libparted1.8-10 libpisock9
4272   libpisync1 libpoppler-glib3 libpoppler3 libpt-1.10.10 libraw1394-8
4273   libsdl1.2debian-alsa libsensors3 libsexy2 libsmbios2 libsoup2.2-8
4274   libspeexdsp1 libssh2-1 libsuitesparse-3.1.0 libsvga1
4275   libswfdec-0.6-90 libtalloc1 libtotem-plparser10 libtrackerclient0
4276   libvoikko1 libxalan2-java-gcj libxerces2-java-gcj libxklavier12
4277   libxtrap6 libxxf86misc1 libzephyr3 mysql-common rhythmbox seahorse
4278   sound-juicer swfdec-gnome system-config-printer totem-common
4279   totem-gstreamer transmission-gtk vinagre vino w3c-dtd-xhtml wodim
4280 </p></blockquote>
4281
4282 <p>Installed using aptitude, missing with apt-get</p>
4283
4284 <blockquote><p>
4285   gstreamer0.10-gnomevfs
4286 </p></blockquote>
4287
4288 <p>Installed using aptitude, removed with apt-get</p>
4289
4290 <blockquote><p>
4291 [nothing]
4292 </p></blockquote>
4293
4294 <p>This is for KDE:</p>
4295
4296 <p>Installed using apt-get, missing with aptitude</p>
4297
4298 <blockquote><p>
4299   autopoint bomber bovo cantor cantor-backend-kalgebra cpp-4.3 dcoprss
4300   edict espeak espeak-data eyesapplet fifteenapplet finger gettext
4301   ghostscript-x git gnome-audio gnugo granatier gs-common
4302   gstreamer0.10-pulseaudio indi kaddressbook-plugins kalgebra
4303   kalzium-data kanjidic kapman kate-plugins kblocks kbreakout kbstate
4304   kde-icons-mono kdeaccessibility kdeaddons-kfile-plugins
4305   kdeadmin-kfile-plugins kdeartwork-misc kdeartwork-theme-window
4306   kdeedu kdeedu-data kdeedu-kvtml-data kdegames kdegames-card-data
4307   kdegames-mahjongg-data kdegraphics-kfile-plugins kdelirc
4308   kdemultimedia-kfile-plugins kdenetwork-kfile-plugins
4309   kdepim-kfile-plugins kdepim-kio-plugins kdessh kdetoys kdewebdev
4310   kdiamond kdnssd kfilereplace kfourinline kgeography-data kigo
4311   killbots kiriki klettres-data kmoon kmrml knewsticker-scripts
4312   kollision kpf krosspython ksirk ksmserver ksquares kstars-data
4313   ksudoku kubrick kweather libasound2-plugins libboost-python1.42.0
4314   libcfitsio3 libconvert-binhex-perl libcrypt-ssleay-perl libdb4.6++
4315   libdjvulibre-text libdotconf1.0 liberror-perl libespeak1
4316   libfinance-quote-perl libgail-common libgsl0ldbl libhtml-parser-perl
4317   libhtml-tableextract-perl libhtml-tagset-perl libhtml-tree-perl
4318   libio-stringy-perl libkdeedu4 libkdegames5 libkiten4 libkpathsea5
4319   libkrossui4 libmailtools-perl libmime-tools-perl
4320   libnews-nntpclient-perl libopenbabel3 libportaudio2 libpulse-browse0
4321   libservlet2.4-java libspeechd2 libtiff-tools libtimedate-perl
4322   libunistring0 liburi-perl libwww-perl libxalan2-java libxerces2-java
4323   lirc luatex marble networkstatus noatun-plugins
4324   openoffice.org-writer2latex palapeli palapeli-data parley
4325   parley-data poster psutils pulseaudio pulseaudio-esound-compat
4326   pulseaudio-module-x11 pulseaudio-utils quanta-data rocs rsync
4327   speech-dispatcher step svgalibg1 texlive-binaries texlive-luatex
4328   ttf-sazanami-gothic
4329 </p></blockquote>
4330
4331 <p>Installed using apt-get, removed with aptitude</p>
4332
4333 <blockquote><p>
4334   amor artsbuilder atlantik atlantikdesigner blinken bluez-utils cvs
4335   dhcdbd djvulibre-desktop imlib-base imlib11 kalzium kanagram kandy
4336   kasteroids katomic kbackgammon kbattleship kblackbox kbounce kbruch
4337   kcron kdat kdemultimedia-kappfinder-data kdeprint kdict kdvi kedit
4338   keduca kenolaba kfax kfaxview kfouleggs kgeography kghostview
4339   kgoldrunner khangman khexedit kiconedit kig kimagemapeditor
4340   kitchensync kiten kjumpingcube klatin klettres klickety klines
4341   klinkstatus kmag kmahjongg kmailcvt kmenuedit kmid kmilo kmines
4342   kmousetool kmouth kmplot knetwalk kodo kolf kommander konquest kooka
4343   kpager kpat kpdf kpercentage kpilot kpoker kpovmodeler krec
4344   kregexpeditor kreversi ksame ksayit kshisen ksig ksim ksirc ksirtet
4345   ksmiletris ksnake ksokoban kspaceduel kstars ksvg ksysv kteatime
4346   ktip ktnef ktouch ktron kttsd ktuberling kturtle ktux kuickshow
4347   kverbos kview kviewshell kvoctrain kwifimanager kwin kwin4 kwordquiz
4348   kworldclock kxsldbg libakode2 libarts1-akode libarts1-audiofile
4349   libarts1-mpeglib libarts1-xine libavahi-compat-libdnssd1
4350   libavahi-core5 libavc1394-0 libbind9-50 libbluetooth2
4351   libboost-python1.34.1 libcucul0 libcurl3 libcvsservice0
4352   libdirectfb-1.0-0 libdjvulibre21 libdvdread3 libfaad0 libfreebob0
4353   libgd2-noxpm libgraphviz4 libgsmme1c2a libgtkhtml2-0 libicu38
4354   libiec61883-0 libindex0 libisccc50 libisccfg50 libiw29
4355   libjaxp1.3-java-gcj libk3b3 libkcal2b libkcddb1 libkdeedu3
4356   libkdegames1 libkdepim1a libkgantt0 libkleopatra1 libkmime2
4357   libkpathsea4 libkpimexchange1 libkpimidentities1 libkscan1
4358   libksieve0 libktnef1 liblockdev1 libltdl3 liblwres50 libmagick10
4359   libmimelib1c2a libmodplug0c2 libmozjs1d libmpcdec3 libmpfr1ldbl
4360   libneon27 libnm-util0 libopensync0 libpisock9 libpoppler-glib3
4361   libpoppler-qt2 libpoppler3 libraw1394-8 librss1 libsensors3
4362   libsmbios2 libssh2-1 libsuitesparse-3.1.0 libswfdec-0.6-90
4363   libtalloc1 libxalan2-java-gcj libxerces2-java-gcj libxtrap6 lskat
4364   mpeglib network-manager-kde noatun pmount tex-common texlive-base
4365   texlive-common texlive-doc-base texlive-fonts-recommended tidy
4366   ttf-dustin ttf-kochi-gothic ttf-sjfonts
4367 </p></blockquote>
4368
4369 <p>Installed using aptitude, missing with apt-get</p>
4370
4371 <blockquote><p>
4372   dolphin kde-core kde-plasma-desktop kde-standard kde-window-manager
4373   kdeartwork kdebase kdebase-apps kdebase-workspace
4374   kdebase-workspace-bin kdebase-workspace-data kdeutils kscreensaver
4375   kscreensaver-xsavers libgle3 libkonq5 libkonq5-templates libnetpbm10
4376   netpbm plasma-widget-folderview plasma-widget-networkmanagement
4377   xscreensaver-data-extra xscreensaver-gl xscreensaver-gl-extra
4378   xscreensaver-screensaver-bsod
4379 </p></blockquote>
4380
4381 <p>Installed using aptitude, removed with apt-get</p>
4382
4383 <blockquote><p>
4384   kdebase-bin konq-plugins konqueror
4385 </p></blockquote>
4386
4387       </div>
4388       <div class="tags">
4389
4390
4391         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
4392
4393
4394       </div>
4395     </div>
4396     <div class="padding"></div>
4397
4398     <div class="entry">
4399       <div class="title">
4400         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Gnash_buildbot_slave_and_Debian_kfreebsd.html">Gnash buildbot slave and Debian kfreebsd</a>
4401       </div>
4402       <div class="date">
4403         20th November 2010
4404       </div>
4405       <div class="body">
4406         <p>Answering
4407 <a href="http://www.listware.net/201011/gnash-dev/67431-gnash-dev-buildbot-looking-for-slaves.html">the
4408 call from the Gnash project</a> for
4409 <a href="http://www.gnashdev.org:8010">buildbot</a> slaves to test the
4410 current source, I have set up a virtual KVM machine on the Debian
4411 Edu/Skolelinux virtualization host to test the git source on
4412 Debian/Squeeze.  I hope this can help the developers in getting new
4413 releases out more often.</p>
4414
4415 <p>As the developers want less main-stream build platforms tested to,
4416 I have considered setting up a <a
4417 href="http://www.debian.org/ports/kfreebsd-gnu/">Debian/kfreebsd</a>
4418 machine as well.  I have also considered using the kfreebsd
4419 architecture in Debian as a file server in NUUG to get access to the 5
4420 TB zfs volume we currently use to store DV video.  Because of this, I
4421 finally got around to do a test installation of Debian/Squeeze with
4422 kfreebsd.  Installation went fairly smooth, thought I noticed some
4423 visual glitches in the cdebconf dialogs (black cursor left on the
4424 screen at random locations).  Have not gotten very far with the
4425 testing.  Noticed cfdisk did not work, but fdisk did so it was not a
4426 fatal problem.  Have to spend some more time on it to see if it is
4427 useful as a file server for NUUG.  Will try to find time to set up a
4428 gnash buildbot slave on the Debian Edu/Skolelinux this weekend.</p>
4429
4430       </div>
4431       <div class="tags">
4432
4433
4434         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
4435
4436
4437       </div>
4438     </div>
4439     <div class="padding"></div>
4440
4441     <div class="entry">
4442       <div class="title">
4443         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_in_3D.html">Debian in 3D</a>
4444       </div>
4445       <div class="date">
4446          9th November 2010
4447       </div>
4448       <div class="body">
4449         <p><img src="http://thingiverse-production.s3.amazonaws.com/renders/23/e0/c4/f9/2b/debswagtdose_preview_medium.jpg"></p>
4450
4451 <p>3D printing is just great.  I just came across this Debian logo in
4452 3D linked in from
4453 <a href="http://blog.thingiverse.com/2010/11/09/participatory-branding/">the
4454 thingiverse blog</a>.</p>
4455
4456       </div>
4457       <div class="tags">
4458
4459
4460         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/3d-printer">3d-printer</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
4461
4462
4463       </div>
4464     </div>
4465     <div class="padding"></div>
4466
4467     <div class="entry">
4468       <div class="title">
4469         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Software_updates_2010_10_24.html">Software updates 2010-10-24</a>
4470       </div>
4471       <div class="date">
4472         24th October 2010
4473       </div>
4474       <div class="body">
4475         <p>Some updates.</p>
4476
4477 <p>My <a href="http://pledgebank.com/gnash-avm2">gnash pledge</a> to
4478 raise money for the project is going well.  The lower limit of 10
4479 signers was reached in 24 hours, and so far 13 people have signed it.
4480 More signers and more funding is most welcome, and I am really curious
4481 how far we can get before the time limit of December 24 is reached.
4482 :)</p>
4483
4484 <p>On the #gnash IRC channel on irc.freenode.net, I was just tipped
4485 about what appear to be a great code coverage tool capable of
4486 generating code coverage stats without any changes to the source code.
4487 It is called
4488 <a href="http://simonkagstrom.github.com/kcov/index.html">kcov</a>,
4489 and can be used using <tt>kcov &lt;directory&gt; &lt;binary&gt;</tt>.
4490 It is missing in Debian, but the git source built just fine in Squeeze
4491 after I installed libelf-dev, libdwarf-dev, pkg-config and
4492 libglib2.0-dev.  Failed to build in Lenny, but suspect that is
4493 solvable.  I hope kcov make it into Debian soon.</p>
4494
4495 <p>Finally found time to wrap up the release notes for <a
4496 href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-edu-announce/2010/10/msg00002.html">a
4497 new alpha release of Debian Edu</a>, and just published the second
4498 alpha test release of the Squeeze based Debian Edu /
4499 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Skolelinux</a>
4500 release.  Give it a try if you need a complete linux solution for your
4501 school, including central infrastructure server, workstations, thin
4502 client servers and diskless workstations.  A nice touch added
4503 yesterday is RDP support on the thin client servers, for windows
4504 clients to get a Linux desktop on request.</p>
4505
4506       </div>
4507       <div class="tags">
4508
4509
4510         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/multimedia">multimedia</a>.
4511
4512
4513       </div>
4514     </div>
4515     <div class="padding"></div>
4516
4517     <div class="entry">
4518       <div class="title">
4519         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Some_notes_on_Flash_in_Debian_and_Debian_Edu.html">Some notes on Flash in Debian and Debian Edu</a>
4520       </div>
4521       <div class="date">
4522          4th September 2010
4523       </div>
4524       <div class="body">
4525         <p>In the <a href="http://popcon.debian.org/unknown/by_vote">Debian
4526 popularity-contest numbers</a>, the adobe-flashplugin package the
4527 second most popular used package that is missing in Debian.  The sixth
4528 most popular is flashplayer-mozilla.  This is a clear indication that
4529 working flash is important for Debian users.  Around 10 percent of the
4530 users submitting data to popcon.debian.org have this package
4531 installed.</p>
4532
4533 <p>In the report written by Lars Risan in August 2008
4534 («<a href="http://wiki.skolelinux.no/Dokumentasjon/Rapporter?action=AttachFile&do=view&target=Skolelinux_i_bruk_rapport_1.0.pdf">Skolelinux
4535 i bruk – Rapport for Hurum kommune, Universitetet i Agder og
4536 stiftelsen SLX Debian Labs</a>»), one of the most important problems
4537 schools experienced with <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian
4538 Edu/Skolelinux</a> was the lack of working Flash.  A lot of educational
4539 web sites require Flash to work, and lacking working Flash support in
4540 the web browser and the problems with installing it was perceived as a
4541 good reason to stay with Windows.</p>
4542
4543 <p>I once saw a funny and sad comment in a web forum, where Linux was
4544 said to be the retarded cousin that did not really understand
4545 everything you told him but could work fairly well.  This was a
4546 comment regarding the problems Linux have with proprietary formats and
4547 non-standard web pages, and is sad because it exposes a fairly common
4548 understanding of whose fault it is if web pages that only work in for
4549 example Internet Explorer 6 fail to work on Firefox, and funny because
4550 it explain very well how annoying it is for users when Linux
4551 distributions do not work with the documents they receive or the web
4552 pages they want to visit.</p>
4553
4554 <p>This is part of the reason why I believe it is important for Debian
4555 and Debian Edu to have a well working Flash implementation in the
4556 distribution, to get at least popular sites as Youtube and Google
4557 Video to working out of the box.  For Squeeze, Debian have the chance
4558 to include the latest version of Gnash that will make this happen, as
4559 the new release 0.8.8 was published a few weeks ago and is resting in
4560 unstable.  The new version work with more sites that version 0.8.7.
4561 The Gnash maintainers have asked for a freeze exception, but the
4562 release team have not had time to reply to it yet.  I hope they agree
4563 with me that Flash is important for the Debian desktop users, and thus
4564 accept the new package into Squeeze.</p>
4565
4566       </div>
4567       <div class="tags">
4568
4569
4570         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/multimedia">multimedia</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/video">video</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/web">web</a>.
4571
4572
4573       </div>
4574     </div>
4575     <div class="padding"></div>
4576
4577     <div class="entry">
4578       <div class="title">
4579         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Circular_package_dependencies_harms_apt_recovery.html">Circular package dependencies harms apt recovery</a>
4580       </div>
4581       <div class="date">
4582         27th July 2010
4583       </div>
4584       <div class="body">
4585         <p>I discovered this while doing
4586 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Automatic_upgrade_testing_from_Lenny_to_Squeeze.html">automated
4587 testing of upgrades from Debian Lenny to Squeeze</a>.  A few packages
4588 in Debian still got circular dependencies, and it is often claimed
4589 that apt and aptitude should be able to handle this just fine, but
4590 some times these dependency loops causes apt to fail.</p>
4591
4592 <p>An example is from todays
4593 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/~pere/debian-upgrade-testing//test-20100727-lenny-squeeze-kde-aptitude.txt">upgrade
4594 of KDE using aptitude</a>.  In it, a bug in kdebase-workspace-data
4595 causes perl-modules to fail to upgrade.  The cause is simple.  If a
4596 package fail to unpack, then only part of packages with the circular
4597 dependency might end up being unpacked when unpacking aborts, and the
4598 ones already unpacked will fail to configure in the recovery phase
4599 because its dependencies are unavailable.</p>
4600
4601 <p>In this log, the problem manifest itself with this error:</p>
4602
4603 <blockquote><pre>
4604 dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of perl-modules:
4605  perl-modules depends on perl (>= 5.10.1-1); however:
4606   Version of perl on system is 5.10.0-19lenny2.
4607 dpkg: error processing perl-modules (--configure):
4608  dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
4609 </pre></blockquote>
4610
4611 <p>The perl/perl-modules circular dependency is already
4612 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/527917">reported as a bug</a>, and will
4613 hopefully be solved as soon as possible, but it is not the only one,
4614 and each one of these loops in the dependency tree can cause similar
4615 failures.  Of course, they only occur when there are bugs in other
4616 packages causing the unpacking to fail, but it is rather nasty when
4617 the failure of one package causes the problem to become worse because
4618 of dependency loops.</p>
4619
4620 <p>Thanks to
4621 <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2010/06/msg00116.html">the
4622 tireless effort by Bill Allombert</a>, the number of circular
4623 dependencies
4624 <a href="http://debian.semistable.com/debgraph.out.html">left in Debian
4625 is dropping</a>, and perhaps it will reach zero one day. :)</p>
4626
4627 <p>Todays testing also exposed a bug in
4628 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/590605">update-notifier</a> and
4629 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/590604">different behaviour</a> between
4630 apt-get and aptitude, the latter possibly caused by some circular
4631 dependency.  Reported both to BTS to try to get someone to look at
4632 it.</p>
4633
4634       </div>
4635       <div class="tags">
4636
4637
4638         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
4639
4640
4641       </div>
4642     </div>
4643     <div class="padding"></div>
4644
4645     <div class="entry">
4646       <div class="title">
4647         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/What_are_they_searching_for___PowerDNS_and_ISC_DHCP_in_LDAP.html">What are they searching for - PowerDNS and ISC DHCP in LDAP</a>
4648       </div>
4649       <div class="date">
4650         17th July 2010
4651       </div>
4652       <div class="body">
4653         <p>This is a
4654 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Time_for_new__LDAP_schemas_replacing_RFC_2307_.html">followup</a>
4655 on my
4656 <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
4657 work</a> on
4658 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Combining_PowerDNS_and_ISC_DHCP_LDAP_objects.html">merging
4659 all</a> the computer related LDAP objects in Debian Edu.</p>
4660
4661 <p>As a step to try to see if it possible to merge the DNS and DHCP
4662 LDAP objects, I have had a look at how the packages pdns-backend-ldap
4663 and dhcp3-server-ldap in Debian use the LDAP server.  The two
4664 implementations are quite different in how they use LDAP.</p>
4665
4666 To get this information, I started slapd with debugging enabled and
4667 dumped the debug output to a file to get the LDAP searches performed
4668 on a Debian Edu main-server.  Here is a summary.
4669
4670 <p><strong>powerdns</strong></p>
4671
4672 <a href="http://www.linuxnetworks.de/doc/index.php/PowerDNS_LDAP_Backend">Clues
4673 on how to</a> set up PowerDNS to use a LDAP backend is available on
4674 the web.
4675
4676 <p>PowerDNS have two modes of operation using LDAP as its backend.
4677 One "strict" mode where the forward and reverse DNS lookups are done
4678 using the same LDAP objects, and a "tree" mode where the forward and
4679 reverse entries are in two different subtrees in LDAP with a structure
4680 based on the DNS names, as in tjener.intern and
4681 2.2.0.10.in-addr.arpa.</p>
4682
4683 <p>In tree mode, the server is set up to use a LDAP subtree as its
4684 base, and uses a "base" scoped search for the DNS name by adding
4685 "dc=tjener,dc=intern," to the base with a filter for
4686 "(associateddomain=tjener.intern)" for the forward entry and
4687 "dc=2,dc=2,dc=0,dc=10,dc=in-addr,dc=arpa," with a filter for
4688 "(associateddomain=2.2.0.10.in-addr.arpa)" for the reverse entry.  For
4689 forward entries, it is looking for attributes named dnsttl, arecord,
4690 nsrecord, cnamerecord, soarecord, ptrrecord, hinforecord, mxrecord,
4691 txtrecord, rprecord, afsdbrecord, keyrecord, aaaarecord, locrecord,
4692 srvrecord, naptrrecord, kxrecord, certrecord, dsrecord, sshfprecord,
4693 ipseckeyrecord, rrsigrecord, nsecrecord, dnskeyrecord, dhcidrecord,
4694 spfrecord and modifytimestamp.  For reverse entries it is looking for
4695 the attributes dnsttl, arecord, nsrecord, cnamerecord, soarecord,
4696 ptrrecord, hinforecord, mxrecord, txtrecord, rprecord, aaaarecord,
4697 locrecord, srvrecord, naptrrecord and modifytimestamp.  The equivalent
4698 ldapsearch commands could look like this:</p>
4699
4700 <blockquote><pre>
4701 ldapsearch -h ldap \
4702   -b dc=tjener,dc=intern,ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no \
4703   -s base -x '(associateddomain=tjener.intern)' dNSTTL aRecord nSRecord \
4704   cNAMERecord sOARecord pTRRecord hInfoRecord mXRecord tXTRecord \
4705   rPRecord aFSDBRecord KeyRecord aAAARecord lOCRecord sRVRecord \
4706   nAPTRRecord kXRecord certRecord dSRecord sSHFPRecord iPSecKeyRecord \
4707   rRSIGRecord nSECRecord dNSKeyRecord dHCIDRecord sPFRecord modifyTimestamp
4708
4709 ldapsearch -h ldap \
4710   -b dc=2,dc=2,dc=0,dc=10,dc=in-addr,dc=arpa,ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no \
4711   -s base -x '(associateddomain=2.2.0.10.in-addr.arpa)'
4712   dnsttl, arecord, nsrecord, cnamerecord soarecord ptrrecord \
4713   hinforecord mxrecord txtrecord rprecord aaaarecord locrecord \
4714   srvrecord naptrrecord modifytimestamp
4715 </pre></blockquote>
4716
4717 <p>In Debian Edu/Lenny, the PowerDNS tree mode is used with
4718 ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no as the base, and these are two
4719 example LDAP objects used there.  In addition to these objects, the
4720 parent objects all th way up to ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
4721 also exist.</p>
4722
4723 <blockquote><pre>
4724 dn: dc=tjener,dc=intern,ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
4725 objectclass: top
4726 objectclass: dnsdomain
4727 objectclass: domainrelatedobject
4728 dc: tjener
4729 arecord: 10.0.2.2
4730 associateddomain: tjener.intern
4731
4732 dn: dc=2,dc=2,dc=0,dc=10,dc=in-addr,dc=arpa,ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
4733 objectclass: top
4734 objectclass: dnsdomain2
4735 objectclass: domainrelatedobject
4736 dc: 2
4737 ptrrecord: tjener.intern
4738 associateddomain: 2.2.0.10.in-addr.arpa
4739 </pre></blockquote>
4740
4741 <p>In strict mode, the server behaves differently.  When looking for
4742 forward DNS entries, it is doing a "subtree" scoped search with the
4743 same base as in the tree mode for a object with filter
4744 "(associateddomain=tjener.intern)" and requests the attributes dnsttl,
4745 arecord, nsrecord, cnamerecord, soarecord, ptrrecord, hinforecord,
4746 mxrecord, txtrecord, rprecord, aaaarecord, locrecord, srvrecord,
4747 naptrrecord and modifytimestamp.  For reverse entires it also do a
4748 subtree scoped search but this time the filter is "(arecord=10.0.2.2)"
4749 and the requested attributes are associateddomain, dnsttl and
4750 modifytimestamp.  In short, in strict mode the objects with ptrrecord
4751 go away, and the arecord attribute in the forward object is used
4752 instead.</p>
4753
4754 <p>The forward and reverse searches can be simulated using ldapsearch
4755 like this:</p>
4756
4757 <blockquote><pre>
4758 ldapsearch -h ldap -b ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no -s sub -x \
4759   '(associateddomain=tjener.intern)' dNSTTL aRecord nSRecord \
4760   cNAMERecord sOARecord pTRRecord hInfoRecord mXRecord tXTRecord \
4761   rPRecord aFSDBRecord KeyRecord aAAARecord lOCRecord sRVRecord \
4762   nAPTRRecord kXRecord certRecord dSRecord sSHFPRecord iPSecKeyRecord \
4763   rRSIGRecord nSECRecord dNSKeyRecord dHCIDRecord sPFRecord modifyTimestamp
4764
4765 ldapsearch -h ldap -b ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no -s sub -x \
4766   '(arecord=10.0.2.2)' associateddomain dnsttl modifytimestamp
4767 </pre></blockquote>
4768
4769 <p>In addition to the forward and reverse searches , there is also a
4770 search for SOA records, which behave similar to the forward and
4771 reverse lookups.</p>
4772
4773 <p>A thing to note with the PowerDNS behaviour is that it do not
4774 specify any objectclass names, and instead look for the attributes it
4775 need to generate a DNS reply.  This make it able to work with any
4776 objectclass that provide the needed attributes.</p>
4777
4778 <p>The attributes are normally provided in the cosine (RFC 1274) and
4779 dnsdomain2 schemas.  The latter is used for reverse entries like
4780 ptrrecord and recent DNS additions like aaaarecord and srvrecord.</p>
4781
4782 <p>In Debian Edu, we have created DNS objects using the object classes
4783 dcobject (for dc), dnsdomain or dnsdomain2 (structural, for the DNS
4784 attributes) and domainrelatedobject (for associatedDomain).  The use
4785 of structural object classes make it impossible to combine these
4786 classes with the object classes used by DHCP.</p>
4787
4788 <p>There are other schemas that could be used too, for example the
4789 dnszone structural object class used by Gosa and bind-sdb for the DNS
4790 attributes combined with the domainrelatedobject object class, but in
4791 this case some unused attributes would have to be included as well
4792 (zonename and relativedomainname).</p>
4793
4794 <p>My proposal for Debian Edu would be to switch PowerDNS to strict
4795 mode and not use any of the existing objectclasses (dnsdomain,
4796 dnsdomain2 and dnszone) when one want to combine the DNS information
4797 with DHCP information, and instead create a auxiliary object class
4798 defined something like this (using the attributes defined for
4799 dnsdomain and dnsdomain2 or dnszone):</p>
4800
4801 <blockquote><pre>
4802 objectclass ( some-oid NAME 'dnsDomainAux'
4803     SUP top
4804     AUXILIARY
4805     MAY ( ARecord $ MDRecord $ MXRecord $ NSRecord $ SOARecord $ CNAMERecord $
4806           DNSTTL $ DNSClass $ PTRRecord $ HINFORecord $ MINFORecord $
4807           TXTRecord $ SIGRecord $ KEYRecord $ AAAARecord $ LOCRecord $
4808           NXTRecord $ SRVRecord $ NAPTRRecord $ KXRecord $ CERTRecord $
4809           A6Record $ DNAMERecord
4810     ))
4811 </pre></blockquote>
4812
4813 <p>This will allow any object to become a DNS entry when combined with
4814 the domainrelatedobject object class, and allow any entity to include
4815 all the attributes PowerDNS wants.  I've sent an email to the PowerDNS
4816 developers asking for their view on this schema and if they are
4817 interested in providing such schema with PowerDNS, and I hope my
4818 message will be accepted into their mailing list soon.</p>
4819
4820 <p><strong>ISC dhcp</strong></p>
4821
4822 <p>The DHCP server searches for specific objectclass and requests all
4823 the object attributes, and then uses the attributes it want.  This
4824 make it harder to figure out exactly what attributes are used, but
4825 thanks to the working example in Debian Edu I can at least get an idea
4826 what is needed without having to read the source code.</p>
4827
4828 <p>In the DHCP server configuration, the LDAP base to use and the
4829 search filter to use to locate the correct dhcpServer entity is
4830 stored.  These are the relevant entries from
4831 /etc/dhcp3/dhcpd.conf:</p>
4832
4833 <blockquote><pre>
4834 ldap-base-dn "dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no";
4835 ldap-dhcp-server-cn "dhcp";
4836 </pre></blockquote>
4837
4838 <p>The DHCP server uses this information to nest all the DHCP
4839 configuration it need.  The cn "dhcp" is located using the given LDAP
4840 base and the filter "(&(objectClass=dhcpServer)(cn=dhcp))".  The
4841 search result is this entry:</p>
4842
4843 <blockquote><pre>
4844 dn: cn=dhcp,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
4845 cn: dhcp
4846 objectClass: top
4847 objectClass: dhcpServer
4848 dhcpServiceDN: cn=DHCP Config,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
4849 </pre></blockquote>
4850
4851 <p>The content of the dhcpServiceDN attribute is next used to locate the
4852 subtree with DHCP configuration.  The DHCP configuration subtree base
4853 is located using a base scope search with base "cn=DHCP
4854 Config,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no" and filter
4855 "(&(objectClass=dhcpService)(|(dhcpPrimaryDN=cn=dhcp,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no)(dhcpSecondaryDN=cn=dhcp,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no)))".
4856 The search result is this entry:</p>
4857
4858 <blockquote><pre>
4859 dn: cn=DHCP Config,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
4860 cn: DHCP Config
4861 objectClass: top
4862 objectClass: dhcpService
4863 objectClass: dhcpOptions
4864 dhcpPrimaryDN: cn=dhcp, dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
4865 dhcpStatements: ddns-update-style none
4866 dhcpStatements: authoritative
4867 dhcpOption: smtp-server code 69 = array of ip-address
4868 dhcpOption: www-server code 72 = array of ip-address
4869 dhcpOption: wpad-url code 252 = text
4870 </pre></blockquote>
4871
4872 <p>Next, the entire subtree is processed, one level at the time.  When
4873 all the DHCP configuration is loaded, it is ready to receive requests.
4874 The subtree in Debian Edu contain objects with object classes
4875 top/dhcpService/dhcpOptions, top/dhcpSharedNetwork/dhcpOptions,
4876 top/dhcpSubnet, top/dhcpGroup and top/dhcpHost.  These provide options
4877 and information about netmasks, dynamic range etc.  Leaving out the
4878 details here because it is not relevant for the focus of my
4879 investigation, which is to see if it is possible to merge dns and dhcp
4880 related computer objects.</p>
4881
4882 <p>When a DHCP request come in, LDAP is searched for the MAC address
4883 of the client (00:00:00:00:00:00 in this example), using a subtree
4884 scoped search with "cn=DHCP Config,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no" as
4885 the base and "(&(objectClass=dhcpHost)(dhcpHWAddress=ethernet
4886 00:00:00:00:00:00))" as the filter.  This is what a host object look
4887 like:</p>
4888
4889 <blockquote><pre>
4890 dn: cn=hostname,cn=group1,cn=THINCLIENTS,cn=DHCP Config,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
4891 cn: hostname
4892 objectClass: top
4893 objectClass: dhcpHost
4894 dhcpHWAddress: ethernet 00:00:00:00:00:00
4895 dhcpStatements: fixed-address hostname
4896 </pre></blockquote>
4897
4898 <p>There is less flexiblity in the way LDAP searches are done here.
4899 The object classes need to have fixed names, and the configuration
4900 need to be stored in a fairly specific LDAP structure.  On the
4901 positive side, the invidiual dhcpHost entires can be anywhere without
4902 the DN pointed to by the dhcpServer entries.  The latter should make
4903 it possible to group all host entries in a subtree next to the
4904 configuration entries, and this subtree can also be shared with the
4905 DNS server if the schema proposed above is combined with the dhcpHost
4906 structural object class.
4907
4908 <p><strong>Conclusion</strong></p>
4909
4910 <p>The PowerDNS implementation seem to be very flexible when it come
4911 to which LDAP schemas to use.  While its "tree" mode is rigid when it
4912 come to the the LDAP structure, the "strict" mode is very flexible,
4913 allowing DNS objects to be stored anywhere under the base cn specified
4914 in the configuration.</p>
4915
4916 <p>The DHCP implementation on the other hand is very inflexible, both
4917 regarding which LDAP schemas to use and which LDAP structure to use.
4918 I guess one could implement ones own schema, as long as the
4919 objectclasses and attributes have the names used, but this do not
4920 really help when the DHCP subtree need to have a fairly fixed
4921 structure.</p>
4922
4923 <p>Based on the observed behaviour, I suspect a LDAP structure like
4924 this might work for Debian Edu:</p>
4925
4926 <blockquote><pre>
4927 ou=services
4928   cn=machine-info (dhcpService) - dhcpServiceDN points here
4929     cn=dhcp (dhcpServer)
4930     cn=dhcp-internal (dhcpSharedNetwork/dhcpOptions)
4931       cn=10.0.2.0 (dhcpSubnet)
4932         cn=group1 (dhcpGroup/dhcpOptions)
4933     cn=dhcp-thinclients (dhcpSharedNetwork/dhcpOptions)
4934       cn=192.168.0.0 (dhcpSubnet)
4935         cn=group1 (dhcpGroup/dhcpOptions)
4936     ou=machines - PowerDNS base points here
4937       cn=hostname (dhcpHost/domainrelatedobject/dnsDomainAux)
4938 </pre></blockquote>
4939
4940 <P>This is not tested yet.  If the DHCP server require the dhcpHost
4941 entries to be in the dhcpGroup subtrees, the entries can be stored
4942 there instead of a common machines subtree, and the PowerDNS base
4943 would have to be moved one level up to the machine-info subtree.</p>
4944
4945 <p>The combined object under the machines subtree would look something
4946 like this:</p>
4947
4948 <blockquote><pre>
4949 dn: dc=hostname,ou=machines,cn=machine-info,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
4950 dc: hostname
4951 objectClass: top
4952 objectClass: dhcpHost
4953 objectclass: domainrelatedobject
4954 objectclass: dnsDomainAux
4955 associateddomain: hostname.intern
4956 arecord: 10.11.12.13
4957 dhcpHWAddress: ethernet 00:00:00:00:00:00
4958 dhcpStatements: fixed-address hostname.intern
4959 </pre></blockquote>
4960
4961 </p>One could even add the LTSP configuration associated with a given
4962 machine, as long as the required attributes are available in a
4963 auxiliary object class.</p>
4964
4965       </div>
4966       <div class="tags">
4967
4968
4969         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ldap">ldap</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
4970
4971
4972       </div>
4973     </div>
4974     <div class="padding"></div>
4975
4976     <div class="entry">
4977       <div class="title">
4978         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Combining_PowerDNS_and_ISC_DHCP_LDAP_objects.html">Combining PowerDNS and ISC DHCP LDAP objects</a>
4979       </div>
4980       <div class="date">
4981         14th July 2010
4982       </div>
4983       <div class="body">
4984         <p>For a while now, I have wanted to find a way to change the DNS and
4985 DHCP services in Debian Edu to use the same LDAP objects for a given
4986 computer, to avoid the possibility of having a inconsistent state for
4987 a computer in LDAP (as in DHCP but no DNS entry or the other way
4988 around) and make it easier to add computers to LDAP.</p>
4989
4990 <p>I've looked at how powerdns and dhcpd is using LDAP, and using this
4991 information finally found a solution that seem to work.</p>
4992
4993 <p>The old setup required three LDAP objects for a given computer.
4994 One forward DNS entry, one reverse DNS entry and one DHCP entry.  If
4995 we switch powerdns to use its strict LDAP method (ldap-method=strict
4996 in pdns-debian-edu.conf), the forward and reverse DNS entries are
4997 merged into one while making it impossible to transfer the reverse map
4998 to a slave DNS server.</p>
4999
5000 <p>If we also replace the object class used to get the DNS related
5001 attributes to one allowing these attributes to be combined with the
5002 dhcphost object class, we can merge the DNS and DHCP entries into one.
5003 I've written such object class in the dnsdomainaux.schema file (need
5004 proper OIDs, but that is a minor issue), and tested the setup.  It
5005 seem to work.</p>
5006
5007 <p>With this test setup in place, we can get away with one LDAP object
5008 for both DNS and DHCP, and even the LTSP configuration I suggested in
5009 an earlier email.  The combined LDAP object will look something like
5010 this:</p>
5011
5012 <blockquote><pre>
5013   dn: cn=hostname,cn=group1,cn=THINCLIENTS,cn=DHCP Config,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
5014   cn: hostname
5015   objectClass: dhcphost
5016   objectclass: domainrelatedobject
5017   objectclass: dnsdomainaux
5018   associateddomain: hostname.intern
5019   arecord: 10.11.12.13
5020   dhcphwaddress: ethernet 00:00:00:00:00:00
5021   dhcpstatements: fixed-address hostname
5022   ldapconfigsound: Y
5023 </pre></blockquote>
5024
5025 <p>The DNS server uses the associateddomain and arecord entries, while
5026 the DHCP server uses the dhcphwaddress and dhcpstatements entries
5027 before asking DNS to resolve the fixed-adddress.  LTSP will use
5028 dhcphwaddress or associateddomain and the ldapconfig* attributes.</p>
5029
5030 <p>I am not yet sure if I can get the DHCP server to look for its
5031 dhcphost in a different location, to allow us to put the objects
5032 outside the "DHCP Config" subtree, but hope to figure out a way to do
5033 that.  If I can't figure out a way to do that, we can still get rid of
5034 the hosts subtree and move all its content into the DHCP Config tree
5035 (which probably should be renamed to be more related to the new
5036 content.  I suspect cn=dnsdhcp,ou=services or something like that
5037 might be a good place to put it.</p>
5038
5039 <p>If you want to help out with implementing this for Debian Edu,
5040 please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.</p>
5041
5042       </div>
5043       <div class="tags">
5044
5045
5046         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ldap">ldap</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
5047
5048
5049       </div>
5050     </div>
5051     <div class="padding"></div>
5052
5053     <div class="entry">
5054       <div class="title">
5055         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Idea_for_storing_LTSP_configuration_in_LDAP.html">Idea for storing LTSP configuration in LDAP</a>
5056       </div>
5057       <div class="date">
5058         11th July 2010
5059       </div>
5060       <div class="body">
5061         <p>Vagrant mentioned on IRC today that ltsp_config now support
5062 sourcing files from /usr/share/ltsp/ltsp_config.d/ on the thin
5063 clients, and that this can be used to fetch configuration from LDAP if
5064 Debian Edu choose to store configuration there.</p>
5065
5066 <p>Armed with this information, I got inspired and wrote a test module
5067 to get configuration from LDAP.  The idea is to look up the MAC
5068 address of the client in LDAP, and look for attributes on the form
5069 ltspconfigsetting=value, and use this to export SETTING=value to the
5070 LTSP clients.</p>
5071
5072 <p>The goal is to be able to store the LTSP configuration attributes
5073 in a "computer" LDAP object used by both DNS and DHCP, and thus
5074 allowing us to store all information about a computer in one place.</p>
5075
5076 <p>This is a untested draft implementation, and I welcome feedback on
5077 this approach.  A real LDAP schema for the ltspClientAux objectclass
5078 need to be written.  Comments, suggestions, etc?</p>
5079
5080 <blockquote><pre>
5081 # Store in /opt/ltsp/$arch/usr/share/ltsp/ltsp_config.d/ldap-config
5082 #
5083 # Fetch LTSP client settings from LDAP based on MAC address
5084 #
5085 # Uses ethernet address as stored in the dhcpHost objectclass using
5086 # the dhcpHWAddress attribute or ethernet address stored in the
5087 # ieee802Device objectclass with the macAddress attribute.
5088 #
5089 # This module is written to be schema agnostic, and only depend on the
5090 # existence of attribute names.
5091 #
5092 # The LTSP configuration variables are saved directly using a
5093 # ltspConfig prefix and uppercasing the rest of the attribute name.
5094 # To set the SERVER variable, set the ltspConfigServer attribute.
5095 #
5096 # Some LDAP schema should be created with all the relevant
5097 # configuration settings.  Something like this should work:
5098 #
5099 # objectclass ( 1.1.2.2 NAME 'ltspClientAux'
5100 #     SUP top
5101 #     AUXILIARY
5102 #     MAY ( ltspConfigServer $ ltsConfigSound $ ... )
5103
5104 LDAPSERVER=$(debian-edu-ldapserver)
5105 if [ "$LDAPSERVER" ] ; then
5106     LDAPBASE=$(debian-edu-ldapserver -b)
5107     for MAC in $(LANG=C ifconfig |grep -i hwaddr| awk '{print $5}'|sort -u) ; do
5108         filter="(|(dhcpHWAddress=ethernet $MAC)(macAddress=$MAC))"
5109         ldapsearch -h "$LDAPSERVER" -b "$LDAPBASE" -v -x "$filter" | \
5110             grep '^ltspConfig' | while read attr value ; do
5111             # Remove prefix and convert to upper case
5112             attr=$(echo $attr | sed 's/^ltspConfig//i' | tr a-z A-Z)
5113             # bass value on to clients
5114             eval "$attr=$value; export $attr"
5115         done
5116     done
5117 fi
5118 </pre></blockquote>
5119
5120 <p>I'm not sure this shell construction will work, because I suspect
5121 the while block might end up in a subshell causing the variables set
5122 there to not show up in ltsp-config, but if that is the case I am sure
5123 the code can be restructured to make sure the variables are passed on.
5124 I expect that can be solved with some testing. :)</p>
5125
5126 <p>If you want to help out with implementing this for Debian Edu,
5127 please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.</p>
5128
5129 <p>Update 2010-07-17: I am aware of another effort to store LTSP
5130 configuration in LDAP that was created around year 2000 by
5131 <a href="http://www.pcxperience.com/thinclient/documentation/ldap.html">PC
5132 Xperience, Inc., 2000</a>.  I found its
5133 <a href="http://people.redhat.com/alikins/ltsp/ldap/">files</a> on a
5134 personal home page over at redhat.com.</p>
5135
5136       </div>
5137       <div class="tags">
5138
5139
5140         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ldap">ldap</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
5141
5142
5143       </div>
5144     </div>
5145     <div class="padding"></div>
5146
5147     <div class="entry">
5148       <div class="title">
5149         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/jXplorer__a_very_nice_LDAP_GUI.html">jXplorer, a very nice LDAP GUI</a>
5150       </div>
5151       <div class="date">
5152          9th July 2010
5153       </div>
5154       <div class="body">
5155         <p>Since
5156 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/LUMA__a_very_nice_LDAP_GUI.html">my
5157 last post</a> about available LDAP tools in Debian, I was told about a
5158 LDAP GUI that is even better than luma.  The java application
5159 <a href="http://jxplorer.org/">jXplorer</a> is claimed to be capable of
5160 moving LDAP objects and subtrees using drag-and-drop, and can
5161 authenticate using Kerberos.  I have only tested the Kerberos
5162 authentication, but do not have a LDAP setup allowing me to rewrite
5163 LDAP with my test user yet.  It is
5164 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/j/jxplorer.html">available in
5165 Debian</a> testing and unstable at the moment.  The only problem I
5166 have with it is how it handle errors.  If something go wrong, its
5167 non-intuitive behaviour require me to go through some query work list
5168 and remove the failing query.  Nothing big, but very annoying.</p>
5169
5170       </div>
5171       <div class="tags">
5172
5173
5174         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ldap">ldap</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
5175
5176
5177       </div>
5178     </div>
5179     <div class="padding"></div>
5180
5181     <div class="entry">
5182       <div class="title">
5183         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lenny__Squeeze_upgrades__apt_vs_aptitude_with_the_Gnome_desktop.html">Lenny->Squeeze upgrades, apt vs aptitude with the Gnome desktop</a>
5184       </div>
5185       <div class="date">
5186          3rd July 2010
5187       </div>
5188       <div class="body">
5189         <p>Here is a short update on my <a
5190 href="http://people.skolelinux.org/~pere/debian-upgrade-testing/">my
5191 Debian Lenny->Squeeze upgrade testing</a>.  Here is a summary of the
5192 difference for Gnome when it is upgraded by apt-get and aptitude.  I'm
5193 not reporting the status for KDE, because the upgrade crashes when
5194 aptitude try because of missing conflicts
5195 (<a href="http://bugs.debian.org/584861">#584861</a> and
5196 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/585716">#585716</a>).</p>
5197
5198 <p>At the end of the upgrade test script, dpkg -l is executed to get a
5199 complete list of the installed packages.  Based on this I see these
5200 differences when I did a test run today.  As usual, I do not really
5201 know what the correct set of packages would be, but thought it best to
5202 publish the difference.</p>
5203
5204 <p>Installed using apt-get, missing with aptitude</p>
5205
5206 <blockquote><p>
5207   at-spi cpp-4.3 finger gnome-spell gstreamer0.10-gnomevfs
5208   libatspi1.0-0 libcupsys2 libeel2-data libgail-common libgdl-1-common
5209   libgnomeprint2.2-data libgnomeprintui2.2-common libgnomevfs2-bin
5210   libgtksourceview-common libpt-1.10.10-plugins-alsa
5211   libpt-1.10.10-plugins-v4l libservlet2.4-java libxalan2-java
5212   libxerces2-java openoffice.org-writer2latex openssl-blacklist p7zip
5213   python-4suite-xml python-eggtrayicon python-gtkhtml2
5214   python-gtkmozembed svgalibg1 xserver-xephyr zip
5215 </p></blockquote>
5216
5217 <p>Installed using apt-get, removed with aptitude</p>
5218
5219 <blockquote><p>
5220   bluez-utils dhcdbd djvulibre-desktop epiphany-gecko
5221   gnome-app-install gnome-mount gnome-vfs-obexftp gnome-volume-manager
5222   libao2 libavahi-compat-libdnssd1 libavahi-core5 libbind9-50
5223   libbluetooth2 libcamel1.2-11 libcdio7 libcucul0 libcurl3
5224   libdirectfb-1.0-0 libdvdread3 libedata-cal1.2-6 libedataserver1.2-9
5225   libeel2-2.20 libepc-1.0-1 libepc-ui-1.0-1 libexchange-storage1.2-3
5226   libfaad0 libgd2-noxpm libgda3-3 libgda3-common libggz2 libggzcore9
5227   libggzmod4 libgksu1.2-0 libgksuui1.0-1 libgmyth0 libgnome-desktop-2
5228   libgnome-pilot2 libgnomecups1.0-1 libgnomeprint2.2-0
5229   libgnomeprintui2.2-0 libgpod3 libgraphviz4 libgtkhtml2-0
5230   libgtksourceview1.0-0 libgucharmap6 libhesiod0 libicu38 libisccc50
5231   libisccfg50 libiw29 libkpathsea4 libltdl3 liblwres50 libmagick++10
5232   libmagick10 libmalaga7 libmtp7 libmysqlclient15off libnautilus-burn4
5233   libneon27 libnm-glib0 libnm-util0 libopal-2.2 libosp5
5234   libparted1.8-10 libpisock9 libpisync1 libpoppler-glib3 libpoppler3
5235   libpt-1.10.10 libraw1394-8 libsensors3 libsmbios2 libsoup2.2-8
5236   libssh2-1 libsuitesparse-3.1.0 libswfdec-0.6-90 libtalloc1
5237   libtotem-plparser10 libtrackerclient0 libvoikko1 libxalan2-java-gcj
5238   libxerces2-java-gcj libxklavier12 libxtrap6 libxxf86misc1 libzephyr3
5239   mysql-common swfdec-gnome totem-gstreamer wodim
5240 </p></blockquote>
5241
5242 <p>Installed using aptitude, missing with apt-get</p>
5243
5244 <blockquote><p>
5245   gnome gnome-desktop-environment hamster-applet python-gnomeapplet
5246   python-gnomekeyring python-wnck rhythmbox-plugins xorg
5247   xserver-xorg-input-all xserver-xorg-input-evdev
5248   xserver-xorg-input-kbd xserver-xorg-input-mouse
5249   xserver-xorg-input-synaptics xserver-xorg-video-all
5250   xserver-xorg-video-apm xserver-xorg-video-ark xserver-xorg-video-ati
5251   xserver-xorg-video-chips xserver-xorg-video-cirrus
5252   xserver-xorg-video-dummy xserver-xorg-video-fbdev
5253   xserver-xorg-video-glint xserver-xorg-video-i128
5254   xserver-xorg-video-i740 xserver-xorg-video-mach64
5255   xserver-xorg-video-mga xserver-xorg-video-neomagic
5256   xserver-xorg-video-nouveau xserver-xorg-video-nv
5257   xserver-xorg-video-r128 xserver-xorg-video-radeon
5258   xserver-xorg-video-radeonhd xserver-xorg-video-rendition
5259   xserver-xorg-video-s3 xserver-xorg-video-s3virge
5260   xserver-xorg-video-savage xserver-xorg-video-siliconmotion
5261   xserver-xorg-video-sis xserver-xorg-video-sisusb
5262   xserver-xorg-video-tdfx xserver-xorg-video-tga
5263   xserver-xorg-video-trident xserver-xorg-video-tseng
5264   xserver-xorg-video-vesa xserver-xorg-video-vmware
5265   xserver-xorg-video-voodoo
5266 </p></blockquote>
5267
5268 <p>Installed using aptitude, removed with apt-get</p>
5269
5270 <blockquote><p>
5271   deskbar-applet xserver-xorg xserver-xorg-core
5272   xserver-xorg-input-wacom xserver-xorg-video-intel
5273   xserver-xorg-video-openchrome
5274 </p></blockquote>
5275
5276 <p>I was told on IRC that the xorg-xserver package was
5277 <a href="http://git.debian.org/?p=pkg-xorg/xserver/xorg-server.git;a=commit;h=9c8080d06c457932d3bfec021c69ac000aa60120">changed
5278 in git</a> today to try to get apt-get to not remove xorg completely.
5279 No idea when it hits Squeeze, but when it does I hope it will reduce
5280 the difference somewhat.
5281
5282       </div>
5283       <div class="tags">
5284
5285
5286         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
5287
5288
5289       </div>
5290     </div>
5291     <div class="padding"></div>
5292
5293     <div class="entry">
5294       <div class="title">
5295         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/LUMA__a_very_nice_LDAP_GUI.html">LUMA, a very nice LDAP GUI</a>
5296       </div>
5297       <div class="date">
5298         28th June 2010
5299       </div>
5300       <div class="body">
5301         <p>The last few days I have been looking into the status of the LDAP
5302 directory in Debian Edu, and in the process I started to miss a GUI
5303 tool to browse the LDAP tree.  The only one I was able to find in
5304 Debian/Squeeze and Lenny is
5305 <a href="http://luma.sourceforge.net/">LUMA</a>, which has proved to
5306 be a great tool to get a overview of the current LDAP directory
5307 populated by default in Skolelinux.  Thanks to it, I have been able to
5308 find empty and obsolete subtrees, misplaced objects and duplicate
5309 objects.  It will be installed by default in Debian/Squeeze.  If you
5310 are working with LDAP, give it a go. :)</p>
5311
5312 <p>I did notice one problem with it I have not had time to report to
5313 the BTS yet.  There is no .desktop file in the package, so the tool do
5314 not show up in the Gnome and KDE menus, but only deep down in in the
5315 Debian submenu in KDE.  I hope that can be fixed before Squeeze is
5316 released.</p>
5317
5318 <p>I have not yet been able to get it to modify the tree yet.  I would
5319 like to move objects and remove subtrees directly in the GUI, but have
5320 not found a way to do that with LUMA yet.  So in the mean time, I use
5321 <a href="http://www.lichteblau.com/ldapvi/">ldapvi</a> for that.</p>
5322
5323 <p>If you have tips on other GUI tools for LDAP that might be useful
5324 in Debian Edu, please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.</p>
5325
5326 <p>Update 2010-06-29: Ross Reedstrom tipped us about the
5327 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/g/gq.html">gq</a> package as a
5328 useful GUI alternative.  It seem like a good tool, but is unmaintained
5329 in Debian and got a RC bug keeping it out of Squeeze.  Unless that
5330 changes, it will not be an option for Debian Edu based on Squeeze.</p>
5331
5332       </div>
5333       <div class="tags">
5334
5335
5336         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ldap">ldap</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
5337
5338
5339       </div>
5340     </div>
5341     <div class="padding"></div>
5342
5343     <div class="entry">
5344       <div class="title">
5345         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Idea_for_a_change_to_LDAP_schemas_allowing_DNS_and_DHCP_info_to_be_combined_into_one_object.html">Idea for a change to LDAP schemas allowing DNS and DHCP info to be combined into one object</a>
5346       </div>
5347       <div class="date">
5348         24th June 2010
5349       </div>
5350       <div class="body">
5351         <p>A while back, I
5352 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Time_for_new__LDAP_schemas_replacing_RFC_2307_.html">complained
5353 about the fact</a> that it is not possible with the provided schemas
5354 for storing DNS and DHCP information in LDAP to combine the two sets
5355 of information into one LDAP object representing a computer.</p>
5356
5357 <p>In the mean time, I discovered that a simple fix would be to make
5358 the dhcpHost object class auxiliary, to allow it to be combined with
5359 the dNSDomain object class, and thus forming one object for one
5360 computer when storing both DHCP and DNS information in LDAP.</p>
5361
5362 <p>If I understand this correctly, it is not safe to do this change
5363 without also changing the assigned number for the object class, and I
5364 do not know enough about LDAP schema design to do that properly for
5365 Debian Edu.</p>
5366
5367 <p>Anyway, for future reference, this is how I believe we could change
5368 the
5369 <a href="http://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-ietf-dhc-ldap-schema-00">DHCP
5370 schema</a> to solve at least part of the problem with the LDAP schemas
5371 available today from IETF.</p>
5372
5373 <pre>
5374 --- dhcp.schema    (revision 65192)
5375 +++ dhcp.schema    (working copy)
5376 @@ -376,7 +376,7 @@
5377  objectclass ( 2.16.840.1.113719.1.203.6.6
5378         NAME 'dhcpHost'
5379         DESC 'This represents information about a particular client'
5380 -       SUP top
5381 +       SUP top AUXILIARY
5382         MUST cn
5383         MAY  (dhcpLeaseDN $ dhcpHWAddress $ dhcpOptionsDN $ dhcpStatements $ dhcpComments $ dhcpOption)
5384         X-NDS_CONTAINMENT ('dhcpService' 'dhcpSubnet' 'dhcpGroup') )
5385 </pre>
5386
5387 <p>I very much welcome clues on how to do this properly for Debian
5388 Edu/Squeeze.  We provide the DHCP schema in our debian-edu-config
5389 package, and should thus be free to rewrite it as we see fit.</p>
5390
5391 <p>If you want to help out with implementing this for Debian Edu,
5392 please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.</p>
5393
5394       </div>
5395       <div class="tags">
5396
5397
5398         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ldap">ldap</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
5399
5400
5401       </div>
5402     </div>
5403     <div class="padding"></div>
5404
5405     <div class="entry">
5406       <div class="title">
5407         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Calling_tasksel_like_the_installer__while_still_getting_useful_output.html">Calling tasksel like the installer, while still getting useful output</a>
5408       </div>
5409       <div class="date">
5410         16th June 2010
5411       </div>
5412       <div class="body">
5413         <p>A few times I have had the need to simulate the way tasksel
5414 installs packages during the normal debian-installer run.  Until now,
5415 I have ended up letting tasksel do the work, with the annoying problem
5416 of not getting any feedback at all when something fails (like a
5417 conffile question from dpkg or a download that fails), using code like
5418 this:
5419
5420 <blockquote><pre>
5421 export DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive
5422 tasksel --new-install
5423 </pre></blockquote>
5424
5425 This would invoke tasksel, let its automatic task selection pick the
5426 tasks to install, and continue to install the requested tasks without
5427 any output what so ever.
5428
5429 Recently I revisited this problem while working on the automatic
5430 package upgrade testing, because tasksel would some times hang without
5431 any useful feedback, and I want to see what is going on when it
5432 happen.  Then it occured to me, I can parse the output from tasksel
5433 when asked to run in test mode, and use that aptitude command line
5434 printed by tasksel then to simulate the tasksel run.  I ended up using
5435 code like this:
5436
5437 <blockquote><pre>
5438 export DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive
5439 cmd="$(in_target tasksel -t --new-install | sed 's/debconf-apt-progress -- //')"
5440 $cmd
5441 </pre></blockquote>
5442
5443 <p>The content of $cmd is typically something like "<tt>aptitude -q
5444 --without-recommends -o APT::Install-Recommends=no -y install
5445 ~t^desktop$ ~t^gnome-desktop$ ~t^laptop$ ~pstandard ~prequired
5446 ~pimportant</tt>", which will install the gnome desktop task, the
5447 laptop task and all packages with priority standard , required and
5448 important, just like tasksel would have done it during
5449 installation.</p>
5450
5451 <p>A better approach is probably to extend tasksel to be able to
5452 install packages without using debconf-apt-progress, for use cases
5453 like this.</p>
5454
5455       </div>
5456       <div class="tags">
5457
5458
5459         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
5460
5461
5462       </div>
5463     </div>
5464     <div class="padding"></div>
5465
5466     <div class="entry">
5467       <div class="title">
5468         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lenny__Squeeze_upgrades__removals_by_apt_and_aptitude.html">Lenny->Squeeze upgrades, removals by apt and aptitude</a>
5469       </div>
5470       <div class="date">
5471         13th June 2010
5472       </div>
5473       <div class="body">
5474         <p>My
5475 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Automatic_upgrade_testing_from_Lenny_to_Squeeze.html">testing
5476 of Debian upgrades</a> from Lenny to Squeeze continues, and I've
5477 finally made the upgrade logs available from
5478 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/debian-upgrade-testing/">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/debian-upgrade-testing/</a>.
5479 I am now testing dist-upgrade of Gnome and KDE in a chroot using both
5480 apt and aptitude, and found their differences interesting.  This time
5481 I will only focus on their removal plans.</p>
5482
5483 <p>After installing a Gnome desktop and the laptop task, apt-get wants
5484 to remove 72 packages when dist-upgrading from Lenny to Squeeze.  The
5485 surprising part is that it want to remove xorg and all
5486 xserver-xorg-video* drivers.  Clearly not a good choice, but I am not
5487 sure why.  When asking aptitude to do the same, it want to remove 129
5488 packages, but most of them are library packages I suspect are no
5489 longer needed.  Both of them want to remove bluetooth packages, which
5490 I do not know.  Perhaps these bluetooth packages are obsolete?</p>
5491
5492 <p>For KDE, apt-get want to remove 82 packages, among them kdebase
5493 which seem like a bad idea and xorg the same way as with Gnome. Asking
5494 aptitude for the same, it wants to remove 192 packages, none which are
5495 too surprising.</p>
5496
5497 <p>I guess the removal of xorg during upgrades should be investigated
5498 and avoided, and perhaps others as well.  Here are the complete list
5499 of planned removals.  The complete logs is available from the URL
5500 above.  Note if you want to repeat these tests, that the upgrade test
5501 for kde+apt-get hung in the tasksel setup because of dpkg asking
5502 conffile questions.  No idea why.  I worked around it by using
5503 '<tt>echo >> /proc/<em>pidofdpkg</em>/fd/0</tt>' to tell dpkg to
5504 continue.</p>
5505
5506 <p><b>apt-get gnome 72</b>
5507 <br>bluez-gnome cupsddk-drivers deskbar-applet gnome
5508   gnome-desktop-environment gnome-network-admin gtkhtml3.14
5509   iceweasel-gnome-support libavcodec51 libdatrie0 libgdl-1-0
5510   libgnomekbd2 libgnomekbdui2 libmetacity0 libslab0 libxcb-xlib0
5511   nautilus-cd-burner python-gnome2-desktop python-gnome2-extras
5512   serpentine swfdec-mozilla update-manager xorg xserver-xorg
5513   xserver-xorg-core xserver-xorg-input-all xserver-xorg-input-evdev
5514   xserver-xorg-input-kbd xserver-xorg-input-mouse
5515   xserver-xorg-input-synaptics xserver-xorg-input-wacom
5516   xserver-xorg-video-all xserver-xorg-video-apm xserver-xorg-video-ark
5517   xserver-xorg-video-ati xserver-xorg-video-chips
5518   xserver-xorg-video-cirrus xserver-xorg-video-cyrix
5519   xserver-xorg-video-dummy xserver-xorg-video-fbdev
5520   xserver-xorg-video-glint xserver-xorg-video-i128
5521   xserver-xorg-video-i740 xserver-xorg-video-imstt
5522   xserver-xorg-video-intel xserver-xorg-video-mach64
5523   xserver-xorg-video-mga xserver-xorg-video-neomagic
5524   xserver-xorg-video-nsc xserver-xorg-video-nv
5525   xserver-xorg-video-openchrome xserver-xorg-video-r128
5526   xserver-xorg-video-radeon xserver-xorg-video-radeonhd
5527   xserver-xorg-video-rendition xserver-xorg-video-s3
5528   xserver-xorg-video-s3virge xserver-xorg-video-savage
5529   xserver-xorg-video-siliconmotion xserver-xorg-video-sis
5530   xserver-xorg-video-sisusb xserver-xorg-video-tdfx
5531   xserver-xorg-video-tga xserver-xorg-video-trident
5532   xserver-xorg-video-tseng xserver-xorg-video-v4l
5533   xserver-xorg-video-vesa xserver-xorg-video-vga
5534   xserver-xorg-video-vmware xserver-xorg-video-voodoo xulrunner-1.9
5535   xulrunner-1.9-gnome-support</p>
5536
5537 <p><b>aptitude gnome 129</b>
5538
5539 <br>bluez-gnome bluez-utils cpp-4.3 cupsddk-drivers dhcdbd
5540   djvulibre-desktop finger gnome-app-install gnome-mount
5541   gnome-network-admin gnome-spell gnome-vfs-obexftp
5542   gnome-volume-manager gstreamer0.10-gnomevfs gtkhtml3.14 libao2
5543   libavahi-compat-libdnssd1 libavahi-core5 libavcodec51 libbluetooth2
5544   libcamel1.2-11 libcdio7 libcucul0 libcupsys2 libcurl3 libdatrie0
5545   libdirectfb-1.0-0 libdvdread3 libedataserver1.2-9 libeel2-2.20
5546   libeel2-data libepc-1.0-1 libepc-ui-1.0-1 libfaad0 libgail-common
5547   libgd2-noxpm libgda3-3 libgda3-common libgdl-1-0 libgdl-1-common
5548   libggz2 libggzcore9 libggzmod4 libgksu1.2-0 libgksuui1.0-1 libgmyth0
5549   libgnomecups1.0-1 libgnomekbd2 libgnomekbdui2 libgnomeprint2.2-0
5550   libgnomeprint2.2-data libgnomeprintui2.2-0 libgnomeprintui2.2-common
5551   libgnomevfs2-bin libgpod3 libgraphviz4 libgtkhtml2-0
5552   libgtksourceview-common libgtksourceview1.0-0 libgucharmap6
5553   libhesiod0 libicu38 libiw29 libkpathsea4 libltdl3 libmagick++10
5554   libmagick10 libmalaga7 libmetacity0 libmtp7 libmysqlclient15off
5555   libnautilus-burn4 libneon27 libnm-glib0 libnm-util0 libopal-2.2
5556   libosp5 libparted1.8-10 libpoppler-glib3 libpoppler3 libpt-1.10.10
5557   libpt-1.10.10-plugins-alsa libpt-1.10.10-plugins-v4l libraw1394-8
5558   libsensors3 libslab0 libsmbios2 libsoup2.2-8 libssh2-1
5559   libsuitesparse-3.1.0 libswfdec-0.6-90 libtalloc1 libtotem-plparser10
5560   libtrackerclient0 libxalan2-java libxalan2-java-gcj libxcb-xlib0
5561   libxerces2-java libxerces2-java-gcj libxklavier12 libxtrap6
5562   libxxf86misc1 libzephyr3 mysql-common nautilus-cd-burner
5563   openoffice.org-writer2latex openssl-blacklist p7zip
5564   python-4suite-xml python-eggtrayicon python-gnome2-desktop
5565   python-gnome2-extras python-gtkhtml2 python-gtkmozembed
5566   python-numeric python-sexy serpentine svgalibg1 swfdec-gnome
5567   swfdec-mozilla totem-gstreamer update-manager wodim
5568   xserver-xorg-video-cyrix xserver-xorg-video-imstt
5569   xserver-xorg-video-nsc xserver-xorg-video-v4l xserver-xorg-video-vga
5570   zip</p>
5571
5572 <p><b>apt-get kde 82</b>
5573
5574 <br>cupsddk-drivers karm kaudiocreator kcoloredit kcontrol kde kde-core
5575   kdeaddons kdeartwork kdebase kdebase-bin kdebase-bin-kde3
5576   kdebase-kio-plugins kdesktop kdeutils khelpcenter kicker
5577   kicker-applets knewsticker kolourpaint konq-plugins konqueror korn
5578   kpersonalizer kscreensaver ksplash libavcodec51 libdatrie0 libkiten1
5579   libxcb-xlib0 quanta superkaramba texlive-base-bin xorg xserver-xorg
5580   xserver-xorg-core xserver-xorg-input-all xserver-xorg-input-evdev
5581   xserver-xorg-input-kbd xserver-xorg-input-mouse
5582   xserver-xorg-input-synaptics xserver-xorg-input-wacom
5583   xserver-xorg-video-all xserver-xorg-video-apm xserver-xorg-video-ark
5584   xserver-xorg-video-ati xserver-xorg-video-chips
5585   xserver-xorg-video-cirrus xserver-xorg-video-cyrix
5586   xserver-xorg-video-dummy xserver-xorg-video-fbdev
5587   xserver-xorg-video-glint xserver-xorg-video-i128
5588   xserver-xorg-video-i740 xserver-xorg-video-imstt
5589   xserver-xorg-video-intel xserver-xorg-video-mach64
5590   xserver-xorg-video-mga xserver-xorg-video-neomagic
5591   xserver-xorg-video-nsc xserver-xorg-video-nv
5592   xserver-xorg-video-openchrome xserver-xorg-video-r128
5593   xserver-xorg-video-radeon xserver-xorg-video-radeonhd
5594   xserver-xorg-video-rendition xserver-xorg-video-s3
5595   xserver-xorg-video-s3virge xserver-xorg-video-savage
5596   xserver-xorg-video-siliconmotion xserver-xorg-video-sis
5597   xserver-xorg-video-sisusb xserver-xorg-video-tdfx
5598   xserver-xorg-video-tga xserver-xorg-video-trident
5599   xserver-xorg-video-tseng xserver-xorg-video-v4l
5600   xserver-xorg-video-vesa xserver-xorg-video-vga
5601   xserver-xorg-video-vmware xserver-xorg-video-voodoo xulrunner-1.9</p>
5602
5603 <p><b>aptitude kde 192</b>
5604 <br>bluez-utils cpp-4.3 cupsddk-drivers cvs dcoprss dhcdbd
5605   djvulibre-desktop dosfstools eyesapplet fifteenapplet finger gettext
5606   ghostscript-x imlib-base imlib11 indi kandy karm kasteroids
5607   kaudiocreator kbackgammon kbstate kcoloredit kcontrol kcron kdat
5608   kdeadmin-kfile-plugins kdeartwork-misc kdeartwork-theme-window
5609   kdebase-bin-kde3 kdebase-kio-plugins kdeedu-data
5610   kdegraphics-kfile-plugins kdelirc kdemultimedia-kappfinder-data
5611   kdemultimedia-kfile-plugins kdenetwork-kfile-plugins
5612   kdepim-kfile-plugins kdepim-kio-plugins kdeprint kdesktop kdessh
5613   kdict kdnssd kdvi kedit keduca kenolaba kfax kfaxview kfouleggs
5614   kghostview khelpcenter khexedit kiconedit kitchensync klatin
5615   klickety kmailcvt kmenuedit kmid kmilo kmoon kmrml kodo kolourpaint
5616   kooka korn kpager kpdf kpercentage kpf kpilot kpoker kpovmodeler
5617   krec kregexpeditor ksayit ksim ksirc ksirtet ksmiletris ksmserver
5618   ksnake ksokoban ksplash ksvg ksysv ktip ktnef kuickshow kverbos
5619   kview kviewshell kvoctrain kwifimanager kwin kwin4 kworldclock
5620   kxsldbg libakode2 libao2 libarts1-akode libarts1-audiofile
5621   libarts1-mpeglib libarts1-xine libavahi-compat-libdnssd1
5622   libavahi-core5 libavc1394-0 libavcodec51 libbluetooth2
5623   libboost-python1.34.1 libcucul0 libcurl3 libcvsservice0 libdatrie0
5624   libdirectfb-1.0-0 libdjvulibre21 libdvdread3 libfaad0 libfreebob0
5625   libgail-common libgd2-noxpm libgraphviz4 libgsmme1c2a libgtkhtml2-0
5626   libicu38 libiec61883-0 libindex0 libiw29 libk3b3 libkcal2b libkcddb1
5627   libkdeedu3 libkdepim1a libkgantt0 libkiten1 libkleopatra1 libkmime2
5628   libkpathsea4 libkpimexchange1 libkpimidentities1 libkscan1
5629   libksieve0 libktnef1 liblockdev1 libltdl3 libmagick10 libmimelib1c2a
5630   libmozjs1d libmpcdec3 libneon27 libnm-util0 libopensync0 libpisock9
5631   libpoppler-glib3 libpoppler-qt2 libpoppler3 libraw1394-8 libsmbios2
5632   libssh2-1 libsuitesparse-3.1.0 libtalloc1 libtiff-tools
5633   libxalan2-java libxalan2-java-gcj libxcb-xlib0 libxerces2-java
5634   libxerces2-java-gcj libxtrap6 mpeglib networkstatus
5635   openoffice.org-writer2latex pmount poster psutils quanta quanta-data
5636   superkaramba svgalibg1 tex-common texlive-base texlive-base-bin
5637   texlive-common texlive-doc-base texlive-fonts-recommended
5638   xserver-xorg-video-cyrix xserver-xorg-video-imstt
5639   xserver-xorg-video-nsc xserver-xorg-video-v4l xserver-xorg-video-vga
5640   xulrunner-1.9</p>
5641
5642
5643       </div>
5644       <div class="tags">
5645
5646
5647         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
5648
5649
5650       </div>
5651     </div>
5652     <div class="padding"></div>
5653
5654     <div class="entry">
5655       <div class="title">
5656         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Automatic_upgrade_testing_from_Lenny_to_Squeeze.html">Automatic upgrade testing from Lenny to Squeeze</a>
5657       </div>
5658       <div class="date">
5659         11th June 2010
5660       </div>
5661       <div class="body">
5662         <p>The last few days I have done some upgrade testing in Debian, to
5663 see if the upgrade from Lenny to Squeeze will go smoothly.  A few bugs
5664 have been discovered and reported in the process
5665 (<a href="http://bugs.debian.org/585410">#585410</a> in nagios3-cgi,
5666 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/584879">#584879</a> already fixed in
5667 enscript and <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/584861">#584861</a> in
5668 kdebase-workspace-data), and to get a more regular testing going on, I
5669 am working on a script to automate the test.</p>
5670
5671 <p>The idea is to create a Lenny chroot and use tasksel to install a
5672 Gnome or KDE desktop installation inside the chroot before upgrading
5673 it.  To ensure no services are started in the chroot, a policy-rc.d
5674 script is inserted.  To make sure tasksel believe it is to install a
5675 desktop on a laptop, the tasksel tests are replaced in the chroot
5676 (only acceptable because this is a throw-away chroot).</p>
5677
5678 <p>A naive upgrade from Lenny to Squeeze using aptitude dist-upgrade
5679 currently always fail because udev refuses to upgrade with the kernel
5680 in Lenny, so to avoid that problem the file /etc/udev/kernel-upgrade
5681 is created.  The bug report
5682 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/566000">#566000</a> make me suspect
5683 this problem do not trigger in a chroot, but I touch the file anyway
5684 to make sure the upgrade go well.  Testing on virtual and real
5685 hardware have failed me because of udev so far, and creating this file
5686 do the trick in such settings anyway.  This is a
5687 <a href="http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/debian-26/failed-dist-upgrade-due-to-udev-config_sysfs_deprecated-nonsense-804130/">known
5688 issue</a> and the current udev behaviour is intended by the udev
5689 maintainer because he lack the resources to rewrite udev to keep
5690 working with old kernels or something like that.  I really wish the
5691 udev upstream would keep udev backwards compatible, to avoid such
5692 upgrade problem, but given that they fail to do so, I guess
5693 documenting the way out of this mess is the best option we got for
5694 Debian Squeeze.</p>
5695
5696 <p>Anyway, back to the task at hand, testing upgrades.  This test
5697 script, which I call <tt>upgrade-test</tt> for now, is doing the
5698 trick:</p>
5699
5700 <blockquote><pre>
5701 #!/bin/sh
5702 set -ex
5703
5704 if [ "$1" ] ; then
5705     desktop=$1
5706 else
5707     desktop=gnome
5708 fi
5709
5710 from=lenny
5711 to=squeeze
5712
5713 exec &lt; /dev/null
5714 unset LANG
5715 mirror=http://ftp.skolelinux.org/debian
5716 tmpdir=chroot-$from-upgrade-$to-$desktop
5717 fuser -mv .
5718 debootstrap $from $tmpdir $mirror
5719 chroot $tmpdir aptitude update
5720 cat > $tmpdir/usr/sbin/policy-rc.d &lt;&lt;EOF
5721 #!/bin/sh
5722 exit 101
5723 EOF
5724 chmod a+rx $tmpdir/usr/sbin/policy-rc.d
5725 exit_cleanup() {
5726     umount $tmpdir/proc
5727 }
5728 mount -t proc proc $tmpdir/proc
5729 # Make sure proc is unmounted also on failure
5730 trap exit_cleanup EXIT INT
5731
5732 chroot $tmpdir aptitude -y install debconf-utils
5733
5734 # Make sure tasksel autoselection trigger.  It need the test scripts
5735 # to return the correct answers.
5736 echo tasksel tasksel/desktop multiselect $desktop | \
5737     chroot $tmpdir debconf-set-selections
5738
5739 # Include the desktop and laptop task
5740 for test in desktop laptop ; do
5741     echo > $tmpdir/usr/lib/tasksel/tests/$test &lt;&lt;EOF
5742 #!/bin/sh
5743 exit 2
5744 EOF
5745     chmod a+rx $tmpdir/usr/lib/tasksel/tests/$test
5746 done
5747
5748 DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive
5749 DEBIAN_PRIORITY=critical
5750 export DEBIAN_FRONTEND DEBIAN_PRIORITY
5751 chroot $tmpdir tasksel --new-install
5752
5753 echo deb $mirror $to main > $tmpdir/etc/apt/sources.list
5754 chroot $tmpdir aptitude update
5755 touch $tmpdir/etc/udev/kernel-upgrade
5756 chroot $tmpdir aptitude -y dist-upgrade
5757 fuser -mv
5758 </pre></blockquote>
5759
5760 <p>I suspect it would be useful to test upgrades with both apt-get and
5761 with aptitude, but I have not had time to look at how they behave
5762 differently so far.  I hope to get a cron job running to do the test
5763 regularly and post the result on the web.  The Gnome upgrade currently
5764 work, while the KDE upgrade fail because of the bug in
5765 kdebase-workspace-data</p>
5766
5767 <p>I am not quite sure what kind of extract from the huge upgrade logs
5768 (KDE 167 KiB, Gnome 516 KiB) it make sense to include in this blog
5769 post, so I will refrain from trying.  I can report that for Gnome,
5770 aptitude report 760 packages upgraded, 448 newly installed, 129 to
5771 remove and 1 not upgraded and 1024MB need to be downloaded while for
5772 KDE the same numbers are 702 packages upgraded, 507 newly installed,
5773 193 to remove and 0 not upgraded and 1117MB need to be downloaded</p>
5774
5775 <p>I am very happy to notice that the Gnome desktop + laptop upgrade
5776 is able to migrate to dependency based boot sequencing and parallel
5777 booting without a hitch.  Was unsure if there were still bugs with
5778 packages failing to clean up their obsolete init.d script during
5779 upgrades, and no such problem seem to affect the Gnome desktop+laptop
5780 packages.</p>
5781
5782       </div>
5783       <div class="tags">
5784
5785
5786         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bootsystem">bootsystem</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
5787
5788
5789       </div>
5790     </div>
5791     <div class="padding"></div>
5792
5793     <div class="entry">
5794       <div class="title">
5795         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Upstart_or_sysvinit___as_init_d_scripts_see_it.html">Upstart or sysvinit - as init.d scripts see it</a>
5796       </div>
5797       <div class="date">
5798          6th June 2010
5799       </div>
5800       <div class="body">
5801         <p>If Debian is to migrate to upstart on Linux, I expect some init.d
5802 scripts to migrate (some of) their operations to upstart job while
5803 keeping the init.d for hurd and kfreebsd.  The packages with such
5804 needs will need a way to get their init.d scripts to behave
5805 differently when used with sysvinit and with upstart.  Because of
5806 this, I had a look at the environment variables set when a init.d
5807 script is running under upstart, and when it is not.</p>
5808
5809 <p>With upstart, I notice these environment variables are set when a
5810 script is started from rcS.d/ (ignoring some irrelevant ones like
5811 COLUMNS):</p>
5812
5813 <blockquote><pre>
5814 DEFAULT_RUNLEVEL=2
5815 previous=N
5816 PREVLEVEL=
5817 RUNLEVEL=
5818 runlevel=S
5819 UPSTART_EVENTS=startup
5820 UPSTART_INSTANCE=
5821 UPSTART_JOB=rc-sysinit
5822 </pre></blockquote>
5823
5824 <p>With sysvinit, these environment variables are set for the same
5825 script.</p>
5826
5827 <blockquote><pre>
5828 INIT_VERSION=sysvinit-2.88
5829 previous=N
5830 PREVLEVEL=N
5831 RUNLEVEL=S
5832 runlevel=S
5833 </pre></blockquote>
5834
5835 <p>The RUNLEVEL and PREVLEVEL environment variables passed on from
5836 sysvinit are not set by upstart.  Not sure if it is intentional or not
5837 to not be compatible with sysvinit in this regard.</p>
5838
5839 <p>For scripts needing to behave differently when upstart is used,
5840 looking for the UPSTART_JOB environment variable seem to be a good
5841 choice.</p>
5842
5843       </div>
5844       <div class="tags">
5845
5846
5847         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bootsystem">bootsystem</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
5848
5849
5850       </div>
5851     </div>
5852     <div class="padding"></div>
5853
5854     <div class="entry">
5855       <div class="title">
5856         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/A_manual_for_standards_wars___.html">A manual for standards wars...</a>
5857       </div>
5858       <div class="date">
5859          6th June 2010
5860       </div>
5861       <div class="body">
5862         <p>Via the
5863 <a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/robweir/antic-atom/~3/QzU4RgoAGMg/weekly-links-10.html">blog
5864 of Rob Weir</a> I came across the very interesting essay named
5865 <a href="http://faculty.haas.berkeley.edu/shapiro/wars.pdf">The Art of
5866 Standards Wars</a> (PDF 25 pages).  I recommend it for everyone
5867 following the standards wars of today.</p>
5868
5869       </div>
5870       <div class="tags">
5871
5872
5873         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/standard">standard</a>.
5874
5875
5876       </div>
5877     </div>
5878     <div class="padding"></div>
5879
5880     <div class="entry">
5881       <div class="title">
5882         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Sitesummary_tip__Listing_computer_hardware_models_used_at_site.html">Sitesummary tip: Listing computer hardware models used at site</a>
5883       </div>
5884       <div class="date">
5885          3rd June 2010
5886       </div>
5887       <div class="body">
5888         <p>When using sitesummary at a site to track machines, it is possible
5889 to get a list of the machine types in use thanks to the DMI
5890 information extracted from each machine.  The script to do so is
5891 included in the sitesummary package, and here is example output from
5892 the Skolelinux build servers:</p>
5893
5894 <blockquote><pre>
5895 maintainer:~# /usr/lib/sitesummary/hardware-model-summary
5896   vendor                    count
5897   Dell Computer Corporation     1
5898     PowerEdge 1750              1
5899   IBM                           1
5900     eserver xSeries 345 -[8670M1X]-     1
5901   Intel                         2
5902   [no-dmi-info]                 3
5903 maintainer:~#
5904 </pre></blockquote>
5905
5906 <p>The quality of the report depend on the quality of the DMI tables
5907 provided in each machine.  Here there are Intel machines without model
5908 information listed with Intel as vendor and no model, and virtual Xen
5909 machines listed as [no-dmi-info].  One can add -l as a command line
5910 option to list the individual machines.</p>
5911
5912 <p>A larger list is
5913 <a href="http://narvikskolen.no/sitesummary/">available from the the
5914 city of Narvik</a>, which uses Skolelinux on all their shools and also
5915 provide the basic sitesummary report publicly.  In their report there
5916 are ~1400 machines. I know they use both Ubuntu and Skolelinux on
5917 their machines, and as sitesummary is available in both distributions,
5918 it is trivial to get all of them to report to the same central
5919 collector.</p>
5920
5921       </div>
5922       <div class="tags">
5923
5924
5925         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sitesummary">sitesummary</a>.
5926
5927
5928       </div>
5929     </div>
5930     <div class="padding"></div>
5931
5932     <div class="entry">
5933       <div class="title">
5934         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/KDM_fail_at_boot_with_NVidia_cards___and_no_one_try_to_fix_it_.html">KDM fail at boot with NVidia cards - and no one try to fix it?</a>
5935       </div>
5936       <div class="date">
5937          1st June 2010
5938       </div>
5939       <div class="body">
5940         <p>It is strange to watch how a bug in Debian causing KDM to fail to
5941 start at boot when an NVidia video card is used is handled.  The
5942 problem seem to be that the nvidia X.org driver uses a long time to
5943 initialize, and this duration is longer than kdm is configured to
5944 wait.</p>
5945
5946 <p>I came across two bugs related to this issue,
5947 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/583312">#583312</a> initially filed
5948 against initscripts and passed on to nvidia-glx when it became obvious
5949 that the nvidia drivers were involved, and
5950 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/524751">#524751</a> initially filed against
5951 kdm and passed on to src:nvidia-graphics-drivers for unknown reasons.</p>
5952
5953 <p>To me, it seem that no-one is interested in actually solving the
5954 problem nvidia video card owners experience and make sure the Debian
5955 distribution work out of the box for these users.  The nvidia driver
5956 maintainers expect kdm to be set up to wait longer, while kdm expect
5957 the nvidia driver maintainers to fix the driver to start faster, and
5958 while they wait for each other I guess the users end up switching to a
5959 distribution that work for them.  I have no idea what the solution is,
5960 but I am pretty sure that waiting for each other is not it.</p>
5961
5962 <p>I wonder why we end up handling bugs this way.</p>
5963
5964       </div>
5965       <div class="tags">
5966
5967
5968         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bootsystem">bootsystem</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
5969
5970
5971       </div>
5972     </div>
5973     <div class="padding"></div>
5974
5975     <div class="entry">
5976       <div class="title">
5977         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Parallellized_boot_seem_to_hold_up_well_in_Debian_testing.html">Parallellized boot seem to hold up well in Debian/testing</a>
5978       </div>
5979       <div class="date">
5980         27th May 2010
5981       </div>
5982       <div class="body">
5983         <p>A few days ago, parallel booting was enabled in Debian/testing.
5984 The feature seem to hold up pretty well, but three fairly serious
5985 issues are known and should be solved:
5986
5987 <p><ul>
5988
5989 <li>The wicd package seen to
5990 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/508289">break NFS mounting</a> and
5991 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/581586">network setup</a> when
5992 parallel booting is enabled.  No idea why, but the wicd maintainer
5993 seem to be on the case.</li>
5994
5995 <li>The nvidia X driver seem to
5996 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/583312">have a race condition</a>
5997 triggered more easily when parallel booting is in effect.  The
5998 maintainer is on the case.</li>
5999
6000 <li>The sysv-rc package fail to properly enable dependency based boot
6001 sequencing (the shutdown is broken) when old file-rc users
6002 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/575080">try to switch back</a> to
6003 sysv-rc.  One way to solve it would be for file-rc to create
6004 /etc/init.d/.legacy-bootordering, and another is to try to make
6005 sysv-rc more robust.  Will investigate some more and probably upload a
6006 workaround in sysv-rc to help those trying to move from file-rc to
6007 sysv-rc get a working shutdown.</li>
6008
6009 </ul></p>
6010
6011 <p>All in all not many surprising issues, and all of them seem
6012 solvable before Squeeze is released.  In addition to these there are
6013 some packages with bugs in their dependencies and run level settings,
6014 which I expect will be fixed in a reasonable time span.</p>
6015
6016 <p>If you report any problems with dependencies in init.d scripts to
6017 the BTS, please usertag the report to get it to show up at
6018 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/pkgreport.cgi?users=initscripts-ng-devel@lists.alioth.debian.org">the
6019 list of usertagged bugs related to this</a>.</p>
6020
6021 <p>Update: Correct bug number to file-rc issue.</p>
6022
6023       </div>
6024       <div class="tags">
6025
6026
6027         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bootsystem">bootsystem</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
6028
6029
6030       </div>
6031     </div>
6032     <div class="padding"></div>
6033
6034     <div class="entry">
6035       <div class="title">
6036         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/More_flexible_firmware_handling_in_debian_installer.html">More flexible firmware handling in debian-installer</a>
6037       </div>
6038       <div class="date">
6039         22nd May 2010
6040       </div>
6041       <div class="body">
6042         <p>After a long break from debian-installer development, I finally
6043 found time today to return to the project.  Having to spend less time
6044 working dependency based boot in debian, as it is almost complete now,
6045 definitely helped freeing some time.</p>
6046
6047 <p>A while back, I ran into a problem while working on Debian Edu.  We
6048 include some firmware packages on the Debian Edu CDs, those needed to
6049 get disk and network controllers working.  Without having these
6050 firmware packages available during installation, it is impossible to
6051 install Debian Edu on the given machine, and because our target group
6052 are non-technical people, asking them to provide firmware packages on
6053 an external medium is a support pain.  Initially, I expected it to be
6054 enough to include the firmware packages on the CD to get
6055 debian-installer to find and use them.  This proved to be wrong.
6056 Next, I hoped it was enough to symlink the relevant firmware packages
6057 to some useful location on the CD (tried /cdrom/ and
6058 /cdrom/firmware/).  This also proved to not work, and at this point I
6059 found time to look at the debian-installer code to figure out what was
6060 going to work.</p>
6061
6062 <p>The firmware loading code is in the hw-detect package, and a closer
6063 look revealed that it would only look for firmware packages outside
6064 the installation media, so the CD was never checked for firmware
6065 packages.  It would only check USB sticks, floppies and other
6066 "external" media devices.  Today I changed it to also look in the
6067 /cdrom/firmware/ directory on the mounted CD or DVD, which should
6068 solve the problem I ran into with Debian edu.  I also changed it to
6069 look in /firmware/, to make sure the installer also find firmware
6070 provided in the initrd when booting the installer via PXE, to allow us
6071 to provide the same feature in the PXE setup included in Debian
6072 Edu.</p>
6073
6074 <p>To make sure firmware deb packages with a license questions are not
6075 activated without asking if the license is accepted, I extended
6076 hw-detect to look for preinst scripts in the firmware packages, and
6077 run these before activating the firmware during installation.  The
6078 license question is asked using debconf in the preinst, so this should
6079 solve the issue for the firmware packages I have looked at so far.</p>
6080
6081 <p>If you want to discuss the details of these features, please
6082 contact us on debian-boot@lists.debian.org.</p>
6083
6084       </div>
6085       <div class="tags">
6086
6087
6088         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
6089
6090
6091       </div>
6092     </div>
6093     <div class="padding"></div>
6094
6095     <div class="entry">
6096       <div class="title">
6097         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Parallellized_boot_is_now_the_default_in_Debian_unstable.html">Parallellized boot is now the default in Debian/unstable</a>
6098       </div>
6099       <div class="date">
6100         14th May 2010
6101       </div>
6102       <div class="body">
6103         <p>Since this evening, parallel booting is the default in
6104 Debian/unstable for machines using dependency based boot sequencing.
6105 Apparently the testing of concurrent booting has been wider than
6106 expected, if I am to believe the
6107 <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2010/05/msg00122.html">input
6108 on debian-devel@</a>, and I concluded a few days ago to move forward
6109 with the feature this weekend, to give us some time to detect any
6110 remaining problems before Squeeze is frozen.  If serious problems are
6111 detected, it is simple to change the default back to sequential boot.
6112 The upload of the new sysvinit package also activate a new upstream
6113 version.</p>
6114
6115 More information about
6116 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/LSBInitScripts/DependencyBasedBoot">dependency
6117 based boot sequencing</a> is available from the Debian wiki.  It is
6118 currently possible to disable parallel booting when one run into
6119 problems caused by it, by adding this line to /etc/default/rcS:</p>
6120
6121 <blockquote><pre>
6122 CONCURRENCY=none
6123 </pre></blockquote>
6124
6125 <p>If you report any problems with dependencies in init.d scripts to
6126 the BTS, please usertag the report to get it to show up at
6127 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/pkgreport.cgi?users=initscripts-ng-devel@lists.alioth.debian.org">the
6128 list of usertagged bugs related to this</a>.</p>
6129
6130       </div>
6131       <div class="tags">
6132
6133
6134         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bootsystem">bootsystem</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
6135
6136
6137       </div>
6138     </div>
6139     <div class="padding"></div>
6140
6141     <div class="entry">
6142       <div class="title">
6143         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Sitesummary_tip__Listing_MAC_address_of_all_clients.html">Sitesummary tip: Listing MAC address of all clients</a>
6144       </div>
6145       <div class="date">
6146         14th May 2010
6147       </div>
6148       <div class="body">
6149         <p>In the recent Debian Edu versions, the
6150 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/HowTo/SiteSummary">sitesummary
6151 system</a> is used to keep track of the machines in the school
6152 network.  Each machine will automatically report its status to the
6153 central server after boot and once per night.  The network setup is
6154 also reported, and using this information it is possible to get the
6155 MAC address of all network interfaces in the machines.  This is useful
6156 to update the DHCP configuration.</p>
6157
6158 <p>To give some idea how to use sitesummary, here is a one-liner to
6159 ist all MAC addresses of all machines reporting to sitesummary.  Run
6160 this on the collector host:</p>
6161
6162 <blockquote><pre>
6163 perl -MSiteSummary -e 'for_all_hosts(sub { print join(" ", get_macaddresses(shift)), "\n"; });'
6164 </pre></blockquote>
6165
6166 <p>This will list all MAC addresses assosiated with all machine, one
6167 line per machine and with space between the MAC addresses.</p>
6168
6169 <p>To allow system administrators easier job at adding static DHCP
6170 addresses for hosts, it would be possible to extend this to fetch
6171 machine information from sitesummary and update the DHCP and DNS
6172 tables in LDAP using this information.  Such tool is unfortunately not
6173 written yet.</p>
6174
6175       </div>
6176       <div class="tags">
6177
6178
6179         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sitesummary">sitesummary</a>.
6180
6181
6182       </div>
6183     </div>
6184     <div class="padding"></div>
6185
6186     <div class="entry">
6187       <div class="title">
6188         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/systemd__an_interesting_alternative_to_upstart.html">systemd, an interesting alternative to upstart</a>
6189       </div>
6190       <div class="date">
6191         13th May 2010
6192       </div>
6193       <div class="body">
6194         <p>The last few days a new boot system called
6195 <a href="http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/systemd">systemd</a>
6196 has been
6197 <a href="http://0pointer.de/blog/projects/systemd.html">introduced</a>
6198
6199 to the free software world.  I have not yet had time to play around
6200 with it, but it seem to be a very interesting alternative to
6201 <a href="http://upstart.ubuntu.com/">upstart</a>, and might prove to be
6202 a good alternative for Debian when we are able to switch to an event
6203 based boot system.  Tollef is
6204 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/580814">in the process</a> of getting
6205 systemd into Debian, and I look forward to seeing how well it work.  I
6206 like the fact that systemd handles init.d scripts with dependency
6207 information natively, allowing them to run in parallel where upstart
6208 at the moment do not.</p>
6209
6210 <p>Unfortunately do systemd have the same problem as upstart regarding
6211 platform support.  It only work on recent Linux kernels, and also need
6212 some new kernel features enabled to function properly.  This means
6213 kFreeBSD and Hurd ports of Debian will need a port or a different boot
6214 system.  Not sure how that will be handled if systemd proves to be the
6215 way forward.</p>
6216
6217 <p>In the mean time, based on the
6218 <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2010/05/msg00122.html">input
6219 on debian-devel@</a> regarding parallel booting in Debian, I have
6220 decided to enable full parallel booting as the default in Debian as
6221 soon as possible (probably this weekend or early next week), to see if
6222 there are any remaining serious bugs in the init.d dependencies.  A
6223 new version of the sysvinit package implementing this change is
6224 already in experimental.  If all go well, Squeeze will be released
6225 with parallel booting enabled by default.</p>
6226
6227       </div>
6228       <div class="tags">
6229
6230
6231         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bootsystem">bootsystem</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
6232
6233
6234       </div>
6235     </div>
6236     <div class="padding"></div>
6237
6238     <div class="entry">
6239       <div class="title">
6240         <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>
6241       </div>
6242       <div class="date">
6243          6th May 2010
6244       </div>
6245       <div class="body">
6246         <p>These days, the init.d script dependencies in Squeeze are quite
6247 complete, so complete that it is actually possible to run all the
6248 init.d scripts in parallell based on these dependencies.  If you want
6249 to test your Squeeze system, make sure
6250 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/LSBInitScripts/DependencyBasedBoot">dependency
6251 based boot sequencing</a> is enabled, and add this line to
6252 /etc/default/rcS:</p>
6253
6254 <blockquote><pre>
6255 CONCURRENCY=makefile
6256 </pre></blockquote>
6257
6258 <p>That is it.  It will cause sysv-rc to use the startpar tool to run
6259 scripts in parallel using the dependency information stored in
6260 /etc/init.d/.depend.boot, /etc/init.d/.depend.start and
6261 /etc/init.d/.depend.stop to order the scripts.  Startpar is configured
6262 to try to start the kdm and gdm scripts as early as possible, and will
6263 start the facilities required by kdm or gdm as early as possible to
6264 make this happen.</p>
6265
6266 <p>Give it a try, and see if you like the result.  If some services
6267 fail to start properly, it is most likely because they have incomplete
6268 init.d script dependencies in their startup script (or some of their
6269 dependent scripts have incomplete dependencies).  Report bugs and get
6270 the package maintainers to fix it. :)</p>
6271
6272 <p>Running scripts in parallel could be the default in Debian when we
6273 manage to get the init.d script dependencies complete and correct.  I
6274 expect we will get there in Squeeze+1, if we get manage to test and
6275 fix the remaining issues.</p>
6276
6277 <p>If you report any problems with dependencies in init.d scripts to
6278 the BTS, please usertag the report to get it to show up at
6279 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/pkgreport.cgi?users=initscripts-ng-devel@lists.alioth.debian.org">the
6280 list of usertagged bugs related to this</a>.</p>
6281
6282       </div>
6283       <div class="tags">
6284
6285
6286         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bootsystem">bootsystem</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
6287
6288
6289       </div>
6290     </div>
6291     <div class="padding"></div>
6292
6293     <div class="entry">
6294       <div class="title">
6295         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_has_switched_to_dependency_based_boot_sequencing.html">Debian has switched to dependency based boot sequencing</a>
6296       </div>
6297       <div class="date">
6298         27th July 2009
6299       </div>
6300       <div class="body">
6301         <p>Since this evening, with the upload of sysvinit version 2.87dsf-2,
6302 and the upload of insserv version 1.12.0-10 yesterday, Debian unstable
6303 have been migrated to using dependency based boot sequencing.  This
6304 conclude work me and others have been doing for the last three days.
6305 It feels great to see this finally part of the default Debian
6306 installation.  Now we just need to weed out the last few problems that
6307 are bound to show up, to get everything ready for Squeeze.</p>
6308
6309 <p>The next step is migrating /sbin/init from sysvinit to upstart, and
6310 fixing the more fundamental problem of handing the event based
6311 non-predictable kernel in the early boot.</p>
6312
6313       </div>
6314       <div class="tags">
6315
6316
6317         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bootsystem">bootsystem</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
6318
6319
6320       </div>
6321     </div>
6322     <div class="padding"></div>
6323
6324     <div class="entry">
6325       <div class="title">
6326         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Taking_over_sysvinit_development.html">Taking over sysvinit development</a>
6327       </div>
6328       <div class="date">
6329         22nd July 2009
6330       </div>
6331       <div class="body">
6332         <p>After several years of frustration with the lack of activity from
6333 the existing sysvinit upstream developer, I decided a few weeks ago to
6334 take over the package and become the new upstream.  The number of
6335 patches to track for the Debian package was becoming a burden, and the
6336 lack of synchronization between the distribution made it hard to keep
6337 the package up to date.</p>
6338
6339 <p>On the new sysvinit team is the SuSe maintainer Dr. Werner Fink,
6340 and my Debian co-maintainer Kel Modderman.  About 10 days ago, I made
6341 a new upstream tarball with version number 2.87dsf (for Debian, SuSe
6342 and Fedora), based on the patches currently in use in these
6343 distributions.  We Debian maintainers plan to move to this tarball as
6344 the new upstream as soon as we find time to do the merge.  Since the
6345 new tarball was created, we agreed with Werner at SuSe to make a new
6346 upstream project at <a href="http://savannah.nongnu.org/">Savannah</a>, and continue
6347 development there.  The project is registered and currently waiting
6348 for approval by the Savannah administrators, and as soon as it is
6349 approved, we will import the old versions from svn and continue
6350 working on the future release.</p>
6351
6352 <p>It is a bit ironic that this is done now, when some of the involved
6353 distributions are moving to upstart as a syvinit replacement.</p>
6354
6355       </div>
6356       <div class="tags">
6357
6358
6359         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bootsystem">bootsystem</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
6360
6361
6362       </div>
6363     </div>
6364     <div class="padding"></div>
6365
6366     <div class="entry">
6367       <div class="title">
6368         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_boots_quicker_and_quicker.html">Debian boots quicker and quicker</a>
6369       </div>
6370       <div class="date">
6371         24th June 2009
6372       </div>
6373       <div class="body">
6374         <p>I spent Monday and tuesday this week in London with a lot of the
6375 people involved in the boot system on Debian and Ubuntu, to see if we
6376 could find more ways to speed up the boot system.  This was an Ubuntu
6377 funded
6378 <a href="https://wiki.ubuntu.com/FoundationsTeam/BootPerformance/DebianUbuntuSprint">developer
6379 gathering</a>. It was quite productive.  We also discussed the future
6380 of boot systems, and ways to handle the increasing number of boot
6381 issues introduced by the Linux kernel becoming more and more
6382 asynchronous and event base.  The Ubuntu approach using udev and
6383 upstart might be a good way forward.  Time will show.</p>
6384
6385 <p>Anyway, there are a few ways at the moment to speed up the boot
6386 process in Debian.  All of these should be applied to get a quick
6387 boot:</p>
6388
6389 <ul>
6390
6391 <li>Use dash as /bin/sh.</li>
6392
6393 <li>Disable the init.d/hwclock*.sh scripts and make sure the hardware
6394    clock is in UTC.</li>
6395
6396 <li>Install and activate the insserv package to enable
6397    <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/LSBInitScripts/DependencyBasedBoot">dependency
6398    based boot sequencing</a>, and enable concurrent booting.</li>
6399
6400 </ul>
6401
6402 These points are based on the Google summer of code work done by
6403 <a href="http://initscripts-ng.alioth.debian.org/soc2006-bootsystem/">Carlos
6404 Villegas</a>.
6405
6406 <p>Support for makefile-style concurrency during boot was uploaded to
6407 unstable yesterday.  When we tested it, we were able to cut 6 seconds
6408 from the boot sequence.  It depend on very correct dependency
6409 declaration in all init.d scripts, so I expect us to find edge cases
6410 where the dependences in some scripts are slightly wrong when we start
6411 using this.</p>
6412
6413 <p>On our IRC channel for this effort, #pkg-sysvinit, a new idea was
6414 introduced by Raphael Geissert today, one that could affect the
6415 startup speed as well.  Instead of starting some scripts concurrently
6416 from rcS.d/ and another set of scripts from rc2.d/, it would be
6417 possible to run a of them in the same process.  A quick way to test
6418 this would be to enable insserv and run 'mv /etc/rc2.d/S* /etc/rcS.d/;
6419 insserv'.  Will need to test if that work. :)</p>
6420
6421       </div>
6422       <div class="tags">
6423
6424
6425         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bootsystem">bootsystem</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
6426
6427
6428       </div>
6429     </div>
6430     <div class="padding"></div>
6431
6432     <div class="entry">
6433       <div class="title">
6434         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/BSAs_p_stander_om_piratkopiering_m_ter_motstand.html">BSAs påstander om piratkopiering møter motstand</a>
6435       </div>
6436       <div class="date">
6437         17th May 2009
6438       </div>
6439       <div class="body">
6440         <p>Hvert år de siste årene har BSA, lobbyfronten til de store
6441 programvareselskapene som Microsoft og Apple, publisert en rapport der
6442 de gjetter på hvor mye piratkopiering påfører i tapte inntekter i
6443 ulike land rundt om i verden.  Resultatene er tendensiøse.  For noen
6444 dager siden kom
6445 <a href="http://global.bsa.org/globalpiracy2008/studies/globalpiracy2008.pdf">siste
6446 rapport</a>, og det er flere kritiske kommentarer publisert de siste
6447 dagene.  Et spesielt interessant kommentar fra Sverige,
6448 <a href="http://www.idg.se/2.1085/1.229795/bsa-hoftade-sverigesiffror">BSA
6449 höftade Sverigesiffror</a>, oppsummeres slik:</p>
6450
6451 <blockquote>
6452 I sin senaste rapport slår BSA fast att 25 procent av all mjukvara i
6453 Sverige är piratkopierad. Det utan att ha pratat med ett enda svenskt
6454 företag. "Man bör nog kanske inte se de här siffrorna som helt
6455 exakta", säger BSAs Sverigechef John Hugosson.
6456 </blockquote>
6457
6458 <p>Mon tro om de er like metodiske når de gjetter på andelen piratkopiering i Norge?  To andre kommentarer er <a
6459 href="http://www.vnunet.com/vnunet/comment/2242134/bsa-piracy-figures-shot-reality">BSA
6460 piracy figures need a shot of reality</a> og <a
6461 href="http://www.michaelgeist.ca/content/view/3958/125/">Does The WIPO
6462 Copyright Treaty Work?</a></p>
6463
6464 <p>Fant lenkene via <a
6465 href="http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/05/17/1632242">oppslag
6466 på Slashdot</a>.</p>
6467
6468       </div>
6469       <div class="tags">
6470
6471
6472         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bsa">bsa</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/fildeling">fildeling</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/norsk">norsk</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/opphavsrett">opphavsrett</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/personvern">personvern</a>.
6473
6474
6475       </div>
6476     </div>
6477     <div class="padding"></div>
6478
6479     <div class="entry">
6480       <div class="title">
6481         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/IDG_mener_linux_i_servermarkedet_vil_vokse_med_21__i_2009.html">IDG mener linux i servermarkedet vil vokse med 21% i 2009</a>
6482       </div>
6483       <div class="date">
6484          7th May 2009
6485       </div>
6486       <div class="body">
6487         <p>Kom over
6488 <a href="http://news.cnet.com/8301-13505_3-10216873-16.html">interessante
6489 tall</a> fra IDG om utviklingen av linuxservermarkedet.  Fikk meg til
6490 å tenke på antall tjenermaskiner ved Universitetet i Oslo der jeg
6491 jobber til daglig.  En rask opptelling forteller meg at vi har 490
6492 (61%) fysiske unix-tjener (mest linux men også noen solaris) og 196
6493 (25%) windowstjenere, samt 112 (14%) virtuelle unix-tjenere.  Med den
6494 bakgrunnskunnskapen kan jeg godt tro at IDG er inne på noe.</p>
6495
6496       </div>
6497       <div class="tags">
6498
6499
6500         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/norsk">norsk</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
6501
6502
6503       </div>
6504     </div>
6505     <div class="padding"></div>
6506
6507     <div class="entry">
6508       <div class="title">
6509         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Kryptert_harddisk___naturligvis.html">Kryptert harddisk - naturligvis</a>
6510       </div>
6511       <div class="date">
6512          2nd May 2009
6513       </div>
6514       <div class="body">
6515         <p><a href="http://www.dagensit.no/trender/article1658676.ece">Dagens
6516 IT melder</a> at Intel hevder at det er dyrt å miste en datamaskin,
6517 når en tar tap av arbeidstid, fortrolige dokumenter,
6518 personopplysninger og alt annet det innebærer.  Det er ingen tvil om
6519 at det er en kostbar affære å miste sin datamaskin, og det er årsaken
6520 til at jeg har kryptert harddisken på både kontormaskinen og min
6521 bærbare.  Begge inneholder personopplysninger jeg ikke ønsker skal
6522 komme på avveie, den første informasjon relatert til jobben min ved
6523 Universitetet i Oslo, og den andre relatert til blant annet
6524 foreningsarbeide.  Kryptering av diskene gjør at det er lite
6525 sannsynlig at dophoder som kan finne på å rappe maskinene får noe ut
6526 av dem.  Maskinene låses automatisk etter noen minutter uten bruk,
6527 og en reboot vil gjøre at de ber om passord før de vil starte opp.
6528 Jeg bruker Debian på begge maskinene, og installasjonssystemet der
6529 gjør det trivielt å sette opp krypterte disker.  Jeg har LVM på toppen
6530 av krypterte partisjoner, slik at alt av datapartisjoner er kryptert.
6531 Jeg anbefaler alle å kryptere diskene på sine bærbare.  Kostnaden når
6532 det er gjort slik jeg gjør det er minimale, og gevinstene er
6533 betydelige.  En bør dog passe på passordet.  Hvis det går tapt, må
6534 maskinen reinstalleres og alt er tapt.</p>
6535
6536 <p>Krypteringen vil ikke stoppe kompetente angripere som f.eks. kjøler
6537 ned minnebrikkene før maskinen rebootes med programvare for å hente ut
6538 krypteringsnøklene.  Kostnaden med å forsvare seg mot slike angripere
6539 er for min del høyere enn gevinsten.  Jeg tror oddsene for at
6540 f.eks. etteretningsorganisasjoner har glede av å titte på mine
6541 maskiner er minimale, og ulempene jeg ville oppnå ved å forsøke å
6542 gjøre det vanskeligere for angripere med kompetanse og ressurser er
6543 betydelige.</p>
6544
6545       </div>
6546       <div class="tags">
6547
6548
6549         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/norsk">norsk</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>.
6550
6551
6552       </div>
6553     </div>
6554     <div class="padding"></div>
6555
6556     <div class="entry">
6557       <div class="title">
6558         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Two_projects_that_have_improved_the_quality_of_free_software_a_lot.html">Two projects that have improved the quality of free software a lot</a>
6559       </div>
6560       <div class="date">
6561          2nd May 2009
6562       </div>
6563       <div class="body">
6564         <p>There are two software projects that have had huge influence on the
6565 quality of free software, and I wanted to mention both in case someone
6566 do not yet know them.</p>
6567
6568 <p>The first one is <a href="http://valgrind.org/">valgrind</a>, a
6569 tool to detect and expose errors in the memory handling of programs.
6570 It is easy to use, all one need to do is to run 'valgrind program',
6571 and it will report any problems on stdout.  It is even better if the
6572 program include debug information.  With debug information, it is able
6573 to report the source file name and line number where the problem
6574 occurs.  It can report things like 'reading past memory block in file
6575 X line N, the memory block was allocated in file Y, line M', and
6576 'using uninitialised value in control logic'.  This tool has made it
6577 trivial to investigate reproducible crash bugs in programs, and have
6578 reduced the number of this kind of bugs in free software a lot.
6579
6580 <p>The second one is
6581 <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coverity">Coverity</a> which is
6582 a source code checker.  It is able to process the source of a program
6583 and find problems in the logic without running the program.  It
6584 started out as the Stanford Checker and became well known when it was
6585 used to find bugs in the Linux kernel.  It is now a commercial tool
6586 and the company behind it is running
6587 <a href="http://www.scan.coverity.com/">a community service</a> for the
6588 free software community, where a lot of free software projects get
6589 their source checked for free.  Several thousand defects have been
6590 found and fixed so far.  It can find errors like 'lock L taken in file
6591 X line N is never released if exiting in line M', or 'the code in file
6592 Y lines O to P can never be executed'.  The projects included in the
6593 community service project have managed to get rid of a lot of
6594 reliability problems thanks to Coverity.</p>
6595
6596 <p>I believe tools like this, that are able to automatically find
6597 errors in the source, are vital to improve the quality of software and
6598 make sure we can get rid of the crashing and failing software we are
6599 surrounded by today.</p>
6600
6601       </div>
6602       <div class="tags">
6603
6604
6605         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>.
6606
6607
6608       </div>
6609     </div>
6610     <div class="padding"></div>
6611
6612     <div class="entry">
6613       <div class="title">
6614         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/No_patch_is_not_better_than_a_useless_patch.html">No patch is not better than a useless patch</a>
6615       </div>
6616       <div class="date">
6617         28th April 2009
6618       </div>
6619       <div class="body">
6620         <p>Julien Blache
6621 <a href="http://blog.technologeek.org/2009/04/12/214">claim that no
6622 patch is better than a useless patch</a>.  I completely disagree, as a
6623 patch allow one to discuss a concrete and proposed solution, and also
6624 prove that the issue at hand is important enough for someone to spent
6625 time on fixing it.  No patch do not provide any of these positive
6626 properties.</p>
6627
6628       </div>
6629       <div class="tags">
6630
6631
6632         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
6633
6634
6635       </div>
6636     </div>
6637     <div class="padding"></div>
6638
6639     <div class="entry">
6640       <div class="title">
6641         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Standardize_on_protocols_and_formats__not_vendors_and_applications.html">Standardize on protocols and formats, not vendors and applications</a>
6642       </div>
6643       <div class="date">
6644         30th March 2009
6645       </div>
6646       <div class="body">
6647         <p>Where I work at the University of Oslo, one decision stand out as a
6648 very good one to form a long lived computer infrastructure.  It is the
6649 simple one, lost by many in todays computer industry: Standardize on
6650 open network protocols and open exchange/storage formats, not applications.
6651 Applications come and go, while protocols and files tend to stay, and
6652 thus one want to make it easy to change application and vendor, while
6653 avoiding conversion costs and locking users to a specific platform or
6654 application.</p>
6655
6656 <p>This approach make it possible to replace the client applications
6657 independently of the server applications.  One can even allow users to
6658 use several different applications as long as they handle the selected
6659 protocol and format.  In the normal case, only one client application
6660 is recommended and users only get help if they choose to use this
6661 application, but those that want to deviate from the easy path are not
6662 blocked from doing so.</p>
6663
6664 <p>It also allow us to replace the server side without forcing the
6665 users to replace their applications, and thus allow us to select the
6666 best server implementation at any moment, when scale and resouce
6667 requirements change.</p>
6668
6669 <p>I strongly recommend standardizing - on open network protocols and
6670 open formats, but I would never recommend standardizing on a single
6671 application that do not use open network protocol or open formats.</p>
6672
6673       </div>
6674       <div class="tags">
6675
6676
6677         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/standard">standard</a>.
6678
6679
6680       </div>
6681     </div>
6682     <div class="padding"></div>
6683
6684     <div class="entry">
6685       <div class="title">
6686         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Returning_from_Skolelinux_developer_gathering.html">Returning from Skolelinux developer gathering</a>
6687       </div>
6688       <div class="date">
6689         29th March 2009
6690       </div>
6691       <div class="body">
6692         <p>I'm sitting on the train going home from this weekends Debian
6693 Edu/Skolelinux development gathering.  I got a bit done tuning the
6694 desktop, and looked into the dynamic service location protocol
6695 implementation avahi.  It look like it could be useful for us.  Almost
6696 30 people participated, and I believe it was a great environment to
6697 get to know the Skolelinux system.  Walter Bender, involved in the
6698 development of the Sugar educational platform, presented his stuff and
6699 also helped me improve my OLPC installation.  He also showed me that
6700 his Turtle Art application can be used in standalone mode, and we
6701 agreed that I would help getting it packaged for Debian.  As a
6702 standalone application it would be great for Debian Edu.  We also
6703 tried to get the video conferencing working with two OLPCs, but that
6704 proved to be too hard for us.  The application seem to need more work
6705 before it is ready for me.  I look forward to getting home and relax
6706 now. :)</p>
6707
6708       </div>
6709       <div class="tags">
6710
6711
6712         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
6713
6714
6715       </div>
6716     </div>
6717     <div class="padding"></div>
6718
6719     <div class="entry">
6720       <div class="title">
6721         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Time_for_new__LDAP_schemas_replacing_RFC_2307_.html">Time for new  LDAP schemas replacing RFC 2307?</a>
6722       </div>
6723       <div class="date">
6724         29th March 2009
6725       </div>
6726       <div class="body">
6727         <p>The state of standardized LDAP schemas on Linux is far from
6728 optimal.  There is RFC 2307 documenting one way to store NIS maps in
6729 LDAP, and a modified version of this normally called RFC 2307bis, with
6730 some modifications to be compatible with Active Directory.  The RFC
6731 specification handle the content of a lot of system databases, but do
6732 not handle DNS zones and DHCP configuration.</p>
6733
6734 <p>In <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu/Skolelinux</a>,
6735 we would like to store information about users, SMB clients/hosts,
6736 filegroups, netgroups (users and hosts), DHCP and DNS configuration,
6737 and LTSP configuration in LDAP.  These objects have a lot in common,
6738 but with the current LDAP schemas it is not possible to have one
6739 object per entity.  For example, one need to have at least three LDAP
6740 objects for a given computer, one with the SMB related stuff, one with
6741 DNS information and another with DHCP information.  The schemas
6742 provided for DNS and DHCP are impossible to combine into one LDAP
6743 object.  In addition, it is impossible to implement quick queries for
6744 netgroup membership, because of the way NIS triples are implemented.
6745 It just do not scale.  I believe it is time for a few RFC
6746 specifications to cleam up this mess.</p>
6747
6748 <p>I would like to have one LDAP object representing each computer in
6749 the network, and this object can then keep the SMB (ie host key), DHCP
6750 (mac address/name) and DNS (name/IP address) settings in one place.
6751 It need to be efficently stored to make sure it scale well.</p>
6752
6753 <p>I would also like to have a quick way to map from a user or
6754 computer and to the net group this user or computer is a member.</p>
6755
6756 <p>Active Directory have done a better job than unix heads like myself
6757 in this regard, and the unix side need to catch up.  Time to start a
6758 new IETF work group?</p>
6759
6760       </div>
6761       <div class="tags">
6762
6763
6764         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ldap">ldap</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
6765
6766
6767       </div>
6768     </div>
6769     <div class="padding"></div>
6770
6771     <div class="entry">
6772       <div class="title">
6773         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Endelig_er_Debian_Lenny_gitt_ut.html">Endelig er Debian Lenny gitt ut</a>
6774       </div>
6775       <div class="date">
6776         15th February 2009
6777       </div>
6778       <div class="body">
6779         <p>Endelig er <a href="http://www.debian.org/">Debian</a>
6780 <a href="http://www.debian.org/News/2009/20090214">Lenny</a> gitt ut.
6781 Et langt steg videre for Debian-prosjektet, og en rekke nye
6782 programpakker blir nå tilgjengelig for de av oss som bruker den
6783 stabile utgaven av Debian.  Neste steg er nå å få
6784 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Skolelinux</a> /
6785 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/">Debian Edu</a> ferdig
6786 oppdatert for den nye utgaven, slik at en oppdatert versjon kan
6787 slippes løs på skolene.  Takk til alle debian-utviklerne som har
6788 gjort dette mulig.  Endelig er f.eks. fungerende avhengighetsstyrt
6789 bootsekvens tilgjengelig i stabil utgave, vha pakken
6790 <tt>insserv</tt>.</p>
6791
6792       </div>
6793       <div class="tags">
6794
6795
6796         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/norsk">norsk</a>.
6797
6798
6799       </div>
6800     </div>
6801     <div class="padding"></div>
6802
6803     <div class="entry">
6804       <div class="title">
6805         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Devcamp_brought_us_closer_to_the_Lenny_based_Debian_Edu_release.html">Devcamp brought us closer to the Lenny based Debian Edu release</a>
6806       </div>
6807       <div class="date">
6808          7th December 2008
6809       </div>
6810       <div class="body">
6811         <p>This weekend we had a small developer gathering for Debian Edu in
6812 Oslo.  Most of Saturday was used for the general assemly for the
6813 member organization, but the rest of the weekend I used to tune the
6814 LTSP installation.  LTSP now work out of the box on the 10-network.
6815 Acer Aspire One proved to be a very nice thin client, with both
6816 screen, mouse and keybard in a small box.  Was working on getting the
6817 diskless workstation setup configured out of the box, but did not
6818 finish it before the weekend was up.</p>
6819
6820 <p>Did not find time to look at the 4 VGA cards in one box we got from
6821 the Brazilian group, so that will have to wait for the next
6822 development gathering.  Would love to have the Debian Edu installer
6823 automatically detect and configure a multiseat setup when it find one
6824 of these cards.</p>
6825
6826       </div>
6827       <div class="tags">
6828
6829
6830         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ltsp">ltsp</a>.
6831
6832
6833       </div>
6834     </div>
6835     <div class="padding"></div>
6836
6837     <div class="entry">
6838       <div class="title">
6839         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_sorry_state_of_multimedia_browser_plugins_in_Debian.html">The sorry state of multimedia browser plugins in Debian</a>
6840       </div>
6841       <div class="date">
6842         25th November 2008
6843       </div>
6844       <div class="body">
6845         <p>Recently I have spent some time evaluating the multimedia browser
6846 plugins available in Debian Lenny, to see which one we should use by
6847 default in Debian Edu.  We need an embedded video playing plugin with
6848 control buttons to pause or stop the video, and capable of streaming
6849 all the multimedia content available on the web.  The test results and
6850 notes are available on
6851 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/BrowserMultimedia">the
6852 Debian wiki</a>.  I was surprised how few of the plugins are able to
6853 fill this need.  My personal video player favorite, VLC, has a really
6854 bad plugin which fail on a lot of the test pages.  A lot of the MIME
6855 types I would expect to work with any free software player (like
6856 video/ogg), just do not work.  And simple formats like the
6857 audio/x-mplegurl format (m3u playlists), just isn't supported by the
6858 totem and vlc plugins.  I hope the situation will improve soon.  No
6859 wonder sites use the proprietary Adobe flash to play video.</p>
6860
6861 <p>For Lenny, we seem to end up with the mplayer plugin.  It seem to
6862 be the only one fitting our needs. :/</p>
6863
6864       </div>
6865       <div class="tags">
6866
6867
6868         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/multimedia">multimedia</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/web">web</a>.
6869
6870
6871       </div>
6872     </div>
6873     <div class="padding"></div>
6874
6875     <p style="text-align: right;"><a href="debian.rss"><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/xml.gif" alt="RSS Feed" width="36" height="14" /></a></p>
6876     <div id="sidebar">
6877
6878
6879
6880 <h2>Archive</h2>
6881 <ul>
6882
6883 <li>2013
6884 <ul>
6885
6886 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/01/">January (11)</a></li>
6887
6888 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/02/">February (9)</a></li>
6889
6890 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/03/">March (9)</a></li>
6891
6892 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/04/">April (6)</a></li>
6893
6894 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/05/">May (9)</a></li>
6895
6896 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/06/">June (10)</a></li>
6897
6898 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/07/">July (7)</a></li>
6899
6900 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/08/">August (3)</a></li>
6901
6902 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/09/">September (5)</a></li>
6903
6904 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/10/">October (7)</a></li>
6905
6906 </ul></li>
6907
6908 <li>2012
6909 <ul>
6910
6911 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/01/">January (7)</a></li>
6912
6913 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/02/">February (10)</a></li>
6914
6915 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/03/">March (17)</a></li>
6916
6917 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/04/">April (12)</a></li>
6918
6919 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/05/">May (12)</a></li>
6920
6921 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/06/">June (20)</a></li>
6922
6923 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/07/">July (17)</a></li>
6924
6925 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/08/">August (6)</a></li>
6926
6927 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/09/">September (9)</a></li>
6928
6929 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/10/">October (17)</a></li>
6930
6931 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/11/">November (10)</a></li>
6932
6933 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/12/">December (7)</a></li>
6934
6935 </ul></li>
6936
6937 <li>2011
6938 <ul>
6939
6940 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/01/">January (16)</a></li>
6941
6942 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/02/">February (6)</a></li>
6943
6944 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/03/">March (6)</a></li>
6945
6946 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/04/">April (7)</a></li>
6947
6948 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/05/">May (3)</a></li>
6949
6950 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/06/">June (2)</a></li>
6951
6952 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/07/">July (7)</a></li>
6953
6954 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/08/">August (6)</a></li>
6955
6956 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/09/">September (4)</a></li>
6957
6958 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/10/">October (2)</a></li>
6959
6960 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/11/">November (3)</a></li>
6961
6962 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/12/">December (1)</a></li>
6963
6964 </ul></li>
6965
6966 <li>2010
6967 <ul>
6968
6969 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/01/">January (2)</a></li>
6970
6971 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/02/">February (1)</a></li>
6972
6973 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/03/">March (3)</a></li>
6974
6975 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/04/">April (3)</a></li>
6976
6977 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/05/">May (9)</a></li>
6978
6979 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/06/">June (14)</a></li>
6980
6981 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/07/">July (12)</a></li>
6982
6983 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/08/">August (13)</a></li>
6984
6985 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/09/">September (7)</a></li>
6986
6987 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/10/">October (9)</a></li>
6988
6989 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/11/">November (13)</a></li>
6990
6991 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/12/">December (12)</a></li>
6992
6993 </ul></li>
6994
6995 <li>2009
6996 <ul>
6997
6998 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/01/">January (8)</a></li>
6999
7000 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/02/">February (8)</a></li>
7001
7002 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/03/">March (12)</a></li>
7003
7004 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/04/">April (10)</a></li>
7005
7006 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/05/">May (9)</a></li>
7007
7008 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/06/">June (3)</a></li>
7009
7010 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/07/">July (4)</a></li>
7011
7012 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/08/">August (3)</a></li>
7013
7014 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/09/">September (1)</a></li>
7015
7016 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/10/">October (2)</a></li>
7017
7018 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/11/">November (3)</a></li>
7019
7020 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/12/">December (3)</a></li>
7021
7022 </ul></li>
7023
7024 <li>2008
7025 <ul>
7026
7027 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2008/11/">November (5)</a></li>
7028
7029 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2008/12/">December (7)</a></li>
7030
7031 </ul></li>
7032
7033 </ul>
7034
7035
7036
7037 <h2>Tags</h2>
7038 <ul>
7039
7040  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/3d-printer">3d-printer (13)</a></li>
7041
7042  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/amiga">amiga (1)</a></li>
7043
7044  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/aros">aros (1)</a></li>
7045
7046  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bankid">bankid (4)</a></li>
7047
7048  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bitcoin">bitcoin (7)</a></li>
7049
7050  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bootsystem">bootsystem (12)</a></li>
7051
7052  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bsa">bsa (2)</a></li>
7053
7054  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian (88)</a></li>
7055
7056  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu (142)</a></li>
7057
7058  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/digistan">digistan (10)</a></li>
7059
7060  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/docbook">docbook (10)</a></li>
7061
7062  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/drivstoffpriser">drivstoffpriser (4)</a></li>
7063
7064  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english (223)</a></li>
7065
7066  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/fiksgatami">fiksgatami (21)</a></li>
7067
7068  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/fildeling">fildeling (12)</a></li>
7069
7070  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freeculture">freeculture (12)</a></li>
7071
7072  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freedombox">freedombox (5)</a></li>
7073
7074  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/frikanalen">frikanalen (11)</a></li>
7075
7076  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/intervju">intervju (37)</a></li>
7077
7078  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram">isenkram (7)</a></li>
7079
7080  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/kart">kart (18)</a></li>
7081
7082  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ldap">ldap (8)</a></li>
7083
7084  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/lenker">lenker (6)</a></li>
7085
7086  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ltsp">ltsp (1)</a></li>
7087
7088  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/mesh network">mesh network (3)</a></li>
7089
7090  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/multimedia">multimedia (25)</a></li>
7091
7092  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/norsk">norsk (236)</a></li>
7093
7094  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug (156)</a></li>
7095
7096  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/offentlig innsyn">offentlig innsyn (8)</a></li>
7097
7098  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/open311">open311 (2)</a></li>
7099
7100  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/opphavsrett">opphavsrett (45)</a></li>
7101
7102  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/personvern">personvern (67)</a></li>
7103
7104  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/raid">raid (1)</a></li>
7105
7106  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/reprap">reprap (11)</a></li>
7107
7108  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/rfid">rfid (2)</a></li>
7109
7110  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/robot">robot (8)</a></li>
7111
7112  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/rss">rss (1)</a></li>
7113
7114  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ruter">ruter (4)</a></li>
7115
7116  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/scraperwiki">scraperwiki (2)</a></li>
7117
7118  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet (32)</a></li>
7119
7120  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sitesummary">sitesummary (4)</a></li>
7121
7122  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/skepsis">skepsis (4)</a></li>
7123
7124  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/standard">standard (43)</a></li>
7125
7126  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/stavekontroll">stavekontroll (3)</a></li>
7127
7128  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/stortinget">stortinget (9)</a></li>
7129
7130  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance (20)</a></li>
7131
7132  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sysadmin">sysadmin (1)</a></li>
7133
7134  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/valg">valg (8)</a></li>
7135
7136  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/video">video (39)</a></li>
7137
7138  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/vitenskap">vitenskap (4)</a></li>
7139
7140  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/web">web (28)</a></li>
7141
7142 </ul>
7143
7144
7145     </div>
7146     <p style="text-align: right">
7147  Created by <a href="http://steve.org.uk/Software/chronicle">Chronicle v4.6</a>
7148 </p>
7149
7150   </body>
7151 </html>