1 <?xml version=
"1.0" encoding=
"utf-8"?>
2 <rss version='
2.0' xmlns:lj='http://www.livejournal.org/rss/lj/
1.0/'
>
4 <title>Petter Reinholdtsen - Entries tagged debian
</title>
5 <description>Entries tagged debian
</description>
6 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/
</link>
10 <title>Freedombox on Dreamplug, Raspberry Pi and virtual x86 machine
</title>
11 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Freedombox_on_Dreamplug__Raspberry_Pi_and_virtual_x86_machine.html
</link>
12 <guid isPermaLink=
"true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Freedombox_on_Dreamplug__Raspberry_Pi_and_virtual_x86_machine.html
</guid>
13 <pubDate>Fri,
14 Mar
2014 11:
00:
00 +
0100</pubDate>
14 <description><p
>The
<a href=
"https://wiki.debian.org/FreedomBox
">Freedombox
15 project
</a
> is working on providing the software and hardware for
16 making it easy for non-technical people to host their data and
17 communication at home, and being able to communicate with their
18 friends and family encrypted and away from prying eyes. It has been
19 going on for a while, and is slowly progressing towards a new test
20 release (
0.2).
</p
>
22 <p
>And what day could be better than the Pi day to announce that the
23 new version will provide
"hard drive
" / SD card / USB stick images for
24 Dreamplug, Raspberry Pi and VirtualBox (or any other virtualization
25 system), and can also be installed using a Debian installer preseed
26 file. The Debian based Freedombox is now based on Debian Jessie,
27 where most of the needed packages used are already present. Only one,
28 the freedombox-setup package, is missing. To try to build your own
29 boot image to test the current status, fetch the freedom-maker scripts
31 <a href=
"http://packages.qa.debian.org/vmdebootstrap
">vmdebootstrap
</a
>
32 with a user with sudo access to become root:
35 git clone http://anonscm.debian.org/git/freedombox/freedom-maker.git \
37 sudo apt-get install git vmdebootstrap mercurial python-docutils \
38 mktorrent extlinux virtualbox qemu-user-static binfmt-support \
40 make -C freedom-maker dreamplug-image raspberry-image virtualbox-image
43 <p
>Root access is needed to run debootstrap and mount loopback
44 devices. See the README for more details on the build. If you do not
45 want all three images, trim the make line. But note that thanks to
<a
46 href=
"https://bugs.debian.org/
741407">a race condition in
47 vmdebootstrap
</a
>, the build might fail without the patch to the
48 kpartx call.
</p
>
50 <p
>If you instead want to install using a Debian CD and the preseed
51 method, boot a Debian Wheezy ISO and use this boot argument to load
52 the preseed values:
</p
>
55 url=
<a href=
"http://www.reinholdtsen.name/freedombox/preseed-jessie.dat
">http://www.reinholdtsen.name/freedombox/preseed-jessie.dat
</a
>
58 <p
>But note that due to
<a href=
"https://bugs.debian.org/
740673">a
59 recently introduced bug in apt in Jessie
</a
>, the installer will
60 currently hang while setting up APT sources. Killing the
61 '<tt
>apt-cdrom ident
</tt
>' process when it hang a few times during the
62 installation will get the installation going. This affect all
63 installations in Jessie, and I expect it will be fixed soon.
</p
>
65 <p
>Give it a go and let us know how it goes on the mailing list, and help
66 us get the new release published. :) Please join us on
67 <a href=
"irc://irc.debian.org:
6667/%
23freedombox
">IRC (#freedombox on
68 irc.debian.org)
</a
> and
69 <a href=
"http://lists.alioth.debian.org/mailman/listinfo/freedombox-discuss
">the
70 mailing list
</a
> if you want to help make this vision come true.
</p
>
75 <title>New home and release
1.0 for netgroup and innetgr (aka ng-utils)
</title>
76 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/New_home_and_release_1_0_for_netgroup_and_innetgr__aka_ng_utils_.html
</link>
77 <guid isPermaLink=
"true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/New_home_and_release_1_0_for_netgroup_and_innetgr__aka_ng_utils_.html
</guid>
78 <pubDate>Sat,
22 Feb
2014 21:
45:
00 +
0100</pubDate>
79 <description><p
>Many years ago, I wrote a GPL licensed version of the netgroup and
80 innetgr tools, because I needed them in
81 <a href=
"http://www.skolelinux.org/
">Skolelinux
</a
>. I called the project
82 ng-utils, and it has served me well. I placed the project under the
83 <a href=
"http://www.hungry.com/
">Hungry Programmer
</a
> umbrella, and it was maintained in our CVS
84 repository. But many years ago, the CVS repository was dropped (lost,
85 not migrated to new hardware, not sure), and the project have lacked a
86 proper home since then.
</p
>
88 <p
>Last summer, I had a look at the package and made a new release
89 fixing a irritating crash bug, but was unable to store the changes in
90 a proper source control system. I applied for a project on
91 <a href=
"https://alioth.debian.org/
">Alioth
</a
>, but did not have time
92 to follow up on it. Until today. :)
</p
>
94 <p
>After many hours of cleaning and migration, the ng-utils project
95 now have a new home, and a git repository with the highlight of the
96 history of the project. I published all release tarballs and imported
97 them into the git repository. As the project is really stable and not
98 expected to gain new features any time soon, I decided to make a new
99 release and call it
1.0. Visit the new project home on
100 <a href=
"https://alioth.debian.org/projects/ng-utils/
">https://alioth.debian.org/projects/ng-utils/
</a
>
101 if you want to check it out. The new version is also uploaded into
102 <a href=
"http://packages.qa.debian.org/n/ng-utils.html
">Debian Unstable
</a
>.
</p
>
107 <title>Testing sysvinit from experimental in Debian Hurd
</title>
108 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Testing_sysvinit_from_experimental_in_Debian_Hurd.html
</link>
109 <guid isPermaLink=
"true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Testing_sysvinit_from_experimental_in_Debian_Hurd.html
</guid>
110 <pubDate>Mon,
3 Feb
2014 13:
40:
00 +
0100</pubDate>
111 <description><p
>A few days ago I decided to try to help the Hurd people to get
112 their changes into sysvinit, to allow them to use the normal sysvinit
113 boot system instead of their old one. This follow up on the
114 <a href=
"https://teythoon.cryptobitch.de//categories/gsoc.html
">great
115 Google Summer of Code work
</a
> done last summer by Justus Winter to
116 get Debian on Hurd working more like Debian on Linux. To get started,
117 I downloaded a prebuilt hard disk image from
118 <a href=
"http://ftp.debian-ports.org/debian-cd/hurd-i386/current/debian-hurd.img.tar.gz
">http://ftp.debian-ports.org/debian-cd/hurd-i386/current/debian-hurd.img.tar.gz
</a
>,
119 and started it using virt-manager.
</p
>
121 <p
>The first think I had to do after logging in (root without any
122 password) was to get the network operational. I followed
123 <a href=
"https://www.debian.org/ports/hurd/hurd-install
">the
124 instructions on the Debian GNU/Hurd ports page
</a
> and ran these
125 commands as root to get the machine to accept a IP address from the
126 kvm internal DHCP server:
</p
>
128 <p
><blockquote
><pre
>
129 settrans -fgap /dev/netdde /hurd/netdde
130 kill $(ps -ef|awk
'/[p]finet/ { print $
2}
')
131 kill $(ps -ef|awk
'/[d]evnode/ { print $
2}
')
133 </pre
></blockquote
></p
>
135 <p
>After this, the machine had internet connectivity, and I could
136 upgrade it and install the sysvinit packages from experimental and
137 enable it as the default boot system in Hurd.
</p
>
139 <p
>But before I did that, I set a password on the root user, as ssh is
140 running on the machine it for ssh login to work a password need to be
141 set. Also, note that a bug somewhere in openssh on Hurd block
142 compression from working. Remember to turn that off on the client
145 <p
>Run these commands as root to upgrade and test the new sysvinit
148 <p
><blockquote
><pre
>
149 cat
> /etc/apt/sources.list.d/experimental.list
&lt;
&lt;EOF
150 deb http://http.debian.net/debian/ experimental main
154 apt-get install -t experimental initscripts sysv-rc sysvinit \
155 sysvinit-core sysvinit-utils
156 update-alternatives --config runsystem
157 </pre
></blockquote
></p
>
159 <p
>To reboot after switching boot system, you have to use
160 <tt
>reboot-hurd
</tt
> instead of just
<tt
>reboot
</tt
>, as there is not
161 yet a sysvinit process able to receive the signals from the normal
162 'reboot
' command. After switching to sysvinit as the boot system,
163 upgrading every package and rebooting, the network come up with DHCP
164 after boot as it should, and the settrans/pkill hack mentioned at the
165 start is no longer needed. But for some strange reason, there are no
166 longer any login prompt in the virtual console, so I logged in using
169 <p
>Note that there are some race conditions in Hurd making the boot
170 fail some times. No idea what the cause is, but hope the Hurd porters
171 figure it out. At least Justus said on IRC (#debian-hurd on
172 irc.debian.org) that they are aware of the problem. A way to reduce
173 the impact is to upgrade to the Hurd packages built by Justus by
174 adding this repository to the machine:
</p
>
176 <p
><blockquote
><pre
>
177 cat
> /etc/apt/sources.list.d/hurd-ci.list
&lt;
&lt;EOF
178 deb http://darnassus.sceen.net/~teythoon/hurd-ci/ sid main
180 </pre
></blockquote
></p
>
182 <p
>At the moment the prebuilt virtual machine get some packages from
183 http://ftp.debian-ports.org/debian, because some of the packages in
184 unstable do not yet include the required patches that are lingering in
185 BTS. This is the completely list of
"unofficial
" packages installed:
</p
>
187 <p
><blockquote
><pre
>
188 # aptitude search
'?narrow(?version(CURRENT),?origin(Debian Ports))
'
189 i emacs - GNU Emacs editor (metapackage)
191 i hurd-recommended - Miscellaneous translators
192 i isc-dhcp-client - ISC DHCP client
193 i isc-dhcp-common - common files used by all the isc-dhcp* packages
194 i libc-bin - Embedded GNU C Library: Binaries
195 i libc-dev-bin - Embedded GNU C Library: Development binaries
196 i libc0.3 - Embedded GNU C Library: Shared libraries
197 i A libc0.3-dbg - Embedded GNU C Library: detached debugging symbols
198 i libc0.3-dev - Embedded GNU C Library: Development Libraries and Hea
199 i multiarch-support - Transitional package to ensure multiarch compatibilit
200 i A x11-common - X Window System (X.Org) infrastructure
201 i xorg - X.Org X Window System
202 i A xserver-xorg - X.Org X server
203 i A xserver-xorg-input-all - X.Org X server -- input driver metapackage
205 </pre
></blockquote
></p
>
207 <p
>All in all, testing hurd has been an interesting experience. :)
208 X.org did not work out of the box and I never took the time to follow
209 the porters instructions to fix it. This time I was interested in the
210 command line stuff.
<p
>
215 <title>New chrpath release
0.16</title>
216 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/New_chrpath_release_0_16.html
</link>
217 <guid isPermaLink=
"true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/New_chrpath_release_0_16.html
</guid>
218 <pubDate>Tue,
14 Jan
2014 11:
00:
00 +
0100</pubDate>
219 <description><p
><a href=
"http://www.coverity.com/
">Coverity
</a
> is a nice tool to
220 find problems in C, C++ and Java code using static source code
221 analysis. It can detect a lot of different problems, and is very
222 useful to find memory and locking bugs in the error handling part of
223 the source. The company behind it provide
224 <a href=
"https://scan.coverity.com/
">check of free software projects as
225 a community service
</a
>, and many hundred free software projects are
226 already checked. A few days ago I decided to have a closer look at
227 the Coverity system, and discovered that the
228 <a href=
"http://www.gnu.org/software/gnash/
">gnash
</a
> and
229 <a href=
"http://sourceforge.net/projects/ipmitool/
">ipmitool
</a
>
230 projects I am involved with was already registered. But these are
231 fairly big, and I would also like to have a small and easy project to
232 check, and decided to
<a href=
"http://scan.coverity.com/projects/
1179">request
233 checking of the chrpath project
</a
>. It was
234 added to the checker and discovered seven potential defects. Six of
235 these were real, mostly resource
"leak
" when the program detected an
236 error. Nothing serious, as the resources would be released a fraction
237 of a second later when the program exited because of the error, but it
238 is nice to do it right in case the source of the program some time in
239 the future end up in a library. Having fixed all defects and added
240 <a href=
"https://lists.alioth.debian.org/mailman/listinfo/chrpath-devel
">a
241 mailing list for the chrpath developers
</a
>, I decided it was time to
242 publish a new release. These are the release notes:
</p
>
244 <p
>New in
0.16 released
2014-
01-
14:
</p
>
248 <li
>Fixed all minor bugs discovered by Coverity.
</li
>
249 <li
>Updated config.sub and config.guess from the GNU project.
</li
>
250 <li
>Mention new project mailing list in the documentation.
</li
>
255 <a href=
"https://alioth.debian.org/frs/?group_id=
31052">download the
256 new version
0.16 from alioth
</a
>. Please let us know via the Alioth
257 project if something is wrong with the new release. The test suite
258 did not discover any old errors, so if you find a new one, please also
259 include a test suite check.
</p
>
264 <title>New chrpath release
0.15</title>
265 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/New_chrpath_release_0_15.html
</link>
266 <guid isPermaLink=
"true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/New_chrpath_release_0_15.html
</guid>
267 <pubDate>Sun,
24 Nov
2013 09:
30:
00 +
0100</pubDate>
268 <description><p
>After many years break from the package and a vain hope that
269 development would be continued by someone else, I finally pulled my
270 acts together this morning and wrapped up a new release of chrpath,
271 the command line tool to modify the rpath and runpath of already
272 compiled ELF programs. The update was triggered by the persistence of
273 Isha Vishnoi at IBM, which needed a new config.guess file to get
274 support for the ppc64le architecture (powerpc
64-bit Little Endian) he
275 is working on. I checked the
276 <a href=
"http://packages.qa.debian.org/chrpath
">Debian
</a
>,
277 <a href=
"https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/chrpath
">Ubuntu
</a
> and
278 <a href=
"https://admin.fedoraproject.org/pkgdb/acls/name/chrpath
">Fedora
</a
>
279 packages for interesting patches (failed to find the source from
280 OpenSUSE and Mandriva packages), and found quite a few nice fixes.
281 These are the release notes:
</p
>
283 <p
>New in
0.15 released
2013-
11-
24:
</p
>
287 <li
>Updated config.sub and config.guess from the GNU project to work
288 with newer architectures. Thanks to isha vishnoi for the heads
291 <li
>Updated README with current URLs.
</li
>
293 <li
>Added byteswap fix found in Ubuntu, credited Jeremy Kerr and
294 Matthias Klose.
</li
>
296 <li
>Added missing help for -k|--keepgoing option, using patch by
297 Petr Machata found in Fedora.
</li
>
299 <li
>Rewrite removal of RPATH/RUNPATH to make sure the entry in
300 .dynamic is a NULL terminated string. Based on patch found in
301 Fedora credited Axel Thimm and Christian Krause.
</li
>
306 <a href=
"https://alioth.debian.org/frs/?group_id=
31052">download the
307 new version
0.15 from alioth
</a
>. Please let us know via the Alioth
308 project if something is wrong with the new release. The test suite
309 did not discover any old errors, so if you find a new one, please also
310 include a testsuite check.
</p
>
315 <title>Debian init.d boot script example for rsyslog
</title>
316 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_init_d_boot_script_example_for_rsyslog.html
</link>
317 <guid isPermaLink=
"true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_init_d_boot_script_example_for_rsyslog.html
</guid>
318 <pubDate>Sat,
2 Nov
2013 22:
40:
00 +
0100</pubDate>
319 <description><p
>If one of the points of switching to a new init system in Debian is
320 <a href=
"http://thomas.goirand.fr/blog/?p=
147">to get rid of huge
321 init.d scripts
</a
>, I doubt we need to switch away from sysvinit and
322 init.d scripts at all. Here is an example init.d script, ie a rewrite
323 of /etc/init.d/rsyslog:
</p
>
326 #!/lib/init/init-d-script
329 # Required-Start: $remote_fs $time
330 # Required-Stop: umountnfs $time
331 # X-Stop-After: sendsigs
332 # Default-Start:
2 3 4 5
333 # Default-Stop:
0 1 6
334 # Short-Description: enhanced syslogd
335 # Description: Rsyslog is an enhanced multi-threaded syslogd.
336 # It is quite compatible to stock sysklogd and can be
337 # used as a drop-in replacement.
339 DESC=
"enhanced syslogd
"
340 DAEMON=/usr/sbin/rsyslogd
341 </pre
></p
>
343 <p
>Pretty minimalistic to me... For the record, the original sysv-rc
344 script was
137 lines, and the above is just
15 lines, most of it meta
345 info/comments.
</p
>
347 <p
>How to do this, you ask? Well, one create a new script
348 /lib/init/init-d-script looking something like this:
353 # Define LSB log_* functions.
354 # Depend on lsb-base (
>=
3.2-
14) to ensure that this file is present
355 # and status_of_proc is working.
356 . /lib/lsb/init-functions
359 # Function that starts the daemon/service
365 #
0 if daemon has been started
366 #
1 if daemon was already running
367 #
2 if daemon could not be started
368 start-stop-daemon --start --quiet --pidfile $PIDFILE --exec $DAEMON --test
> /dev/null \
370 start-stop-daemon --start --quiet --pidfile $PIDFILE --exec $DAEMON -- \
373 # Add code here, if necessary, that waits for the process to be ready
374 # to handle requests from services started subsequently which depend
375 # on this one. As a last resort, sleep for some time.
379 # Function that stops the daemon/service
384 #
0 if daemon has been stopped
385 #
1 if daemon was already stopped
386 #
2 if daemon could not be stopped
387 # other if a failure occurred
388 start-stop-daemon --stop --quiet --retry=TERM/
30/KILL/
5 --pidfile $PIDFILE --name $NAME
389 RETVAL=
"$?
"
390 [
"$RETVAL
" =
2 ]
&& return
2
391 # Wait for children to finish too if this is a daemon that forks
392 # and if the daemon is only ever run from this initscript.
393 # If the above conditions are not satisfied then add some other code
394 # that waits for the process to drop all resources that could be
395 # needed by services started subsequently. A last resort is to
396 # sleep for some time.
397 start-stop-daemon --stop --quiet --oknodo --retry=
0/
30/KILL/
5 --exec $DAEMON
398 [
"$?
" =
2 ]
&& return
2
399 # Many daemons don
't delete their pidfiles when they exit.
401 return
"$RETVAL
"
405 # Function that sends a SIGHUP to the daemon/service
409 # If the daemon can reload its configuration without
410 # restarting (for example, when it is sent a SIGHUP),
411 # then implement that here.
413 start-stop-daemon --stop --signal
1 --quiet --pidfile $PIDFILE --name $NAME
418 scriptbasename=
"$(basename $
1)
"
419 echo
"SN: $scriptbasename
"
420 if [
"$scriptbasename
" !=
"init-d-library
" ] ; then
421 script=
"$
1"
428 NAME=$(basename $DAEMON)
429 PIDFILE=/var/run/$NAME.pid
431 # Exit if the package is not installed
432 #[ -x
"$DAEMON
" ] || exit
0
434 # Read configuration variable file if it is present
435 [ -r /etc/default/$NAME ]
&& . /etc/default/$NAME
437 # Load the VERBOSE setting and other rcS variables
440 case
"$
1" in
442 [
"$VERBOSE
" != no ]
&& log_daemon_msg
"Starting $DESC
" "$NAME
"
444 case
"$?
" in
445 0|
1) [
"$VERBOSE
" != no ]
&& log_end_msg
0 ;;
446 2) [
"$VERBOSE
" != no ]
&& log_end_msg
1 ;;
450 [
"$VERBOSE
" != no ]
&& log_daemon_msg
"Stopping $DESC
" "$NAME
"
452 case
"$?
" in
453 0|
1) [
"$VERBOSE
" != no ]
&& log_end_msg
0 ;;
454 2) [
"$VERBOSE
" != no ]
&& log_end_msg
1 ;;
458 status_of_proc
"$DAEMON
" "$NAME
" && exit
0 || exit $?
460 #reload|force-reload)
462 # If do_reload() is not implemented then leave this commented out
463 # and leave
'force-reload
' as an alias for
'restart
'.
465 #log_daemon_msg
"Reloading $DESC
" "$NAME
"
469 restart|force-reload)
471 # If the
"reload
" option is implemented then remove the
472 #
'force-reload
' alias
474 log_daemon_msg
"Restarting $DESC
" "$NAME
"
476 case
"$?
" in
479 case
"$?
" in
481 1) log_end_msg
1 ;; # Old process is still running
482 *) log_end_msg
1 ;; # Failed to start
492 echo
"Usage: $SCRIPTNAME {start|stop|status|restart|force-reload}
" >&2
498 </pre
></p
>
500 <p
>It is based on /etc/init.d/skeleton, and could be improved quite a
501 lot. I did not really polish the approach, so it might not always
502 work out of the box, but you get the idea. I did not try very hard to
503 optimize it nor make it more robust either.
</p
>
505 <p
>A better argument for switching init system in Debian than reducing
506 the size of init scripts (which is a good thing to do anyway), is to
507 get boot system that is able to handle the kernel events sensibly and
508 robustly, and do not depend on the boot to run sequentially. The boot
509 and the kernel have not behaved sequentially in years.
</p
>
514 <title>Browser plugin for SPICE (spice-xpi) uploaded to Debian
</title>
515 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Browser_plugin_for_SPICE__spice_xpi__uploaded_to_Debian.html
</link>
516 <guid isPermaLink=
"true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Browser_plugin_for_SPICE__spice_xpi__uploaded_to_Debian.html
</guid>
517 <pubDate>Fri,
1 Nov
2013 11:
00:
00 +
0100</pubDate>
518 <description><p
><a href=
"http://www.spice-space.org/
">The SPICE protocol
</a
> for
519 remote display access is the preferred solution with oVirt and RedHat
520 Enterprise Virtualization, and I was sad to discover the other day
521 that the browser plugin needed to use these systems seamlessly was
522 missing in Debian. The
<a href=
"http://bugs.debian.org/
668284">request
523 for a package
</a
> was from
2012-
04-
10 with no progress since
524 2013-
04-
01, so I decided to wrap up a package based on the great work
525 from Cajus Pollmeier and put it in a collab-maint maintained git
526 repository to get a package I could use. I would very much like
527 others to help me maintain the package (or just take over, I do not
528 mind), but as no-one had volunteered so far, I just uploaded it to
529 NEW. I hope it will be available in Debian in a few days.
</p
>
531 <p
>The source is now available from
532 <a href=
"http://anonscm.debian.org/gitweb/?p=collab-maint/spice-xpi.git;a=summary
">http://anonscm.debian.org/gitweb/?p=collab-maint/spice-xpi.git;a=summary
</a
>.
</p
>
537 <title>Teaching vmdebootstrap to create Raspberry Pi SD card images
</title>
538 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Teaching_vmdebootstrap_to_create_Raspberry_Pi_SD_card_images.html
</link>
539 <guid isPermaLink=
"true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Teaching_vmdebootstrap_to_create_Raspberry_Pi_SD_card_images.html
</guid>
540 <pubDate>Sun,
27 Oct
2013 17:
00:
00 +
0100</pubDate>
541 <description><p
>The
542 <a href=
"http://packages.qa.debian.org/v/vmdebootstrap.html
">vmdebootstrap
</a
>
543 program is a a very nice system to create virtual machine images. It
544 create a image file, add a partition table, mount it and run
545 debootstrap in the mounted directory to create a Debian system on a
546 stick. Yesterday, I decided to try to teach it how to make images for
547 <a href=
"https://wiki.debian.org/RaspberryPi
">Raspberry Pi
</a
>, as part
548 of a plan to simplify the build system for
549 <a href=
"https://wiki.debian.org/FreedomBox
">the FreedomBox
550 project
</a
>. The FreedomBox project already uses vmdebootstrap for
551 the virtualbox images, but its current build system made multistrap
552 based system for Dreamplug images, and it is lacking support for
553 Raspberry Pi.
</p
>
555 <p
>Armed with the knowledge on how to build
"foreign
" (aka non-native
556 architecture) chroots for Raspberry Pi, I dived into the vmdebootstrap
557 code and adjusted it to be able to build armel images on my amd64
558 Debian laptop. I ended up giving vmdebootstrap five new options,
559 allowing me to replicate the image creation process I use to make
560 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/A_Raspberry_Pi_based_batman_adv_Mesh_network_node.html
">Debian
561 Jessie based mesh node images for the Raspberry Pi
</a
>. First, the
562 <tt
>--foreign /path/to/binfm_handler
</tt
> option tell vmdebootstrap to
563 call debootstrap with --foreign and to copy the handler into the
564 generated chroot before running the second stage. This allow
565 vmdebootstrap to create armel images on an amd64 host. Next I added
566 two new options
<tt
>--bootsize size
</tt
> and
<tt
>--boottype
567 fstype
</tt
> to teach it to create a separate /boot/ partition with the
568 given file system type, allowing me to create an image with a vfat
569 partition for the /boot/ stuff. I also added a
<tt
>--variant
570 variant
</tt
> option to allow me to create smaller images without the
571 Debian base system packages installed. Finally, I added an option
572 <tt
>--no-extlinux
</tt
> to tell vmdebootstrap to not install extlinux
573 as a boot loader. It is not needed on the Raspberry Pi and probably
574 most other non-x86 architectures. The changes were accepted by the
575 upstream author of vmdebootstrap yesterday and today, and is now
577 <a href=
"http://git.liw.fi/cgi-bin/cgit/cgit.cgi/vmdebootstrap/
">the
578 upstream project page
</a
>.
</p
>
580 <p
>To use it to build a Raspberry Pi image using Debian Jessie, first
581 create a small script (the customize script) to add the non-free
582 binary blob needed to boot the Raspberry Pi and the APT source
587 set -e # Exit on first error
588 rootdir=
"$
1"
589 cd
"$rootdir
"
590 cat
&lt;
&lt;EOF
> etc/apt/sources.list
591 deb http://http.debian.net/debian/ jessie main contrib non-free
593 # Install non-free binary blob needed to boot Raspberry Pi. This
594 # install a kernel somewhere too.
595 wget https://raw.github.com/Hexxeh/rpi-update/master/rpi-update \
596 -O $rootdir/usr/bin/rpi-update
597 chmod a+x $rootdir/usr/bin/rpi-update
598 mkdir -p $rootdir/lib/modules
599 touch $rootdir/boot/start.elf
600 chroot $rootdir rpi-update
601 </pre
></p
>
603 <p
>Next, fetch the latest vmdebootstrap script and call it like this
604 to build the image:
</p
>
607 sudo ./vmdebootstrap \
610 --distribution jessie \
611 --mirror http://http.debian.net/debian \
620 --root-password raspberry \
621 --hostname raspberrypi \
622 --foreign /usr/bin/qemu-arm-static \
623 --customize `pwd`/customize \
627 --package ca-certificates \
630 </pre
></p
>
632 <p
>The list of packages being installed are the ones needed by
633 rpi-update to make the image bootable on the Raspberry Pi, with the
634 exception of netbase, which is needed by debootstrap to find
635 /etc/hosts with the minbase variant. I really wish there was a way to
636 set up an Raspberry Pi using only packages in the Debian archive, but
637 that is not possible as far as I know, because it boots from the GPU
638 using a non-free binary blob.
</p
>
640 <p
>The build host need debootstrap, kpartx and qemu-user-static and
641 probably a few others installed. I have not checked the complete
642 build dependency list.
</p
>
644 <p
>The resulting image will not use the hardware floating point unit
645 on the Raspberry PI, because the armel architecture in Debian is not
646 optimized for that use. So the images created will be a bit slower
647 than
<a href=
"http://www.raspbian.org/
">Raspbian
</a
> based images.
</p
>
652 <title>Good causes: Debian Outreach Program for Women, EFF documenting the spying and Open access in Norway
</title>
653 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Good_causes__Debian_Outreach_Program_for_Women__EFF_documenting_the_spying_and_Open_access_in_Norway.html
</link>
654 <guid isPermaLink=
"true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Good_causes__Debian_Outreach_Program_for_Women__EFF_documenting_the_spying_and_Open_access_in_Norway.html
</guid>
655 <pubDate>Tue,
15 Oct
2013 21:
30:
00 +
0200</pubDate>
656 <description><p
>The last few days I came across a few good causes that should get
657 wider attention. I recommend signing and donating to each one of
660 <p
>Via
<a href=
"http://www.debian.org/News/weekly/
2013/
18/
">Debian
661 Project News for
2013-
10-
14</a
> I came across the Outreach Program for
662 Women program which is a Google Summer of Code like initiative to get
663 more women involved in free software. One debian sponsor has offered
664 to match
<a href=
"http://debian.ch/opw2013
">any donation done to Debian
665 earmarked
</a
> for this initiative. I donated a few minutes ago, and
666 hope you will to. :)
</p
>
668 <p
>And the Electronic Frontier Foundation just announced plans to
669 create
<a href=
"https://supporters.eff.org/donate/nsa-videos
">video
670 documentaries about the excessive spying
</a
> on every Internet user that
671 take place these days, and their need to fund the work. I
've already
672 donated. Are you next?
</p
>
674 <p
>For my Norwegian audience, the organisation Studentenes og
675 Akademikernes Internasjonale Hjelpefond is collecting signatures for a
676 statement under the heading
677 <a href=
"http://saih.no/Bloggers_United/
">Bloggers United for Open
678 Access
</a
> for those of us asking for more focus on open access in the
679 Norwegian government. So far
499 signatures. I hope you will sign it
685 <title>Videos about the Freedombox project - for inspiration and learning
</title>
686 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Videos_about_the_Freedombox_project___for_inspiration_and_learning.html
</link>
687 <guid isPermaLink=
"true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Videos_about_the_Freedombox_project___for_inspiration_and_learning.html
</guid>
688 <pubDate>Fri,
27 Sep
2013 14:
10:
00 +
0200</pubDate>
689 <description><p
>The
<a href=
"http://www.freedomboxfoundation.org/
">Freedombox
690 project
</a
> have been going on for a while, and have presented the
691 vision, ideas and solution several places. Here is a little
692 collection of videos of talks and presentation of the project.
</p
>
696 <li
><a href=
"http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ukvUz5taxvA
">FreedomBox -
697 2,
5 minute marketing film
</a
> (Youtube)
</li
>
699 <li
><a href=
"http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SzW25QTVWsE
">Eben Moglen
700 discusses the Freedombox on CBS news
2011</a
> (Youtube)
</li
>
702 <li
><a href=
"http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ae8SZbxfE0g
">Eben Moglen -
703 Freedom in the Cloud - Software Freedom, Privacy and and Security for
704 Web
2.0 and Cloud computing at ISOC-NY Public Meeting
2010</a
>
707 <li
><a href=
"http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNaIji_3xBE
">Fosdem
2011
708 Keynote by Eben Moglen presenting the Freedombox
</a
> (Youtube)
</li
>
710 <li
><a href=
"http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=
9bDDUyJSQ9s
">Presentation of
711 the Freedombox by James Vasile at Elevate in Gratz
2011</a
> (Youtube)
</li
>
713 <li
><a href=
"http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQTmnk27g9s
"> Freedombox -
714 Discovery, Identity, and Trust by Nick Daly at Freedombox Hackfest New
715 York City in
2012</a
> (Youtube)
</li
>
717 <li
><a href=
"http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tkbSB4Ba7Ck
">Introduction
718 to the Freedombox at Freedombox Hackfest New York City in
2012</a
>
721 <li
><a href=
"http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-P2Jaeg0aQ
">Freedom, Out
722 of the Box! by Bdale Garbee at linux.conf.au Ballarat,
2012</a
> (Youtube)
</li
>
724 <li
><a href=
"https://archive.fosdem.org/
2013/schedule/event/freedombox/
">Freedombox
725 1.0 by Eben Moglen and Bdale Garbee at Fosdem
2013</a
> (FOSDEM)
</li
>
727 <li
><a href=
"http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e1LpYX2zVYg
">What is the
728 FreedomBox today by Bdale Garbee at Debconf13 in Vaumarcus
729 2013</a
> (Youtube)
</li
>
733 <p
>A larger list is available from
734 <a href=
"https://wiki.debian.org/FreedomBox/TalksAndPresentations
">the
735 Freedombox Wiki
</a
>.
</p
>
737 <p
>On other news, I am happy to report that Freedombox based on Debian
738 Jessie is coming along quite well, and soon both Owncloud and using
739 Tor should be available for testers of the Freedombox solution. :) In
740 a few weeks I hope everything needed to test it is included in Debian.
741 The withsqlite package is already in Debian, and the plinth package is
742 pending in NEW. The third and vital part of that puzzle is the
743 metapackage/setup framework, which is still pending an upload. Join
744 us on
<a href=
"irc://irc.debian.org:
6667/%
23freedombox
">IRC
745 (#freedombox on irc.debian.org)
</a
> and
746 <a href=
"http://lists.alioth.debian.org/mailman/listinfo/freedombox-discuss
">the
747 mailing list
</a
> if you want to help make this vision come true.
</p
>
752 <title>Recipe to test the Freedombox project on amd64 or Raspberry Pi
</title>
753 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Recipe_to_test_the_Freedombox_project_on_amd64_or_Raspberry_Pi.html
</link>
754 <guid isPermaLink=
"true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Recipe_to_test_the_Freedombox_project_on_amd64_or_Raspberry_Pi.html
</guid>
755 <pubDate>Tue,
10 Sep
2013 14:
20:
00 +
0200</pubDate>
756 <description><p
>I was introduced to the
757 <a href=
"http://www.freedomboxfoundation.org/
">Freedombox project
</a
>
758 in
2010, when Eben Moglen presented his vision about serving the need
759 of non-technical people to keep their personal information private and
760 within the legal protection of their own homes. The idea is to give
761 people back the power over their network and machines, and return
762 Internet back to its intended peer-to-peer architecture. Instead of
763 depending on a central service, the Freedombox will give everyone
764 control over their own basic infrastructure.
</p
>
766 <p
>I
've intended to join the effort since then, but other tasks have
767 taken priority. But this summers nasty news about the misuse of trust
768 and privilege exercised by the
"western
" intelligence gathering
769 communities increased my eagerness to contribute to a point where I
770 actually started working on the project a while back.
</p
>
772 <p
>The
<a href=
"https://alioth.debian.org/projects/freedombox/
">initial
773 Debian initiative
</a
> based on the vision from Eben Moglen, is to
774 create a simple and cheap Debian based appliance that anyone can hook
775 up in their home and get access to secure and private services and
776 communication. The initial deployment platform have been the
777 <a href=
"http://www.globalscaletechnologies.com/t-dreamplugdetails.aspx
">Dreamplug
</a
>,
778 which is a piece of hardware I do not own. So to be able to test what
779 the current Freedombox setup look like, I had to come up with a way to install
780 it on some hardware I do have access to. I have rewritten the
781 <a href=
"https://github.com/NickDaly/freedom-maker
">freedom-maker
</a
>
782 image build framework to use .deb packages instead of only copying
783 setup into the boot images, and thanks to this rewrite I am able to
784 set up any machine supported by Debian Wheezy as a Freedombox, using
785 the previously mentioned deb (and a few support debs for packages
786 missing in Debian).
</p
>
788 <p
>The current Freedombox setup consist of a set of bootstrapping
790 (
<a href=
"https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/freedombox-setup
">freedombox-setup
</a
>),
791 and a administrative web interface
792 (
<a href=
"https://github.com/NickDaly/Plinth
">plinth
</a
> + exmachina +
793 withsqlite), as well as a privacy enhancing proxy based on
794 <a href=
"http://packages.qa.debian.org/privoxy
">privoxy
</a
>
795 (freedombox-privoxy). There is also a web/javascript based XMPP
796 client (
<a href=
"http://packages.qa.debian.org/jwchat
">jwchat
</a
>)
797 trying (unsuccessfully so far) to talk to the XMPP server
798 (
<a href=
"http://packages.qa.debian.org/ejabberd
">ejabberd
</a
>). The
799 web interface is pluggable, and the goal is to use it to enable OpenID
800 services, mesh network connectivity, use of TOR, etc, etc. Not much of
801 this is really working yet, see
802 <a href=
"https://github.com/NickDaly/freedombox-todos/blob/master/TODO
">the
803 project TODO
</a
> for links to GIT repositories. Most of the code is
804 on github at the moment. The HTTP proxy is operational out of the
805 box, and the admin web interface can be used to add/remove plinth
806 users. I
've not been able to do anything else with it so far, but
807 know there are several branches spread around github and other places
808 with lots of half baked features.
</p
>
810 <p
>Anyway, if you want to have a look at the current state, the
811 following recipes should work to give you a test machine to poke
814 <p
><strong
>Debian Wheezy amd64
</strong
></p
>
818 <li
>Fetch normal Debian Wheezy installation ISO.
</li
>
819 <li
>Boot from it, either as CD or USB stick.
</li
>
820 <li
><p
>Press [tab] on the boot prompt and add this as a boot argument
821 to the Debian installer:
<p
>
822 <pre
>url=
<a href=
"http://www.reinholdtsen.name/freedombox/preseed-wheezy.dat
">http://www.reinholdtsen.name/freedombox/preseed-wheezy.dat
</a
></pre
></li
>
824 <li
>Answer the few language/region/password questions and pick disk to
825 install on.
</li
>
827 <li
>When the installation is finished and the machine have rebooted a
828 few times, your Freedombox is ready for testing.
</li
>
832 <p
><strong
>Raspberry Pi Raspbian
</strong
></p
>
836 <li
>Fetch a Raspbian SD card image, create SD card.
</li
>
837 <li
>Boot from SD card, extend file system to fill the card completely.
</li
>
838 <li
><p
>Log in and add this to /etc/sources.list:
</p
>
840 deb
<a href=
"http://www.reinholdtsen.name/freedombox/
">http://www.reinholdtsen.name/freedombox
</a
> wheezy main
841 </pre
></li
>
842 <li
><p
>Run this as root:
</p
>
844 wget -O - http://www.reinholdtsen.name/freedombox/BE1A583D.asc | \
847 apt-get install freedombox-setup
848 /usr/lib/freedombox/setup
849 </pre
></li
>
850 <li
>Reboot into your freshly created Freedombox.
</li
>
854 <p
>You can test it on other architectures too, but because the
855 freedombox-privoxy package is binary, it will only work as intended on
856 the architectures where I have had time to build the binary and put it
857 in my APT repository. But do not let this stop you. It is only a
858 short
"<tt
>apt-get source -b freedombox-privoxy
</tt
>" away. :)
</p
>
860 <p
>Note that by default Freedombox is a DHCP server on the
861 192.168.1.0/
24 subnet, so if this is your subnet be careful and turn
862 off the DHCP server by running
"<tt
>update-rc.d isc-dhcp-server
863 disable
</tt
>" as root.
</p
>
865 <p
>Please let me know if this works for you, or if you have any
866 problems. We gather on the IRC channel
867 <a href=
"irc://irc.debian.org:
6667/%
23freedombox
">#freedombox
</a
> on
868 irc.debian.org and the
869 <a href=
"http://lists.alioth.debian.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/freedombox-discuss
">project
870 mailing list
</a
>.
</p
>
872 <p
>Once you get your freedombox operational, you can visit
873 <tt
>http://your-host-name:
8001/
</tt
> to see the state of the plint
874 welcome screen (dead end - do not be surprised if you are unable to
875 get past it), and next visit
<tt
>http://your-host-name:
8001/help/
</tt
>
876 to look at the rest of plinth. The default user is
'admin
' and the
877 default password is
'secret
'.
</p
>
882 <title>Intel
180 SSD disk with Lenovo firmware can not use Intel firmware
</title>
883 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Intel_180_SSD_disk_with_Lenovo_firmware_can_not_use_Intel_firmware.html
</link>
884 <guid isPermaLink=
"true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Intel_180_SSD_disk_with_Lenovo_firmware_can_not_use_Intel_firmware.html
</guid>
885 <pubDate>Sun,
18 Aug
2013 14:
00:
00 +
0200</pubDate>
886 <description><p
>Earlier, I reported about
887 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_fix_a_Thinkpad_X230_with_a_broken_180_GB_SSD_disk.html
">my
888 problems using an Intel SSD
520 Series
180 GB disk
</a
>. Friday I was
889 told by IBM that the original disk should be thrown away. And as
890 there no longer was a problem if I bricked the firmware, I decided
891 today to try to install Intel firmware to replace the Lenovo firmware
892 currently on the disk.
</p
>
894 <p
>I searched the Intel site for firmware, and found
895 <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
>
896 (aka Intel SATA Solid-State Drive Firmware Update Tool) which
897 according to the site should contain the latest firmware for SSD
898 disks. I inserted the broken disk in one of my spare laptops and
899 booted the ISO from a USB stick. The disk was recognized, but the
900 program claimed the newest firmware already were installed and refused
901 to insert any Intel firmware. So no change, and the disk is still
902 unable to handle write load. :( I guess the only way to get them
903 working would be if Lenovo releases new firmware. No idea how likely
904 that is. Anyway, just blogging about this test for completeness. I
905 got a working Samsung disk, and see no point in spending more time on
906 the broken disks.
</p
>
911 <title>How to fix a Thinkpad X230 with a broken
180 GB SSD disk
</title>
912 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_fix_a_Thinkpad_X230_with_a_broken_180_GB_SSD_disk.html
</link>
913 <guid isPermaLink=
"true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_fix_a_Thinkpad_X230_with_a_broken_180_GB_SSD_disk.html
</guid>
914 <pubDate>Wed,
17 Jul
2013 23:
50:
00 +
0200</pubDate>
915 <description><p
>Today I switched to
916 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_Thinkpad_is_dead__long_live_the_Thinkpad_X230_.html
">my
917 new laptop
</a
>. I
've previously written about the problems I had with
918 my new Thinkpad X230, which was delivered with an
919 <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
920 GB Intel SSD disk with Lenovo firmware
</a
> that did not handle
921 sustained writes. My hardware supplier have been very forthcoming in
922 trying to find a solution, and after first trying with another
923 identical
180 GB disks they decided to send me a
256 GB Samsung SSD
924 disk instead to fix it once and for all. The Samsung disk survived
925 the installation of Debian with encrypted disks (filling the disk with
926 random data during installation killed the first two), and I thus
927 decided to trust it with my data. I have installed it as a Debian Edu
928 Wheezy roaming workstation hooked up with my Debian Edu Squeeze main
929 server at home using Kerberos and LDAP, and will use it as my work
930 station from now on.
</p
>
932 <p
>As this is a solid state disk with no moving parts, I believe the
933 Debian Wheezy default installation need to be tuned a bit to increase
934 performance and increase life time of the disk. The Linux kernel and
935 user space applications do not yet adjust automatically to such
936 environment. To make it easier for my self, I created a draft Debian
937 package
<tt
>ssd-setup
</tt
> to handle this tuning. The
938 <a href=
"http://anonscm.debian.org/gitweb/?p=collab-maint/ssd-setup.git
">source
939 for the ssd-setup package
</a
> is available from collab-maint, and it
940 is set up to adjust the setup of the machine by just installing the
941 package. If there is any non-SSD disk in the machine, the package
942 will refuse to install, as I did not try to write any logic to sort
943 file systems in SSD and non-SSD file systems.
</p
>
945 <p
>I consider the package a draft, as I am a bit unsure how to best
946 set up Debian Wheezy with an SSD. It is adjusted to my use case,
947 where I set up the machine with one large encrypted partition (in
948 addition to /boot), put LVM on top of this and set up partitions on
949 top of this again. See the README file in the package source for the
950 references I used to pick the settings. At the moment these
951 parameters are tuned:
</p
>
955 <li
>Set up cryptsetup to pass TRIM commands to the physical disk
956 (adding discard to /etc/crypttab)
</li
>
958 <li
>Set up LVM to pass on TRIM commands to the underlying device (in
959 this case a cryptsetup partition) by changing issue_discards from
960 0 to
1 in /etc/lvm/lvm.conf.
</li
>
962 <li
>Set relatime as a file system option for ext3 and ext4 file
965 <li
>Tell swap to use TRIM commands by adding
'discard
' to
966 /etc/fstab.
</li
>
968 <li
>Change I/O scheduler from cfq to deadline using a udev rule.
</li
>
970 <li
>Run fstrim on every ext3 and ext4 file system every night (from
971 cron.daily).
</li
>
973 <li
>Adjust sysctl values vm.swappiness to
1 and vm.vfs_cache_pressure
974 to
50 to reduce the kernel eagerness to swap out processes.
</li
>
978 <p
>During installation, I cancelled the part where the installer fill
979 the disk with random data, as this would kill the SSD performance for
980 little gain. My goal with the encrypted file system is to ensure
981 those stealing my laptop end up with a brick and not a working
982 computer. I have no hope in keeping the really resourceful people
983 from getting the data on the disk (see
984 <a href=
"http://xkcd.com/
538/
">XKCD #
538</a
> for an explanation why).
985 Thus I concluded that adding the discard option to crypttab is the
986 right thing to do.
</p
>
988 <p
>I considered using the noop I/O scheduler, as several recommended
989 it for SSD, but others recommended deadline and a benchmark I found
990 indicated that deadline might be better for interactive use.
</p
>
992 <p
>I also considered using the
'discard
' file system option for ext3
993 and ext4, but read that it would give a performance hit ever time a
994 file is removed, and thought it best to that that slowdown once a day
995 instead of during my work.
</p
>
997 <p
>My package do not set up tmpfs on /var/run, /var/lock and /tmp, as
998 this is already done by Debian Edu.
</p
>
1000 <p
>I have not yet started on the user space tuning. I expect
1001 iceweasel need some tuning, and perhaps other applications too, but
1002 have not yet had time to investigate those parts.
</p
>
1004 <p
>The package should work on Ubuntu too, but I have not yet tested it
1007 <p
>As for the answer to the question in the title of this blog post,
1008 as far as I know, the only solution I know about is to replace the
1009 disk. It might be possible to flash it with Intel firmware instead of
1010 the Lenovo firmware. But I have not tried and did not want to do so
1011 without approval from Lenovo as I wanted to keep the warranty on the
1012 disk until a solution was found and they wanted the broken disks
1018 <title>Intel SSD
520 Series
180 GB with Lenovo firmware still lock up from sustained writes
</title>
1019 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Intel_SSD_520_Series_180_GB_with_Lenovo_firmware_still_lock_up_from_sustained_writes.html
</link>
1020 <guid isPermaLink=
"true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Intel_SSD_520_Series_180_GB_with_Lenovo_firmware_still_lock_up_from_sustained_writes.html
</guid>
1021 <pubDate>Wed,
10 Jul
2013 13:
30:
00 +
0200</pubDate>
1022 <description><p
>A few days ago, I wrote about
1023 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_Thinkpad_is_dead__long_live_the_Thinkpad_X230_.html
">the
1024 problems I experienced with my new X230 and its SSD disk
</a
>, which
1025 was dying during installation because it is unable to cope with
1026 sustained write. My supplier is in contact with
1027 <a href=
"http://www.lenovo.com/
">Lenovo
</a
>, and they wanted to send a
1028 replacement disk to try to fix the problem. They decided to send an
1029 identical model, so my hopes for a permanent fix was slim.
</p
>
1031 <p
>Anyway, today I got the replacement disk and tried to install
1032 Debian Edu Wheezy with encrypted disk on it. The new disk have the
1033 same firmware version as the original. This time my hope raised
1034 slightly as the installation progressed, as the original disk used to
1035 die after
4-
7% of the disk was written to, while this time it kept
1036 going past
10%,
20%,
40% and even past
50%. But around
60%, the disk
1037 died again and I was back on square one. I still do not have a new
1038 laptop with a disk I can trust. I can not live with a disk that might
1039 lock up when I download a new
1040 <a href=
"http://www.skolelinux.org/
">Debian Edu / Skolelinux
</a
> ISO or
1041 other large files. I look forward to hearing from my supplier with
1042 the next proposal from Lenovo.
</p
>
1044 <p
>The original disk is marked Intel SSD
520 Series
180 GB,
1045 11S0C38722Z1ZNME35X1TR, ISN: CVCV321407HB180EGN, SA: G57560302, FW:
1046 LF1i,
29MAY2013, PBA: G39779-
300, LBA
351,
651,
888, LI P/N:
0C38722,
1047 Pb-free
2LI, LC P/N:
16-
200366, WWN:
55CD2E40002756C4, Model:
1048 SSDSC2BW180A3L
2.5" 6Gb/s SATA SSD
180G
5V
1A, ASM P/N
0C38732, FRU
1049 P/N
45N8295, P0C38732.
</p
>
1051 <p
>The replacement disk is marked Intel SSD
520 Series
180 GB,
1052 11S0C38722Z1ZNDE34N0L0, ISN: CVCV315306RK180EGN, SA: G57560-
302, FW:
1053 LF1i,
22APR2013, PBA: G39779-
300, LBA
351,
651,
888, LI P/N:
0C38722,
1054 Pb-free
2LI, LC P/N:
16-
200366, WWN:
55CD2E40000AB69E, Model:
1055 SSDSC2BW180A3L
2.5" 6Gb/s SATA SSD
180G
5V
1A, ASM P/N
0C38732, FRU
1056 P/N
45N8295, P0C38732.
</p
>
1058 <p
>The only difference is in the first number (serial number?), ISN,
1059 SA, date and WNPP values. Mentioning all the details here in case
1060 someone is able to use the information to find a way to identify the
1061 failing disk among working ones (if any such working disk actually
1067 <title>July
13th: Debian/Ubuntu BSP and Skolelinux/Debian Edu developer gathering in Oslo
</title>
1068 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/July_13th__Debian_Ubuntu_BSP_and_Skolelinux_Debian_Edu_developer_gathering_in_Oslo.html
</link>
1069 <guid isPermaLink=
"true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/July_13th__Debian_Ubuntu_BSP_and_Skolelinux_Debian_Edu_developer_gathering_in_Oslo.html
</guid>
1070 <pubDate>Tue,
9 Jul
2013 10:
40:
00 +
0200</pubDate>
1071 <description><p
>The upcoming Saturday,
2013-
07-
13, we are organising a combined
1072 Debian Edu developer gathering and Debian and Ubuntu bug squashing
1073 party in Oslo. It is organised by
<a href=
"http://www.nuug.no/
">the
1074 member assosiation NUUG
</a
> and
1075 <a href=
"http://www.skolelinux.org/
">the Debian Edu / Skolelinux
1076 project
</a
> together with
<a href=
"http://bitraf.no/
">the hack space
1077 Bitraf
</a
>.
</p
>
1079 <p
>It starts
10:
00 and continue until late evening. Everyone is
1080 welcome, and there is no fee to participate. There is on the other
1081 hand limited space, and only room for
30 people. Please put your name
1082 on
<a href=
"http://wiki.debian.org/BSP/
2013/
07/
13/no/Oslo
">the event
1083 wiki page
</a
> if you plan to join us.
</p
>
1088 <title>The Thinkpad is dead, long live the Thinkpad X230?
</title>
1089 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_Thinkpad_is_dead__long_live_the_Thinkpad_X230_.html
</link>
1090 <guid isPermaLink=
"true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_Thinkpad_is_dead__long_live_the_Thinkpad_X230_.html
</guid>
1091 <pubDate>Fri,
5 Jul
2013 08:
30:
00 +
0200</pubDate>
1092 <description><p
>Half a year ago, I reported that I had to find a
1093 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Thank_you_Thinkpad_X41__for_your_long_and_trustworthy_service.html
">replacement
1094 for my trusty old Thinkpad X41
</a
>. Unfortunately I did not have much
1095 time to spend on it, and it took a while to find a model I believe
1096 will do the job, but two days ago the replacement finally arrived. I
1098 <a href=
"http://www.linlap.com/lenovo_thinkpad_x230
">Thinkpad X230
</a
>
1099 with SSD disk (NZDAJMN). I first test installed Debian Edu Wheezy as
1100 a roaming workstation, and it seemed to work flawlessly. But my
1101 second installation with encrypted disk was not as successful. More
1102 on that below.
</p
>
1104 <p
>I had a hard time trying to track down a good laptop, as my most
1105 important requirements (robust and with a good keyboard) are never
1106 listed in the feature list. But I did get good help from the search
1107 feature at
<a href=
"http://www.prisjakt.no/
">Prisjakt
</a
>, which
1108 allowed me to limit the list of interesting laptops based on my other
1109 requirements. A bit surprising that SSD disk are not disks according
1110 to that search interface, so I had to drop specifying the number of
1111 disks from my search parameters. I also asked around among friends to
1112 get their impression on keyboards and robustness.
</p
>
1114 <p
>So the new laptop arrived, and it is quite a lot wider than the
1115 X41. I am not quite convinced about the keyboard, as it is
1116 significantly wider than my old keyboard, and I have to stretch my
1117 hand a lot more to reach the edges. But the key response is fairly
1118 good and the individual key shape is fairly easy to handle, so I hope
1119 I will get used to it. My old X40 was starting to fail, and I really
1120 needed a new laptop now. :)
</p
>
1122 <p
>Turning off the touch pad was simple. All it took was a quick
1123 visit to the BIOS during boot it disable it.
</p
>
1125 <p
>But there is a fatal problem with the laptop. The
180 GB SSD disk
1126 lock up during load. And this happen when installing Debian Wheezy
1127 with encrypted disk, while the disk is being filled with random data.
1128 I also tested to install Ubuntu Raring, and it happen there too if I
1129 reenable the code to fill the disk with random data (it is disabled by
1130 default in Ubuntu). And the bug with is already known. It was
1131 reported to Debian as
<a href=
"http://bugs.debian.org/
691427">BTS
1132 report #
691427 2012-
10-
25</a
> (journal commit I/O error on brand-new
1133 Thinkpad T430s ext4 on lvm on SSD). It is also reported to the Linux
1134 kernel developers as
1135 <a href=
"https://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=
51861">Kernel bugzilla
1136 report #
51861 2012-
12-
20</a
> (Intel SSD
520 stops working under load
1137 (SSDSC2BW180A3L in Lenovo ThinkPad T430s)). It is also reported on the
1138 Lenovo forums, both for
1139 <a href=
"http://forums.lenovo.com/t5/T400-T500-and-newer-T-series/T430s-Intel-SSD-
520-
180GB-issue/m-p/
1070549">T430
1140 2012-
11-
10</a
> and for
1141 <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
1142 03-
20-
2013</a
>. The problem do not only affect installation. The
1143 reports state that the disk lock up during use if many writes are done
1144 on the disk, so it is much no use to work around the installation
1145 problem and end up with a computer that can lock up at any moment.
1147 <a href=
"https://git.efficios.com/?p=test-ssd.git
">small C program
1148 available
</a
> that will lock up the hard drive after running a few
1149 minutes by writing to a file.
</p
>
1151 <p
>I
've contacted my supplier and asked how to handle this, and after
1152 contacting PCHELP Norway (request
01D1FDP) which handle support
1153 requests for Lenovo, his first suggestion was to upgrade the disk
1154 firmware. Unfortunately there is no newer firmware available from
1155 Lenovo, as my disk already have the most recent one (version LF1i). I
1156 hope to hear more from him today and hope the problem can be
1162 <title>The Thinkpad is dead, long live the Thinkpad X230
</title>
1163 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_Thinkpad_is_dead__long_live_the_Thinkpad_X230.html
</link>
1164 <guid isPermaLink=
"true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_Thinkpad_is_dead__long_live_the_Thinkpad_X230.html
</guid>
1165 <pubDate>Thu,
4 Jul
2013 09:
20:
00 +
0200</pubDate>
1166 <description><p
>Half a year ago, I reported that I had to find a replacement for my
1167 trusty old Thinkpad X41. Unfortunately I did not have much time to
1168 spend on it, but today the replacement finally arrived. I ended up
1169 picking a
<a href=
"http://www.linlap.com/lenovo_thinkpad_x230
">Thinkpad
1170 X230
</a
> with SSD disk (NZDAJMN). I first test installed Debian Edu
1171 Wheezy as a roaming workstation, and it worked flawlessly. As I write
1172 this, it is installing what I hope will be a more final installation,
1173 with a encrypted hard drive to ensure any dope head stealing it end up
1174 with an expencive door stop.
</p
>
1176 <p
>I had a hard time trying to track down a good laptop, as my most
1177 important requirements (robust and with a good keyboard) are never
1178 listed in the feature list. But I did get good help from the search
1179 feature at
<ahref=
"http://www.prisjakt.no/
">Prisjakt
</a
>, which
1180 allowed me to limit the list of interesting laptops based on my other
1181 requirements. A bit surprising that SSD disk are not disks, so I had
1182 to drop number of disks from my search parameters.
</p
>
1184 <p
>I am not quite convinced about the keyboard, as it is significantly
1185 wider than my old keyboard, and I have to stretch my hand a lot more
1186 to reach the edges. But the key response is fairly good and the
1187 individual key shape is fairly easy to handle, so I hope I will get
1188 used to it. My old X40 was starting to fail, and I really needed a
1189 new laptop now. :)
</p
>
1191 <p
>I look forward to figuring out how to turn off the touch pad.
</p
>
1196 <title>Automatically locate and install required firmware packages on Debian (Isenkram
0.4)
</title>
1197 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Automatically_locate_and_install_required_firmware_packages_on_Debian__Isenkram_0_4_.html
</link>
1198 <guid isPermaLink=
"true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Automatically_locate_and_install_required_firmware_packages_on_Debian__Isenkram_0_4_.html
</guid>
1199 <pubDate>Tue,
25 Jun
2013 11:
50:
00 +
0200</pubDate>
1200 <description><p
>It annoys me when the computer fail to do automatically what it is
1201 perfectly capable of, and I have to do it manually to get things
1202 working. One such task is to find out what firmware packages are
1203 needed to get the hardware on my computer working. Most often this
1204 affect the wifi card, but some times it even affect the RAID
1205 controller or the ethernet card. Today I pushed version
0.4 of the
1206 <a href=
"http://packages.qa.debian.org/isenkram
">Isenkram package
</a
>
1207 including a new script isenkram-autoinstall-firmware handling the
1208 process of asking all the loaded kernel modules what firmware files
1209 they want, find debian packages providing these files and install the
1210 debian packages. Here is a test run on my laptop:
</p
>
1212 <p
><pre
>
1213 # isenkram-autoinstall-firmware
1214 info: kernel drivers requested extra firmware: ipw2200-bss.fw ipw2200-ibss.fw ipw2200-sniffer.fw
1215 info: fetching http://http.debian.net/debian/dists/squeeze/Contents-i386.gz
1216 info: locating packages with the requested firmware files
1217 info: Updating APT sources after adding non-free APT source
1218 info: trying to install firmware-ipw2x00
1221 Preconfiguring packages ...
1222 Selecting previously deselected package firmware-ipw2x00.
1223 (Reading database ...
259727 files and directories currently installed.)
1224 Unpacking firmware-ipw2x00 (from .../firmware-ipw2x00_0.28+squeeze1_all.deb) ...
1225 Setting up firmware-ipw2x00 (
0.28+squeeze1) ...
1227 </pre
></p
>
1229 <p
>When all the requested firmware is present, a simple message is
1230 printed instead:
</p
>
1232 <p
><pre
>
1233 # isenkram-autoinstall-firmware
1234 info: did not find any firmware files requested by loaded kernel modules. exiting
1236 </pre
></p
>
1238 <p
>It could use some polish, but it is already working well and saving
1239 me some time when setting up new machines. :)
</p
>
1241 <p
>So, how does it work? It look at the set of currently loaded
1242 kernel modules, and look up each one of them using modinfo, to find
1243 the firmware files listed in the module meta-information. Next, it
1244 download the Contents file from a nearby APT mirror, and search for
1245 the firmware files in this file to locate the package with the
1246 requested firmware file. If the package is in the non-free section, a
1247 non-free APT source is added and the package is installed using
1248 <tt
>apt-get install
</tt
>. The end result is a slightly better working
1251 <p
>I hope someone find time to implement a more polished version of
1252 this script as part of the hw-detect debian-installer module, to
1253 finally fix
<a href=
"http://bugs.debian.org/
655507">BTS report
1254 #
655507</a
>. There really is no need to insert USB sticks with
1255 firmware during a PXE install when the packages already are available
1256 from the nearby Debian mirror.
</p
>
1261 <title>Fixing the Linux black screen of death on machines with Intel HD video
</title>
1262 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Fixing_the_Linux_black_screen_of_death_on_machines_with_Intel_HD_video.html
</link>
1263 <guid isPermaLink=
"true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Fixing_the_Linux_black_screen_of_death_on_machines_with_Intel_HD_video.html
</guid>
1264 <pubDate>Tue,
11 Jun
2013 11:
00:
00 +
0200</pubDate>
1265 <description><p
>When installing RedHat, Fedora, Debian and Ubuntu on some machines,
1266 the screen just turn black when Linux boot, either during installation
1267 or on first boot from the hard disk. I
've seen it once in a while the
1268 last few years, but only recently understood the cause. I
've seen it
1269 on HP laptops, and on my latest acquaintance the Packard Bell laptop.
1270 The reason seem to be in the wiring of some laptops. The system to
1271 control the screen background light is inverted, so when Linux try to
1272 turn the brightness fully on, it end up turning it off instead. I do
1273 not know which Linux drivers are affected, but this post is about the
1274 i915 driver used by the
1275 <a href=
"http://www.linlap.com/packard_bell_easynote_lv
">Packard Bell
1276 EasyNote LV
</a
>, Thinkpad X40 and many other laptops.
</p
>
1278 <p
>The problem can be worked around two ways. Either by adding
1279 i915.invert_brightness=
1 as a kernel option, or by adding a file in
1280 /etc/modprobe.d/ to tell modprobe to add the invert_brightness=
1
1281 option when it load the i915 kernel module. On Debian and Ubuntu, it
1282 can be done by running these commands as root:
</p
>
1285 echo options i915 invert_brightness=
1 | tee /etc/modprobe.d/i915.conf
1286 update-initramfs -u -k all
1289 <p
>Since March
2012 there is
1290 <a href=
"http://git.kernel.org/cgit/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/commit/?id=
4dca20efb1a9c2efefc28ad2867e5d6c3f5e1955
">a
1291 mechanism in the Linux kernel
</a
> to tell the i915 driver which
1292 hardware have this problem, and get the driver to invert the
1293 brightness setting automatically. To use it, one need to add a row in
1294 <a href=
"http://git.kernel.org/cgit/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/tree/drivers/gpu/drm/i915/intel_display.c
">the
1295 intel_quirks array
</a
> in the driver source
1296 <tt
>drivers/gpu/drm/i915/intel_display.c
</tt
> (look for
"<tt
>static
1297 struct intel_quirk intel_quirks
</tt
>"), specifying the PCI device
1298 number (vendor number
8086 is assumed) and subdevice vendor and device
1301 <p
>My Packard Bell EasyNote LV got this output from
<tt
>lspci
1302 -vvnn
</tt
> for the video card in question:
</p
>
1304 <p
><pre
>
1305 00:
02.0 VGA compatible controller [
0300]: Intel Corporation \
1306 3rd Gen Core processor Graphics Controller [
8086:
0156] \
1307 (rev
09) (prog-if
00 [VGA controller])
1308 Subsystem: Acer Incorporated [ALI] Device [
1025:
0688]
1309 Control: I/O+ Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- \
1310 ParErr- Stepping- SE RR- FastB2B- DisINTx+
1311 Status: Cap+
66MHz- UDF- FastB2B+ ParErr- DEVSEL=fast
>TAbort- \
1312 <TAbort-
<MAbort-
>SERR-
<PERR- INTx-
1314 Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ
42
1315 Region
0: Memory at c2000000 (
64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=
4M]
1316 Region
2: Memory at b0000000 (
64-bit, prefetchable) [size=
256M]
1317 Region
4: I/O ports at
4000 [size=
64]
1318 Expansion ROM at
<unassigned
> [disabled]
1319 Capabilities:
<access denied
>
1320 Kernel driver in use: i915
1321 </pre
></p
>
1323 <p
>The resulting intel_quirks entry would then look like this:
</p
>
1325 <p
><pre
>
1326 struct intel_quirk intel_quirks[] = {
1328 /* Packard Bell EasyNote LV11HC needs invert brightness quirk */
1329 {
0x0156,
0x1025,
0x0688, quirk_invert_brightness },
1332 </pre
></p
>
1334 <p
>According to the kernel module instructions (as seen using
1335 <tt
>modinfo i915
</tt
>), information about hardware needing the
1336 invert_brightness flag should be sent to the
1337 <a href=
"http://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/dri-devel
">dri-devel
1338 (at) lists.freedesktop.org
</a
> mailing list to reach the kernel
1339 developers. But my email about the laptop sent
2013-
06-
03 have not
1341 <a href=
"http://lists.freedesktop.org/archives/dri-devel/
2013-June/thread.html
">the
1342 web archive for the mailing list
</a
>, so I suspect they do not accept
1343 emails from non-subscribers. Because of this, I sent my patch also to
1344 the Debian bug tracking system instead as
1345 <a href=
"http://bugs.debian.org/
710938">BTS report #
710938</a
>, to make
1346 sure the patch is not lost.
</p
>
1348 <p
>Unfortunately, it is not enough to fix the kernel to get Laptops
1349 with this problem working properly with Linux. If you use Gnome, your
1350 worries should be over at this point. But if you use KDE, there is
1351 something in KDE ignoring the invert_brightness setting and turning on
1352 the screen during login. I
've reported it to Debian as
1353 <a href=
"http://bugs.debian.org/
711237">BTS report #
711237</a
>, and
1354 have no idea yet how to figure out exactly what subsystem is doing
1355 this. Perhaps you can help? Perhaps you know what the Gnome
1356 developers did to handle this, and this can give a clue to the KDE
1357 developers? Or you know where in KDE the screen brightness is changed
1358 during login? If so, please update the BTS report (or get in touch if
1359 you do not know how to update BTS).
</p
>
1361 <p
>Update
2013-
07-
19: The correct fix for this machine seem to be
1362 acpi_backlight=vendor, to disable ACPI backlight support completely,
1363 as the ACPI information on the machine is trash and it is better to
1364 leave it to the intel video driver to control the screen
1365 backlight.
</p
>
1370 <title>How to install Linux on a Packard Bell Easynote LV preinstalled with Windows
8</title>
1371 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_install_Linux_on_a_Packard_Bell_Easynote_LV_preinstalled_with_Windows_8.html
</link>
1372 <guid isPermaLink=
"true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_install_Linux_on_a_Packard_Bell_Easynote_LV_preinstalled_with_Windows_8.html
</guid>
1373 <pubDate>Mon,
27 May
2013 15:
20:
00 +
0200</pubDate>
1374 <description><p
>Two days ago, I asked
1375 <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
1376 I could install Linux on a Packard Bell EasyNote LV computer
1377 preinstalled with Windows
8</a
>. I found a solution, but am horrified
1378 with the obstacles put in the way of Linux users on a laptop with UEFI
1379 and Windows
8.
</p
>
1381 <p
>I never found out if the cause of my problems were the use of UEFI
1382 secure booting or fast boot. I suspect fast boot was the problem,
1383 causing the firmware to boot directly from HD without considering any
1384 key presses and alternative devices, but do not know UEFI settings
1385 enough to tell.
</p
>
1387 <p
>There is no way to install Linux on the machine in question without
1388 opening the box and disconnecting the hard drive! This is as far as I
1389 can tell, the only way to get access to the firmware setup menu
1390 without accepting the Windows
8 license agreement. I am told (and
1391 found description on how to) that it is possible to configure the
1392 firmware setup once booted into Windows
8. But as I believe the terms
1393 of that agreement are completely unacceptable, accepting the license
1394 was never an alternative. I do not enter agreements I do not intend
1395 to follow.
</p
>
1397 <p
>I feared I had to return the laptops and ask for a refund, and
1398 waste many hours on this, but luckily there was a way to get it to
1399 work. But I would not recommend it to anyone planning to run Linux on
1400 it, and I have become sceptical to Windows
8 certified laptops. Is
1401 this the way Linux will be forced out of the market place, by making
1402 it close to impossible for
"normal
" users to install Linux without
1403 accepting the Microsoft Windows license terms? Or at least not
1404 without risking to loose the warranty?
</p
>
1406 <p
>I
've updated the
1407 <a href=
"http://www.linlap.com/packard_bell_easynote_lv
">Linux Laptop
1408 wiki page for Packard Bell EasyNote LV
</a
>, to ensure the next person
1409 do not have to struggle as much as I did to get Linux into the
1412 <p
>Thanks to Bob Rosbag, Florian Weimer, Philipp Kern, Ben Hutching,
1413 Michael Tokarev and others for feedback and ideas.
</p
>
1418 <title>How can I install Linux on a Packard Bell Easynote LV preinstalled with Windows
8?
</title>
1419 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_can_I_install_Linux_on_a_Packard_Bell_Easynote_LV_preinstalled_with_Windows_8_.html
</link>
1420 <guid isPermaLink=
"true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_can_I_install_Linux_on_a_Packard_Bell_Easynote_LV_preinstalled_with_Windows_8_.html
</guid>
1421 <pubDate>Sat,
25 May
2013 18:
20:
00 +
0200</pubDate>
1422 <description><p
>I
've run into quite a problem the last few days. I bought three
1423 new laptops for my parents and a few others. I bought Packard Bell
1424 Easynote LV to run Kubuntu on and use as their home computer. But I
1425 am completely unable to figure out how to install Linux on it. The
1426 computer is preinstalled with Windows
8, and I suspect it uses UEFI
1427 instead of a BIOS to boot.
</p
>
1429 <p
>The problem is that I am unable to get it to PXE boot, and unable
1430 to get it to boot the Linux installer from my USB stick. I have yet
1431 to try the DVD install, and still hope it will work. when I turn on
1432 the computer, there is no information on what buttons to press to get
1433 the normal boot menu. I expect to get some boot menu to select PXE or
1434 USB stick booting. When booting, it first ask for the language to
1435 use, then for some regional settings, and finally if I will accept the
1436 Windows
8 terms of use. As these terms are completely unacceptable to
1437 me, I have no other choice but to turn off the computer and try again
1438 to get it to boot the Linux installer.
</p
>
1440 <p
>I have gathered my findings so far on a Linlap page about the
1441 <a href=
"http://www.linlap.com/packard_bell_easynote_lv
">Packard Bell
1442 EasyNote LV
</a
> model. If you have any idea how to get Linux
1443 installed on this machine, please get in touch or update that wiki
1444 page. If I can
't find a way to install Linux, I will have to return
1445 the laptop to the seller and find another machine for my parents.
</p
>
1447 <p
>I wonder, is this the way Linux will be forced out of the market
1448 using UEFI and
"secure boot
" by making it impossible to install Linux
1449 on new Laptops?
</p
>
1454 <title>How to transform a Debian based system to a Debian Edu installation
</title>
1455 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_transform_a_Debian_based_system_to_a_Debian_Edu_installation.html
</link>
1456 <guid isPermaLink=
"true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_transform_a_Debian_based_system_to_a_Debian_Edu_installation.html
</guid>
1457 <pubDate>Fri,
17 May
2013 11:
50:
00 +
0200</pubDate>
1458 <description><p
><a href=
"http://www.skolelinux.org/
">Debian Edu / Skolelinux
</a
> is
1459 an operating system based on Debian intended for use in schools. It
1460 contain a turn-key solution for the computer network provided to
1461 pupils in the primary schools. It provide both the central server,
1462 network boot servers and desktop environments with heaps of
1463 educational software. The project was founded almost
12 years ago,
1464 2001-
07-
02. If you want to support the project, which is in need for
1465 cash to fund developer gatherings and other project related activity,
1466 <a href=
"http://www.linuxiskolen.no/slxdebianlabs/donations.html
">please
1467 donate some money
</a
>.
1469 <p
>A topic that come up again and again on the Debian Edu mailing
1470 lists and elsewhere, is the question on how to transform a Debian or
1471 Ubuntu installation into a Debian Edu installation. It isn
't very
1472 hard, and last week I wrote a script to replicate the steps done by
1473 the Debian Edu installer.
</p
>
1475 <p
>The script,
1476 <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/
>
1477 in the debian-edu-config package, will go through these six steps and
1478 transform an existing Debian Wheezy or Ubuntu (untested) installation
1479 into a Debian Edu Workstation:
</p
>
1483 <li
>Add skolelinux related APT sources.
</li
>
1484 <li
>Create /etc/debian-edu/config with the wanted configuration.
</li
>
1485 <li
>Install debian-edu-install to load preseeding values and pull in
1486 our configuration.
</li
>
1487 <li
>Preseed debconf database with profile setup in
1488 /etc/debian-edu/config, and run tasksel to install packages
1489 according to the profile specified in the config above,
1490 overriding some of the Debian automation machinery.
</li
>
1491 <li
>Run debian-edu-cfengine-D installation to configure everything
1492 that could not be done using preseeding.
</li
>
1493 <li
>Ask for a reboot to enable all the configuration changes.
</li
>
1497 <p
>There are some steps in the Debian Edu installation that can not be
1498 replicated like this. Disk partitioning and LVM setup, for example.
1499 So this script just assume there is enough disk space to install all
1500 the needed packages.
</p
>
1502 <p
>The script was created to help a Debian Edu student working on
1503 setting up
<a href=
"http://www.raspberrypi.org
">Raspberry Pi
</a
> as a
1504 Debian Edu client, and using it he can take the existing
1505 <a href=
"http://www.raspbian.org/FrontPage
">Raspbian
</a
> installation and
1506 transform it into a fully functioning Debian Edu Workstation (or
1507 Roaming Workstation, or whatever :).
</p
>
1509 <p
>The default setting in the script is to create a KDE Workstation.
1510 If a LXDE based Roaming workstation is wanted instead, modify the
1511 PROFILE and DESKTOP values at the top to look like this instead:
</p
>
1513 <p
><pre
>
1514 PROFILE=
"Roaming-Workstation
"
1515 DESKTOP=
"lxde
"
1516 </pre
></p
>
1518 <p
>The script could even become useful to set up Debian Edu servers in
1519 the cloud, by starting with a virtual Debian installation at some
1520 virtual hosting service and setting up all the services on first
1526 <title>Debian, the Linux distribution of choice for LEGO designers?
</title>
1527 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian__the_Linux_distribution_of_choice_for_LEGO_designers_.html
</link>
1528 <guid isPermaLink=
"true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian__the_Linux_distribution_of_choice_for_LEGO_designers_.html
</guid>
1529 <pubDate>Sat,
11 May
2013 20:
30:
00 +
0200</pubDate>
1530 <description><P
>In January,
1531 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/New_IRC_channel_for_LEGO_designers_using_Debian.html
">I
1532 announced a
</a
> new
<a href=
"irc://irc.debian.org/%
23debian-lego
">IRC
1533 channel #debian-lego
</a
>, for those of us in the Debian and Linux
1534 community interested in
<a href=
"http://www.lego.com/
">LEGO
</a
>, the
1535 marvellous construction system from Denmark. We also created
1536 <a href=
"http://wiki.debian.org/LegoDesigners
">a wiki page
</a
> to have
1537 a place to take notes and write down our plans and hopes. And several
1538 people showed up to help. I was very happy to see the effect of my
1539 call. Since the small start, we have a debtags tag
1540 <a href=
"http://debtags.debian.net/search/bytag?wl=hardware::hobby:lego
">hardware::hobby:lego
</a
>
1541 tag for LEGO related packages, and now count
10 packages related to
1542 LEGO and
<a href=
"http://mindstorms.lego.com/
">Mindstorms
</a
>:
</p
>
1544 <p
><table
>
1545 <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
>
1546 <tr
><td
><a href=
"http://packages.qa.debian.org/leocad
">leocad
</a
></td
><td
>virtual brick CAD software
</td
></tr
>
1547 <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
>
1548 <tr
><td
><a href=
"http://packages.qa.debian.org/lnpd
">lnpd
</a
></td
><td
>daemon for LNP communication with BrickOS
</td
></tr
>
1549 <tr
><td
><a href=
"http://packages.qa.debian.org/nbc
">nbc
</a
></td
><td
>compiler for LEGO Mindstorms NXT bricks
</td
></tr
>
1550 <tr
><td
><a href=
"http://packages.qa.debian.org/nqc
">nqc
</a
></td
><td
>Not Quite C compiler for LEGO Mindstorms RCX
</td
></tr
>
1551 <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
>
1552 <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
>
1553 <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
>
1554 <tr
><td
><a href=
"http://packages.qa.debian.org/t2n
">t2n
</a
></td
><td
>simple command-line tool for Lego NXT
</td
></tr
>
1555 </table
></p
>
1557 <p
>Some of these are available in Wheezy, and all but one are
1558 currently available in Jessie/testing. leocad is so far only
1559 available in experimental.
</p
>
1561 <p
>If you care about LEGO in Debian, please join us on IRC and help
1562 adding the rest of the great free software tools available on Linux
1563 for LEGO designers.
</p
>
1568 <title>Debian Wheezy is out - and Debian Edu / Skolelinux should soon follow! #newinwheezy
</title>
1569 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Wheezy_is_out___and_Debian_Edu___Skolelinux_should_soon_follow___newinwheezy.html
</link>
1570 <guid isPermaLink=
"true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Wheezy_is_out___and_Debian_Edu___Skolelinux_should_soon_follow___newinwheezy.html
</guid>
1571 <pubDate>Sun,
5 May
2013 07:
40:
00 +
0200</pubDate>
1572 <description><p
>When I woke up this morning, I was very happy to see that the
1573 <a href=
"http://www.debian.org/News/
2013/
20130504">release announcement
1574 for Debian Wheezy
</a
> was waiting in my mail box. This is a great
1575 Debian release, and I expect to move my machines at home over to it fairly
1578 <p
>The new debian release contain heaps of new stuff, and one program
1579 in particular make me very happy to see included. The
1580 <a href=
"http://scratch.mit.edu/
">Scratch
</a
> program, made famous by
1581 the
<a href=
"http://www.code.org/
">Teach kids code
</a
> movement, is
1582 included for the first time. Alongside similar programs like
1583 <a href=
"http://edu.kde.org/kturtle/
">kturtle
</a
> and
1584 <a href=
"http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Activities/Turtle_Art
">turtleart
</a
>,
1585 it allow for visual programming where syntax errors can not happen,
1586 and a friendly programming environment for learning to control the
1587 computer. Scratch will also be included in the next release of Debian
1590 <p
>And now that Wheezy is wrapped up, we can wrap up the next Debian
1591 Edu/Skolelinux release too. The
1592 <a href=
"http://lists.debian.org/debian-edu/
2013/
04/msg00132.html
">first
1593 alpha release
</a
> went out last week, and the next should soon
1599 <title>Isenkram
0.2 finally in the Debian archive
</title>
1600 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Isenkram_0_2_finally_in_the_Debian_archive.html
</link>
1601 <guid isPermaLink=
"true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Isenkram_0_2_finally_in_the_Debian_archive.html
</guid>
1602 <pubDate>Wed,
3 Apr
2013 23:
40:
00 +
0200</pubDate>
1603 <description><p
>Today the
<a href=
"http://packages.qa.debian.org/isenkram
">Isenkram
1604 package
</a
> finally made it into the archive, after lingering in NEW
1605 for many months. I uploaded it to the Debian experimental suite
1606 2013-
01-
27, and today it was accepted into the archive.
</p
>
1608 <p
>Isenkram is a system for suggesting to users what packages to
1609 install to work with a pluggable hardware device. The suggestion pop
1610 up when the device is plugged in. For example if a Lego Mindstorm NXT
1611 is inserted, it will suggest to install the program needed to program
1612 the NXT controller. Give it a go, and report bugs and suggestions to
1618 <title>Bitcoin GUI now available from Debian/unstable (and Ubuntu/raring)
</title>
1619 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Bitcoin_GUI_now_available_from_Debian_unstable__and_Ubuntu_raring_.html
</link>
1620 <guid isPermaLink=
"true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Bitcoin_GUI_now_available_from_Debian_unstable__and_Ubuntu_raring_.html
</guid>
1621 <pubDate>Sat,
2 Feb
2013 09:
00:
00 +
0100</pubDate>
1622 <description><p
>My
1623 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_backport_bitcoin_qt_version_0_7_2_2_to_Debian_Squeeze.html
">last
1624 bitcoin related blog post
</a
> mentioned that the new
1625 <a href=
"http://packages.qa.debian.org/bitcoin
">bitcoin package
</a
> for
1626 Debian was waiting in NEW. It was accepted by the Debian ftp-masters
1627 2013-
01-
19, and have been available in unstable since then. It was
1628 automatically copied to Ubuntu, and is available in their Raring
1629 version too.
</p
>
1631 <p
>But there is a strange problem with the build that block this new
1632 version from being available on the i386 and kfreebsd-i386
1633 architectures. For some strange reason, the autobuilders in Debian
1634 for these architectures fail to run the test suite on these
1635 architectures (
<a href=
"http://bugs.debian.org/
672524">BTS #
672524</a
>).
1636 We are so far unable to reproduce it when building it manually, and
1637 no-one have been able to propose a fix. If you got an idea what is
1638 failing, please let us know via the BTS.
</p
>
1640 <p
>One feature that is annoying me with of the bitcoin client, because
1641 I often run low on disk space, is the fact that the client will exit
1642 if it run short on space (
<a href=
"http://bugs.debian.org/
696715">BTS
1643 #
696715</a
>). So make sure you have enough disk space when you run
1646 <p
>As usual, if you use bitcoin and want to show your support of my
1647 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
1648 <b
><a href=
"bitcoin:
15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b
&label=PetterReinholdtsenBlog
">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b
</a
></b
>.
</p
>
1653 <title>Welcome to the world, Isenkram!
</title>
1654 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Welcome_to_the_world__Isenkram_.html
</link>
1655 <guid isPermaLink=
"true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Welcome_to_the_world__Isenkram_.html
</guid>
1656 <pubDate>Tue,
22 Jan
2013 22:
00:
00 +
0100</pubDate>
1657 <description><p
>Yesterday, I
1658 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/First_prototype_ready_making_hardware_easier_to_use_in_Debian.html
">asked
1659 for testers
</a
> for my prototype for making Debian better at handling
1660 pluggable hardware devices, which I
1661 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lets_make_hardware_dongles_easier_to_use_in_Debian.html
">set
1662 out to create
</a
> earlier this month. Several valuable testers showed
1663 up, and caused me to really want to to open up the development to more
1664 people. But before I did this, I want to come up with a sensible name
1665 for this project. Today I finally decided on a new name, and I have
1666 renamed the project from hw-support-handler to this new name. In the
1667 process, I moved the source to git and made it available as a
1668 <a href=
"http://anonscm.debian.org/gitweb/?p=collab-maint/isenkram.git
">collab-maint
</a
>
1669 repository in Debian. The new name? It is
<strong
>Isenkram
</strong
>.
1670 To fetch and build the latest version of the source, use
</p
>
1673 git clone http://anonscm.debian.org/git/collab-maint/isenkram.git
1674 cd isenkram
&& git-buildpackage -us -uc
1677 <p
>I have not yet adjusted all files to use the new name yet. If you
1678 want to hack on the source or improve the package, please go ahead.
1679 But please talk to me first on IRC or via email before you do major
1680 changes, to make sure we do not step on each others toes. :)
</p
>
1682 <p
>If you wonder what
'isenkram
' is, it is a Norwegian word for iron
1683 stuff, typically meaning tools, nails, screws, etc. Typical hardware
1684 stuff, in other words. I
've been told it is the Norwegian variant of
1685 the German word eisenkram, for those that are familiar with that
1688 <p
><strong
>Update
2013-
01-
26</strong
>: Added -us -us to build
1689 instructions, to avoid confusing people with an error from the signing
1692 <p
><strong
>Update
2013-
01-
27</strong
>: Switch to HTTP URL for the git
1693 clone argument to avoid the need for authentication.
</p
>
1698 <title>First prototype ready making hardware easier to use in Debian
</title>
1699 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/First_prototype_ready_making_hardware_easier_to_use_in_Debian.html
</link>
1700 <guid isPermaLink=
"true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/First_prototype_ready_making_hardware_easier_to_use_in_Debian.html
</guid>
1701 <pubDate>Mon,
21 Jan
2013 12:
00:
00 +
0100</pubDate>
1702 <description><p
>Early this month I set out to try to
1703 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lets_make_hardware_dongles_easier_to_use_in_Debian.html
">improve
1704 the Debian support for pluggable hardware devices
</a
>. Now my
1705 prototype is working, and it is ready for a larger audience. To test
1707 <a href=
"http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/
">source
1708 from the Debian Edu subversion repository
</a
>, build and install the
1709 package. You might have to log out and in again activate the
1710 autostart script.
</p
>
1712 <p
>The design is simple:
</p
>
1716 <li
>Add desktop entry in /usr/share/autostart/ causing a program
1717 hw-support-handlerd to start when the user log in.
</li
>
1719 <li
>This program listen for kernel events about new hardware (directly
1720 from the kernel like udev does), not using HAL dbus events as I
1721 initially did.
</li
>
1723 <li
>When new hardware is inserted, look up the hardware modalias in
1724 the APT database, a database
1725 <a href=
"http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/modaliases?view=markup
">available
1726 via HTTP
</a
> and a database available as part of the package.
</li
>
1728 <li
>If a package is mapped to the hardware in question, the package
1729 isn
't installed yet and this is the first time the hardware was
1730 plugged in, show a desktop notification suggesting to install the
1731 package or packages.
</li
>
1733 <li
>If the user click on the
'install package now
' button, ask
1734 aptdaemon via the PackageKit API to install the requrired package.
</li
>
1736 <li
>aptdaemon ask for root password or sudo password, and install the
1737 package while showing progress information in a window.
</li
>
1741 <p
>I still need to come up with a better name for the system. Here
1742 are some screen shots showing the prototype in action. First the
1743 notification, then the password request, and finally the request to
1744 approve all the dependencies. Sorry for the Norwegian Bokmål GUI.
</p
>
1746 <p
><img src=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/
2013-
01-
21-hw-support-
1-notification.png
">
1747 <br
><img src=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/
2013-
01-
21-hw-support-
2-password.png
">
1748 <br
><img src=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/
2013-
01-
21-hw-support-
3-dependencies.png
">
1749 <br
><img src=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/
2013-
01-
21-hw-support-
4-installing.png
">
1750 <br
><img src=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/
2013-
01-
21-hw-support-
5-installing-details.png
" width=
"70%
"></p
>
1752 <p
>The prototype still need to be improved with longer timeouts, but
1753 is already useful. The database of hardware to package mappings also
1754 need more work. It is currently compatible with the Ubuntu way of
1755 storing such information in the package control file, but could be
1756 changed to use other formats instead or in addition to the current
1757 method. I
've dropped the use of discover for this mapping, as the
1758 modalias approach is more flexible and easier to use on Linux as long
1759 as the Linux kernel expose its modalias strings directly.
</p
>
1761 <p
><strong
>Update
2013-
01-
21 16:
50</strong
>: Due to popular demand,
1762 here is the command required to check out and build the source: Use
1763 '<tt
>svn checkout
1764 svn://svn.debian.org/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/; cd
1765 hw-support-handler; debuild
</tt
>'. If you lack debuild, install the
1766 devscripts package.
</p
>
1768 <p
><strong
>Update
2013-
01-
23 12:
00</strong
>: The project is now
1769 renamed to Isenkram and the source moved from the Debian Edu
1770 subversion repository to a Debian collab-maint git repository. See
1771 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Welcome_to_the_world__Isenkram_.html
">build
1772 instructions
</a
> for details.
</p
>
1777 <title>Thank you Thinkpad X41, for your long and trustworthy service
</title>
1778 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Thank_you_Thinkpad_X41__for_your_long_and_trustworthy_service.html
</link>
1779 <guid isPermaLink=
"true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Thank_you_Thinkpad_X41__for_your_long_and_trustworthy_service.html
</guid>
1780 <pubDate>Sat,
19 Jan
2013 09:
20:
00 +
0100</pubDate>
1781 <description><p
>This Christmas my trusty old laptop died. It died quietly and
1782 suddenly in bed. With a quiet whimper, it went completely quiet and
1783 black. The power button was no longer able to turn it on. It was a
1784 IBM Thinkpad X41, and the best laptop I ever had. Better than both
1785 Thinkpads X30, X31, X40, X60, X61 and X61S. Far better than the
1786 Compaq I had before that. Now I need to find a replacement. To keep
1787 going during Christmas, I moved the one year old SSD disk to my old
1788 X40 where it fitted (only one I had left that could use it), but it is
1789 not a durable solution.
1791 <p
>My laptop needs are fairly modest. This is my wishlist from when I
1792 got a new one more than
10 years ago. It still holds true.:)
</p
>
1796 <li
>Lightweight (around
1 kg) and small volume (preferably smaller
1797 than A4).
</li
>
1798 <li
>Robust, it will be in my backpack every day.
</li
>
1799 <li
>Three button mouse and a mouse pin instead of touch pad.
</li
>
1800 <li
>Long battery life time. Preferable a week.
</li
>
1801 <li
>Internal WIFI network card.
</li
>
1802 <li
>Internal Twisted Pair network card.
</li
>
1803 <li
>Some USB slots (
2-
3 is plenty)
</li
>
1804 <li
>Good keyboard - similar to the Thinkpad.
</li
>
1805 <li
>Video resolution at least
1024x768, with size around
12" (A4 paper
1807 <li
>Hardware supported by Debian Stable, ie the default kernel and
1808 X.org packages.
</li
>
1809 <li
>Quiet, preferably fan free (or at least not using the fan most of
1814 <p
>You will notice that there are no RAM and CPU requirements in the
1815 list. The reason is simply that the specifications on laptops the
1816 last
10-
15 years have been sufficient for my needs, and I have to look
1817 at other features to choose my laptop. But are there still made as
1818 robust laptops as my X41? The Thinkpad X60/X61 proved to be less
1819 robust, and Thinkpads seem to be heading in the wrong direction since
1820 Lenovo took over. But I
've been told that X220 and X1 Carbon might
1821 still be useful.
</p
>
1823 <p
>Perhaps I should rethink my needs, and look for a pad with an
1824 external keyboard? I
'll have to check the
1825 <a href=
"http://www.linux-laptop.net/
">Linux Laptops site
</a
> for
1826 well-supported laptops, or perhaps just buy one preinstalled from one
1827 of the vendors listed on the
<a href=
"http://linuxpreloaded.com/
">Linux
1828 Pre-loaded site
</a
>.
</p
>
1833 <title>How to find a browser plugin supporting a given MIME type
</title>
1834 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_find_a_browser_plugin_supporting_a_given_MIME_type.html
</link>
1835 <guid isPermaLink=
"true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_find_a_browser_plugin_supporting_a_given_MIME_type.html
</guid>
1836 <pubDate>Fri,
18 Jan
2013 10:
40:
00 +
0100</pubDate>
1837 <description><p
>Some times I try to figure out which Iceweasel browser plugin to
1838 install to get support for a given MIME type. Thanks to
1839 <a href=
"https://wiki.ubuntu.com/MozillaTeam/Plugins
">specifications
1840 done by Ubuntu
</a
> and Mozilla, it is possible to do this in Debian.
1841 Unfortunately, not very many packages provide the needed meta
1842 information, Anyway, here is a small script to look up all browser
1843 plugin packages announcing ther MIME support using this specification:
</p
>
1849 def pkgs_handling_mimetype(mimetype):
1854 version = pkg.candidate
1856 version = pkg.installed
1859 record = version.record
1860 if not record.has_key(
'Npp-MimeType
'):
1862 mime_types = record[
'Npp-MimeType
'].split(
',
')
1863 for t in mime_types:
1864 t = t.rstrip().strip()
1866 thepkgs.append(pkg.name)
1868 mimetype =
"audio/ogg
"
1869 if
1 < len(sys.argv):
1870 mimetype = sys.argv[
1]
1871 print
"Browser plugin packages supporting %s:
" % mimetype
1872 for pkg in pkgs_handling_mimetype(mimetype):
1873 print
" %s
" %pkg
1876 <p
>It can be used like this to look up a given MIME type:
</p
>
1879 % ./apt-find-browserplug-for-mimetype
1880 Browser plugin packages supporting audio/ogg:
1882 % ./apt-find-browserplug-for-mimetype application/x-shockwave-flash
1883 Browser plugin packages supporting application/x-shockwave-flash:
1884 browser-plugin-gnash
1888 <p
>In Ubuntu this mechanism is combined with support in the browser
1889 itself to query for plugins and propose to install the needed
1890 packages. It would be great if Debian supported such feature too. Is
1891 anyone working on adding it?
</p
>
1893 <p
><strong
>Update
2013-
01-
18 14:
20</strong
>: The Debian BTS
1894 request for icweasel support for this feature is
1895 <a href=
"http://bugs.debian.org/
484010">#
484010</a
> from
2008 (and
1896 <a href=
"http://bugs.debian.org/
698426">#
698426</a
> from today). Lack
1897 of manpower and wish for a different design is the reason thus feature
1898 is not yet in iceweasel from Debian.
</p
>
1903 <title>What is the most supported MIME type in Debian?
</title>
1904 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/What_is_the_most_supported_MIME_type_in_Debian_.html
</link>
1905 <guid isPermaLink=
"true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/What_is_the_most_supported_MIME_type_in_Debian_.html
</guid>
1906 <pubDate>Wed,
16 Jan
2013 10:
10:
00 +
0100</pubDate>
1907 <description><p
>The
<a href=
"http://wiki.debian.org/AppStreamDebianProposal
">DEP-
11
1908 proposal to add AppStream information to the Debian archive
</a
>, is a
1909 proposal to make it possible for a Desktop application to propose to
1910 the user some package to install to gain support for a given MIME
1911 type, font, library etc. that is currently missing. With such
1912 mechanism in place, it would be possible for the desktop to
1913 automatically propose and install leocad if some LDraw file is
1914 downloaded by the browser.
</p
>
1916 <p
>To get some idea about the current content of the archive, I decided
1917 to write a simple program to extract all .desktop files from the
1918 Debian archive and look up the claimed MIME support there. The result
1920 <a href=
"http://ftp.skolelinux.org/pub/AppStreamTest
">Skolelinux FTP
1921 site
</a
>. Using the collected information, it become possible to
1922 answer the question in the title. Here are the
20 most supported MIME
1923 types in Debian stable (Squeeze), testing (Wheezy) and unstable (Sid).
1924 The complete list is available from the link above.
</p
>
1926 <p
><strong
>Debian Stable:
</strong
></p
>
1930 ----- -----------------------
1946 18 application/x-ogg
1953 <p
><strong
>Debian Testing:
</strong
></p
>
1957 ----- -----------------------
1973 18 application/x-ogg
1980 <p
><strong
>Debian Unstable:
</strong
></p
>
1984 ----- -----------------------
2001 18 application/x-ogg
2007 <p
>I am told that PackageKit can provide an API to access the kind of
2008 information mentioned in DEP-
11. I have not yet had time to look at
2009 it, but hope the PackageKit people in Debian are on top of these
2012 <p
><strong
>Update
2013-
01-
16 13:
35</strong
>: Updated numbers after
2013 discovering a typo in my script.
</p
>
2018 <title>Using modalias info to find packages handling my hardware
</title>
2019 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Using_modalias_info_to_find_packages_handling_my_hardware.html
</link>
2020 <guid isPermaLink=
"true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Using_modalias_info_to_find_packages_handling_my_hardware.html
</guid>
2021 <pubDate>Tue,
15 Jan
2013 08:
00:
00 +
0100</pubDate>
2022 <description><p
>Yesterday, I wrote about the
2023 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Modalias_strings___a_practical_way_to_map__stuff__to_hardware.html
">modalias
2024 values provided by the Linux kernel
</a
> following my hope for
2025 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lets_make_hardware_dongles_easier_to_use_in_Debian.html
">better
2026 dongle support in Debian
</a
>. Using this knowledge, I have tested how
2027 modalias values attached to package names can be used to map packages
2028 to hardware. This allow the system to look up and suggest relevant
2029 packages when I plug in some new hardware into my machine, and replace
2030 discover and discover-data as the database used to map hardware to
2033 <p
>I create a modaliases file with entries like the following,
2034 containing package name, kernel module name (if relevant, otherwise
2035 the package name) and globs matching the relevant hardware
2038 <p
><blockquote
>
2039 Package: package-name
2040 <br
>Modaliases: module(modaliasglob, modaliasglob, modaliasglob)
</p
>
2041 </blockquote
></p
>
2043 <p
>It is fairly trivial to write code to find the relevant packages
2044 for a given modalias value using this file.
</p
>
2046 <p
>An entry like this would suggest the video and picture application
2047 cheese for many USB web cameras (interface bus class
0E01):
</p
>
2049 <p
><blockquote
>
2051 <br
>Modaliases: cheese(usb:v*p*d*dc*dsc*dp*ic0Eisc01ip*)
</p
>
2052 </blockquote
></p
>
2054 <p
>An entry like this would suggest the pcmciautils package when a
2055 CardBus bridge (bus class
0607) PCI device is present:
</p
>
2057 <p
><blockquote
>
2058 Package: pcmciautils
2059 <br
>Modaliases: pcmciautils(pci:v*d*sv*sd*bc06sc07i*)
2060 </blockquote
></p
>
2062 <p
>An entry like this would suggest the package colorhug-client when
2063 plugging in a ColorHug with USB IDs
04D8:F8DA:
</p
>
2065 <p
><blockquote
>
2066 Package: colorhug-client
2067 <br
>Modaliases: colorhug-client(usb:v04D8pF8DAd*)
</p
>
2068 </blockquote
></p
>
2070 <p
>I believe the format is compatible with the format of the Packages
2071 file in the Debian archive. Ubuntu already uses their Packages file
2072 to store their mappings from packages to hardware.
</p
>
2074 <p
>By adding a XB-Modaliases: header in debian/control, any .deb can
2075 announce the hardware it support in a way my prototype understand.
2076 This allow those publishing packages in an APT source outside the
2077 Debian archive as well as those backporting packages to make sure the
2078 hardware mapping are included in the package meta information. I
've
2079 tested such header in the pymissile package, and its modalias mapping
2080 is working as it should with my prototype. It even made it to Ubuntu
2083 <p
>To test if it was possible to look up supported hardware using only
2084 the shell tools available in the Debian installer, I wrote a shell
2085 implementation of the lookup code. The idea is to create files for
2086 each modalias and let the shell do the matching. Please check out and
2088 <a href=
"http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/hw-support-lookup?view=co
">hw-support-lookup
</a
>
2089 shell script. It run without any extra dependencies and fetch the
2090 hardware mappings from the Debian archive and the subversion
2091 repository where I currently work on my prototype.
</p
>
2093 <p
>When I use it on a machine with a yubikey inserted, it suggest to
2094 install yubikey-personalization:
</p
>
2096 <p
><blockquote
>
2097 % ./hw-support-lookup
2098 <br
>yubikey-personalization
2100 </blockquote
></p
>
2102 <p
>When I run it on my Thinkpad X40 with a PCMCIA/CardBus slot, it
2103 propose to install the pcmciautils package:
</p
>
2105 <p
><blockquote
>
2106 % ./hw-support-lookup
2107 <br
>pcmciautils
2109 </blockquote
></p
>
2111 <p
>If you know of any hardware-package mapping that should be added to
2112 <a href=
"http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/modaliases?view=co
">my
2113 database
</a
>, please tell me about it.
</p
>
2115 <p
>It could be possible to generate several of the mappings between
2116 packages and hardware. One source would be to look at packages with
2117 kernel modules, ie packages with *.ko files in /lib/modules/, and
2118 extract their modalias information. Another would be to look at
2119 packages with udev rules, ie packages with files in
2120 /lib/udev/rules.d/, and extract their vendor/model information to
2121 generate a modalias matching rule. I have not tested any of these to
2122 see if it work.
</p
>
2124 <p
>If you want to help implementing a system to let us propose what
2125 packages to install when new hardware is plugged into a Debian
2126 machine, please send me an email or talk to me on
2127 <a href=
"irc://irc.debian.org/%
23debian-devel
">#debian-devel
</a
>.
</p
>
2132 <title>Modalias strings - a practical way to map
"stuff
" to hardware
</title>
2133 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Modalias_strings___a_practical_way_to_map__stuff__to_hardware.html
</link>
2134 <guid isPermaLink=
"true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Modalias_strings___a_practical_way_to_map__stuff__to_hardware.html
</guid>
2135 <pubDate>Mon,
14 Jan
2013 11:
20:
00 +
0100</pubDate>
2136 <description><p
>While looking into how to look up Debian packages based on hardware
2137 information, to find the packages that support a given piece of
2138 hardware, I refreshed my memory regarding modalias values, and decided
2139 to document the details. Here are my findings so far, also available
2141 <a href=
"http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/
">the
2142 Debian Edu subversion repository
</a
>:
2144 <p
><strong
>Modalias decoded
</strong
></p
>
2146 <p
>This document try to explain what the different types of modalias
2147 values stands for. It is in part based on information from
2148 &lt;URL:
<a href=
"https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Modalias
">https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Modalias
</a
> &gt;,
2149 &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;,
2150 &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
2151 &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;.
2153 <p
>The modalias entries for a given Linux machine can be found using
2154 this shell script:
</p
>
2157 find /sys -name modalias -print0 | xargs -
0 cat | sort -u
2160 <p
>The supported modalias globs for a given kernel module can be found
2161 using modinfo:
</p
>
2164 % /sbin/modinfo psmouse | grep alias:
2165 alias: serio:ty05pr*id*ex*
2166 alias: serio:ty01pr*id*ex*
2170 <p
><strong
>PCI subtype
</strong
></p
>
2172 <p
>A typical PCI entry can look like this. This is an Intel Host
2173 Bridge memory controller:
</p
>
2175 <p
><blockquote
>
2176 pci:v00008086d00002770sv00001028sd000001ADbc06sc00i00
2177 </blockquote
></p
>
2179 <p
>This represent these values:
</p
>
2184 sv
00001028 (subvendor)
2185 sd
000001AD (subdevice)
2187 sc
00 (bus subclass)
2191 <p
>The vendor/device values are the same values outputted from
'lspci
2192 -n
' as
8086:
2770. The bus class/subclass is also shown by lspci as
2193 0600. The
0600 class is a host bridge. Other useful bus values are
2194 0300 (VGA compatible card) and
0200 (Ethernet controller).
</p
>
2196 <p
>Not sure how to figure out the interface value, nor what it
2199 <p
><strong
>USB subtype
</strong
></p
>
2201 <p
>Some typical USB entries can look like this. This is an internal
2202 USB hub in a laptop:
</p
>
2204 <p
><blockquote
>
2205 usb:v1D6Bp0001d0206dc09dsc00dp00ic09isc00ip00
2206 </blockquote
></p
>
2208 <p
>Here is the values included in this alias:
</p
>
2211 v
1D6B (device vendor)
2212 p
0001 (device product)
2214 dc
09 (device class)
2215 dsc
00 (device subclass)
2216 dp
00 (device protocol)
2217 ic
09 (interface class)
2218 isc
00 (interface subclass)
2219 ip
00 (interface protocol)
2222 <p
>The
0900 device class/subclass means hub. Some times the relevant
2223 class is in the interface class section. For a simple USB web camera,
2224 these alias entries show up:
</p
>
2226 <p
><blockquote
>
2227 usb:v0AC8p3420d5000dcEFdsc02dp01ic01isc01ip00
2228 <br
>usb:v0AC8p3420d5000dcEFdsc02dp01ic01isc02ip00
2229 <br
>usb:v0AC8p3420d5000dcEFdsc02dp01ic0Eisc01ip00
2230 <br
>usb:v0AC8p3420d5000dcEFdsc02dp01ic0Eisc02ip00
2231 </blockquote
></p
>
2233 <p
>Interface class
0E01 is video control,
0E02 is video streaming (aka
2234 camera),
0101 is audio control device and
0102 is audio streaming (aka
2235 microphone). Thus this is a camera with microphone included.
</p
>
2237 <p
><strong
>ACPI subtype
</strong
></p
>
2239 <p
>The ACPI type is used for several non-PCI/USB stuff. This is an IR
2240 receiver in a Thinkpad X40:
</p
>
2242 <p
><blockquote
>
2243 acpi:IBM0071:PNP0511:
2244 </blockquote
></p
>
2246 <p
>The values between the colons are IDs.
</p
>
2248 <p
><strong
>DMI subtype
</strong
></p
>
2250 <p
>The DMI table contain lots of information about the computer case
2251 and model. This is an entry for a IBM Thinkpad X40, fetched from
2252 /sys/devices/virtual/dmi/id/modalias:
</p
>
2254 <p
><blockquote
>
2255 dmi:bvnIBM:bvr1UETB6WW(
1.66):bd06/
15/
2005:svnIBM:pn2371H4G:pvrThinkPadX40:rvnIBM:rn2371H4G:rvrNotAvailable:cvnIBM:ct10:cvrNotAvailable:
2256 </blockquote
></p
>
2258 <p
>The values present are
</p
>
2261 bvn IBM (BIOS vendor)
2262 bvr
1UETB
6WW(
1.66) (BIOS version)
2263 bd
06/
15/
2005 (BIOS date)
2264 svn IBM (system vendor)
2265 pn
2371H4G (product name)
2266 pvr ThinkPadX40 (product version)
2267 rvn IBM (board vendor)
2268 rn
2371H4G (board name)
2269 rvr NotAvailable (board version)
2270 cvn IBM (chassis vendor)
2271 ct
10 (chassis type)
2272 cvr NotAvailable (chassis version)
2275 <p
>The chassis type
10 is Notebook. Other interesting values can be
2276 found in the dmidecode source:
</p
>
2280 4 Low Profile Desktop
2293 17 Main Server Chassis
2294 18 Expansion Chassis
2296 20 Bus Expansion Chassis
2297 21 Peripheral Chassis
2299 23 Rack Mount Chassis
2308 <p
>The chassis type values are not always accurately set in the DMI
2309 table. For example my home server is a tower, but the DMI modalias
2310 claim it is a desktop.
</p
>
2312 <p
><strong
>SerIO subtype
</strong
></p
>
2314 <p
>This type is used for PS/
2 mouse plugs. One example is from my
2315 test machine:
</p
>
2317 <p
><blockquote
>
2318 serio:ty01pr00id00ex00
2319 </blockquote
></p
>
2321 <p
>The values present are
</p
>
2330 <p
>This type is supported by the psmouse driver. I am not sure what
2331 the valid values are.
</p
>
2333 <p
><strong
>Other subtypes
</strong
></p
>
2335 <p
>There are heaps of other modalias subtypes according to
2336 file2alias.c. There is the rest of the list from that source: amba,
2337 ap, bcma, ccw, css, eisa, hid, i2c, ieee1394, input, ipack, isapnp,
2338 mdio, of, parisc, pcmcia, platform, scsi, sdio, spi, ssb, vio, virtio,
2339 vmbus, x86cpu and zorro. I did not spend time documenting all of
2340 these, as they do not seem relevant for my intended use with mapping
2341 hardware to packages when new stuff is inserted during run time.
</p
>
2343 <p
><strong
>Looking up kernel modules using modalias values
</strong
></p
>
2345 <p
>To check which kernel modules provide support for a given modalias,
2346 one can use the following shell script:
</p
>
2349 for id in $(find /sys -name modalias -print0 | xargs -
0 cat | sort -u); do \
2350 echo
"$id
" ; \
2351 /sbin/modprobe --show-depends
"$id
"|sed
's/^/ /
' ; \
2355 <p
>The output can look like this (only the first few entries as the
2356 list is very long on my test machine):
</p
>
2360 insmod /lib/modules/
2.6.32-
5-
686/kernel/drivers/acpi/ac.ko
2362 FATAL: Module acpi:device: not found.
2364 insmod /lib/modules/
2.6.32-
5-
686/kernel/drivers/char/nvram.ko
2365 insmod /lib/modules/
2.6.32-
5-
686/kernel/drivers/leds/led-class.ko
2366 insmod /lib/modules/
2.6.32-
5-
686/kernel/net/rfkill/rfkill.ko
2367 insmod /lib/modules/
2.6.32-
5-
686/kernel/drivers/platform/x86/thinkpad_acpi.ko
2368 acpi:IBM0071:PNP0511:
2369 insmod /lib/modules/
2.6.32-
5-
686/kernel/lib/crc-ccitt.ko
2370 insmod /lib/modules/
2.6.32-
5-
686/kernel/net/irda/irda.ko
2371 insmod /lib/modules/
2.6.32-
5-
686/kernel/drivers/net/irda/nsc-ircc.ko
2375 <p
>If you want to help implementing a system to let us propose what
2376 packages to install when new hardware is plugged into a Debian
2377 machine, please send me an email or talk to me on
2378 <a href=
"irc://irc.debian.org/%
23debian-devel
">#debian-devel
</a
>.
</p
>
2380 <p
><strong
>Update
2013-
01-
15:
</strong
> Rewrite
"cat $(find ...)
" to
2381 "find ... -print0 | xargs -
0 cat
" to make sure it handle directories
2382 in /sys/ with space in them.
</p
>
2387 <title>Moved the pymissile Debian packaging to collab-maint
</title>
2388 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Moved_the_pymissile_Debian_packaging_to_collab_maint.html
</link>
2389 <guid isPermaLink=
"true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Moved_the_pymissile_Debian_packaging_to_collab_maint.html
</guid>
2390 <pubDate>Thu,
10 Jan
2013 20:
40:
00 +
0100</pubDate>
2391 <description><p
>As part of my investigation on how to improve the support in Debian
2392 for hardware dongles, I dug up my old Mark and Spencer USB Rocket
2393 Launcher and updated the Debian package
2394 <a href=
"http://packages.qa.debian.org/pymissile
">pymissile
</a
> to make
2395 sure udev will fix the device permissions when it is plugged in. I
2396 also added a
"Modaliases
" header to test it in the Debian archive and
2397 hopefully make the package be proposed by jockey in Ubuntu when a user
2398 plug in his rocket launcher. In the process I moved the source to a
2399 git repository under collab-maint, to make it easier for any DD to
2400 contribute.
<a href=
"http://code.google.com/p/pymissile/
">Upstream
</a
>
2401 is not very active, but the software still work for me even after five
2402 years of relative silence. The new git repository is not listed in
2403 the uploaded package yet, because I want to test the other changes a
2404 bit more before I upload the new version. If you want to check out
2405 the new version with a .desktop file included, visit the
2406 <a href=
"http://anonscm.debian.org/gitweb/?p=collab-maint/pymissile.git
">gitweb
2407 view
</a
> or use
"<tt
>git clone
2408 git://anonscm.debian.org/collab-maint/pymissile.git
</tt
>".
</p
>
2413 <title>Lets make hardware dongles easier to use in Debian
</title>
2414 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lets_make_hardware_dongles_easier_to_use_in_Debian.html
</link>
2415 <guid isPermaLink=
"true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lets_make_hardware_dongles_easier_to_use_in_Debian.html
</guid>
2416 <pubDate>Wed,
9 Jan
2013 15:
40:
00 +
0100</pubDate>
2417 <description><p
>One thing that annoys me with Debian and Linux distributions in
2418 general, is that there is a great package management system with the
2419 ability to automatically install software packages by downloading them
2420 from the distribution mirrors, but no way to get it to automatically
2421 install the packages I need to use the hardware I plug into my
2422 machine. Even if the package to use it is easily available from the
2423 Linux distribution. When I plug in a LEGO Mindstorms NXT, it could
2424 suggest to automatically install the python-nxt, nbc and t2n packages
2425 I need to talk to it. When I plug in a Yubikey, it could propose the
2426 yubikey-personalization package. The information required to do this
2427 is available, but no-one have pulled all the pieces together.
</p
>
2429 <p
>Some years ago, I proposed to
2430 <a href=
"http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/
2010/
05/msg01206.html
">use
2431 the discover subsystem to implement this
</a
>. The idea is fairly
2436 <li
>Add a desktop entry in /usr/share/autostart/ pointing to a program
2437 starting when a user log in.
</li
>
2439 <li
>Set this program up to listen for kernel events emitted when new
2440 hardware is inserted into the computer.
</li
>
2442 <li
>When new hardware is inserted, look up the hardware ID in a
2443 database mapping to packages, and take note of any non-installed
2444 packages.
</li
>
2446 <li
>Show a message to the user proposing to install the discovered
2447 package, and make it easy to install it.
</li
>
2451 <p
>I am not sure what the best way to implement this is, but my
2452 initial idea was to use dbus events to discover new hardware, the
2453 discover database to find packages and
2454 <a href=
"http://www.packagekit.org/
">PackageKit
</a
> to install
2457 <p
>Yesterday, I found time to try to implement this idea, and the
2458 draft package is now checked into
2459 <a href=
"http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/
">the
2460 Debian Edu subversion repository
</a
>. In the process, I updated the
2461 <a href=
"http://packages.qa.debian.org/d/discover-data.html
">discover-data
</a
>
2462 package to map the USB ids of LEGO Mindstorms and Yubikey devices to
2463 the relevant packages in Debian, and uploaded a new version
2464 2.2013.01.09 to unstable. I also discovered that the current
2465 <a href=
"http://packages.qa.debian.org/d/discover.html
">discover
</a
>
2466 package in Debian no longer discovered any USB devices, because
2467 /proc/bus/usb/devices is no longer present. I ported it to use
2468 libusb as a fall back option to get it working. The fixed package
2469 version
2.1.2-
6 is now in experimental (didn
't upload it to unstable
2470 because of the freeze).
</p
>
2472 <p
>With this prototype in place, I can insert my Yubikey, and get this
2473 desktop notification to show up (only once, the first time it is
2474 inserted):
</p
>
2476 <p align=
"center
"><img src=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/
2013-
01-
09-hw-autoinstall.png
"></p
>
2478 <p
>For this prototype to be really useful, some way to automatically
2479 install the proposed packages by pressing the
"Please install
2480 program(s)
" button should to be implemented.
</p
>
2482 <p
>If this idea seem useful to you, and you want to help make it
2483 happen, please help me update the discover-data database with mappings
2484 from hardware to Debian packages. Check if
'discover-pkginstall -l
'
2485 list the package you would like to have installed when a given
2486 hardware device is inserted into your computer, and report bugs using
2487 reportbug if it isn
't. Or, if you know of a better way to provide
2488 such mapping, please let me know.
</p
>
2490 <p
>This prototype need more work, and there are several questions that
2491 should be considered before it is ready for production use. Is dbus
2492 the correct way to detect new hardware? At the moment I look for HAL
2493 dbus events on the system bus, because that is the events I could see
2494 on my Debian Squeeze KDE desktop. Are there better events to use?
2495 How should the user be notified? Is the desktop notification
2496 mechanism the best option, or should the background daemon raise a
2497 popup instead? How should packages be installed? When should they
2498 not be installed?
</p
>
2500 <p
>If you want to help getting such feature implemented in Debian,
2501 please send me an email. :)
</p
>
2506 <title>New IRC channel for LEGO designers using Debian
</title>
2507 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/New_IRC_channel_for_LEGO_designers_using_Debian.html
</link>
2508 <guid isPermaLink=
"true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/New_IRC_channel_for_LEGO_designers_using_Debian.html
</guid>
2509 <pubDate>Wed,
2 Jan
2013 15:
40:
00 +
0100</pubDate>
2510 <description><p
>During Christmas, I have worked a bit on the Debian support for
2511 <a href=
"http://mindstorms.lego.com/en-us/Default.aspx
">LEGO Mindstorm
2512 NXT
</a
>. My son and I have played a bit with my NXT set, and I
2513 discovered I had to build all the tools myself because none were
2514 already in Debian Squeeze. If Debian support for LEGO is something
2515 you care about, please join me on the IRC channel
2516 <a href=
"irc://irc.debian.org/%
23debian-lego
">#debian-lego
</a
> (server
2517 irc.debian.org). There is a lot that could be done to improve the
2518 Debian support for LEGO designers. For example both CAD software
2519 and Mindstorm compilers are missing. :)
</p
>
2521 <p
>Update
2012-
01-
03: A
2522 <a href=
"http://wiki.debian.org/LegoDesigners
">project page
</a
>
2523 including links to Lego related packages is now available.
</p
>
2528 <title>How to backport bitcoin-qt version
0.7.2-
2 to Debian Squeeze
</title>
2529 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_backport_bitcoin_qt_version_0_7_2_2_to_Debian_Squeeze.html
</link>
2530 <guid isPermaLink=
"true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_backport_bitcoin_qt_version_0_7_2_2_to_Debian_Squeeze.html
</guid>
2531 <pubDate>Tue,
25 Dec
2012 20:
50:
00 +
0100</pubDate>
2532 <description><p
>Let me start by wishing you all marry Christmas and a happy new
2533 year! I hope next year will prove to be a good year.
</p
>
2535 <p
><a href=
"http://www.bitcoin.org/
">Bitcoin
</a
>, the digital
2536 decentralised
"currency
" that allow people to transfer bitcoins
2537 between each other with minimal overhead, is a very interesting
2538 experiment. And as I wrote a few days ago, the bitcoin situation in
2539 <a href=
"http://www.debian.org/
">Debian
</a
> is about to improve a bit.
2540 The
<a href=
"http://packages.qa.debian.org/bitcoin
">new debian source
2541 package
</a
> (version
0.7.2-
2) was uploaded yesterday, and is waiting
2542 in
<a href=
"http://ftp-master.debian.org/new.html
">the NEW queue
</A
>
2543 for one of the ftpmasters to approve the new bitcoin-qt package
2546 <p
>And thanks to the great work of Jonas and the rest of the bitcoin
2547 team in Debian, you can easily test the package in Debian Squeeze
2548 using the following steps to get a set of working packages:
</p
>
2550 <blockquote
><pre
>
2551 git clone git://git.debian.org/git/collab-maint/bitcoin
2553 DEB_MAINTAINER_MODE=
1 DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS=noupnp fakeroot debian/rules clean
2554 DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS=noupnp git-buildpackage --git-ignore-new
2555 </pre
></blockquote
>
2557 <p
>You might have to install some build dependencies as well. The
2558 list of commands should give you two packages, bitcoind and
2559 bitcoin-qt, ready for use in a Squeeze environment. Note that the
2560 client will download the complete set of bitcoin
"blocks
", which need
2561 around
5.6 GiB of data on my machine at the moment. Make sure your
2562 ~/.bitcoin/ directory have lots of spare room if you want to download
2563 all the blocks. The client will warn if the disk is getting full, so
2564 there is not really a problem if you got too little room, but you will
2565 not be able to get all the features out of the client.
</p
>
2567 <p
>As usual, if you use bitcoin and want to show your support of my
2568 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
2569 <b
><a href=
"bitcoin:
15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b
&label=PetterReinholdtsenBlog
">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b
</a
></b
>.
</p
>
2574 <title>A word on bitcoin support in Debian
</title>
2575 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/A_word_on_bitcoin_support_in_Debian.html
</link>
2576 <guid isPermaLink=
"true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/A_word_on_bitcoin_support_in_Debian.html
</guid>
2577 <pubDate>Fri,
21 Dec
2012 23:
59:
00 +
0100</pubDate>
2578 <description><p
>It has been a while since I wrote about
2579 <a href=
"http://www.bitcoin.org/
">bitcoin
</a
>, the decentralised
2580 peer-to-peer based crypto-currency, and the reason is simply that I
2581 have been busy elsewhere. But two days ago, I started looking at the
2582 state of
<a href=
"http://packages.qa.debian.org/bitcoin
">bitcoin in
2583 Debian
</a
> again to try to recover my old bitcoin wallet. The package
2584 is now maintained by a
2585 <a href=
"https://alioth.debian.org/projects/pkg-bitcoin/
">team of
2586 people
</a
>, and the grunt work had already been done by this team. We
2587 owe a huge thank you to all these team members. :)
2588 But I was sad to discover that the bitcoin client is missing in
2589 Wheezy. It is only available in Sid (and an outdated client from
2590 backports). The client had several RC bugs registered in BTS blocking
2591 it from entering testing. To try to help the team and improve the
2592 situation, I spent some time providing patches and triaging the bug
2593 reports. I also had a look at the bitcoin package available from Matt
2595 <a href=
"https://launchpad.net/~bitcoin/+archive/bitcoin
">PPA for
2596 Ubuntu
</a
>, and moved the useful pieces from that version into the
2597 Debian package.
</p
>
2599 <p
>After checking with the main package maintainer Jonas Smedegaard on
2600 IRC, I pushed several patches into the collab-maint git repository to
2601 improve the package. It now contains fixes for the RC issues (not from
2602 me, but fixed by Scott Howard), build rules for a Qt GUI client
2603 package, konqueror support for the bitcoin: URI and bash completion
2604 setup. As I work on Debian Squeeze, I also created
2605 <a href=
"http://lists.alioth.debian.org/pipermail/pkg-bitcoin-devel/Week-of-Mon-
20121217/
000041.html
">a
2606 patch to backport
</a
> the latest version. Jonas is going to look at
2607 it and try to integrate it into the git repository before uploading a
2608 new version to unstable.
2610 <p
>I would very much like bitcoin to succeed, to get rid of the
2611 centralized control currently exercised in the monetary system. I
2612 find it completely unacceptable that the USA government is collecting
2613 transaction data for almost all international money transfers (most are done in USD and transaction logs shipped to the spooks), and
2614 that the major credit card companies can block legal money
2615 transactions to Wikileaks. But for bitcoin to succeed, more people
2616 need to use bitcoins, and more people need to accept bitcoins when
2617 they sell products and services. Improving the bitcoin support in
2618 Debian is a small step in the right direction, but not enough.
2619 Unfortunately the user experience when browsing the web and wanting to
2620 pay with bitcoin is still not very good. The bitcoin: URI is a step
2621 in the right direction, but need to work in most or every browser in
2622 use. Also the bitcoin-qt client is too heavy to fire up to do a
2623 quick transaction. I believe there are other clients available, but
2624 have not tested them.
</p
>
2627 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Now_accepting_bitcoins___anonymous_and_distributed_p2p_crypto_money.html
">experiment
2628 with bitcoins
</a
> showed that at least some of my readers use bitcoin.
2629 I received
20.15 BTC so far on the address I provided in my blog two
2630 years ago, as can be
2631 <a href=
"http://blockexplorer.com/address/
15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b
">seen
2632 on the blockexplorer service
</a
>. Thank you everyone for your
2633 donation. The blockexplorer service demonstrates quite well that
2634 bitcoin is not quite anonymous and untracked. :) I wonder if the
2635 number of users have gone up since then. If you use bitcoin and want
2636 to show your support of my activity, please send Bitcoin donations to
2637 the same address as last time,
2638 <b
><a href=
"bitcoin:
15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b
&label=PetterReinholdtsenBlog
">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b
</a
></b
>.
</p
>
2643 <title>Git repository for song book for Computer Scientists
</title>
2644 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Git_repository_for_song_book_for_Computer_Scientists.html
</link>
2645 <guid isPermaLink=
"true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Git_repository_for_song_book_for_Computer_Scientists.html
</guid>
2646 <pubDate>Fri,
7 Sep
2012 13:
50:
00 +
0200</pubDate>
2647 <description><p
>As I
2648 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Song_book_for_Computer_Scientists.html
">mentioned
2649 this summer
</a
>, I have created a Computer Science song book a few
2650 years ago, and today I finally found time to create a public
2651 <a href=
"https://gitorious.org/pere-cs-songbook/pere-cs-songbook
">Gitorious
2652 repository for the project
</a
>.
</p
>
2654 <p
>If you want to help out, please clone the source and submit patches
2655 to the HTML version. To generate the PDF and PostScript version,
2656 please use prince XML, or let me know about a useful free software
2657 processor capable of creating a good looking PDF from the HTML.
</p
>
2659 <p
>Want to sing? You can still find the song book in HTML, PDF and
2660 PostScript formats at
2661 <a href=
"http://www.hungry.com/~pere/cs-songbook/
">Petter
's Computer
2662 Science Songbook
</a
>.
</p
>
2667 <title>Gratulerer med
19-årsdagen, Debian!
</title>
2668 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Gratulerer_med_19__rsdagen__Debian_.html
</link>
2669 <guid isPermaLink=
"true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Gratulerer_med_19__rsdagen__Debian_.html
</guid>
2670 <pubDate>Thu,
16 Aug
2012 11:
20:
00 +
0200</pubDate>
2671 <description><p
>I dag fyller
2672 <a href=
"http://www.debian.org/News/
2012/
20120813">Debian-prosjektet
19
2673 år
</a
>. Jeg har fulgt det de siste
12 årene, og er veldig glad for å kunne
2674 si gratulerer med dagen, Debian!
</p
>
2679 <title>Song book for Computer Scientists
</title>
2680 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Song_book_for_Computer_Scientists.html
</link>
2681 <guid isPermaLink=
"true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Song_book_for_Computer_Scientists.html
</guid>
2682 <pubDate>Sun,
24 Jun
2012 13:
30:
00 +
0200</pubDate>
2683 <description><p
>Many years ago, while studying Computer Science at the
2684 <a href=
"http://www.uit.no/
">University of Tromsø
</a
>, I started
2685 collecting computer related songs for use at parties. The original
2686 version was written in LaTeX, but a few years ago I got help from
2687 Håkon W. Lie, one of the inventors of W3C CSS, to convert it to HTML
2688 while keeping the ability to create a nice book in PDF format. I have
2689 not had time to maintain the book for a while now, and guess I should
2690 put it up on some public version control repository where others can
2691 help me extend and update the book. If anyone is volunteering to help
2692 me with this, send me an email. Also let me know if there are songs
2693 missing in my book.
</p
>
2695 <p
>I have not mentioned the book on my blog so far, and it occured to
2696 me today that I really should let all my readers share the joys of
2697 singing out load about programming, computers and computer networks.
2698 Especially now that
<a href=
"http://debconf12.debconf.org/
">Debconf
2699 12</a
> is about to start (and I am not going). Want to sing? Check
2700 out
<a href=
"http://www.hungry.com/~pere/cs-songbook/
">Petter
's
2701 Computer Science Songbook
</a
>.
2706 <title>Automatically upgrading server firmware on Dell PowerEdge
</title>
2707 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Automatically_upgrading_server_firmware_on_Dell_PowerEdge.html
</link>
2708 <guid isPermaLink=
"true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Automatically_upgrading_server_firmware_on_Dell_PowerEdge.html
</guid>
2709 <pubDate>Mon,
21 Nov
2011 12:
00:
00 +
0100</pubDate>
2710 <description><p
>At work we have heaps of servers. I believe the total count is
2711 around
1000 at the moment. To be able to get help from the vendors
2712 when something go wrong, we want to keep the firmware on the servers
2713 up to date. If the firmware isn
't the latest and greatest, the
2714 vendors typically refuse to start debugging any problems until the
2715 firmware is upgraded. So before every reboot, we want to upgrade the
2716 firmware, and we would really like everyone handling servers at the
2717 university to do this themselves when they plan to reboot a machine.
2718 For that to happen we at the unix server admin group need to provide
2719 the tools to do so.
</p
>
2721 <p
>To make firmware upgrading easier, I am working on a script to
2722 fetch and install the latest firmware for the servers we got. Most of
2723 our hardware are from Dell and HP, so I have focused on these servers
2724 so far. This blog post is about the Dell part.
</P
>
2726 <p
>On the Dell FTP site I was lucky enough to find
2727 <a href=
"ftp://ftp.us.dell.com/catalog/Catalog.xml.gz
">an XML file
</a
>
2728 with firmware information for all
11th generation servers, listing
2729 which firmware should be used on a given model and where on the FTP
2730 site I can find it. Using a simple perl XML parser I can then
2731 download the shell scripts Dell provides to do firmware upgrades from
2732 within Linux and reboot when all the firmware is primed and ready to
2733 be activated on the first reboot.
</p
>
2735 <p
>This is the Dell related fragment of the perl code I am working on.
2736 Are there anyone working on similar tools for firmware upgrading all
2737 servers at a site? Please get in touch and lets share resources.
</p
>
2739 <p
><pre
>
2743 use File::Temp qw(tempdir);
2745 # Install needed RHEL packages if missing
2747 'XML::Simple
' =
> 'perl-XML-Simple
',
2749 for my $module (keys %rhelmodules) {
2750 eval
"use $module;
";
2752 my $pkg = $rhelmodules{$module};
2753 system(
"yum install -y $pkg
");
2754 eval
"use $module;
";
2758 my $errorsto =
'pere@hungry.com
';
2764 sub run_firmware_script {
2765 my ($opts, $script) = @_;
2767 print STDERR
"fail: missing script name\n
";
2770 print STDERR
"Running $script\n\n
";
2772 if (
0 == system(
"sh $script $opts
")) { # FIXME correct exit code handling
2773 print STDERR
"success: firmware script ran succcessfully\n
";
2775 print STDERR
"fail: firmware script returned error\n
";
2779 sub run_firmware_scripts {
2780 my ($opts, @dirs) = @_;
2781 # Run firmware packages
2782 for my $dir (@dirs) {
2783 print STDERR
"info: Running scripts in $dir\n
";
2784 opendir(my $dh, $dir) or die
"Unable to open directory $dir: $!
";
2785 while (my $s = readdir $dh) {
2786 next if $s =~ m/^\.\.?/;
2787 run_firmware_script($opts,
"$dir/$s
");
2795 print STDERR
"info: Downloading $url\n
";
2796 system(
"wget --quiet \
"$url\
"");
2801 my $product = `dmidecode -s system-product-name`;
2804 if ($product =~ m/PowerEdge/) {
2806 # on RHEL, these pacakges are needed by the firwmare upgrade scripts
2807 system(
'yum install -y compat-libstdc++-
33.i686 libstdc++.i686 libxml2.i686 procmail
');
2809 my $tmpdir = tempdir(
2813 fetch_dell_fw(
'catalog/Catalog.xml.gz
');
2814 system(
'gunzip Catalog.xml.gz
');
2815 my @paths = fetch_dell_fw_list(
'Catalog.xml
');
2816 # -q is quiet, disabling interactivity and reducing console output
2817 my $fwopts =
"-q
";
2819 for my $url (@paths) {
2820 fetch_dell_fw($url);
2822 run_firmware_scripts($fwopts, $tmpdir);
2824 print STDERR
"error: Unsupported Dell model
'$product
'.\n
";
2825 print STDERR
"error: Please report to $errorsto.\n
";
2829 print STDERR
"error: Unsupported Dell model
'$product
'.\n
";
2830 print STDERR
"error: Please report to $errorsto.\n
";
2836 my $url =
"ftp://ftp.us.dell.com/$path
";
2840 # Using ftp://ftp.us.dell.com/catalog/Catalog.xml.gz, figure out which
2841 # firmware packages to download from Dell. Only work for Linux
2842 # machines and
11th generation Dell servers.
2843 sub fetch_dell_fw_list {
2844 my $filename = shift;
2846 my $product = `dmidecode -s system-product-name`;
2848 my ($mybrand, $mymodel) = split(/\s+/, $product);
2850 print STDERR
"Finding firmware bundles for $mybrand $mymodel\n
";
2852 my $xml = XMLin($filename);
2854 for my $bundle (@{$xml-
>{SoftwareBundle}}) {
2855 my $brand = $bundle-
>{TargetSystems}-
>{Brand}-
>{Display}-
>{content};
2856 my $model = $bundle-
>{TargetSystems}-
>{Brand}-
>{Model}-
>{Display}-
>{content};
2858 if (
"ARRAY
" eq ref $bundle-
>{TargetOSes}-
>{OperatingSystem}) {
2859 $oscode = $bundle-
>{TargetOSes}-
>{OperatingSystem}[
0]-
>{osCode};
2861 $oscode = $bundle-
>{TargetOSes}-
>{OperatingSystem}-
>{osCode};
2863 if ($mybrand eq $brand
&& $mymodel eq $model
&& "LIN
" eq $oscode)
2865 @paths = map { $_-
>{path} } @{$bundle-
>{Contents}-
>{Package}};
2868 for my $component (@{$xml-
>{SoftwareComponent}}) {
2869 my $componenttype = $component-
>{ComponentType}-
>{value};
2871 # Drop application packages, only firmware and BIOS
2872 next if
'APAC
' eq $componenttype;
2874 my $cpath = $component-
>{path};
2875 for my $path (@paths) {
2876 if ($cpath =~ m%/$path$%) {
2877 push(@paths, $cpath);
2885 <p
>The code is only tested on RedHat Enterprise Linux, but I suspect
2886 it could work on other platforms with some tweaking. Anyone know a
2887 index like Catalog.xml is available from HP for HP servers? At the
2888 moment I maintain a similar list manually and it is quickly getting
2894 <title>How is booting into runlevel
1 different from single user boots?
</title>
2895 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_is_booting_into_runlevel_1_different_from_single_user_boots_.html
</link>
2896 <guid isPermaLink=
"true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_is_booting_into_runlevel_1_different_from_single_user_boots_.html
</guid>
2897 <pubDate>Thu,
4 Aug
2011 12:
40:
00 +
0200</pubDate>
2898 <description><p
>Wouter Verhelst have some
2899 <a href=
"http://grep.be/blog/en/retorts/pere_kubuntu_boot
">interesting
2900 comments and opinions
</a
> on my blog post on
2901 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/What_should_start_from__etc_rcS_d__in_Debian____almost_nothing.html
">the
2902 need to clean up /etc/rcS.d/ in Debian
</a
> and my blog post about
2903 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/What_is_missing_in_the_Debian_desktop__or_why_my_parents_use_Kubuntu.html
">the
2904 default KDE desktop in Debian
</a
>. I only have time to address one
2905 small piece of his comment now, and though it best to address the
2906 misunderstanding he bring forward:
</p
>
2908 <p
><blockquote
>
2909 Currently, a system admin has four options: [...] boot to a
2910 single-user system (by adding
'single
' to the kernel command line;
2911 this runs rcS and rc1 scripts)
2912 </blockquote
></p
>
2914 <p
>This make me believe Wouter believe booting into single user mode
2915 and booting into runlevel
1 is the same. I am not surprised he
2916 believe this, because it would make sense and is a quite sensible
2917 thing to believe. But because the boot in Debian is slightly broken,
2918 runlevel
1 do not work properly and it isn
't the same as single user
2919 mode. I
'll try to explain what is actually happing, but it is a bit
2920 hard to explain.
</p
>
2922 <p
>Single user mode is defined like this in /etc/inittab:
2923 "<tt
>~~:S:wait:/sbin/sulogin
</tt
>". This means the only thing that is
2924 executed in single user mode is sulogin. Single user mode is a boot
2925 state
"between
" the runlevels, and when booting into single user mode,
2926 only the scripts in /etc/rcS.d/ are executed before the init process
2927 enters the single user state. When switching to runlevel
1, the state
2928 is in fact not ending in runlevel
1, but it passes through runlevel
1
2929 and end up in the single user mode (see /etc/rc1.d/S03single, which
2930 runs
"init -t1 S
" to switch to single user mode at the end of runlevel
2931 1. It is confusing that the
'S
' (single user) init mode is not the
2932 mode enabled by /etc/rcS.d/ (which is more like the initial boot
2935 <p
>This summary might make it clearer. When booting for the first
2936 time into single user mode, the following commands are executed:
2937 "<tt
>/etc/init.d/rc S; /sbin/sulogin
</tt
>". When booting into
2938 runlevel
1, the following commands are executed:
"<tt
>/etc/init.d/rc
2939 S; /etc/init.d/rc
1; /sbin/sulogin
</tt
>". A problem show up when
2940 trying to continue after visiting single user mode. Not all services
2941 are started again as they should, causing the machine to end up in an
2942 unpredicatble state. This is why Debian admins recommend rebooting
2943 after visiting single user mode.
</p
>
2945 <p
>A similar problem with runlevel
1 is caused by the amount of
2946 scripts executed from /etc/rcS.d/. When switching from say runlevel
2
2947 to runlevel
1, the services started from /etc/rcS.d/ are not properly
2948 stopped when passing through the scripts in /etc/rc1.d/, and not
2949 started again when switching away from runlevel
1 to the runlevels
2950 2-
5. I believe the problem is best fixed by moving all the scripts
2951 out of /etc/rcS.d/ that are not
<strong
>required
</strong
> to get a
2952 functioning single user mode during boot.
</p
>
2954 <p
>I have spent several years investigating the Debian boot system,
2955 and discovered this problem a few years ago. I suspect it originates
2956 from when sysvinit was introduced into Debian, a long time ago.
</p
>
2961 <title>What should start from /etc/rcS.d/ in Debian? - almost nothing
</title>
2962 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/What_should_start_from__etc_rcS_d__in_Debian____almost_nothing.html
</link>
2963 <guid isPermaLink=
"true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/What_should_start_from__etc_rcS_d__in_Debian____almost_nothing.html
</guid>
2964 <pubDate>Sat,
30 Jul
2011 14:
00:
00 +
0200</pubDate>
2965 <description><p
>In the Debian boot system, several packages include scripts that
2966 are started from /etc/rcS.d/. In fact, there is a bite more of them
2967 than make sense, and this causes a few problems. What kind of
2968 problems, you might ask. There are at least two problems. The first
2969 is that it is not possible to recover a machine after switching to
2970 runlevel
1. One need to actually reboot to get the machine back to
2971 the expected state. The other is that single user boot will sometimes
2972 run into problems because some of the subsystems are activated before
2973 the root login is presented, causing problems when trying to recover a
2974 machine from a problem in that subsystem. A minor additional point is
2975 that moving more scripts out of rcS.d/ and into the other rc#.d/
2976 directories will increase the amount of scripts that can run in
2977 parallel during boot, and thus decrease the boot time.
</p
>
2979 <p
>So, which scripts should start from rcS.d/. In short, only the
2980 scripts that _have_ to execute before the root login prompt is
2981 presented during a single user boot should go there. Everything else
2982 should go into the numeric runlevels. This means things like
2983 lm-sensors, fuse and x11-common should not run from rcS.d, but from
2984 the numeric runlevels. Today in Debian, there are around
115 init.d
2985 scripts that are started from rcS.d/, and most of them should be moved
2986 out. Do your package have one of them? Please help us make single
2987 user and runlevel
1 better by moving it.
</p
>
2989 <p
>Scripts setting up the screen, keyboard, system partitions
2990 etc. should still be started from rcS.d/, but there is for example no
2991 need to have the network enabled before the single user login prompt
2992 is presented.
</p
>
2994 <p
>As always, things are not so easy to fix as they sound. To keep
2995 Debian systems working while scripts migrate and during upgrades, the
2996 scripts need to be moved from rcS.d/ to rc2.d/ in reverse dependency
2997 order, ie the scripts that nothing in rcS.d/ depend on can be moved,
2998 and the next ones can only be moved when their dependencies have been
2999 moved first. This migration must be done sequentially while we ensure
3000 that the package system upgrade packages in the right order to keep
3001 the system state correct. This will require some coordination when it
3002 comes to network related packages, but most of the packages with
3003 scripts that should migrate do not have anything in rcS.d/ depending
3004 on them. Some packages have already been updated, like the sudo
3005 package, while others are still left to do. I wish I had time to work
3006 on this myself, but real live constrains make it unlikely that I will
3007 find time to push this forward.
</p
>
3012 <title>What is missing in the Debian desktop, or why my parents use Kubuntu
</title>
3013 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/What_is_missing_in_the_Debian_desktop__or_why_my_parents_use_Kubuntu.html
</link>
3014 <guid isPermaLink=
"true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/What_is_missing_in_the_Debian_desktop__or_why_my_parents_use_Kubuntu.html
</guid>
3015 <pubDate>Fri,
29 Jul
2011 08:
10:
00 +
0200</pubDate>
3016 <description><p
>While at Debconf11, I have several times during discussions
3017 mentioned the issues I believe should be improved in Debian for its
3018 desktop to be useful for more people. The use case for this is my
3019 parents, which are currently running Kubuntu which solve the
3022 <p
>I suspect these four missing features are not very hard to
3023 implement. After all, they are present in Ubuntu, so if we wanted to
3024 do this in Debian we would have a source.
</p
>
3028 <li
><strong
>Simple GUI based upgrade of packages.
</strong
> When there
3029 are new packages available for upgrades, a icon in the KDE status bar
3030 indicate this, and clicking on it will activate the simple upgrade
3031 tool to handle it. I have no problem guiding both of my parents
3032 through the process over the phone. If a kernel reboot is required,
3033 this too is indicated by the status bars and the upgrade tool. Last
3034 time I checked, nothing with the same features was working in KDE in
3037 <li
><strong
>Simple handling of missing Firefox browser
3038 plugins.
</strong
> When the browser encounter a MIME type it do not
3039 currently have a handler for, it will ask the user if the system
3040 should search for a package that would add support for this MIME type,
3041 and if the user say yes, the APT sources will be searched for packages
3042 advertising the MIME type in their control file (visible in the
3043 Packages file in the APT archive). If one or more packages are found,
3044 it is a simple click of the mouse to add support for the missing mime
3045 type. If the package require the user to accept some non-free
3046 license, this is explained to the user. The entire process make it
3047 more clear to the user why something do not work in the browser, and
3048 make the chances higher for the user to blame the web page authors and
3049 not the browser for any missing features.
</li
>
3051 <li
><strong
>Simple handling of missing multimedia codec/format
3052 handlers.
</strong
> When the media players encounter a format or codec
3053 it is not supporting, a dialog pop up asking the user if the system
3054 should search for a package that would add support for it. This
3055 happen with things like MP3, Windows Media or H
.264. The selection
3056 and installation procedure is very similar to the Firefox browser
3057 plugin handling. This is as far as I know implemented using a
3058 gstreamer hook. The end result is that the user easily get access to
3059 the codecs that are present from the APT archives available, while
3060 explaining more on why a given format is unsupported by Ubuntu.
</li
>
3062 <li
><strong
>Better browser handling of some MIME types.
</strong
> When
3063 displaying a text/plain file in my Debian browser, it will propose to
3064 start emacs to show it. If I remember correctly, when doing the same
3065 in Kunbutu it show the file as a text file in the browser. At least I
3066 know Opera will show text files within the browser. I much prefer the
3067 latter behaviour.
</li
>
3071 <p
>There are other nice features as well, like the simplified suite
3072 upgrader, but given that I am the one mostly doing the dist-upgrade,
3073 it do not matter much.
</p
>
3075 <p
>I really hope we could get these features in place for the next
3076 Debian release. It would require the coordinated effort of several
3077 maintainers, but would make the end user experience a lot better.
</p
>
3082 <title>Perl modules used by FixMyStreet which are missing in Debian/Squeeze
</title>
3083 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Perl_modules_used_by_FixMyStreet_which_are_missing_in_Debian_Squeeze.html
</link>
3084 <guid isPermaLink=
"true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Perl_modules_used_by_FixMyStreet_which_are_missing_in_Debian_Squeeze.html
</guid>
3085 <pubDate>Tue,
26 Jul
2011 12:
25:
00 +
0200</pubDate>
3086 <description><p
>The Norwegian
<a href=
"http://www.fiksgatami.no/
">FiksGataMi
</A
>
3087 site is build on Debian/Squeeze, and this platform was chosen because
3088 I am most familiar with Debian (being a Debian Developer for around
10
3089 years) because it is the latest stable Debian release which should get
3090 security support for a few years.
</p
>
3092 <p
>The web service is written in Perl, and depend on some perl modules
3093 that are missing in Debian at the moment. It would be great if these
3094 modules were added to the Debian archive, allowing anyone to set up
3095 their own
<a href=
"http://www.fixmystreet.com
">FixMyStreet
</a
> clone
3096 in their own country using only Debian packages. The list of modules
3097 missing in Debian/Squeeze isn
't very long, and I hope the perl group
3098 will find time to package the
12 modules Catalyst::Plugin::SmartURI,
3099 Catalyst::Plugin::Unicode::Encoding, Catalyst::View::TT, Devel::Hide,
3100 Sort::Key, Statistics::Distributions, Template::Plugin::Comma,
3101 Template::Plugin::DateTime::Format, Term::Size::Any, Term::Size::Perl,
3102 URI::SmartURI and Web::Scraper to make the maintenance of FixMyStreet
3103 easier in the future.
</p
>
3105 <p
>Thanks to the great tools in Debian, getting the missing modules
3106 installed on my server was a simple call to
'cpan2deb Module::Name
'
3107 and
'dpkg -i
' to install the resulting package. But this leave me
3108 with the responsibility of tracking security problems, which I really
3109 do not have time for.
</p
>
3114 <title>A Norwegian FixMyStreet have kept me busy the last few weeks
</title>
3115 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/A_Norwegian_FixMyStreet_have_kept_me_busy_the_last_few_weeks.html
</link>
3116 <guid isPermaLink=
"true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/A_Norwegian_FixMyStreet_have_kept_me_busy_the_last_few_weeks.html
</guid>
3117 <pubDate>Sun,
3 Apr
2011 22:
50:
00 +
0200</pubDate>
3118 <description><p
>Here is a small update for my English readers. Most of my blog
3119 posts have been in Norwegian the last few weeks, so here is a short
3120 update in English.
</p
>
3122 <p
>The kids still keep me too busy to get much free software work
3123 done, but I did manage to organise a project to get a Norwegian port
3124 of the British service
3125 <a href=
"http://www.fixmystreet.com/
">FixMyStreet
</a
> up and running,
3126 and it has been running for a month now. The entire project has been
3127 organised by me and two others. Around Christmas we gathered sponsors
3128 to fund the development work. In January I drafted a contract with
3129 <a href=
"http://www.mysociety.org/
">mySociety
</a
> on what to develop,
3130 and in February the development took place. Most of it involved
3131 converting the source to use GPS coordinates instead of British
3132 easting/northing, and the resulting code should be a lot easier to get
3133 running in any country by now. The Norwegian
3134 <a href=
"http://www.fiksgatami.no/
">FiksGataMi
</a
> is using
3135 <a href=
"http://www.openstreetmap.org/
">OpenStreetmap
</a
> as the map
3136 source and the source for administrative borders in Norway, and
3137 support for this had to be added/fixed.
</p
>
3139 <p
>The Norwegian version went live March
3th, and we spent the weekend
3140 polishing the system before we announced it March
7th. The system is
3141 running on a KVM instance of Debian/Squeeze, and has seen almost
3000
3142 problem reports in a few weeks. Soon we hope to announce the Android
3143 and iPhone versions making it even easier to report problems with the
3144 public infrastructure.
</p
>
3146 <p
>Perhaps something to consider for those of you in countries without
3147 such service?
</p
>
3152 <title>Using NVD and CPE to track CVEs in locally maintained software
</title>
3153 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Using_NVD_and_CPE_to_track_CVEs_in_locally_maintained_software.html
</link>
3154 <guid isPermaLink=
"true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Using_NVD_and_CPE_to_track_CVEs_in_locally_maintained_software.html
</guid>
3155 <pubDate>Fri,
28 Jan
2011 15:
40:
00 +
0100</pubDate>
3156 <description><p
>The last few days I have looked at ways to track open security
3157 issues here at my work with the University of Oslo. My idea is that
3158 it should be possible to use the information about security issues
3159 available on the Internet, and check our locally
3160 maintained/distributed software against this information. It should
3161 allow us to verify that no known security issues are forgotten. The
3162 CVE database listing vulnerabilities seem like a great central point,
3163 and by using the package lists from Debian mapped to CVEs provided by
3164 the testing security team, I believed it should be possible to figure
3165 out which security holes were present in our free software
3166 collection.
</p
>
3168 <p
>After reading up on the topic, it became obvious that the first
3169 building block is to be able to name software packages in a unique and
3170 consistent way across data sources. I considered several ways to do
3171 this, for example coming up with my own naming scheme like using URLs
3172 to project home pages or URLs to the Freshmeat entries, or using some
3173 existing naming scheme. And it seem like I am not the first one to
3174 come across this problem, as MITRE already proposed and implemented a
3175 solution. Enter the
<a href=
"http://cpe.mitre.org/index.html
">Common
3176 Platform Enumeration
</a
> dictionary, a vocabulary for referring to
3177 software, hardware and other platform components. The CPE ids are
3178 mapped to CVEs in the
<a href=
"http://web.nvd.nist.gov/
">National
3179 Vulnerability Database
</a
>, allowing me to look up know security
3180 issues for any CPE name. With this in place, all I need to do is to
3181 locate the CPE id for the software packages we use at the university.
3182 This is fairly trivial (I google for
'cve cpe $package
' and check the
3183 NVD entry if a CVE for the package exist).
</p
>
3185 <p
>To give you an example. The GNU gzip source package have the CPE
3186 name cpe:/a:gnu:gzip. If the old version
1.3.3 was the package to
3187 check out, one could look up
3188 <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
3189 in NVD
</a
> and get a list of
6 security holes with public CVE entries.
3190 The most recent one is
3191 <a href=
"http://web.nvd.nist.gov/view/vuln/detail?vulnId=CVE-
2010-
0001">CVE-
2010-
0001</a
>,
3192 and at the bottom of the NVD page for this vulnerability the complete
3193 list of affected versions is provided.
</p
>
3195 <p
>The NVD database of CVEs is also available as a XML dump, allowing
3196 for offline processing of issues. Using this dump, I
've written a
3197 small script taking a list of CPEs as input and list all CVEs
3198 affecting the packages represented by these CPEs. One give it CPEs
3199 with version numbers as specified above and get a list of open
3200 security issues out.
</p
>
3202 <p
>Of course for this approach to be useful, the quality of the NVD
3203 information need to be high. For that to happen, I believe as many as
3204 possible need to use and contribute to the NVD database. I notice
3206 <a href=
"https://www.redhat.com/security/data/metrics/rhsamapcpe.txt
">a
3207 map from CVE to CPE
</a
>, indicating that they are using the CPE
3208 information. I
'm not aware of Debian and Ubuntu doing the same.
</p
>
3210 <p
>To get an idea about the quality for free software, I spent some
3211 time making it possible to compare the CVE database from Debian with
3212 the CVE database in NVD. The result look fairly good, but there are
3213 some inconsistencies in NVD (same software package having several
3214 CPEs), and some inaccuracies (NVD not mentioning buggy packages that
3215 Debian believe are affected by a CVE). Hope to find time to improve
3216 the quality of NVD, but that require being able to get in touch with
3217 someone maintaining it. So far my three emails with questions and
3218 corrections have not seen any reply, but I hope contact can be
3219 established soon.
</p
>
3221 <p
>An interesting application for CPEs is cross platform package
3222 mapping. It would be useful to know which packages in for example
3223 RHEL, OpenSuSe and Mandriva are missing from Debian and Ubuntu, and
3224 this would be trivial if all linux distributions provided CPE entries
3225 for their packages.
</p
>
3230 <title>Which module is loaded for a given PCI and USB device?
</title>
3231 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Which_module_is_loaded_for_a_given_PCI_and_USB_device_.html
</link>
3232 <guid isPermaLink=
"true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Which_module_is_loaded_for_a_given_PCI_and_USB_device_.html
</guid>
3233 <pubDate>Sun,
23 Jan
2011 00:
20:
00 +
0100</pubDate>
3234 <description><p
>In the
3235 <a href=
"http://packages.qa.debian.org/discover-data
">discover-data
</a
>
3236 package in Debian, there is a script to report useful information
3237 about the running hardware for use when people report missing
3238 information. One part of this script that I find very useful when
3239 debugging hardware problems, is the part mapping loaded kernel module
3240 to the PCI device it claims. It allow me to quickly see if the kernel
3241 module I expect is driving the hardware I am struggling with. To see
3242 the output, make sure discover-data is installed and run
3243 <tt
>/usr/share/bug/discover-data
3>&1</tt
>. The relevant output on
3244 one of my machines like this:
</p
>
3248 10de:
03eb i2c_nforce2
3251 10de:
03f0 snd_hda_intel
3260 <p
>The code in question look like this, slightly modified for
3261 readability and to drop the output to file descriptor
3:
</p
>
3264 if [ -d /sys/bus/pci/devices/ ] ; then
3265 echo loaded pci modules:
3267 cd /sys/bus/pci/devices/
3268 for address in * ; do
3269 if [ -d
"$address/driver/module
" ] ; then
3270 module=`cd $address/driver/module ; pwd -P | xargs basename`
3271 if grep -q
"^$module
" /proc/modules ; then
3272 address=$(echo $address |sed s/
0000://)
3273 id=`lspci -n -s $address | tail -n
1 | awk
'{print $
3}
'`
3274 echo
"$id $module
"
3283 <p
>Similar code could be used to extract USB device module
3287 if [ -d /sys/bus/usb/devices/ ] ; then
3288 echo loaded usb modules:
3290 cd /sys/bus/usb/devices/
3291 for address in * ; do
3292 if [ -d
"$address/driver/module
" ] ; then
3293 module=`cd $address/driver/module ; pwd -P | xargs basename`
3294 if grep -q
"^$module
" /proc/modules ; then
3295 address=$(echo $address |sed s/
0000://)
3296 id=$(lsusb -s $address | tail -n
1 | awk
'{print $
6}
')
3297 if [
"$id
" ] ; then
3298 echo
"$id $module
"
3308 <p
>This might perhaps be something to include in other tools as
3314 <title>How to test if a laptop is working with Linux
</title>
3315 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_test_if_a_laptop_is_working_with_Linux.html
</link>
3316 <guid isPermaLink=
"true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_test_if_a_laptop_is_working_with_Linux.html
</guid>
3317 <pubDate>Wed,
22 Dec
2010 14:
55:
00 +
0100</pubDate>
3318 <description><p
>The last few days I have spent at work here at the
<a
3319 href=
"http://www.uio.no/
">University of Oslo
</a
> testing if the new
3320 batch of computers will work with Linux. Every year for the last few
3321 years the university have organised shared bid of a few thousand
3322 computers, and this year HP won the bid. Two different desktops and
3323 five different laptops are on the list this year. We in the UNIX
3324 group want to know which one of these computers work well with RHEL
3325 and Ubuntu, the two Linux distributions we currently handle at the
3326 university.
</p
>
3328 <p
>My test method is simple, and I share it here to get feedback and
3329 perhaps inspire others to test hardware as well. To test, I PXE
3330 install the OS version of choice, and log in as my normal user and run
3331 a few applications and plug in selected pieces of hardware. When
3332 something fail, I make a note about this in the test matrix and move
3333 on. If I have some spare time I try to report the bug to the OS
3334 vendor, but as I only have the machines for a short time, I rarely
3335 have the time to do this for all the problems I find.
</p
>
3337 <p
>Anyway, to get to the point of this post. Here is the simple tests
3338 I perform on a new model.
</p
>
3342 <li
>Is PXE installation working? I
'm testing with RHEL6, Ubuntu Lucid
3343 and Ubuntu Maverik at the moment. If I feel like it, I also test with
3344 RHEL5 and Debian Edu/Squeeze.
</li
>
3346 <li
>Is X.org working? If the graphical login screen show up after
3347 installation, X.org is working.
</li
>
3349 <li
>Is hardware accelerated OpenGL working? Running glxgears (in
3350 package mesa-utils on Ubuntu) and writing down the frames per second
3351 reported by the program.
</li
>
3353 <li
>Is sound working? With Gnome and KDE, a sound is played when
3354 logging in, and if I can hear this the test is successful. If there
3355 are several audio exits on the machine, I try them all and check if
3356 the Gnome/KDE audio mixer can control where to send the sound. I
3357 normally test this by playing
3358 <a href=
"http://www.nuug.no/aktiviteter/
20101012-chef/
">a HTML5
3359 video
</a
> in Firefox/Iceweasel.
</li
>
3361 <li
>Is the USB subsystem working? I test this by plugging in a USB
3362 memory stick and see if Gnome/KDE notices this.
</li
>
3364 <li
>Is the CD/DVD player working? I test this by inserting any CD/DVD
3365 I have lying around, and see if Gnome/KDE notices this.
</li
>
3367 <li
>Is any built in camera working? Test using cheese, and see if a
3368 picture from the v4l device show up.
</li
>
3370 <li
>Is bluetooth working? Use the Gnome/KDE browsing tool to see if
3371 any bluetooth devices are discovered. In my office, I normally see a
3374 <li
>For laptops, is the SD or Compaq Flash reader working. I have
3375 memory modules lying around, and stick them in and see if Gnome/KDE
3376 notice this.
</li
>
3378 <li
>For laptops, is suspend/hibernate working? I
'm testing if the
3379 special button work, and if the laptop continue to work after
3382 <li
>For laptops, is the extra buttons working, like audio level,
3383 adjusting background light, switching on/off external video output,
3384 switching on/off wifi, bluetooth, etc? The set of buttons differ from
3385 laptop to laptop, so I just write down which are working and which are
3388 <li
>Some laptops have smart card readers, finger print readers,
3389 acceleration sensors etc. I rarely test these, as I do not know how
3390 to quickly test if they are working or not, so I only document their
3391 existence.
</li
>
3395 <p
>By now I suspect you are really curious what the test results are
3396 for the HP machines I am testing. I
'm not done yet, so I will report
3397 the test results later. For now I can report that HP
8100 Elite work
3398 fine, and hibernation fail with HP EliteBook
8440p on Ubuntu Lucid,
3399 and audio fail on RHEL6. Ubuntu Maverik worked with
8440p. As you
3400 can see, I have most machines left to test. One interesting
3401 observation is that Ubuntu Lucid has almost twice the frame rate than
3402 RHEL6 with glxgears. No idea why.
</p
>
3407 <title>Some thoughts on BitCoins
</title>
3408 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Some_thoughts_on_BitCoins.html
</link>
3409 <guid isPermaLink=
"true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Some_thoughts_on_BitCoins.html
</guid>
3410 <pubDate>Sat,
11 Dec
2010 15:
10:
00 +
0100</pubDate>
3411 <description><p
>As I continue to explore
3412 <a href=
"http://www.bitcoin.org/
">BitCoin
</a
>, I
've starting to wonder
3413 what properties the system have, and how it will be affected by laws
3414 and regulations here in Norway. Here are some random notes.
</p
>
3416 <p
>One interesting thing to note is that since the transactions are
3417 verified using a peer to peer network, all details about a transaction
3418 is known to everyone. This means that if a BitCoin address has been
3419 published like I did with mine in my initial post about BitCoin, it is
3420 possible for everyone to see how many BitCoins have been transfered to
3421 that address. There is even a web service to look at the details for
3422 all transactions. There I can see that my address
3423 <a href=
"http://blockexplorer.com/address/
15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b
">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b
</a
>
3424 have received
16.06 Bitcoin, the
3425 <a href=
"http://blockexplorer.com/address/
1LfdGnGuWkpSJgbQySxxCWhv
8MHqvwst
3">1LfdGnGuWkpSJgbQySxxCWhv
8MHqvwst
3</a
>
3426 address of Simon Phipps have received
181.97 BitCoin and the address
3427 <a href=
"http://blockexplorer.com/address/
1MCwBbhNGp5hRm5rC1Aims2YFRe2SXPYKt
">1MCwBbhNGp5hRm5rC1Aims2YFRe2SXPYKt
</A
>
3428 of EFF have received
2447.38 BitCoins so far. Thank you to each and
3429 every one of you that donated bitcoins to support my activity. The
3430 fact that anyone can see how much money was transfered to a given
3431 address make it more obvious why the BitCoin community recommend to
3432 generate and hand out a new address for each transaction. I
'm told
3433 there is no way to track which addresses belong to a given person or
3434 organisation without the person or organisation revealing it
3435 themselves, as Simon, EFF and I have done.
</p
>
3437 <p
>In Norway, and in most other countries, there are laws and
3438 regulations limiting how much money one can transfer across the border
3439 without declaring it. There are money laundering, tax and accounting
3440 laws and regulations I would expect to apply to the use of BitCoin.
3441 If the Skolelinux foundation
3442 (
<a href=
"http://linuxiskolen.no/slxdebianlabs/donations.html
">SLX
3443 Debian Labs
</a
>) were to accept donations in BitCoin in addition to
3444 normal bank transfers like EFF is doing, how should this be accounted?
3445 Given that it is impossible to know if money can cross the border or
3446 not, should everything or nothing be declared? What exchange rate
3447 should be used when calculating taxes? Would receivers have to pay
3448 income tax if the foundation were to pay Skolelinux contributors in
3449 BitCoin? I have no idea, but it would be interesting to know.
</p
>
3451 <p
>For a currency to be useful and successful, it must be trusted and
3452 accepted by a lot of users. It must be possible to get easy access to
3453 the currency (as a wage or using currency exchanges), and it must be
3454 easy to spend it. At the moment BitCoin seem fairly easy to get
3455 access to, but there are very few places to spend it. I am not really
3456 a regular user of any of the vendor types currently accepting BitCoin,
3457 so I wonder when my kind of shop would start accepting BitCoins. I
3458 would like to buy electronics, travels and subway tickets, not herbs
3459 and books. :) The currency is young, and this will improve over time
3460 if it become popular, but I suspect regular banks will start to lobby
3461 to get BitCoin declared illegal if it become popular. I
'm sure they
3462 will claim it is helping fund terrorism and money laundering (which
3463 probably would be true, as is any currency in existence), but I
3464 believe the problems should be solved elsewhere and not by blaming
3465 currencies.
</p
>
3467 <p
>The process of creating new BitCoins is called mining, and it is
3468 CPU intensive process that depend on a bit of luck as well (as one is
3469 competing against all the other miners currently spending CPU cycles
3470 to see which one get the next lump of cash). The
"winner
" get
50
3471 BitCoin when this happen. Yesterday I came across the obvious way to
3472 join forces to increase ones changes of getting at least some coins,
3473 by coordinating the work on mining BitCoins across several machines
3474 and people, and sharing the result if one is lucky and get the
50
3476 <a href=
"http://www.bluishcoder.co.nz/bitcoin-pool/
">BitCoin Pool
</a
>
3477 if this sounds interesting. I have not had time to try to set up a
3478 machine to participate there yet, but have seen that running on ones
3479 own for a few days have not yield any BitCoins througth mining
3482 <p
>Update
2010-
12-
15: Found an
<a
3483 href=
"http://inertia.posterous.com/reply-to-the-underground-economist-why-bitcoi
">interesting
3484 criticism
</a
> of bitcoin. Not quite sure how valid it is, but thought
3485 it was interesting to read. The arguments presented seem to be
3486 equally valid for gold, which was used as a currency for many years.
</p
>
3491 <title>Now accepting bitcoins - anonymous and distributed p2p crypto-money
</title>
3492 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Now_accepting_bitcoins___anonymous_and_distributed_p2p_crypto_money.html
</link>
3493 <guid isPermaLink=
"true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Now_accepting_bitcoins___anonymous_and_distributed_p2p_crypto_money.html
</guid>
3494 <pubDate>Fri,
10 Dec
2010 08:
20:
00 +
0100</pubDate>
3495 <description><p
>With this weeks lawless
3496 <a href=
"http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/
2010/
12/
06/wikileaks/index.html
">governmental
3497 attacks
</a
> on Wikileak and
3498 <a href=
"http://www.salon.com/technology/dan_gillmor/
2010/
12/
06/war_on_speech
">free
3499 speech
</a
>, it has become obvious that PayPal, visa and mastercard can
3500 not be trusted to handle money transactions.
3502 <a href=
"http://webmink.com/
2010/
12/
06/now-accepting-bitcoin/
">Simon
3503 Phipps on bitcoin
</a
> reminded me about a project that a friend of
3504 mine mentioned earlier. I decided to follow Simon
's example, and get
3505 involved with
<a href=
"http://www.bitcoin.org/
">BitCoin
</a
>. I got
3506 some help from my friend to get it all running, and he even handed me
3507 some bitcoins to get started. I even donated a few bitcoins to Simon
3508 for helping me remember BitCoin.
</p
>
3510 <p
>So, what is bitcoins, you probably wonder? It is a digital
3511 crypto-currency, decentralised and handled using peer-to-peer
3512 networks. It allows anonymous transactions and prohibits central
3513 control over the transactions, making it impossible for governments
3514 and companies alike to block donations and other transactions. The
3515 source is free software, and while the key dependency wxWidgets
2.9
3516 for the graphical user interface is missing in Debian, the command
3517 line client builds just fine. Hopefully Jonas
3518 <a href=
"http://bugs.debian.org/
578157">will get the package into
3519 Debian
</a
> soon.
</p
>
3521 <p
>Bitcoins can be converted to other currencies, like USD and EUR.
3522 There are
<a href=
"http://www.bitcoin.org/trade
">companies accepting
3523 bitcoins
</a
> when selling services and goods, and there are even
3524 currency
"stock
" markets where the exchange rate is decided. There
3525 are not many users so far, but the concept seems promising. If you
3526 want to get started and lack a friend with any bitcoins to spare,
3528 <a href=
"https://freebitcoins.appspot.com/
">some for free
</a
> (
0.05
3529 bitcoin at the time of writing). Use
3530 <a href=
"http://www.bitcoinwatch.com/
">BitcoinWatch
</a
> to keep an eye
3531 on the current exchange rates.
</p
>
3533 <p
>As an experiment, I have decided to set up bitcoind on one of my
3534 machines. If you want to support my activity, please send Bitcoin
3535 donations to the address
3536 <b
>15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b
</b
>. Thank you!
</p
>
3541 <title>Why isn
't Debian Edu using VLC?
</title>
3542 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Why_isn_t_Debian_Edu_using_VLC_.html
</link>
3543 <guid isPermaLink=
"true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Why_isn_t_Debian_Edu_using_VLC_.html
</guid>
3544 <pubDate>Sat,
27 Nov
2010 11:
30:
00 +
0100</pubDate>
3545 <description><p
>In the latest issue of Linux Journal, the readers choices were
3546 presented, and the winner among the multimedia player were VLC.
3547 Personally, I like VLC, and it is my player of choice when I first try
3548 to play a video file or stream. Only if VLC fail will I drag out
3549 gmplayer to see if it can do better. The reason is mostly the failure
3550 model and trust. When VLC fail, it normally pop up a error message
3551 reporting the problem. When mplayer fail, it normally segfault or
3552 just hangs. The latter failure mode drain my trust in the program.
<p
>
3554 <p
>But even if VLC is my player of choice, we have choosen to use
3555 mplayer in
<a href=
"http://www.skolelinux.org/
">Debian
3556 Edu/Skolelinux
</a
>. The reason is simple. We need a good browser
3557 plugin to play web videos seamlessly, and the VLC browser plugin is
3558 not very good. For example, it lack in-line control buttons, so there
3559 is no way for the user to pause the video. Also, when I
3560 <a href=
"http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/BrowserMultimedia
">last
3561 tested the browser plugins
</a
> available in Debian, the VLC plugin
3562 failed on several video pages where mplayer based plugins worked. If
3563 the browser plugin for VLC was as good as the gecko-mediaplayer
3564 package (which uses mplayer), we would switch.
</P
>
3566 <p
>While VLC is a good player, its user interface is slightly
3567 annoying. The most annoying feature is its inconsistent use of
3568 keyboard shortcuts. When the player is in full screen mode, its
3569 shortcuts are different from when it is playing the video in a window.
3570 For example, space only work as pause when in full screen mode. I
3571 wish it had consisten shortcuts and that space also would work when in
3572 window mode. Another nice shortcut in gmplayer is [enter] to restart
3573 the current video. It is very nice when playing short videos from the
3574 web and want to restart it when new people arrive to have a look at
3575 what is going on.
</p
>
3580 <title>Lenny-
>Squeeze upgrades of the Gnome and KDE desktop, now with apt-get autoremove
</title>
3581 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lenny__Squeeze_upgrades_of_the_Gnome_and_KDE_desktop__now_with_apt_get_autoremove.html
</link>
3582 <guid isPermaLink=
"true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lenny__Squeeze_upgrades_of_the_Gnome_and_KDE_desktop__now_with_apt_get_autoremove.html
</guid>
3583 <pubDate>Mon,
22 Nov
2010 14:
15:
00 +
0100</pubDate>
3584 <description><p
>Michael Biebl suggested to me on IRC, that I changed my automated
3585 upgrade testing of the
3586 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/~pere/debian-upgrade-testing/
">Lenny
3587 Gnome and KDE Desktop
</a
> to do
<tt
>apt-get autoremove
</tt
> when using apt-get.
3588 This seem like a very good idea, so I adjusted by test scripts and
3589 can now present the updated result from today:
</p
>
3591 <p
>This is for Gnome:
</p
>
3593 <p
>Installed using apt-get, missing with aptitude
</p
>
3595 <blockquote
><p
>
3600 browser-plugin-gnash
3607 freedesktop-sound-theme
3609 gconf-defaults-service
3624 gnome-desktop-environment
3628 gnome-session-canberra
3633 gstreamer0.10-fluendo-mp3
3639 libapache2-mod-dnssd
3642 libaprutil1-dbd-sqlite3
3645 libboost-date-time1.42
.0
3646 libboost-python1.42
.0
3647 libboost-thread1.42
.0
3649 libchamplain-gtk-
0.4-
0
3651 libclutter-gtk-
0.10-
0
3658 libfreerdp-plugins-standard
3673 libgnomepanel2.24-cil
3678 libgtksourceview2.0-common
3679 libmono-addins-gui0.2-cil
3680 libmono-addins0.2-cil
3681 libmono-cairo2.0-cil
3682 libmono-corlib2.0-cil
3683 libmono-i18n-west2.0-cil
3684 libmono-posix2.0-cil
3685 libmono-security2.0-cil
3686 libmono-sharpzip2.84-cil
3687 libmono-system2.0-cil
3690 libndesk-dbus-glib1.0-cil
3691 libndesk-dbus1.0-cil
3701 libtelepathy-farsight0
3710 nautilus-sendto-empathy
3714 python-aptdaemon-gtk
3716 python-beautifulsoup
3731 python-gtksourceview2
3742 python-pkg-resources
3749 python-twisted-conch
3755 python-zope.interface
3760 rhythmbox-plugin-cdrecorder
3767 system-config-printer-udev
3769 telepathy-mission-control-
5
3780 </p
></blockquote
>
3782 <p
>Installed using apt-get, removed with aptitude
</p
>
3784 <blockquote
><p
>
3790 fast-user-switch-applet
3809 libgtksourceview2.0-
0
3811 libsdl1.2debian-alsa
3817 system-config-printer
3822 </p
></blockquote
>
3824 <p
>Installed using aptitude, missing with apt-get
</p
>
3826 <blockquote
><p
>
3827 gstreamer0.10-gnomevfs
3828 </p
></blockquote
>
3830 <p
>Installed using aptitude, removed with apt-get
</p
>
3832 <blockquote
><p
>
3834 </p
></blockquote
>
3836 <p
>This is for KDE:
</p
>
3838 <p
>Installed using apt-get, missing with aptitude
</p
>
3840 <blockquote
><p
>
3842 </p
></blockquote
>
3844 <p
>Installed using apt-get, removed with aptitude
</p
>
3846 <blockquote
><p
>
3849 </p
></blockquote
>
3851 <p
>Installed using aptitude, missing with apt-get
</p
>
3853 <blockquote
><p
>
3867 kdeartwork-emoticons
3869 kdeartwork-theme-icon
3873 kdebase-workspace-bin
3874 kdebase-workspace-data
3888 kscreensaver-xsavers
3903 plasma-dataengines-workspace
3905 plasma-desktopthemes-artwork
3906 plasma-runners-addons
3907 plasma-scriptengine-googlegadgets
3908 plasma-scriptengine-python
3909 plasma-scriptengine-qedje
3910 plasma-scriptengine-ruby
3911 plasma-scriptengine-webkit
3912 plasma-scriptengines
3913 plasma-wallpapers-addons
3914 plasma-widget-folderview
3915 plasma-widget-networkmanagement
3919 xscreensaver-data-extra
3921 xscreensaver-gl-extra
3922 xscreensaver-screensaver-bsod
3923 </p
></blockquote
>
3925 <p
>Installed using aptitude, removed with apt-get
</p
>
3927 <blockquote
><p
>
3929 google-gadgets-common
3947 libggadget-qt-
1.0-
0b
3952 libkonqsidebarplugin4a
3961 libplasma-geolocation-interface4
3963 libplasmagenericshell4
3977 libsmokeknewstuff2-
3
3978 libsmokeknewstuff3-
3
3980 libsmokektexteditor3
3988 libsmokeqtnetwork4-
3
3994 libsmokeqtuitools4-
3
4006 plasma-dataengines-addons
4007 plasma-scriptengine-superkaramba
4008 plasma-widget-lancelot
4009 plasma-widgets-addons
4010 plasma-widgets-workspace
4014 update-notifier-common
4015 </p
></blockquote
>
4017 <p
>Running apt-get autoremove made the results using apt-get and
4018 aptitude a bit more similar, but there are still quite a lott of
4019 differences. I have no idea what packages should be installed after
4020 the upgrade, but hope those that do can have a look.
</p
>
4025 <title>Migrating Xen virtual machines using LVM to KVM using disk images
</title>
4026 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Migrating_Xen_virtual_machines_using_LVM_to_KVM_using_disk_images.html
</link>
4027 <guid isPermaLink=
"true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Migrating_Xen_virtual_machines_using_LVM_to_KVM_using_disk_images.html
</guid>
4028 <pubDate>Mon,
22 Nov
2010 11:
20:
00 +
0100</pubDate>
4029 <description><p
>Most of the computers in use by the
4030 <a href=
"http://www.skolelinux.org/
">Debian Edu/Skolelinux project
</a
>
4031 are virtual machines. And they have been Xen machines running on a
4032 fairly old IBM eserver xseries
345 machine, and we wanted to migrate
4033 them to KVM on a newer Dell PowerEdge
2950 host machine. This was a
4034 bit harder that it could have been, because we set up the Xen virtual
4035 machines to get the virtual partitions from LVM, which as far as I
4036 know is not supported by KVM. So to migrate, we had to convert
4037 several LVM logical volumes to partitions on a virtual disk file.
</p
>
4040 <a href=
"http://searchnetworking.techtarget.com.au/articles/
35011-Six-steps-for-migrating-Xen-virtual-machines-to-KVM
">a
4041 nice recipe
</a
> to do this, and wrote the following script to do the
4042 migration. It uses qemu-img from the qemu package to make the disk
4043 image, parted to partition it, losetup and kpartx to present the disk
4044 image partions as devices, and dd to copy the data. I NFS mounted the
4045 new servers storage area on the old server to do the migration.
</p
>
4051 # http://searchnetworking.techtarget.com.au/articles/
35011-Six-steps-for-migrating-Xen-virtual-machines-to-KVM
4056 if [ -z
"$
1" ] ; then
4057 echo
"Usage: $
0 &lt;hostname
&gt;
"
4063 if [ ! -e /dev/vg_data/$host-disk ] ; then
4064 echo
"error: unable to find LVM volume for $host
"
4068 # Partitions need to be a bit bigger than the LVM LVs. not sure why.
4069 disksize=$( lvs --units m | grep $host-disk | awk
'{sum = sum + $
4} END { print int(sum *
1.05) }
')
4070 swapsize=$( lvs --units m | grep $host-swap | awk
'{sum = sum + $
4} END { print int(sum *
1.05) }
')
4071 totalsize=$(( ( $disksize + $swapsize ) ))
4074 #dd if=/dev/zero of=$img bs=
1M count=$(( $disksize + $swapsize ))
4075 qemu-img create $img ${totalsize}MMaking room on the Debian Edu/Sqeeze DVD
4077 parted $img mklabel msdos
4078 parted $img mkpart primary linux-swap
0 $disksize
4079 parted $img mkpart primary ext2 $disksize $totalsize
4080 parted $img set
1 boot on
4083 losetup /dev/loop0 $img
4084 kpartx -a /dev/loop0
4086 dd if=/dev/vg_data/$host-disk of=/dev/mapper/loop0p1 bs=
1M
4087 fsck.ext3 -f /dev/mapper/loop0p1 || true
4088 mkswap /dev/mapper/loop0p2
4090 kpartx -d /dev/loop0
4091 losetup -d /dev/loop0
4094 <p
>The script is perhaps so simple that it is not copyrightable, but
4095 if it is, it is licenced using GPL v2 or later at your discretion.
</p
>
4097 <p
>After doing this, I booted a Debian CD in rescue mode in KVM with
4098 the new disk image attached, installed grub-pc and linux-image-
686 and
4099 set up grub to boot from the disk image. After this, the KVM machines
4100 seem to work just fine.
</p
>
4105 <title>Lenny-
>Squeeze upgrades, apt vs aptitude with the Gnome and KDE desktop
</title>
4106 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lenny__Squeeze_upgrades__apt_vs_aptitude_with_the_Gnome_and_KDE_desktop.html
</link>
4107 <guid isPermaLink=
"true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lenny__Squeeze_upgrades__apt_vs_aptitude_with_the_Gnome_and_KDE_desktop.html
</guid>
4108 <pubDate>Sat,
20 Nov
2010 22:
50:
00 +
0100</pubDate>
4109 <description><p
>I
'm still running upgrade testing of the
4110 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/~pere/debian-upgrade-testing/
">Lenny
4111 Gnome and KDE Desktop
</a
>, but have not had time to spend on reporting the
4112 status. Here is a short update based on a test I ran
20101118.
</p
>
4114 <p
>I still do not know what a correct migration should look like, so I
4115 report any differences between apt and aptitude and hope someone else
4116 can see if anything should be changed.
</p
>
4118 <p
>This is for Gnome:
</p
>
4120 <p
>Installed using apt-get, missing with aptitude
</p
>
4122 <blockquote
><p
>
4123 apache2.2-bin aptdaemon at-spi baobab binfmt-support
4124 browser-plugin-gnash cheese-common cli-common cpp-
4.3 cups-pk-helper
4125 dmz-cursor-theme empathy empathy-common finger
4126 freedesktop-sound-theme freeglut3 gconf-defaults-service gdm-themes
4127 gedit-plugins geoclue geoclue-hostip geoclue-localnet geoclue-manual
4128 geoclue-yahoo gnash gnash-common gnome gnome-backgrounds
4129 gnome-cards-data gnome-codec-install gnome-core
4130 gnome-desktop-environment gnome-disk-utility gnome-screenshot
4131 gnome-search-tool gnome-session-canberra gnome-spell
4132 gnome-system-log gnome-themes-extras gnome-themes-more
4133 gnome-user-share gs-common gstreamer0.10-fluendo-mp3
4134 gstreamer0.10-tools gtk2-engines gtk2-engines-pixbuf
4135 gtk2-engines-smooth hal-info hamster-applet libapache2-mod-dnssd
4136 libapr1 libaprutil1 libaprutil1-dbd-sqlite3 libaprutil1-ldap
4137 libart2.0-cil libatspi1.0-
0 libboost-date-time1.42
.0
4138 libboost-python1.42
.0 libboost-thread1.42
.0 libchamplain-
0.4-
0
4139 libchamplain-gtk-
0.4-
0 libcheese-gtk18 libclutter-gtk-
0.10-
0
4140 libcryptui0 libcupsys2 libdiscid0 libeel2-data libelf1 libepc-
1.0-
2
4141 libepc-common libepc-ui-
1.0-
2 libfreerdp-plugins-standard
4142 libfreerdp0 libgail-common libgconf2.0-cil libgdata-common libgdata7
4143 libgdl-
1-common libgdu-gtk0 libgee2 libgeoclue0 libgexiv2-
0 libgif4
4144 libglade2.0-cil libglib2.0-cil libgmime2.4-cil libgnome-vfs2.0-cil
4145 libgnome2.24-cil libgnomepanel2.24-cil libgnomeprint2.2-data
4146 libgnomeprintui2.2-common libgnomevfs2-bin libgpod-common libgpod4
4147 libgtk2.0-cil libgtkglext1 libgtksourceview-common
4148 libgtksourceview2.0-common libmono-addins-gui0.2-cil
4149 libmono-addins0.2-cil libmono-cairo2.0-cil libmono-corlib2.0-cil
4150 libmono-i18n-west2.0-cil libmono-posix2.0-cil
4151 libmono-security2.0-cil libmono-sharpzip2.84-cil
4152 libmono-system2.0-cil libmtp8 libmusicbrainz3-
6
4153 libndesk-dbus-glib1.0-cil libndesk-dbus1.0-cil libopal3.6
.8
4154 libpolkit-gtk-
1-
0 libpt-
1.10.10-plugins-alsa
4155 libpt-
1.10.10-plugins-v4l libpt2.6
.7 libpython2.6 librpm1 librpmio1
4156 libsdl1.2debian libservlet2.4-java libsrtp0 libssh-
4
4157 libtelepathy-farsight0 libtelepathy-glib0 libtidy-
0.99-
0
4158 libxalan2-java libxerces2-java media-player-info mesa-utils
4159 mono-
2.0-gac mono-gac mono-runtime nautilus-sendto
4160 nautilus-sendto-empathy openoffice.org-writer2latex
4161 openssl-blacklist p7zip p7zip-full pkg-config python-
4suite-xml
4162 python-aptdaemon python-aptdaemon-gtk python-axiom
4163 python-beautifulsoup python-bugbuddy python-clientform
4164 python-coherence python-configobj python-crypto python-cupshelpers
4165 python-cupsutils python-eggtrayicon python-elementtree
4166 python-epsilon python-evolution python-feedparser python-gdata
4167 python-gdbm python-gst0.10 python-gtkglext1 python-gtkmozembed
4168 python-gtksourceview2 python-httplib2 python-louie python-mako
4169 python-markupsafe python-mechanize python-nevow python-notify
4170 python-opengl python-openssl python-pam python-pkg-resources
4171 python-pyasn1 python-pysqlite2 python-rdflib python-serial
4172 python-tagpy python-twisted-bin python-twisted-conch
4173 python-twisted-core python-twisted-web python-utidylib python-webkit
4174 python-xdg python-zope.interface remmina remmina-plugin-data
4175 remmina-plugin-rdp remmina-plugin-vnc rhythmbox-plugin-cdrecorder
4176 rhythmbox-plugins rpm-common rpm2cpio seahorse-plugins shotwell
4177 software-center svgalibg1 system-config-printer-udev
4178 telepathy-gabble telepathy-mission-control-
5 telepathy-salut tomboy
4179 totem totem-coherence totem-mozilla totem-plugins
4180 transmission-common xdg-user-dirs xdg-user-dirs-gtk xserver-xephyr
4182 </p
></blockquote
>
4184 Installed using apt-get, removed with aptitude
4186 <blockquote
><p
>
4187 arj bluez-utils cheese dhcdbd djvulibre-desktop ekiga eog
4188 epiphany-extensions epiphany-gecko evolution-exchange
4189 fast-user-switch-applet file-roller gcalctool gconf-editor gdm gedit
4190 gedit-common gnome-app-install gnome-games gnome-games-data
4191 gnome-nettool gnome-system-tools gnome-themes gnome-utils
4192 gnome-vfs-obexftp gnome-volume-manager gnuchess gucharmap
4193 guile-
1.8-libs hal libavahi-compat-libdnssd1 libavahi-core5
4194 libavahi-ui0 libbind9-
50 libbluetooth2 libcamel1.2-
11 libcdio7
4195 libcucul0 libcurl3 libdirectfb-
1.0-
0 libdmx1 libdvdread3
4196 libedata-cal1.2-
6 libedataserver1.2-
9 libeel2-
2.20 libepc-
1.0-
1
4197 libepc-ui-
1.0-
1 libexchange-storage1.2-
3 libfaad0 libgadu3
4198 libgalago3 libgd2-noxpm libgda3-
3 libgda3-common libggz2 libggzcore9
4199 libggzmod4 libgksu1.2-
0 libgksuui1.0-
1 libgmyth0 libgnome-desktop-
2
4200 libgnome-pilot2 libgnomecups1.0-
1 libgnomeprint2.2-
0
4201 libgnomeprintui2.2-
0 libgpod3 libgraphviz4 libgtk-vnc-
1.0-
0
4202 libgtkhtml2-
0 libgtksourceview1.0-
0 libgtksourceview2.0-
0
4203 libgucharmap6 libhesiod0 libicu38 libisccc50 libisccfg50 libiw29
4204 libjaxp1.3-java-gcj libkpathsea4 liblircclient0 libltdl3 liblwres50
4205 libmagick++
10 libmagick10 libmalaga7 libmozjs1d libmpfr1ldbl libmtp7
4206 libmysqlclient15off libnautilus-burn4 libneon27 libnm-glib0
4207 libnm-util0 libopal-
2.2 libosp5 libparted1.8-
10 libpisock9
4208 libpisync1 libpoppler-glib3 libpoppler3 libpt-
1.10.10 libraw1394-
8
4209 libsdl1.2debian-alsa libsensors3 libsexy2 libsmbios2 libsoup2.2-
8
4210 libspeexdsp1 libssh2-
1 libsuitesparse-
3.1.0 libsvga1
4211 libswfdec-
0.6-
90 libtalloc1 libtotem-plparser10 libtrackerclient0
4212 libvoikko1 libxalan2-java-gcj libxerces2-java-gcj libxklavier12
4213 libxtrap6 libxxf86misc1 libzephyr3 mysql-common rhythmbox seahorse
4214 sound-juicer swfdec-gnome system-config-printer totem-common
4215 totem-gstreamer transmission-gtk vinagre vino w3c-dtd-xhtml wodim
4216 </p
></blockquote
>
4218 <p
>Installed using aptitude, missing with apt-get
</p
>
4220 <blockquote
><p
>
4221 gstreamer0.10-gnomevfs
4222 </p
></blockquote
>
4224 <p
>Installed using aptitude, removed with apt-get
</p
>
4226 <blockquote
><p
>
4228 </p
></blockquote
>
4230 <p
>This is for KDE:
</p
>
4232 <p
>Installed using apt-get, missing with aptitude
</p
>
4234 <blockquote
><p
>
4235 autopoint bomber bovo cantor cantor-backend-kalgebra cpp-
4.3 dcoprss
4236 edict espeak espeak-data eyesapplet fifteenapplet finger gettext
4237 ghostscript-x git gnome-audio gnugo granatier gs-common
4238 gstreamer0.10-pulseaudio indi kaddressbook-plugins kalgebra
4239 kalzium-data kanjidic kapman kate-plugins kblocks kbreakout kbstate
4240 kde-icons-mono kdeaccessibility kdeaddons-kfile-plugins
4241 kdeadmin-kfile-plugins kdeartwork-misc kdeartwork-theme-window
4242 kdeedu kdeedu-data kdeedu-kvtml-data kdegames kdegames-card-data
4243 kdegames-mahjongg-data kdegraphics-kfile-plugins kdelirc
4244 kdemultimedia-kfile-plugins kdenetwork-kfile-plugins
4245 kdepim-kfile-plugins kdepim-kio-plugins kdessh kdetoys kdewebdev
4246 kdiamond kdnssd kfilereplace kfourinline kgeography-data kigo
4247 killbots kiriki klettres-data kmoon kmrml knewsticker-scripts
4248 kollision kpf krosspython ksirk ksmserver ksquares kstars-data
4249 ksudoku kubrick kweather libasound2-plugins libboost-python1.42
.0
4250 libcfitsio3 libconvert-binhex-perl libcrypt-ssleay-perl libdb4.6++
4251 libdjvulibre-text libdotconf1.0 liberror-perl libespeak1
4252 libfinance-quote-perl libgail-common libgsl0ldbl libhtml-parser-perl
4253 libhtml-tableextract-perl libhtml-tagset-perl libhtml-tree-perl
4254 libio-stringy-perl libkdeedu4 libkdegames5 libkiten4 libkpathsea5
4255 libkrossui4 libmailtools-perl libmime-tools-perl
4256 libnews-nntpclient-perl libopenbabel3 libportaudio2 libpulse-browse0
4257 libservlet2.4-java libspeechd2 libtiff-tools libtimedate-perl
4258 libunistring0 liburi-perl libwww-perl libxalan2-java libxerces2-java
4259 lirc luatex marble networkstatus noatun-plugins
4260 openoffice.org-writer2latex palapeli palapeli-data parley
4261 parley-data poster psutils pulseaudio pulseaudio-esound-compat
4262 pulseaudio-module-x11 pulseaudio-utils quanta-data rocs rsync
4263 speech-dispatcher step svgalibg1 texlive-binaries texlive-luatex
4265 </p
></blockquote
>
4267 <p
>Installed using apt-get, removed with aptitude
</p
>
4269 <blockquote
><p
>
4270 amor artsbuilder atlantik atlantikdesigner blinken bluez-utils cvs
4271 dhcdbd djvulibre-desktop imlib-base imlib11 kalzium kanagram kandy
4272 kasteroids katomic kbackgammon kbattleship kblackbox kbounce kbruch
4273 kcron kdat kdemultimedia-kappfinder-data kdeprint kdict kdvi kedit
4274 keduca kenolaba kfax kfaxview kfouleggs kgeography kghostview
4275 kgoldrunner khangman khexedit kiconedit kig kimagemapeditor
4276 kitchensync kiten kjumpingcube klatin klettres klickety klines
4277 klinkstatus kmag kmahjongg kmailcvt kmenuedit kmid kmilo kmines
4278 kmousetool kmouth kmplot knetwalk kodo kolf kommander konquest kooka
4279 kpager kpat kpdf kpercentage kpilot kpoker kpovmodeler krec
4280 kregexpeditor kreversi ksame ksayit kshisen ksig ksim ksirc ksirtet
4281 ksmiletris ksnake ksokoban kspaceduel kstars ksvg ksysv kteatime
4282 ktip ktnef ktouch ktron kttsd ktuberling kturtle ktux kuickshow
4283 kverbos kview kviewshell kvoctrain kwifimanager kwin kwin4 kwordquiz
4284 kworldclock kxsldbg libakode2 libarts1-akode libarts1-audiofile
4285 libarts1-mpeglib libarts1-xine libavahi-compat-libdnssd1
4286 libavahi-core5 libavc1394-
0 libbind9-
50 libbluetooth2
4287 libboost-python1.34
.1 libcucul0 libcurl3 libcvsservice0
4288 libdirectfb-
1.0-
0 libdjvulibre21 libdvdread3 libfaad0 libfreebob0
4289 libgd2-noxpm libgraphviz4 libgsmme1c2a libgtkhtml2-
0 libicu38
4290 libiec61883-
0 libindex0 libisccc50 libisccfg50 libiw29
4291 libjaxp1.3-java-gcj libk3b3 libkcal2b libkcddb1 libkdeedu3
4292 libkdegames1 libkdepim1a libkgantt0 libkleopatra1 libkmime2
4293 libkpathsea4 libkpimexchange1 libkpimidentities1 libkscan1
4294 libksieve0 libktnef1 liblockdev1 libltdl3 liblwres50 libmagick10
4295 libmimelib1c2a libmodplug0c2 libmozjs1d libmpcdec3 libmpfr1ldbl
4296 libneon27 libnm-util0 libopensync0 libpisock9 libpoppler-glib3
4297 libpoppler-qt2 libpoppler3 libraw1394-
8 librss1 libsensors3
4298 libsmbios2 libssh2-
1 libsuitesparse-
3.1.0 libswfdec-
0.6-
90
4299 libtalloc1 libxalan2-java-gcj libxerces2-java-gcj libxtrap6 lskat
4300 mpeglib network-manager-kde noatun pmount tex-common texlive-base
4301 texlive-common texlive-doc-base texlive-fonts-recommended tidy
4302 ttf-dustin ttf-kochi-gothic ttf-sjfonts
4303 </p
></blockquote
>
4305 <p
>Installed using aptitude, missing with apt-get
</p
>
4307 <blockquote
><p
>
4308 dolphin kde-core kde-plasma-desktop kde-standard kde-window-manager
4309 kdeartwork kdebase kdebase-apps kdebase-workspace
4310 kdebase-workspace-bin kdebase-workspace-data kdeutils kscreensaver
4311 kscreensaver-xsavers libgle3 libkonq5 libkonq5-templates libnetpbm10
4312 netpbm plasma-widget-folderview plasma-widget-networkmanagement
4313 xscreensaver-data-extra xscreensaver-gl xscreensaver-gl-extra
4314 xscreensaver-screensaver-bsod
4315 </p
></blockquote
>
4317 <p
>Installed using aptitude, removed with apt-get
</p
>
4319 <blockquote
><p
>
4320 kdebase-bin konq-plugins konqueror
4321 </p
></blockquote
>
4326 <title>Gnash buildbot slave and Debian kfreebsd
</title>
4327 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Gnash_buildbot_slave_and_Debian_kfreebsd.html
</link>
4328 <guid isPermaLink=
"true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Gnash_buildbot_slave_and_Debian_kfreebsd.html
</guid>
4329 <pubDate>Sat,
20 Nov
2010 07:
20:
00 +
0100</pubDate>
4330 <description><p
>Answering
4331 <a href=
"http://www.listware.net/
201011/gnash-dev/
67431-gnash-dev-buildbot-looking-for-slaves.html
">the
4332 call from the Gnash project
</a
> for
4333 <a href=
"http://www.gnashdev.org:
8010">buildbot
</a
> slaves to test the
4334 current source, I have set up a virtual KVM machine on the Debian
4335 Edu/Skolelinux virtualization host to test the git source on
4336 Debian/Squeeze. I hope this can help the developers in getting new
4337 releases out more often.
</p
>
4339 <p
>As the developers want less main-stream build platforms tested to,
4340 I have considered setting up a
<a
4341 href=
"http://www.debian.org/ports/kfreebsd-gnu/
">Debian/kfreebsd
</a
>
4342 machine as well. I have also considered using the kfreebsd
4343 architecture in Debian as a file server in NUUG to get access to the
5
4344 TB zfs volume we currently use to store DV video. Because of this, I
4345 finally got around to do a test installation of Debian/Squeeze with
4346 kfreebsd. Installation went fairly smooth, thought I noticed some
4347 visual glitches in the cdebconf dialogs (black cursor left on the
4348 screen at random locations). Have not gotten very far with the
4349 testing. Noticed cfdisk did not work, but fdisk did so it was not a
4350 fatal problem. Have to spend some more time on it to see if it is
4351 useful as a file server for NUUG. Will try to find time to set up a
4352 gnash buildbot slave on the Debian Edu/Skolelinux this weekend.
</p
>
4357 <title>Debian in
3D
</title>
4358 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_in_3D.html
</link>
4359 <guid isPermaLink=
"true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_in_3D.html
</guid>
4360 <pubDate>Tue,
9 Nov
2010 16:
10:
00 +
0100</pubDate>
4361 <description><p
><img src=
"http://thingiverse-production.s3.amazonaws.com/renders/
23/e0/c4/f9/
2b/debswagtdose_preview_medium.jpg
"></p
>
4363 <p
>3D printing is just great. I just came across this Debian logo in
4365 <a href=
"http://blog.thingiverse.com/
2010/
11/
09/participatory-branding/
">the
4366 thingiverse blog
</a
>.
</p
>
4371 <title>Software updates
2010-
10-
24</title>
4372 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Software_updates_2010_10_24.html
</link>
4373 <guid isPermaLink=
"true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Software_updates_2010_10_24.html
</guid>
4374 <pubDate>Sun,
24 Oct
2010 22:
45:
00 +
0200</pubDate>
4375 <description><p
>Some updates.
</p
>
4377 <p
>My
<a href=
"http://pledgebank.com/gnash-avm2
">gnash pledge
</a
> to
4378 raise money for the project is going well. The lower limit of
10
4379 signers was reached in
24 hours, and so far
13 people have signed it.
4380 More signers and more funding is most welcome, and I am really curious
4381 how far we can get before the time limit of December
24 is reached.
4384 <p
>On the #gnash IRC channel on irc.freenode.net, I was just tipped
4385 about what appear to be a great code coverage tool capable of
4386 generating code coverage stats without any changes to the source code.
4388 <a href=
"http://simonkagstrom.github.com/kcov/index.html
">kcov
</a
>,
4389 and can be used using
<tt
>kcov
&lt;directory
&gt;
&lt;binary
&gt;
</tt
>.
4390 It is missing in Debian, but the git source built just fine in Squeeze
4391 after I installed libelf-dev, libdwarf-dev, pkg-config and
4392 libglib2.0-dev. Failed to build in Lenny, but suspect that is
4393 solvable. I hope kcov make it into Debian soon.
</p
>
4395 <p
>Finally found time to wrap up the release notes for
<a
4396 href=
"http://lists.debian.org/debian-edu-announce/
2010/
10/msg00002.html
">a
4397 new alpha release of Debian Edu
</a
>, and just published the second
4398 alpha test release of the Squeeze based Debian Edu /
4399 <a href=
"http://www.skolelinux.org/
">Skolelinux
</a
>
4400 release. Give it a try if you need a complete linux solution for your
4401 school, including central infrastructure server, workstations, thin
4402 client servers and diskless workstations. A nice touch added
4403 yesterday is RDP support on the thin client servers, for windows
4404 clients to get a Linux desktop on request.
</p
>
4409 <title>Some notes on Flash in Debian and Debian Edu
</title>
4410 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Some_notes_on_Flash_in_Debian_and_Debian_Edu.html
</link>
4411 <guid isPermaLink=
"true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Some_notes_on_Flash_in_Debian_and_Debian_Edu.html
</guid>
4412 <pubDate>Sat,
4 Sep
2010 10:
10:
00 +
0200</pubDate>
4413 <description><p
>In the
<a href=
"http://popcon.debian.org/unknown/by_vote
">Debian
4414 popularity-contest numbers
</a
>, the adobe-flashplugin package the
4415 second most popular used package that is missing in Debian. The sixth
4416 most popular is flashplayer-mozilla. This is a clear indication that
4417 working flash is important for Debian users. Around
10 percent of the
4418 users submitting data to popcon.debian.org have this package
4419 installed.
</p
>
4421 <p
>In the report written by Lars Risan in August
2008
4422 («
<a href=
"http://wiki.skolelinux.no/Dokumentasjon/Rapporter?action=AttachFile
&do=view
&target=Skolelinux_i_bruk_rapport_1.0.pdf
">Skolelinux
4423 i bruk – Rapport for Hurum kommune, Universitetet i Agder og
4424 stiftelsen SLX Debian Labs
</a
>»), one of the most important problems
4425 schools experienced with
<a href=
"http://www.skolelinux.org/
">Debian
4426 Edu/Skolelinux
</a
> was the lack of working Flash. A lot of educational
4427 web sites require Flash to work, and lacking working Flash support in
4428 the web browser and the problems with installing it was perceived as a
4429 good reason to stay with Windows.
</p
>
4431 <p
>I once saw a funny and sad comment in a web forum, where Linux was
4432 said to be the retarded cousin that did not really understand
4433 everything you told him but could work fairly well. This was a
4434 comment regarding the problems Linux have with proprietary formats and
4435 non-standard web pages, and is sad because it exposes a fairly common
4436 understanding of whose fault it is if web pages that only work in for
4437 example Internet Explorer
6 fail to work on Firefox, and funny because
4438 it explain very well how annoying it is for users when Linux
4439 distributions do not work with the documents they receive or the web
4440 pages they want to visit.
</p
>
4442 <p
>This is part of the reason why I believe it is important for Debian
4443 and Debian Edu to have a well working Flash implementation in the
4444 distribution, to get at least popular sites as Youtube and Google
4445 Video to working out of the box. For Squeeze, Debian have the chance
4446 to include the latest version of Gnash that will make this happen, as
4447 the new release
0.8.8 was published a few weeks ago and is resting in
4448 unstable. The new version work with more sites that version
0.8.7.
4449 The Gnash maintainers have asked for a freeze exception, but the
4450 release team have not had time to reply to it yet. I hope they agree
4451 with me that Flash is important for the Debian desktop users, and thus
4452 accept the new package into Squeeze.
</p
>
4457 <title>Circular package dependencies harms apt recovery
</title>
4458 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Circular_package_dependencies_harms_apt_recovery.html
</link>
4459 <guid isPermaLink=
"true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Circular_package_dependencies_harms_apt_recovery.html
</guid>
4460 <pubDate>Tue,
27 Jul
2010 23:
50:
00 +
0200</pubDate>
4461 <description><p
>I discovered this while doing
4462 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Automatic_upgrade_testing_from_Lenny_to_Squeeze.html
">automated
4463 testing of upgrades from Debian Lenny to Squeeze
</a
>. A few packages
4464 in Debian still got circular dependencies, and it is often claimed
4465 that apt and aptitude should be able to handle this just fine, but
4466 some times these dependency loops causes apt to fail.
</p
>
4468 <p
>An example is from todays
4469 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/~pere/debian-upgrade-testing//test-
20100727-lenny-squeeze-kde-aptitude.txt
">upgrade
4470 of KDE using aptitude
</a
>. In it, a bug in kdebase-workspace-data
4471 causes perl-modules to fail to upgrade. The cause is simple. If a
4472 package fail to unpack, then only part of packages with the circular
4473 dependency might end up being unpacked when unpacking aborts, and the
4474 ones already unpacked will fail to configure in the recovery phase
4475 because its dependencies are unavailable.
</p
>
4477 <p
>In this log, the problem manifest itself with this error:
</p
>
4479 <blockquote
><pre
>
4480 dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of perl-modules:
4481 perl-modules depends on perl (
>=
5.10.1-
1); however:
4482 Version of perl on system is
5.10.0-
19lenny
2.
4483 dpkg: error processing perl-modules (--configure):
4484 dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
4485 </pre
></blockquote
>
4487 <p
>The perl/perl-modules circular dependency is already
4488 <a href=
"http://bugs.debian.org/
527917">reported as a bug
</a
>, and will
4489 hopefully be solved as soon as possible, but it is not the only one,
4490 and each one of these loops in the dependency tree can cause similar
4491 failures. Of course, they only occur when there are bugs in other
4492 packages causing the unpacking to fail, but it is rather nasty when
4493 the failure of one package causes the problem to become worse because
4494 of dependency loops.
</p
>
4497 <a href=
"http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/
2010/
06/msg00116.html
">the
4498 tireless effort by Bill Allombert
</a
>, the number of circular
4500 <a href=
"http://debian.semistable.com/debgraph.out.html
">left in Debian
4501 is dropping
</a
>, and perhaps it will reach zero one day. :)
</p
>
4503 <p
>Todays testing also exposed a bug in
4504 <a href=
"http://bugs.debian.org/
590605">update-notifier
</a
> and
4505 <a href=
"http://bugs.debian.org/
590604">different behaviour
</a
> between
4506 apt-get and aptitude, the latter possibly caused by some circular
4507 dependency. Reported both to BTS to try to get someone to look at
4513 <title>What are they searching for - PowerDNS and ISC DHCP in LDAP
</title>
4514 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/What_are_they_searching_for___PowerDNS_and_ISC_DHCP_in_LDAP.html
</link>
4515 <guid isPermaLink=
"true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/What_are_they_searching_for___PowerDNS_and_ISC_DHCP_in_LDAP.html
</guid>
4516 <pubDate>Sat,
17 Jul
2010 21:
00:
00 +
0200</pubDate>
4517 <description><p
>This is a
4518 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Time_for_new__LDAP_schemas_replacing_RFC_2307_.html
">followup
</a
>
4520 <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
4522 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Combining_PowerDNS_and_ISC_DHCP_LDAP_objects.html
">merging
4523 all
</a
> the computer related LDAP objects in Debian Edu.
</p
>
4525 <p
>As a step to try to see if it possible to merge the DNS and DHCP
4526 LDAP objects, I have had a look at how the packages pdns-backend-ldap
4527 and dhcp3-server-ldap in Debian use the LDAP server. The two
4528 implementations are quite different in how they use LDAP.
</p
>
4530 To get this information, I started slapd with debugging enabled and
4531 dumped the debug output to a file to get the LDAP searches performed
4532 on a Debian Edu main-server. Here is a summary.
4534 <p
><strong
>powerdns
</strong
></p
>
4536 <a href=
"http://www.linuxnetworks.de/doc/index.php/PowerDNS_LDAP_Backend
">Clues
4537 on how to
</a
> set up PowerDNS to use a LDAP backend is available on
4540 <p
>PowerDNS have two modes of operation using LDAP as its backend.
4541 One
"strict
" mode where the forward and reverse DNS lookups are done
4542 using the same LDAP objects, and a
"tree
" mode where the forward and
4543 reverse entries are in two different subtrees in LDAP with a structure
4544 based on the DNS names, as in tjener.intern and
4545 2.2.0.10.in-addr.arpa.
</p
>
4547 <p
>In tree mode, the server is set up to use a LDAP subtree as its
4548 base, and uses a
"base
" scoped search for the DNS name by adding
4549 "dc=tjener,dc=intern,
" to the base with a filter for
4550 "(associateddomain=tjener.intern)
" for the forward entry and
4551 "dc=
2,dc=
2,dc=
0,dc=
10,dc=in-addr,dc=arpa,
" with a filter for
4552 "(associateddomain=
2.2.0.10.in-addr.arpa)
" for the reverse entry. For
4553 forward entries, it is looking for attributes named dnsttl, arecord,
4554 nsrecord, cnamerecord, soarecord, ptrrecord, hinforecord, mxrecord,
4555 txtrecord, rprecord, afsdbrecord, keyrecord, aaaarecord, locrecord,
4556 srvrecord, naptrrecord, kxrecord, certrecord, dsrecord, sshfprecord,
4557 ipseckeyrecord, rrsigrecord, nsecrecord, dnskeyrecord, dhcidrecord,
4558 spfrecord and modifytimestamp. For reverse entries it is looking for
4559 the attributes dnsttl, arecord, nsrecord, cnamerecord, soarecord,
4560 ptrrecord, hinforecord, mxrecord, txtrecord, rprecord, aaaarecord,
4561 locrecord, srvrecord, naptrrecord and modifytimestamp. The equivalent
4562 ldapsearch commands could look like this:
</p
>
4564 <blockquote
><pre
>
4565 ldapsearch -h ldap \
4566 -b dc=tjener,dc=intern,ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no \
4567 -s base -x
'(associateddomain=tjener.intern)
' dNSTTL aRecord nSRecord \
4568 cNAMERecord sOARecord pTRRecord hInfoRecord mXRecord tXTRecord \
4569 rPRecord aFSDBRecord KeyRecord aAAARecord lOCRecord sRVRecord \
4570 nAPTRRecord kXRecord certRecord dSRecord sSHFPRecord iPSecKeyRecord \
4571 rRSIGRecord nSECRecord dNSKeyRecord dHCIDRecord sPFRecord modifyTimestamp
4573 ldapsearch -h ldap \
4574 -b dc=
2,dc=
2,dc=
0,dc=
10,dc=in-addr,dc=arpa,ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no \
4575 -s base -x
'(associateddomain=
2.2.0.10.in-addr.arpa)
'
4576 dnsttl, arecord, nsrecord, cnamerecord soarecord ptrrecord \
4577 hinforecord mxrecord txtrecord rprecord aaaarecord locrecord \
4578 srvrecord naptrrecord modifytimestamp
4579 </pre
></blockquote
>
4581 <p
>In Debian Edu/Lenny, the PowerDNS tree mode is used with
4582 ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no as the base, and these are two
4583 example LDAP objects used there. In addition to these objects, the
4584 parent objects all th way up to ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
4585 also exist.
</p
>
4587 <blockquote
><pre
>
4588 dn: dc=tjener,dc=intern,ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
4590 objectclass: dnsdomain
4591 objectclass: domainrelatedobject
4594 associateddomain: tjener.intern
4596 dn: dc=
2,dc=
2,dc=
0,dc=
10,dc=in-addr,dc=arpa,ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
4598 objectclass: dnsdomain2
4599 objectclass: domainrelatedobject
4601 ptrrecord: tjener.intern
4602 associateddomain:
2.2.0.10.in-addr.arpa
4603 </pre
></blockquote
>
4605 <p
>In strict mode, the server behaves differently. When looking for
4606 forward DNS entries, it is doing a
"subtree
" scoped search with the
4607 same base as in the tree mode for a object with filter
4608 "(associateddomain=tjener.intern)
" and requests the attributes dnsttl,
4609 arecord, nsrecord, cnamerecord, soarecord, ptrrecord, hinforecord,
4610 mxrecord, txtrecord, rprecord, aaaarecord, locrecord, srvrecord,
4611 naptrrecord and modifytimestamp. For reverse entires it also do a
4612 subtree scoped search but this time the filter is
"(arecord=
10.0.2.2)
"
4613 and the requested attributes are associateddomain, dnsttl and
4614 modifytimestamp. In short, in strict mode the objects with ptrrecord
4615 go away, and the arecord attribute in the forward object is used
4618 <p
>The forward and reverse searches can be simulated using ldapsearch
4619 like this:
</p
>
4621 <blockquote
><pre
>
4622 ldapsearch -h ldap -b ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no -s sub -x \
4623 '(associateddomain=tjener.intern)
' dNSTTL aRecord nSRecord \
4624 cNAMERecord sOARecord pTRRecord hInfoRecord mXRecord tXTRecord \
4625 rPRecord aFSDBRecord KeyRecord aAAARecord lOCRecord sRVRecord \
4626 nAPTRRecord kXRecord certRecord dSRecord sSHFPRecord iPSecKeyRecord \
4627 rRSIGRecord nSECRecord dNSKeyRecord dHCIDRecord sPFRecord modifyTimestamp
4629 ldapsearch -h ldap -b ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no -s sub -x \
4630 '(arecord=
10.0.2.2)
' associateddomain dnsttl modifytimestamp
4631 </pre
></blockquote
>
4633 <p
>In addition to the forward and reverse searches , there is also a
4634 search for SOA records, which behave similar to the forward and
4635 reverse lookups.
</p
>
4637 <p
>A thing to note with the PowerDNS behaviour is that it do not
4638 specify any objectclass names, and instead look for the attributes it
4639 need to generate a DNS reply. This make it able to work with any
4640 objectclass that provide the needed attributes.
</p
>
4642 <p
>The attributes are normally provided in the cosine (RFC
1274) and
4643 dnsdomain2 schemas. The latter is used for reverse entries like
4644 ptrrecord and recent DNS additions like aaaarecord and srvrecord.
</p
>
4646 <p
>In Debian Edu, we have created DNS objects using the object classes
4647 dcobject (for dc), dnsdomain or dnsdomain2 (structural, for the DNS
4648 attributes) and domainrelatedobject (for associatedDomain). The use
4649 of structural object classes make it impossible to combine these
4650 classes with the object classes used by DHCP.
</p
>
4652 <p
>There are other schemas that could be used too, for example the
4653 dnszone structural object class used by Gosa and bind-sdb for the DNS
4654 attributes combined with the domainrelatedobject object class, but in
4655 this case some unused attributes would have to be included as well
4656 (zonename and relativedomainname).
</p
>
4658 <p
>My proposal for Debian Edu would be to switch PowerDNS to strict
4659 mode and not use any of the existing objectclasses (dnsdomain,
4660 dnsdomain2 and dnszone) when one want to combine the DNS information
4661 with DHCP information, and instead create a auxiliary object class
4662 defined something like this (using the attributes defined for
4663 dnsdomain and dnsdomain2 or dnszone):
</p
>
4665 <blockquote
><pre
>
4666 objectclass ( some-oid NAME
'dnsDomainAux
'
4669 MAY ( ARecord $ MDRecord $ MXRecord $ NSRecord $ SOARecord $ CNAMERecord $
4670 DNSTTL $ DNSClass $ PTRRecord $ HINFORecord $ MINFORecord $
4671 TXTRecord $ SIGRecord $ KEYRecord $ AAAARecord $ LOCRecord $
4672 NXTRecord $ SRVRecord $ NAPTRRecord $ KXRecord $ CERTRecord $
4673 A6Record $ DNAMERecord
4675 </pre
></blockquote
>
4677 <p
>This will allow any object to become a DNS entry when combined with
4678 the domainrelatedobject object class, and allow any entity to include
4679 all the attributes PowerDNS wants. I
've sent an email to the PowerDNS
4680 developers asking for their view on this schema and if they are
4681 interested in providing such schema with PowerDNS, and I hope my
4682 message will be accepted into their mailing list soon.
</p
>
4684 <p
><strong
>ISC dhcp
</strong
></p
>
4686 <p
>The DHCP server searches for specific objectclass and requests all
4687 the object attributes, and then uses the attributes it want. This
4688 make it harder to figure out exactly what attributes are used, but
4689 thanks to the working example in Debian Edu I can at least get an idea
4690 what is needed without having to read the source code.
</p
>
4692 <p
>In the DHCP server configuration, the LDAP base to use and the
4693 search filter to use to locate the correct dhcpServer entity is
4694 stored. These are the relevant entries from
4695 /etc/dhcp3/dhcpd.conf:
</p
>
4697 <blockquote
><pre
>
4698 ldap-base-dn
"dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
";
4699 ldap-dhcp-server-cn
"dhcp
";
4700 </pre
></blockquote
>
4702 <p
>The DHCP server uses this information to nest all the DHCP
4703 configuration it need. The cn
"dhcp
" is located using the given LDAP
4704 base and the filter
"(
&(objectClass=dhcpServer)(cn=dhcp))
". The
4705 search result is this entry:
</p
>
4707 <blockquote
><pre
>
4708 dn: cn=dhcp,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
4711 objectClass: dhcpServer
4712 dhcpServiceDN: cn=DHCP Config,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
4713 </pre
></blockquote
>
4715 <p
>The content of the dhcpServiceDN attribute is next used to locate the
4716 subtree with DHCP configuration. The DHCP configuration subtree base
4717 is located using a base scope search with base
"cn=DHCP
4718 Config,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
" and filter
4719 "(
&(objectClass=dhcpService)(|(dhcpPrimaryDN=cn=dhcp,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no)(dhcpSecondaryDN=cn=dhcp,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no)))
".
4720 The search result is this entry:
</p
>
4722 <blockquote
><pre
>
4723 dn: cn=DHCP Config,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
4726 objectClass: dhcpService
4727 objectClass: dhcpOptions
4728 dhcpPrimaryDN: cn=dhcp, dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
4729 dhcpStatements: ddns-update-style none
4730 dhcpStatements: authoritative
4731 dhcpOption: smtp-server code
69 = array of ip-address
4732 dhcpOption: www-server code
72 = array of ip-address
4733 dhcpOption: wpad-url code
252 = text
4734 </pre
></blockquote
>
4736 <p
>Next, the entire subtree is processed, one level at the time. When
4737 all the DHCP configuration is loaded, it is ready to receive requests.
4738 The subtree in Debian Edu contain objects with object classes
4739 top/dhcpService/dhcpOptions, top/dhcpSharedNetwork/dhcpOptions,
4740 top/dhcpSubnet, top/dhcpGroup and top/dhcpHost. These provide options
4741 and information about netmasks, dynamic range etc. Leaving out the
4742 details here because it is not relevant for the focus of my
4743 investigation, which is to see if it is possible to merge dns and dhcp
4744 related computer objects.
</p
>
4746 <p
>When a DHCP request come in, LDAP is searched for the MAC address
4747 of the client (
00:
00:
00:
00:
00:
00 in this example), using a subtree
4748 scoped search with
"cn=DHCP Config,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
" as
4749 the base and
"(
&(objectClass=dhcpHost)(dhcpHWAddress=ethernet
4750 00:
00:
00:
00:
00:
00))
" as the filter. This is what a host object look
4753 <blockquote
><pre
>
4754 dn: cn=hostname,cn=group1,cn=THINCLIENTS,cn=DHCP Config,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
4757 objectClass: dhcpHost
4758 dhcpHWAddress: ethernet
00:
00:
00:
00:
00:
00
4759 dhcpStatements: fixed-address hostname
4760 </pre
></blockquote
>
4762 <p
>There is less flexiblity in the way LDAP searches are done here.
4763 The object classes need to have fixed names, and the configuration
4764 need to be stored in a fairly specific LDAP structure. On the
4765 positive side, the invidiual dhcpHost entires can be anywhere without
4766 the DN pointed to by the dhcpServer entries. The latter should make
4767 it possible to group all host entries in a subtree next to the
4768 configuration entries, and this subtree can also be shared with the
4769 DNS server if the schema proposed above is combined with the dhcpHost
4770 structural object class.
4772 <p
><strong
>Conclusion
</strong
></p
>
4774 <p
>The PowerDNS implementation seem to be very flexible when it come
4775 to which LDAP schemas to use. While its
"tree
" mode is rigid when it
4776 come to the the LDAP structure, the
"strict
" mode is very flexible,
4777 allowing DNS objects to be stored anywhere under the base cn specified
4778 in the configuration.
</p
>
4780 <p
>The DHCP implementation on the other hand is very inflexible, both
4781 regarding which LDAP schemas to use and which LDAP structure to use.
4782 I guess one could implement ones own schema, as long as the
4783 objectclasses and attributes have the names used, but this do not
4784 really help when the DHCP subtree need to have a fairly fixed
4785 structure.
</p
>
4787 <p
>Based on the observed behaviour, I suspect a LDAP structure like
4788 this might work for Debian Edu:
</p
>
4790 <blockquote
><pre
>
4792 cn=machine-info (dhcpService) - dhcpServiceDN points here
4793 cn=dhcp (dhcpServer)
4794 cn=dhcp-internal (dhcpSharedNetwork/dhcpOptions)
4795 cn=
10.0.2.0 (dhcpSubnet)
4796 cn=group1 (dhcpGroup/dhcpOptions)
4797 cn=dhcp-thinclients (dhcpSharedNetwork/dhcpOptions)
4798 cn=
192.168.0.0 (dhcpSubnet)
4799 cn=group1 (dhcpGroup/dhcpOptions)
4800 ou=machines - PowerDNS base points here
4801 cn=hostname (dhcpHost/domainrelatedobject/dnsDomainAux)
4802 </pre
></blockquote
>
4804 <P
>This is not tested yet. If the DHCP server require the dhcpHost
4805 entries to be in the dhcpGroup subtrees, the entries can be stored
4806 there instead of a common machines subtree, and the PowerDNS base
4807 would have to be moved one level up to the machine-info subtree.
</p
>
4809 <p
>The combined object under the machines subtree would look something
4810 like this:
</p
>
4812 <blockquote
><pre
>
4813 dn: dc=hostname,ou=machines,cn=machine-info,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
4816 objectClass: dhcpHost
4817 objectclass: domainrelatedobject
4818 objectclass: dnsDomainAux
4819 associateddomain: hostname.intern
4820 arecord:
10.11.12.13
4821 dhcpHWAddress: ethernet
00:
00:
00:
00:
00:
00
4822 dhcpStatements: fixed-address hostname.intern
4823 </pre
></blockquote
>
4825 </p
>One could even add the LTSP configuration associated with a given
4826 machine, as long as the required attributes are available in a
4827 auxiliary object class.
</p
>
4832 <title>Combining PowerDNS and ISC DHCP LDAP objects
</title>
4833 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Combining_PowerDNS_and_ISC_DHCP_LDAP_objects.html
</link>
4834 <guid isPermaLink=
"true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Combining_PowerDNS_and_ISC_DHCP_LDAP_objects.html
</guid>
4835 <pubDate>Wed,
14 Jul
2010 23:
45:
00 +
0200</pubDate>
4836 <description><p
>For a while now, I have wanted to find a way to change the DNS and
4837 DHCP services in Debian Edu to use the same LDAP objects for a given
4838 computer, to avoid the possibility of having a inconsistent state for
4839 a computer in LDAP (as in DHCP but no DNS entry or the other way
4840 around) and make it easier to add computers to LDAP.
</p
>
4842 <p
>I
've looked at how powerdns and dhcpd is using LDAP, and using this
4843 information finally found a solution that seem to work.
</p
>
4845 <p
>The old setup required three LDAP objects for a given computer.
4846 One forward DNS entry, one reverse DNS entry and one DHCP entry. If
4847 we switch powerdns to use its strict LDAP method (ldap-method=strict
4848 in pdns-debian-edu.conf), the forward and reverse DNS entries are
4849 merged into one while making it impossible to transfer the reverse map
4850 to a slave DNS server.
</p
>
4852 <p
>If we also replace the object class used to get the DNS related
4853 attributes to one allowing these attributes to be combined with the
4854 dhcphost object class, we can merge the DNS and DHCP entries into one.
4855 I
've written such object class in the dnsdomainaux.schema file (need
4856 proper OIDs, but that is a minor issue), and tested the setup. It
4857 seem to work.
</p
>
4859 <p
>With this test setup in place, we can get away with one LDAP object
4860 for both DNS and DHCP, and even the LTSP configuration I suggested in
4861 an earlier email. The combined LDAP object will look something like
4864 <blockquote
><pre
>
4865 dn: cn=hostname,cn=group1,cn=THINCLIENTS,cn=DHCP Config,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
4867 objectClass: dhcphost
4868 objectclass: domainrelatedobject
4869 objectclass: dnsdomainaux
4870 associateddomain: hostname.intern
4871 arecord:
10.11.12.13
4872 dhcphwaddress: ethernet
00:
00:
00:
00:
00:
00
4873 dhcpstatements: fixed-address hostname
4875 </pre
></blockquote
>
4877 <p
>The DNS server uses the associateddomain and arecord entries, while
4878 the DHCP server uses the dhcphwaddress and dhcpstatements entries
4879 before asking DNS to resolve the fixed-adddress. LTSP will use
4880 dhcphwaddress or associateddomain and the ldapconfig* attributes.
</p
>
4882 <p
>I am not yet sure if I can get the DHCP server to look for its
4883 dhcphost in a different location, to allow us to put the objects
4884 outside the
"DHCP Config
" subtree, but hope to figure out a way to do
4885 that. If I can
't figure out a way to do that, we can still get rid of
4886 the hosts subtree and move all its content into the DHCP Config tree
4887 (which probably should be renamed to be more related to the new
4888 content. I suspect cn=dnsdhcp,ou=services or something like that
4889 might be a good place to put it.
</p
>
4891 <p
>If you want to help out with implementing this for Debian Edu,
4892 please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.
</p
>
4897 <title>Idea for storing LTSP configuration in LDAP
</title>
4898 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Idea_for_storing_LTSP_configuration_in_LDAP.html
</link>
4899 <guid isPermaLink=
"true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Idea_for_storing_LTSP_configuration_in_LDAP.html
</guid>
4900 <pubDate>Sun,
11 Jul
2010 22:
00:
00 +
0200</pubDate>
4901 <description><p
>Vagrant mentioned on IRC today that ltsp_config now support
4902 sourcing files from /usr/share/ltsp/ltsp_config.d/ on the thin
4903 clients, and that this can be used to fetch configuration from LDAP if
4904 Debian Edu choose to store configuration there.
</p
>
4906 <p
>Armed with this information, I got inspired and wrote a test module
4907 to get configuration from LDAP. The idea is to look up the MAC
4908 address of the client in LDAP, and look for attributes on the form
4909 ltspconfigsetting=value, and use this to export SETTING=value to the
4910 LTSP clients.
</p
>
4912 <p
>The goal is to be able to store the LTSP configuration attributes
4913 in a
"computer
" LDAP object used by both DNS and DHCP, and thus
4914 allowing us to store all information about a computer in one place.
</p
>
4916 <p
>This is a untested draft implementation, and I welcome feedback on
4917 this approach. A real LDAP schema for the ltspClientAux objectclass
4918 need to be written. Comments, suggestions, etc?
</p
>
4920 <blockquote
><pre
>
4921 # Store in /opt/ltsp/$arch/usr/share/ltsp/ltsp_config.d/ldap-config
4923 # Fetch LTSP client settings from LDAP based on MAC address
4925 # Uses ethernet address as stored in the dhcpHost objectclass using
4926 # the dhcpHWAddress attribute or ethernet address stored in the
4927 # ieee802Device objectclass with the macAddress attribute.
4929 # This module is written to be schema agnostic, and only depend on the
4930 # existence of attribute names.
4932 # The LTSP configuration variables are saved directly using a
4933 # ltspConfig prefix and uppercasing the rest of the attribute name.
4934 # To set the SERVER variable, set the ltspConfigServer attribute.
4936 # Some LDAP schema should be created with all the relevant
4937 # configuration settings. Something like this should work:
4939 # objectclass (
1.1.2.2 NAME
'ltspClientAux
'
4942 # MAY ( ltspConfigServer $ ltsConfigSound $ ... )
4944 LDAPSERVER=$(debian-edu-ldapserver)
4945 if [
"$LDAPSERVER
" ] ; then
4946 LDAPBASE=$(debian-edu-ldapserver -b)
4947 for MAC in $(LANG=C ifconfig |grep -i hwaddr| awk
'{print $
5}
'|sort -u) ; do
4948 filter=
"(|(dhcpHWAddress=ethernet $MAC)(macAddress=$MAC))
"
4949 ldapsearch -h
"$LDAPSERVER
" -b
"$LDAPBASE
" -v -x
"$filter
" | \
4950 grep
'^ltspConfig
' | while read attr value ; do
4951 # Remove prefix and convert to upper case
4952 attr=$(echo $attr | sed
's/^ltspConfig//i
' | tr a-z A-Z)
4953 # bass value on to clients
4954 eval
"$attr=$value; export $attr
"
4958 </pre
></blockquote
>
4960 <p
>I
'm not sure this shell construction will work, because I suspect
4961 the while block might end up in a subshell causing the variables set
4962 there to not show up in ltsp-config, but if that is the case I am sure
4963 the code can be restructured to make sure the variables are passed on.
4964 I expect that can be solved with some testing. :)
</p
>
4966 <p
>If you want to help out with implementing this for Debian Edu,
4967 please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.
</p
>
4969 <p
>Update
2010-
07-
17: I am aware of another effort to store LTSP
4970 configuration in LDAP that was created around year
2000 by
4971 <a href=
"http://www.pcxperience.com/thinclient/documentation/ldap.html
">PC
4972 Xperience, Inc.,
2000</a
>. I found its
4973 <a href=
"http://people.redhat.com/alikins/ltsp/ldap/
">files
</a
> on a
4974 personal home page over at redhat.com.
</p
>
4979 <title>jXplorer, a very nice LDAP GUI
</title>
4980 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/jXplorer__a_very_nice_LDAP_GUI.html
</link>
4981 <guid isPermaLink=
"true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/jXplorer__a_very_nice_LDAP_GUI.html
</guid>
4982 <pubDate>Fri,
9 Jul
2010 12:
55:
00 +
0200</pubDate>
4983 <description><p
>Since
4984 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/LUMA__a_very_nice_LDAP_GUI.html
">my
4985 last post
</a
> about available LDAP tools in Debian, I was told about a
4986 LDAP GUI that is even better than luma. The java application
4987 <a href=
"http://jxplorer.org/
">jXplorer
</a
> is claimed to be capable of
4988 moving LDAP objects and subtrees using drag-and-drop, and can
4989 authenticate using Kerberos. I have only tested the Kerberos
4990 authentication, but do not have a LDAP setup allowing me to rewrite
4991 LDAP with my test user yet. It is
4992 <a href=
"http://packages.qa.debian.org/j/jxplorer.html
">available in
4993 Debian
</a
> testing and unstable at the moment. The only problem I
4994 have with it is how it handle errors. If something go wrong, its
4995 non-intuitive behaviour require me to go through some query work list
4996 and remove the failing query. Nothing big, but very annoying.
</p
>
5001 <title>Lenny-
>Squeeze upgrades, apt vs aptitude with the Gnome desktop
</title>
5002 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lenny__Squeeze_upgrades__apt_vs_aptitude_with_the_Gnome_desktop.html
</link>
5003 <guid isPermaLink=
"true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lenny__Squeeze_upgrades__apt_vs_aptitude_with_the_Gnome_desktop.html
</guid>
5004 <pubDate>Sat,
3 Jul
2010 23:
55:
00 +
0200</pubDate>
5005 <description><p
>Here is a short update on my
<a
5006 href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/~pere/debian-upgrade-testing/
">my
5007 Debian Lenny-
>Squeeze upgrade testing
</a
>. Here is a summary of the
5008 difference for Gnome when it is upgraded by apt-get and aptitude. I
'm
5009 not reporting the status for KDE, because the upgrade crashes when
5010 aptitude try because of missing conflicts
5011 (
<a href=
"http://bugs.debian.org/
584861">#
584861</a
> and
5012 <a href=
"http://bugs.debian.org/
585716">#
585716</a
>).
</p
>
5014 <p
>At the end of the upgrade test script, dpkg -l is executed to get a
5015 complete list of the installed packages. Based on this I see these
5016 differences when I did a test run today. As usual, I do not really
5017 know what the correct set of packages would be, but thought it best to
5018 publish the difference.
</p
>
5020 <p
>Installed using apt-get, missing with aptitude
</p
>
5022 <blockquote
><p
>
5023 at-spi cpp-
4.3 finger gnome-spell gstreamer0.10-gnomevfs
5024 libatspi1.0-
0 libcupsys2 libeel2-data libgail-common libgdl-
1-common
5025 libgnomeprint2.2-data libgnomeprintui2.2-common libgnomevfs2-bin
5026 libgtksourceview-common libpt-
1.10.10-plugins-alsa
5027 libpt-
1.10.10-plugins-v4l libservlet2.4-java libxalan2-java
5028 libxerces2-java openoffice.org-writer2latex openssl-blacklist p7zip
5029 python-
4suite-xml python-eggtrayicon python-gtkhtml2
5030 python-gtkmozembed svgalibg1 xserver-xephyr zip
5031 </p
></blockquote
>
5033 <p
>Installed using apt-get, removed with aptitude
</p
>
5035 <blockquote
><p
>
5036 bluez-utils dhcdbd djvulibre-desktop epiphany-gecko
5037 gnome-app-install gnome-mount gnome-vfs-obexftp gnome-volume-manager
5038 libao2 libavahi-compat-libdnssd1 libavahi-core5 libbind9-
50
5039 libbluetooth2 libcamel1.2-
11 libcdio7 libcucul0 libcurl3
5040 libdirectfb-
1.0-
0 libdvdread3 libedata-cal1.2-
6 libedataserver1.2-
9
5041 libeel2-
2.20 libepc-
1.0-
1 libepc-ui-
1.0-
1 libexchange-storage1.2-
3
5042 libfaad0 libgd2-noxpm libgda3-
3 libgda3-common libggz2 libggzcore9
5043 libggzmod4 libgksu1.2-
0 libgksuui1.0-
1 libgmyth0 libgnome-desktop-
2
5044 libgnome-pilot2 libgnomecups1.0-
1 libgnomeprint2.2-
0
5045 libgnomeprintui2.2-
0 libgpod3 libgraphviz4 libgtkhtml2-
0
5046 libgtksourceview1.0-
0 libgucharmap6 libhesiod0 libicu38 libisccc50
5047 libisccfg50 libiw29 libkpathsea4 libltdl3 liblwres50 libmagick++
10
5048 libmagick10 libmalaga7 libmtp7 libmysqlclient15off libnautilus-burn4
5049 libneon27 libnm-glib0 libnm-util0 libopal-
2.2 libosp5
5050 libparted1.8-
10 libpisock9 libpisync1 libpoppler-glib3 libpoppler3
5051 libpt-
1.10.10 libraw1394-
8 libsensors3 libsmbios2 libsoup2.2-
8
5052 libssh2-
1 libsuitesparse-
3.1.0 libswfdec-
0.6-
90 libtalloc1
5053 libtotem-plparser10 libtrackerclient0 libvoikko1 libxalan2-java-gcj
5054 libxerces2-java-gcj libxklavier12 libxtrap6 libxxf86misc1 libzephyr3
5055 mysql-common swfdec-gnome totem-gstreamer wodim
5056 </p
></blockquote
>
5058 <p
>Installed using aptitude, missing with apt-get
</p
>
5060 <blockquote
><p
>
5061 gnome gnome-desktop-environment hamster-applet python-gnomeapplet
5062 python-gnomekeyring python-wnck rhythmbox-plugins xorg
5063 xserver-xorg-input-all xserver-xorg-input-evdev
5064 xserver-xorg-input-kbd xserver-xorg-input-mouse
5065 xserver-xorg-input-synaptics xserver-xorg-video-all
5066 xserver-xorg-video-apm xserver-xorg-video-ark xserver-xorg-video-ati
5067 xserver-xorg-video-chips xserver-xorg-video-cirrus
5068 xserver-xorg-video-dummy xserver-xorg-video-fbdev
5069 xserver-xorg-video-glint xserver-xorg-video-i128
5070 xserver-xorg-video-i740 xserver-xorg-video-mach64
5071 xserver-xorg-video-mga xserver-xorg-video-neomagic
5072 xserver-xorg-video-nouveau xserver-xorg-video-nv
5073 xserver-xorg-video-r128 xserver-xorg-video-radeon
5074 xserver-xorg-video-radeonhd xserver-xorg-video-rendition
5075 xserver-xorg-video-s3 xserver-xorg-video-s3virge
5076 xserver-xorg-video-savage xserver-xorg-video-siliconmotion
5077 xserver-xorg-video-sis xserver-xorg-video-sisusb
5078 xserver-xorg-video-tdfx xserver-xorg-video-tga
5079 xserver-xorg-video-trident xserver-xorg-video-tseng
5080 xserver-xorg-video-vesa xserver-xorg-video-vmware
5081 xserver-xorg-video-voodoo
5082 </p
></blockquote
>
5084 <p
>Installed using aptitude, removed with apt-get
</p
>
5086 <blockquote
><p
>
5087 deskbar-applet xserver-xorg xserver-xorg-core
5088 xserver-xorg-input-wacom xserver-xorg-video-intel
5089 xserver-xorg-video-openchrome
5090 </p
></blockquote
>
5092 <p
>I was told on IRC that the xorg-xserver package was
5093 <a href=
"http://git.debian.org/?p=pkg-xorg/xserver/xorg-server.git;a=commit;h=
9c8080d06c457932d3bfec021c69ac000aa60120
">changed
5094 in git
</a
> today to try to get apt-get to not remove xorg completely.
5095 No idea when it hits Squeeze, but when it does I hope it will reduce
5096 the difference somewhat.
5101 <title>LUMA, a very nice LDAP GUI
</title>
5102 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/LUMA__a_very_nice_LDAP_GUI.html
</link>
5103 <guid isPermaLink=
"true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/LUMA__a_very_nice_LDAP_GUI.html
</guid>
5104 <pubDate>Mon,
28 Jun
2010 00:
30:
00 +
0200</pubDate>
5105 <description><p
>The last few days I have been looking into the status of the LDAP
5106 directory in Debian Edu, and in the process I started to miss a GUI
5107 tool to browse the LDAP tree. The only one I was able to find in
5108 Debian/Squeeze and Lenny is
5109 <a href=
"http://luma.sourceforge.net/
">LUMA
</a
>, which has proved to
5110 be a great tool to get a overview of the current LDAP directory
5111 populated by default in Skolelinux. Thanks to it, I have been able to
5112 find empty and obsolete subtrees, misplaced objects and duplicate
5113 objects. It will be installed by default in Debian/Squeeze. If you
5114 are working with LDAP, give it a go. :)
</p
>
5116 <p
>I did notice one problem with it I have not had time to report to
5117 the BTS yet. There is no .desktop file in the package, so the tool do
5118 not show up in the Gnome and KDE menus, but only deep down in in the
5119 Debian submenu in KDE. I hope that can be fixed before Squeeze is
5122 <p
>I have not yet been able to get it to modify the tree yet. I would
5123 like to move objects and remove subtrees directly in the GUI, but have
5124 not found a way to do that with LUMA yet. So in the mean time, I use
5125 <a href=
"http://www.lichteblau.com/ldapvi/
">ldapvi
</a
> for that.
</p
>
5127 <p
>If you have tips on other GUI tools for LDAP that might be useful
5128 in Debian Edu, please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.
</p
>
5130 <p
>Update
2010-
06-
29: Ross Reedstrom tipped us about the
5131 <a href=
"http://packages.qa.debian.org/g/gq.html
">gq
</a
> package as a
5132 useful GUI alternative. It seem like a good tool, but is unmaintained
5133 in Debian and got a RC bug keeping it out of Squeeze. Unless that
5134 changes, it will not be an option for Debian Edu based on Squeeze.
</p
>
5139 <title>Idea for a change to LDAP schemas allowing DNS and DHCP info to be combined into one object
</title>
5140 <link>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
</link>
5141 <guid isPermaLink=
"true">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
</guid>
5142 <pubDate>Thu,
24 Jun
2010 00:
35:
00 +
0200</pubDate>
5143 <description><p
>A while back, I
5144 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Time_for_new__LDAP_schemas_replacing_RFC_2307_.html
">complained
5145 about the fact
</a
> that it is not possible with the provided schemas
5146 for storing DNS and DHCP information in LDAP to combine the two sets
5147 of information into one LDAP object representing a computer.
</p
>
5149 <p
>In the mean time, I discovered that a simple fix would be to make
5150 the dhcpHost object class auxiliary, to allow it to be combined with
5151 the dNSDomain object class, and thus forming one object for one
5152 computer when storing both DHCP and DNS information in LDAP.
</p
>
5154 <p
>If I understand this correctly, it is not safe to do this change
5155 without also changing the assigned number for the object class, and I
5156 do not know enough about LDAP schema design to do that properly for
5157 Debian Edu.
</p
>
5159 <p
>Anyway, for future reference, this is how I believe we could change
5161 <a href=
"http://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-ietf-dhc-ldap-schema-
00">DHCP
5162 schema
</a
> to solve at least part of the problem with the LDAP schemas
5163 available today from IETF.
</p
>
5166 --- dhcp.schema (revision
65192)
5167 +++ dhcp.schema (working copy)
5169 objectclass (
2.16.840.1.113719.1.203.6.6
5170 NAME
'dhcpHost
'
5171 DESC
'This represents information about a particular client
'
5175 MAY (dhcpLeaseDN $ dhcpHWAddress $ dhcpOptionsDN $ dhcpStatements $ dhcpComments $ dhcpOption)
5176 X-NDS_CONTAINMENT (
'dhcpService
' 'dhcpSubnet
' 'dhcpGroup
') )
5179 <p
>I very much welcome clues on how to do this properly for Debian
5180 Edu/Squeeze. We provide the DHCP schema in our debian-edu-config
5181 package, and should thus be free to rewrite it as we see fit.
</p
>
5183 <p
>If you want to help out with implementing this for Debian Edu,
5184 please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.
</p
>
5189 <title>Calling tasksel like the installer, while still getting useful output
</title>
5190 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Calling_tasksel_like_the_installer__while_still_getting_useful_output.html
</link>
5191 <guid isPermaLink=
"true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Calling_tasksel_like_the_installer__while_still_getting_useful_output.html
</guid>
5192 <pubDate>Wed,
16 Jun
2010 14:
55:
00 +
0200</pubDate>
5193 <description><p
>A few times I have had the need to simulate the way tasksel
5194 installs packages during the normal debian-installer run. Until now,
5195 I have ended up letting tasksel do the work, with the annoying problem
5196 of not getting any feedback at all when something fails (like a
5197 conffile question from dpkg or a download that fails), using code like
5200 <blockquote
><pre
>
5201 export DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive
5202 tasksel --new-install
5203 </pre
></blockquote
>
5205 This would invoke tasksel, let its automatic task selection pick the
5206 tasks to install, and continue to install the requested tasks without
5207 any output what so ever.
5209 Recently I revisited this problem while working on the automatic
5210 package upgrade testing, because tasksel would some times hang without
5211 any useful feedback, and I want to see what is going on when it
5212 happen. Then it occured to me, I can parse the output from tasksel
5213 when asked to run in test mode, and use that aptitude command line
5214 printed by tasksel then to simulate the tasksel run. I ended up using
5217 <blockquote
><pre
>
5218 export DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive
5219 cmd=
"$(in_target tasksel -t --new-install | sed
's/debconf-apt-progress -- //
')
"
5221 </pre
></blockquote
>
5223 <p
>The content of $cmd is typically something like
"<tt
>aptitude -q
5224 --without-recommends -o APT::Install-Recommends=no -y install
5225 ~t^desktop$ ~t^gnome-desktop$ ~t^laptop$ ~pstandard ~prequired
5226 ~pimportant
</tt
>", which will install the gnome desktop task, the
5227 laptop task and all packages with priority standard , required and
5228 important, just like tasksel would have done it during
5229 installation.
</p
>
5231 <p
>A better approach is probably to extend tasksel to be able to
5232 install packages without using debconf-apt-progress, for use cases
5233 like this.
</p
>
5238 <title>Lenny-
>Squeeze upgrades, removals by apt and aptitude
</title>
5239 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lenny__Squeeze_upgrades__removals_by_apt_and_aptitude.html
</link>
5240 <guid isPermaLink=
"true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lenny__Squeeze_upgrades__removals_by_apt_and_aptitude.html
</guid>
5241 <pubDate>Sun,
13 Jun
2010 09:
05:
00 +
0200</pubDate>
5242 <description><p
>My
5243 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Automatic_upgrade_testing_from_Lenny_to_Squeeze.html
">testing
5244 of Debian upgrades
</a
> from Lenny to Squeeze continues, and I
've
5245 finally made the upgrade logs available from
5246 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/debian-upgrade-testing/
">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/debian-upgrade-testing/
</a
>.
5247 I am now testing dist-upgrade of Gnome and KDE in a chroot using both
5248 apt and aptitude, and found their differences interesting. This time
5249 I will only focus on their removal plans.
</p
>
5251 <p
>After installing a Gnome desktop and the laptop task, apt-get wants
5252 to remove
72 packages when dist-upgrading from Lenny to Squeeze. The
5253 surprising part is that it want to remove xorg and all
5254 xserver-xorg-video* drivers. Clearly not a good choice, but I am not
5255 sure why. When asking aptitude to do the same, it want to remove
129
5256 packages, but most of them are library packages I suspect are no
5257 longer needed. Both of them want to remove bluetooth packages, which
5258 I do not know. Perhaps these bluetooth packages are obsolete?
</p
>
5260 <p
>For KDE, apt-get want to remove
82 packages, among them kdebase
5261 which seem like a bad idea and xorg the same way as with Gnome. Asking
5262 aptitude for the same, it wants to remove
192 packages, none which are
5263 too surprising.
</p
>
5265 <p
>I guess the removal of xorg during upgrades should be investigated
5266 and avoided, and perhaps others as well. Here are the complete list
5267 of planned removals. The complete logs is available from the URL
5268 above. Note if you want to repeat these tests, that the upgrade test
5269 for kde+apt-get hung in the tasksel setup because of dpkg asking
5270 conffile questions. No idea why. I worked around it by using
5271 '<tt
>echo
>> /proc/
<em
>pidofdpkg
</em
>/fd/
0</tt
>' to tell dpkg to
5274 <p
><b
>apt-get gnome
72</b
>
5275 <br
>bluez-gnome cupsddk-drivers deskbar-applet gnome
5276 gnome-desktop-environment gnome-network-admin gtkhtml3.14
5277 iceweasel-gnome-support libavcodec51 libdatrie0 libgdl-
1-
0
5278 libgnomekbd2 libgnomekbdui2 libmetacity0 libslab0 libxcb-xlib0
5279 nautilus-cd-burner python-gnome2-desktop python-gnome2-extras
5280 serpentine swfdec-mozilla update-manager xorg xserver-xorg
5281 xserver-xorg-core xserver-xorg-input-all xserver-xorg-input-evdev
5282 xserver-xorg-input-kbd xserver-xorg-input-mouse
5283 xserver-xorg-input-synaptics xserver-xorg-input-wacom
5284 xserver-xorg-video-all xserver-xorg-video-apm xserver-xorg-video-ark
5285 xserver-xorg-video-ati xserver-xorg-video-chips
5286 xserver-xorg-video-cirrus xserver-xorg-video-cyrix
5287 xserver-xorg-video-dummy xserver-xorg-video-fbdev
5288 xserver-xorg-video-glint xserver-xorg-video-i128
5289 xserver-xorg-video-i740 xserver-xorg-video-imstt
5290 xserver-xorg-video-intel xserver-xorg-video-mach64
5291 xserver-xorg-video-mga xserver-xorg-video-neomagic
5292 xserver-xorg-video-nsc xserver-xorg-video-nv
5293 xserver-xorg-video-openchrome xserver-xorg-video-r128
5294 xserver-xorg-video-radeon xserver-xorg-video-radeonhd
5295 xserver-xorg-video-rendition xserver-xorg-video-s3
5296 xserver-xorg-video-s3virge xserver-xorg-video-savage
5297 xserver-xorg-video-siliconmotion xserver-xorg-video-sis
5298 xserver-xorg-video-sisusb xserver-xorg-video-tdfx
5299 xserver-xorg-video-tga xserver-xorg-video-trident
5300 xserver-xorg-video-tseng xserver-xorg-video-v4l
5301 xserver-xorg-video-vesa xserver-xorg-video-vga
5302 xserver-xorg-video-vmware xserver-xorg-video-voodoo xulrunner-
1.9
5303 xulrunner-
1.9-gnome-support
</p
>
5305 <p
><b
>aptitude gnome
129</b
>
5307 <br
>bluez-gnome bluez-utils cpp-
4.3 cupsddk-drivers dhcdbd
5308 djvulibre-desktop finger gnome-app-install gnome-mount
5309 gnome-network-admin gnome-spell gnome-vfs-obexftp
5310 gnome-volume-manager gstreamer0.10-gnomevfs gtkhtml3.14 libao2
5311 libavahi-compat-libdnssd1 libavahi-core5 libavcodec51 libbluetooth2
5312 libcamel1.2-
11 libcdio7 libcucul0 libcupsys2 libcurl3 libdatrie0
5313 libdirectfb-
1.0-
0 libdvdread3 libedataserver1.2-
9 libeel2-
2.20
5314 libeel2-data libepc-
1.0-
1 libepc-ui-
1.0-
1 libfaad0 libgail-common
5315 libgd2-noxpm libgda3-
3 libgda3-common libgdl-
1-
0 libgdl-
1-common
5316 libggz2 libggzcore9 libggzmod4 libgksu1.2-
0 libgksuui1.0-
1 libgmyth0
5317 libgnomecups1.0-
1 libgnomekbd2 libgnomekbdui2 libgnomeprint2.2-
0
5318 libgnomeprint2.2-data libgnomeprintui2.2-
0 libgnomeprintui2.2-common
5319 libgnomevfs2-bin libgpod3 libgraphviz4 libgtkhtml2-
0
5320 libgtksourceview-common libgtksourceview1.0-
0 libgucharmap6
5321 libhesiod0 libicu38 libiw29 libkpathsea4 libltdl3 libmagick++
10
5322 libmagick10 libmalaga7 libmetacity0 libmtp7 libmysqlclient15off
5323 libnautilus-burn4 libneon27 libnm-glib0 libnm-util0 libopal-
2.2
5324 libosp5 libparted1.8-
10 libpoppler-glib3 libpoppler3 libpt-
1.10.10
5325 libpt-
1.10.10-plugins-alsa libpt-
1.10.10-plugins-v4l libraw1394-
8
5326 libsensors3 libslab0 libsmbios2 libsoup2.2-
8 libssh2-
1
5327 libsuitesparse-
3.1.0 libswfdec-
0.6-
90 libtalloc1 libtotem-plparser10
5328 libtrackerclient0 libxalan2-java libxalan2-java-gcj libxcb-xlib0
5329 libxerces2-java libxerces2-java-gcj libxklavier12 libxtrap6
5330 libxxf86misc1 libzephyr3 mysql-common nautilus-cd-burner
5331 openoffice.org-writer2latex openssl-blacklist p7zip
5332 python-
4suite-xml python-eggtrayicon python-gnome2-desktop
5333 python-gnome2-extras python-gtkhtml2 python-gtkmozembed
5334 python-numeric python-sexy serpentine svgalibg1 swfdec-gnome
5335 swfdec-mozilla totem-gstreamer update-manager wodim
5336 xserver-xorg-video-cyrix xserver-xorg-video-imstt
5337 xserver-xorg-video-nsc xserver-xorg-video-v4l xserver-xorg-video-vga
5340 <p
><b
>apt-get kde
82</b
>
5342 <br
>cupsddk-drivers karm kaudiocreator kcoloredit kcontrol kde kde-core
5343 kdeaddons kdeartwork kdebase kdebase-bin kdebase-bin-kde3
5344 kdebase-kio-plugins kdesktop kdeutils khelpcenter kicker
5345 kicker-applets knewsticker kolourpaint konq-plugins konqueror korn
5346 kpersonalizer kscreensaver ksplash libavcodec51 libdatrie0 libkiten1
5347 libxcb-xlib0 quanta superkaramba texlive-base-bin xorg xserver-xorg
5348 xserver-xorg-core xserver-xorg-input-all xserver-xorg-input-evdev
5349 xserver-xorg-input-kbd xserver-xorg-input-mouse
5350 xserver-xorg-input-synaptics xserver-xorg-input-wacom
5351 xserver-xorg-video-all xserver-xorg-video-apm xserver-xorg-video-ark
5352 xserver-xorg-video-ati xserver-xorg-video-chips
5353 xserver-xorg-video-cirrus xserver-xorg-video-cyrix
5354 xserver-xorg-video-dummy xserver-xorg-video-fbdev
5355 xserver-xorg-video-glint xserver-xorg-video-i128
5356 xserver-xorg-video-i740 xserver-xorg-video-imstt
5357 xserver-xorg-video-intel xserver-xorg-video-mach64
5358 xserver-xorg-video-mga xserver-xorg-video-neomagic
5359 xserver-xorg-video-nsc xserver-xorg-video-nv
5360 xserver-xorg-video-openchrome xserver-xorg-video-r128
5361 xserver-xorg-video-radeon xserver-xorg-video-radeonhd
5362 xserver-xorg-video-rendition xserver-xorg-video-s3
5363 xserver-xorg-video-s3virge xserver-xorg-video-savage
5364 xserver-xorg-video-siliconmotion xserver-xorg-video-sis
5365 xserver-xorg-video-sisusb xserver-xorg-video-tdfx
5366 xserver-xorg-video-tga xserver-xorg-video-trident
5367 xserver-xorg-video-tseng xserver-xorg-video-v4l
5368 xserver-xorg-video-vesa xserver-xorg-video-vga
5369 xserver-xorg-video-vmware xserver-xorg-video-voodoo xulrunner-
1.9</p
>
5371 <p
><b
>aptitude kde
192</b
>
5372 <br
>bluez-utils cpp-
4.3 cupsddk-drivers cvs dcoprss dhcdbd
5373 djvulibre-desktop dosfstools eyesapplet fifteenapplet finger gettext
5374 ghostscript-x imlib-base imlib11 indi kandy karm kasteroids
5375 kaudiocreator kbackgammon kbstate kcoloredit kcontrol kcron kdat
5376 kdeadmin-kfile-plugins kdeartwork-misc kdeartwork-theme-window
5377 kdebase-bin-kde3 kdebase-kio-plugins kdeedu-data
5378 kdegraphics-kfile-plugins kdelirc kdemultimedia-kappfinder-data
5379 kdemultimedia-kfile-plugins kdenetwork-kfile-plugins
5380 kdepim-kfile-plugins kdepim-kio-plugins kdeprint kdesktop kdessh
5381 kdict kdnssd kdvi kedit keduca kenolaba kfax kfaxview kfouleggs
5382 kghostview khelpcenter khexedit kiconedit kitchensync klatin
5383 klickety kmailcvt kmenuedit kmid kmilo kmoon kmrml kodo kolourpaint
5384 kooka korn kpager kpdf kpercentage kpf kpilot kpoker kpovmodeler
5385 krec kregexpeditor ksayit ksim ksirc ksirtet ksmiletris ksmserver
5386 ksnake ksokoban ksplash ksvg ksysv ktip ktnef kuickshow kverbos
5387 kview kviewshell kvoctrain kwifimanager kwin kwin4 kworldclock
5388 kxsldbg libakode2 libao2 libarts1-akode libarts1-audiofile
5389 libarts1-mpeglib libarts1-xine libavahi-compat-libdnssd1
5390 libavahi-core5 libavc1394-
0 libavcodec51 libbluetooth2
5391 libboost-python1.34
.1 libcucul0 libcurl3 libcvsservice0 libdatrie0
5392 libdirectfb-
1.0-
0 libdjvulibre21 libdvdread3 libfaad0 libfreebob0
5393 libgail-common libgd2-noxpm libgraphviz4 libgsmme1c2a libgtkhtml2-
0
5394 libicu38 libiec61883-
0 libindex0 libiw29 libk3b3 libkcal2b libkcddb1
5395 libkdeedu3 libkdepim1a libkgantt0 libkiten1 libkleopatra1 libkmime2
5396 libkpathsea4 libkpimexchange1 libkpimidentities1 libkscan1
5397 libksieve0 libktnef1 liblockdev1 libltdl3 libmagick10 libmimelib1c2a
5398 libmozjs1d libmpcdec3 libneon27 libnm-util0 libopensync0 libpisock9
5399 libpoppler-glib3 libpoppler-qt2 libpoppler3 libraw1394-
8 libsmbios2
5400 libssh2-
1 libsuitesparse-
3.1.0 libtalloc1 libtiff-tools
5401 libxalan2-java libxalan2-java-gcj libxcb-xlib0 libxerces2-java
5402 libxerces2-java-gcj libxtrap6 mpeglib networkstatus
5403 openoffice.org-writer2latex pmount poster psutils quanta quanta-data
5404 superkaramba svgalibg1 tex-common texlive-base texlive-base-bin
5405 texlive-common texlive-doc-base texlive-fonts-recommended
5406 xserver-xorg-video-cyrix xserver-xorg-video-imstt
5407 xserver-xorg-video-nsc xserver-xorg-video-v4l xserver-xorg-video-vga
5408 xulrunner-
1.9</p
>
5414 <title>Automatic upgrade testing from Lenny to Squeeze
</title>
5415 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Automatic_upgrade_testing_from_Lenny_to_Squeeze.html
</link>
5416 <guid isPermaLink=
"true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Automatic_upgrade_testing_from_Lenny_to_Squeeze.html
</guid>
5417 <pubDate>Fri,
11 Jun
2010 22:
50:
00 +
0200</pubDate>
5418 <description><p
>The last few days I have done some upgrade testing in Debian, to
5419 see if the upgrade from Lenny to Squeeze will go smoothly. A few bugs
5420 have been discovered and reported in the process
5421 (
<a href=
"http://bugs.debian.org/
585410">#
585410</a
> in nagios3-cgi,
5422 <a href=
"http://bugs.debian.org/
584879">#
584879</a
> already fixed in
5423 enscript and
<a href=
"http://bugs.debian.org/
584861">#
584861</a
> in
5424 kdebase-workspace-data), and to get a more regular testing going on, I
5425 am working on a script to automate the test.
</p
>
5427 <p
>The idea is to create a Lenny chroot and use tasksel to install a
5428 Gnome or KDE desktop installation inside the chroot before upgrading
5429 it. To ensure no services are started in the chroot, a policy-rc.d
5430 script is inserted. To make sure tasksel believe it is to install a
5431 desktop on a laptop, the tasksel tests are replaced in the chroot
5432 (only acceptable because this is a throw-away chroot).
</p
>
5434 <p
>A naive upgrade from Lenny to Squeeze using aptitude dist-upgrade
5435 currently always fail because udev refuses to upgrade with the kernel
5436 in Lenny, so to avoid that problem the file /etc/udev/kernel-upgrade
5437 is created. The bug report
5438 <a href=
"http://bugs.debian.org/
566000">#
566000</a
> make me suspect
5439 this problem do not trigger in a chroot, but I touch the file anyway
5440 to make sure the upgrade go well. Testing on virtual and real
5441 hardware have failed me because of udev so far, and creating this file
5442 do the trick in such settings anyway. This is a
5443 <a href=
"http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/debian-
26/failed-dist-upgrade-due-to-udev-config_sysfs_deprecated-nonsense-
804130/
">known
5444 issue
</a
> and the current udev behaviour is intended by the udev
5445 maintainer because he lack the resources to rewrite udev to keep
5446 working with old kernels or something like that. I really wish the
5447 udev upstream would keep udev backwards compatible, to avoid such
5448 upgrade problem, but given that they fail to do so, I guess
5449 documenting the way out of this mess is the best option we got for
5450 Debian Squeeze.
</p
>
5452 <p
>Anyway, back to the task at hand, testing upgrades. This test
5453 script, which I call
<tt
>upgrade-test
</tt
> for now, is doing the
5456 <blockquote
><pre
>
5460 if [
"$
1" ] ; then
5469 exec
&lt; /dev/null
5471 mirror=http://ftp.skolelinux.org/debian
5472 tmpdir=chroot-$from-upgrade-$to-$desktop
5474 debootstrap $from $tmpdir $mirror
5475 chroot $tmpdir aptitude update
5476 cat
> $tmpdir/usr/sbin/policy-rc.d
&lt;
&lt;EOF
5480 chmod a+rx $tmpdir/usr/sbin/policy-rc.d
5484 mount -t proc proc $tmpdir/proc
5485 # Make sure proc is unmounted also on failure
5486 trap exit_cleanup EXIT INT
5488 chroot $tmpdir aptitude -y install debconf-utils
5490 # Make sure tasksel autoselection trigger. It need the test scripts
5491 # to return the correct answers.
5492 echo tasksel tasksel/desktop multiselect $desktop | \
5493 chroot $tmpdir debconf-set-selections
5495 # Include the desktop and laptop task
5496 for test in desktop laptop ; do
5497 echo
> $tmpdir/usr/lib/tasksel/tests/$test
&lt;
&lt;EOF
5501 chmod a+rx $tmpdir/usr/lib/tasksel/tests/$test
5504 DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive
5505 DEBIAN_PRIORITY=critical
5506 export DEBIAN_FRONTEND DEBIAN_PRIORITY
5507 chroot $tmpdir tasksel --new-install
5509 echo deb $mirror $to main
> $tmpdir/etc/apt/sources.list
5510 chroot $tmpdir aptitude update
5511 touch $tmpdir/etc/udev/kernel-upgrade
5512 chroot $tmpdir aptitude -y dist-upgrade
5514 </pre
></blockquote
>
5516 <p
>I suspect it would be useful to test upgrades with both apt-get and
5517 with aptitude, but I have not had time to look at how they behave
5518 differently so far. I hope to get a cron job running to do the test
5519 regularly and post the result on the web. The Gnome upgrade currently
5520 work, while the KDE upgrade fail because of the bug in
5521 kdebase-workspace-data
</p
>
5523 <p
>I am not quite sure what kind of extract from the huge upgrade logs
5524 (KDE
167 KiB, Gnome
516 KiB) it make sense to include in this blog
5525 post, so I will refrain from trying. I can report that for Gnome,
5526 aptitude report
760 packages upgraded,
448 newly installed,
129 to
5527 remove and
1 not upgraded and
1024MB need to be downloaded while for
5528 KDE the same numbers are
702 packages upgraded,
507 newly installed,
5529 193 to remove and
0 not upgraded and
1117MB need to be downloaded
</p
>
5531 <p
>I am very happy to notice that the Gnome desktop + laptop upgrade
5532 is able to migrate to dependency based boot sequencing and parallel
5533 booting without a hitch. Was unsure if there were still bugs with
5534 packages failing to clean up their obsolete init.d script during
5535 upgrades, and no such problem seem to affect the Gnome desktop+laptop
5541 <title>Upstart or sysvinit - as init.d scripts see it
</title>
5542 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Upstart_or_sysvinit___as_init_d_scripts_see_it.html
</link>
5543 <guid isPermaLink=
"true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Upstart_or_sysvinit___as_init_d_scripts_see_it.html
</guid>
5544 <pubDate>Sun,
6 Jun
2010 23:
55:
00 +
0200</pubDate>
5545 <description><p
>If Debian is to migrate to upstart on Linux, I expect some init.d
5546 scripts to migrate (some of) their operations to upstart job while
5547 keeping the init.d for hurd and kfreebsd. The packages with such
5548 needs will need a way to get their init.d scripts to behave
5549 differently when used with sysvinit and with upstart. Because of
5550 this, I had a look at the environment variables set when a init.d
5551 script is running under upstart, and when it is not.
</p
>
5553 <p
>With upstart, I notice these environment variables are set when a
5554 script is started from rcS.d/ (ignoring some irrelevant ones like
5557 <blockquote
><pre
>
5563 UPSTART_EVENTS=startup
5565 UPSTART_JOB=rc-sysinit
5566 </pre
></blockquote
>
5568 <p
>With sysvinit, these environment variables are set for the same
5571 <blockquote
><pre
>
5572 INIT_VERSION=sysvinit-
2.88
5577 </pre
></blockquote
>
5579 <p
>The RUNLEVEL and PREVLEVEL environment variables passed on from
5580 sysvinit are not set by upstart. Not sure if it is intentional or not
5581 to not be compatible with sysvinit in this regard.
</p
>
5583 <p
>For scripts needing to behave differently when upstart is used,
5584 looking for the UPSTART_JOB environment variable seem to be a good
5590 <title>A manual for standards wars...
</title>
5591 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/A_manual_for_standards_wars___.html
</link>
5592 <guid isPermaLink=
"true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/A_manual_for_standards_wars___.html
</guid>
5593 <pubDate>Sun,
6 Jun
2010 14:
15:
00 +
0200</pubDate>
5594 <description><p
>Via the
5595 <a href=
"http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/robweir/antic-atom/~
3/QzU4RgoAGMg/weekly-links-
10.html
">blog
5596 of Rob Weir
</a
> I came across the very interesting essay named
5597 <a href=
"http://faculty.haas.berkeley.edu/shapiro/wars.pdf
">The Art of
5598 Standards Wars
</a
> (PDF
25 pages). I recommend it for everyone
5599 following the standards wars of today.
</p
>
5604 <title>Sitesummary tip: Listing computer hardware models used at site
</title>
5605 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Sitesummary_tip__Listing_computer_hardware_models_used_at_site.html
</link>
5606 <guid isPermaLink=
"true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Sitesummary_tip__Listing_computer_hardware_models_used_at_site.html
</guid>
5607 <pubDate>Thu,
3 Jun
2010 12:
05:
00 +
0200</pubDate>
5608 <description><p
>When using sitesummary at a site to track machines, it is possible
5609 to get a list of the machine types in use thanks to the DMI
5610 information extracted from each machine. The script to do so is
5611 included in the sitesummary package, and here is example output from
5612 the Skolelinux build servers:
</p
>
5614 <blockquote
><pre
>
5615 maintainer:~# /usr/lib/sitesummary/hardware-model-summary
5617 Dell Computer Corporation
1
5620 eserver xSeries
345 -[
8670M1X]-
1
5624 </pre
></blockquote
>
5626 <p
>The quality of the report depend on the quality of the DMI tables
5627 provided in each machine. Here there are Intel machines without model
5628 information listed with Intel as vendor and no model, and virtual Xen
5629 machines listed as [no-dmi-info]. One can add -l as a command line
5630 option to list the individual machines.
</p
>
5632 <p
>A larger list is
5633 <a href=
"http://narvikskolen.no/sitesummary/
">available from the the
5634 city of Narvik
</a
>, which uses Skolelinux on all their shools and also
5635 provide the basic sitesummary report publicly. In their report there
5636 are ~
1400 machines. I know they use both Ubuntu and Skolelinux on
5637 their machines, and as sitesummary is available in both distributions,
5638 it is trivial to get all of them to report to the same central
5639 collector.
</p
>
5644 <title>KDM fail at boot with NVidia cards - and no one try to fix it?
</title>
5645 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/KDM_fail_at_boot_with_NVidia_cards___and_no_one_try_to_fix_it_.html
</link>
5646 <guid isPermaLink=
"true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/KDM_fail_at_boot_with_NVidia_cards___and_no_one_try_to_fix_it_.html
</guid>
5647 <pubDate>Tue,
1 Jun
2010 17:
05:
00 +
0200</pubDate>
5648 <description><p
>It is strange to watch how a bug in Debian causing KDM to fail to
5649 start at boot when an NVidia video card is used is handled. The
5650 problem seem to be that the nvidia X.org driver uses a long time to
5651 initialize, and this duration is longer than kdm is configured to
5654 <p
>I came across two bugs related to this issue,
5655 <a href=
"http://bugs.debian.org/
583312">#
583312</a
> initially filed
5656 against initscripts and passed on to nvidia-glx when it became obvious
5657 that the nvidia drivers were involved, and
5658 <a href=
"http://bugs.debian.org/
524751">#
524751</a
> initially filed against
5659 kdm and passed on to src:nvidia-graphics-drivers for unknown reasons.
</p
>
5661 <p
>To me, it seem that no-one is interested in actually solving the
5662 problem nvidia video card owners experience and make sure the Debian
5663 distribution work out of the box for these users. The nvidia driver
5664 maintainers expect kdm to be set up to wait longer, while kdm expect
5665 the nvidia driver maintainers to fix the driver to start faster, and
5666 while they wait for each other I guess the users end up switching to a
5667 distribution that work for them. I have no idea what the solution is,
5668 but I am pretty sure that waiting for each other is not it.
</p
>
5670 <p
>I wonder why we end up handling bugs this way.
</p
>
5675 <title>Parallellized boot seem to hold up well in Debian/testing
</title>
5676 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Parallellized_boot_seem_to_hold_up_well_in_Debian_testing.html
</link>
5677 <guid isPermaLink=
"true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Parallellized_boot_seem_to_hold_up_well_in_Debian_testing.html
</guid>
5678 <pubDate>Thu,
27 May
2010 23:
55:
00 +
0200</pubDate>
5679 <description><p
>A few days ago, parallel booting was enabled in Debian/testing.
5680 The feature seem to hold up pretty well, but three fairly serious
5681 issues are known and should be solved:
5685 <li
>The wicd package seen to
5686 <a href=
"http://bugs.debian.org/
508289">break NFS mounting
</a
> and
5687 <a href=
"http://bugs.debian.org/
581586">network setup
</a
> when
5688 parallel booting is enabled. No idea why, but the wicd maintainer
5689 seem to be on the case.
</li
>
5691 <li
>The nvidia X driver seem to
5692 <a href=
"http://bugs.debian.org/
583312">have a race condition
</a
>
5693 triggered more easily when parallel booting is in effect. The
5694 maintainer is on the case.
</li
>
5696 <li
>The sysv-rc package fail to properly enable dependency based boot
5697 sequencing (the shutdown is broken) when old file-rc users
5698 <a href=
"http://bugs.debian.org/
575080">try to switch back
</a
> to
5699 sysv-rc. One way to solve it would be for file-rc to create
5700 /etc/init.d/.legacy-bootordering, and another is to try to make
5701 sysv-rc more robust. Will investigate some more and probably upload a
5702 workaround in sysv-rc to help those trying to move from file-rc to
5703 sysv-rc get a working shutdown.
</li
>
5705 </ul
></p
>
5707 <p
>All in all not many surprising issues, and all of them seem
5708 solvable before Squeeze is released. In addition to these there are
5709 some packages with bugs in their dependencies and run level settings,
5710 which I expect will be fixed in a reasonable time span.
</p
>
5712 <p
>If you report any problems with dependencies in init.d scripts to
5713 the BTS, please usertag the report to get it to show up at
5714 <a href=
"http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/pkgreport.cgi?users=initscripts-ng-devel@lists.alioth.debian.org
">the
5715 list of usertagged bugs related to this
</a
>.
</p
>
5717 <p
>Update: Correct bug number to file-rc issue.
</p
>
5722 <title>More flexible firmware handling in debian-installer
</title>
5723 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/More_flexible_firmware_handling_in_debian_installer.html
</link>
5724 <guid isPermaLink=
"true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/More_flexible_firmware_handling_in_debian_installer.html
</guid>
5725 <pubDate>Sat,
22 May
2010 21:
30:
00 +
0200</pubDate>
5726 <description><p
>After a long break from debian-installer development, I finally
5727 found time today to return to the project. Having to spend less time
5728 working dependency based boot in debian, as it is almost complete now,
5729 definitely helped freeing some time.
</p
>
5731 <p
>A while back, I ran into a problem while working on Debian Edu. We
5732 include some firmware packages on the Debian Edu CDs, those needed to
5733 get disk and network controllers working. Without having these
5734 firmware packages available during installation, it is impossible to
5735 install Debian Edu on the given machine, and because our target group
5736 are non-technical people, asking them to provide firmware packages on
5737 an external medium is a support pain. Initially, I expected it to be
5738 enough to include the firmware packages on the CD to get
5739 debian-installer to find and use them. This proved to be wrong.
5740 Next, I hoped it was enough to symlink the relevant firmware packages
5741 to some useful location on the CD (tried /cdrom/ and
5742 /cdrom/firmware/). This also proved to not work, and at this point I
5743 found time to look at the debian-installer code to figure out what was
5744 going to work.
</p
>
5746 <p
>The firmware loading code is in the hw-detect package, and a closer
5747 look revealed that it would only look for firmware packages outside
5748 the installation media, so the CD was never checked for firmware
5749 packages. It would only check USB sticks, floppies and other
5750 "external
" media devices. Today I changed it to also look in the
5751 /cdrom/firmware/ directory on the mounted CD or DVD, which should
5752 solve the problem I ran into with Debian edu. I also changed it to
5753 look in /firmware/, to make sure the installer also find firmware
5754 provided in the initrd when booting the installer via PXE, to allow us
5755 to provide the same feature in the PXE setup included in Debian
5758 <p
>To make sure firmware deb packages with a license questions are not
5759 activated without asking if the license is accepted, I extended
5760 hw-detect to look for preinst scripts in the firmware packages, and
5761 run these before activating the firmware during installation. The
5762 license question is asked using debconf in the preinst, so this should
5763 solve the issue for the firmware packages I have looked at so far.
</p
>
5765 <p
>If you want to discuss the details of these features, please
5766 contact us on debian-boot@lists.debian.org.
</p
>
5771 <title>Parallellized boot is now the default in Debian/unstable
</title>
5772 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Parallellized_boot_is_now_the_default_in_Debian_unstable.html
</link>
5773 <guid isPermaLink=
"true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Parallellized_boot_is_now_the_default_in_Debian_unstable.html
</guid>
5774 <pubDate>Fri,
14 May
2010 22:
40:
00 +
0200</pubDate>
5775 <description><p
>Since this evening, parallel booting is the default in
5776 Debian/unstable for machines using dependency based boot sequencing.
5777 Apparently the testing of concurrent booting has been wider than
5778 expected, if I am to believe the
5779 <a href=
"http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/
2010/
05/msg00122.html
">input
5780 on debian-devel@
</a
>, and I concluded a few days ago to move forward
5781 with the feature this weekend, to give us some time to detect any
5782 remaining problems before Squeeze is frozen. If serious problems are
5783 detected, it is simple to change the default back to sequential boot.
5784 The upload of the new sysvinit package also activate a new upstream
5787 More information about
5788 <a href=
"http://wiki.debian.org/LSBInitScripts/DependencyBasedBoot
">dependency
5789 based boot sequencing
</a
> is available from the Debian wiki. It is
5790 currently possible to disable parallel booting when one run into
5791 problems caused by it, by adding this line to /etc/default/rcS:
</p
>
5793 <blockquote
><pre
>
5795 </pre
></blockquote
>
5797 <p
>If you report any problems with dependencies in init.d scripts to
5798 the BTS, please usertag the report to get it to show up at
5799 <a href=
"http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/pkgreport.cgi?users=initscripts-ng-devel@lists.alioth.debian.org
">the
5800 list of usertagged bugs related to this
</a
>.
</p
>
5805 <title>Sitesummary tip: Listing MAC address of all clients
</title>
5806 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Sitesummary_tip__Listing_MAC_address_of_all_clients.html
</link>
5807 <guid isPermaLink=
"true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Sitesummary_tip__Listing_MAC_address_of_all_clients.html
</guid>
5808 <pubDate>Fri,
14 May
2010 21:
10:
00 +
0200</pubDate>
5809 <description><p
>In the recent Debian Edu versions, the
5810 <a href=
"http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/HowTo/SiteSummary
">sitesummary
5811 system
</a
> is used to keep track of the machines in the school
5812 network. Each machine will automatically report its status to the
5813 central server after boot and once per night. The network setup is
5814 also reported, and using this information it is possible to get the
5815 MAC address of all network interfaces in the machines. This is useful
5816 to update the DHCP configuration.
</p
>
5818 <p
>To give some idea how to use sitesummary, here is a one-liner to
5819 ist all MAC addresses of all machines reporting to sitesummary. Run
5820 this on the collector host:
</p
>
5822 <blockquote
><pre
>
5823 perl -MSiteSummary -e
'for_all_hosts(sub { print join(
" ", get_macaddresses(shift)),
"\n
"; });
'
5824 </pre
></blockquote
>
5826 <p
>This will list all MAC addresses assosiated with all machine, one
5827 line per machine and with space between the MAC addresses.
</p
>
5829 <p
>To allow system administrators easier job at adding static DHCP
5830 addresses for hosts, it would be possible to extend this to fetch
5831 machine information from sitesummary and update the DHCP and DNS
5832 tables in LDAP using this information. Such tool is unfortunately not
5833 written yet.
</p
>
5838 <title>systemd, an interesting alternative to upstart
</title>
5839 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/systemd__an_interesting_alternative_to_upstart.html
</link>
5840 <guid isPermaLink=
"true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/systemd__an_interesting_alternative_to_upstart.html
</guid>
5841 <pubDate>Thu,
13 May
2010 22:
20:
00 +
0200</pubDate>
5842 <description><p
>The last few days a new boot system called
5843 <a href=
"http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/systemd
">systemd
</a
>
5845 <a href=
"http://
0pointer.de/blog/projects/systemd.html
">introduced
</a
>
5847 to the free software world. I have not yet had time to play around
5848 with it, but it seem to be a very interesting alternative to
5849 <a href=
"http://upstart.ubuntu.com/
">upstart
</a
>, and might prove to be
5850 a good alternative for Debian when we are able to switch to an event
5851 based boot system. Tollef is
5852 <a href=
"http://bugs.debian.org/
580814">in the process
</a
> of getting
5853 systemd into Debian, and I look forward to seeing how well it work. I
5854 like the fact that systemd handles init.d scripts with dependency
5855 information natively, allowing them to run in parallel where upstart
5856 at the moment do not.
</p
>
5858 <p
>Unfortunately do systemd have the same problem as upstart regarding
5859 platform support. It only work on recent Linux kernels, and also need
5860 some new kernel features enabled to function properly. This means
5861 kFreeBSD and Hurd ports of Debian will need a port or a different boot
5862 system. Not sure how that will be handled if systemd proves to be the
5863 way forward.
</p
>
5865 <p
>In the mean time, based on the
5866 <a href=
"http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/
2010/
05/msg00122.html
">input
5867 on debian-devel@
</a
> regarding parallel booting in Debian, I have
5868 decided to enable full parallel booting as the default in Debian as
5869 soon as possible (probably this weekend or early next week), to see if
5870 there are any remaining serious bugs in the init.d dependencies. A
5871 new version of the sysvinit package implementing this change is
5872 already in experimental. If all go well, Squeeze will be released
5873 with parallel booting enabled by default.
</p
>
5878 <title>Parallellizing the boot in Debian Squeeze - ready for wider testing
</title>
5879 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Parallellizing_the_boot_in_Debian_Squeeze___ready_for_wider_testing.html
</link>
5880 <guid isPermaLink=
"true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Parallellizing_the_boot_in_Debian_Squeeze___ready_for_wider_testing.html
</guid>
5881 <pubDate>Thu,
6 May
2010 23:
25:
00 +
0200</pubDate>
5882 <description><p
>These days, the init.d script dependencies in Squeeze are quite
5883 complete, so complete that it is actually possible to run all the
5884 init.d scripts in parallell based on these dependencies. If you want
5885 to test your Squeeze system, make sure
5886 <a href=
"http://wiki.debian.org/LSBInitScripts/DependencyBasedBoot
">dependency
5887 based boot sequencing
</a
> is enabled, and add this line to
5888 /etc/default/rcS:
</p
>
5890 <blockquote
><pre
>
5891 CONCURRENCY=makefile
5892 </pre
></blockquote
>
5894 <p
>That is it. It will cause sysv-rc to use the startpar tool to run
5895 scripts in parallel using the dependency information stored in
5896 /etc/init.d/.depend.boot, /etc/init.d/.depend.start and
5897 /etc/init.d/.depend.stop to order the scripts. Startpar is configured
5898 to try to start the kdm and gdm scripts as early as possible, and will
5899 start the facilities required by kdm or gdm as early as possible to
5900 make this happen.
</p
>
5902 <p
>Give it a try, and see if you like the result. If some services
5903 fail to start properly, it is most likely because they have incomplete
5904 init.d script dependencies in their startup script (or some of their
5905 dependent scripts have incomplete dependencies). Report bugs and get
5906 the package maintainers to fix it. :)
</p
>
5908 <p
>Running scripts in parallel could be the default in Debian when we
5909 manage to get the init.d script dependencies complete and correct. I
5910 expect we will get there in Squeeze+
1, if we get manage to test and
5911 fix the remaining issues.
</p
>
5913 <p
>If you report any problems with dependencies in init.d scripts to
5914 the BTS, please usertag the report to get it to show up at
5915 <a href=
"http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/pkgreport.cgi?users=initscripts-ng-devel@lists.alioth.debian.org
">the
5916 list of usertagged bugs related to this
</a
>.
</p
>
5921 <title>Debian has switched to dependency based boot sequencing
</title>
5922 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_has_switched_to_dependency_based_boot_sequencing.html
</link>
5923 <guid isPermaLink=
"true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_has_switched_to_dependency_based_boot_sequencing.html
</guid>
5924 <pubDate>Mon,
27 Jul
2009 23:
50:
00 +
0200</pubDate>
5925 <description><p
>Since this evening, with the upload of sysvinit version
2.87dsf-
2,
5926 and the upload of insserv version
1.12.0-
10 yesterday, Debian unstable
5927 have been migrated to using dependency based boot sequencing. This
5928 conclude work me and others have been doing for the last three days.
5929 It feels great to see this finally part of the default Debian
5930 installation. Now we just need to weed out the last few problems that
5931 are bound to show up, to get everything ready for Squeeze.
</p
>
5933 <p
>The next step is migrating /sbin/init from sysvinit to upstart, and
5934 fixing the more fundamental problem of handing the event based
5935 non-predictable kernel in the early boot.
</p
>
5940 <title>Taking over sysvinit development
</title>
5941 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Taking_over_sysvinit_development.html
</link>
5942 <guid isPermaLink=
"true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Taking_over_sysvinit_development.html
</guid>
5943 <pubDate>Wed,
22 Jul
2009 23:
00:
00 +
0200</pubDate>
5944 <description><p
>After several years of frustration with the lack of activity from
5945 the existing sysvinit upstream developer, I decided a few weeks ago to
5946 take over the package and become the new upstream. The number of
5947 patches to track for the Debian package was becoming a burden, and the
5948 lack of synchronization between the distribution made it hard to keep
5949 the package up to date.
</p
>
5951 <p
>On the new sysvinit team is the SuSe maintainer Dr. Werner Fink,
5952 and my Debian co-maintainer Kel Modderman. About
10 days ago, I made
5953 a new upstream tarball with version number
2.87dsf (for Debian, SuSe
5954 and Fedora), based on the patches currently in use in these
5955 distributions. We Debian maintainers plan to move to this tarball as
5956 the new upstream as soon as we find time to do the merge. Since the
5957 new tarball was created, we agreed with Werner at SuSe to make a new
5958 upstream project at
<a href=
"http://savannah.nongnu.org/
">Savannah
</a
>, and continue
5959 development there. The project is registered and currently waiting
5960 for approval by the Savannah administrators, and as soon as it is
5961 approved, we will import the old versions from svn and continue
5962 working on the future release.
</p
>
5964 <p
>It is a bit ironic that this is done now, when some of the involved
5965 distributions are moving to upstart as a syvinit replacement.
</p
>
5970 <title>Debian boots quicker and quicker
</title>
5971 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_boots_quicker_and_quicker.html
</link>
5972 <guid isPermaLink=
"true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_boots_quicker_and_quicker.html
</guid>
5973 <pubDate>Wed,
24 Jun
2009 21:
40:
00 +
0200</pubDate>
5974 <description><p
>I spent Monday and tuesday this week in London with a lot of the
5975 people involved in the boot system on Debian and Ubuntu, to see if we
5976 could find more ways to speed up the boot system. This was an Ubuntu
5978 <a href=
"https://wiki.ubuntu.com/FoundationsTeam/BootPerformance/DebianUbuntuSprint
">developer
5979 gathering
</a
>. It was quite productive. We also discussed the future
5980 of boot systems, and ways to handle the increasing number of boot
5981 issues introduced by the Linux kernel becoming more and more
5982 asynchronous and event base. The Ubuntu approach using udev and
5983 upstart might be a good way forward. Time will show.
</p
>
5985 <p
>Anyway, there are a few ways at the moment to speed up the boot
5986 process in Debian. All of these should be applied to get a quick
5991 <li
>Use dash as /bin/sh.
</li
>
5993 <li
>Disable the init.d/hwclock*.sh scripts and make sure the hardware
5994 clock is in UTC.
</li
>
5996 <li
>Install and activate the insserv package to enable
5997 <a href=
"http://wiki.debian.org/LSBInitScripts/DependencyBasedBoot
">dependency
5998 based boot sequencing
</a
>, and enable concurrent booting.
</li
>
6002 These points are based on the Google summer of code work done by
6003 <a href=
"http://initscripts-ng.alioth.debian.org/soc2006-bootsystem/
">Carlos
6006 <p
>Support for makefile-style concurrency during boot was uploaded to
6007 unstable yesterday. When we tested it, we were able to cut
6 seconds
6008 from the boot sequence. It depend on very correct dependency
6009 declaration in all init.d scripts, so I expect us to find edge cases
6010 where the dependences in some scripts are slightly wrong when we start
6011 using this.
</p
>
6013 <p
>On our IRC channel for this effort, #pkg-sysvinit, a new idea was
6014 introduced by Raphael Geissert today, one that could affect the
6015 startup speed as well. Instead of starting some scripts concurrently
6016 from rcS.d/ and another set of scripts from rc2.d/, it would be
6017 possible to run a of them in the same process. A quick way to test
6018 this would be to enable insserv and run
'mv /etc/rc2.d/S* /etc/rcS.d/;
6019 insserv
'. Will need to test if that work. :)
</p
>
6024 <title>BSAs påstander om piratkopiering møter motstand
</title>
6025 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/BSAs_p_stander_om_piratkopiering_m_ter_motstand.html
</link>
6026 <guid isPermaLink=
"true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/BSAs_p_stander_om_piratkopiering_m_ter_motstand.html
</guid>
6027 <pubDate>Sun,
17 May
2009 23:
05:
00 +
0200</pubDate>
6028 <description><p
>Hvert år de siste årene har BSA, lobbyfronten til de store
6029 programvareselskapene som Microsoft og Apple, publisert en rapport der
6030 de gjetter på hvor mye piratkopiering påfører i tapte inntekter i
6031 ulike land rundt om i verden. Resultatene er tendensiøse. For noen
6033 <a href=
"http://global.bsa.org/globalpiracy2008/studies/globalpiracy2008.pdf
">siste
6034 rapport
</a
>, og det er flere kritiske kommentarer publisert de siste
6035 dagene. Et spesielt interessant kommentar fra Sverige,
6036 <a href=
"http://www.idg.se/
2.1085/
1.229795/bsa-hoftade-sverigesiffror
">BSA
6037 höftade Sverigesiffror
</a
>, oppsummeres slik:
</p
>
6040 I sin senaste rapport slår BSA fast att
25 procent av all mjukvara i
6041 Sverige är piratkopierad. Det utan att ha pratat med ett enda svenskt
6042 företag.
"Man bör nog kanske inte se de här siffrorna som helt
6043 exakta
", säger BSAs Sverigechef John Hugosson.
6046 <p
>Mon tro om de er like metodiske når de gjetter på andelen piratkopiering i Norge? To andre kommentarer er
<a
6047 href=
"http://www.vnunet.com/vnunet/comment/
2242134/bsa-piracy-figures-shot-reality
">BSA
6048 piracy figures need a shot of reality
</a
> og
<a
6049 href=
"http://www.michaelgeist.ca/content/view/
3958/
125/
">Does The WIPO
6050 Copyright Treaty Work?
</a
></p
>
6052 <p
>Fant lenkene via
<a
6053 href=
"http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=
09/
05/
17/
1632242">oppslag
6054 på Slashdot
</a
>.
</p
>
6059 <title>IDG mener linux i servermarkedet vil vokse med
21% i
2009</title>
6060 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/IDG_mener_linux_i_servermarkedet_vil_vokse_med_21__i_2009.html
</link>
6061 <guid isPermaLink=
"true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/IDG_mener_linux_i_servermarkedet_vil_vokse_med_21__i_2009.html
</guid>
6062 <pubDate>Thu,
7 May
2009 22:
30:
00 +
0200</pubDate>
6063 <description><p
>Kom over
6064 <a href=
"http://news.cnet.com/
8301-
13505_3-
10216873-
16.html
">interessante
6065 tall
</a
> fra IDG om utviklingen av linuxservermarkedet. Fikk meg til
6066 å tenke på antall tjenermaskiner ved Universitetet i Oslo der jeg
6067 jobber til daglig. En rask opptelling forteller meg at vi har
490
6068 (
61%) fysiske unix-tjener (mest linux men også noen solaris) og
196
6069 (
25%) windowstjenere, samt
112 (
14%) virtuelle unix-tjenere. Med den
6070 bakgrunnskunnskapen kan jeg godt tro at IDG er inne på noe.
</p
>
6075 <title>Kryptert harddisk - naturligvis
</title>
6076 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Kryptert_harddisk___naturligvis.html
</link>
6077 <guid isPermaLink=
"true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Kryptert_harddisk___naturligvis.html
</guid>
6078 <pubDate>Sat,
2 May
2009 15:
30:
00 +
0200</pubDate>
6079 <description><p
><a href=
"http://www.dagensit.no/trender/article1658676.ece
">Dagens
6080 IT melder
</a
> at Intel hevder at det er dyrt å miste en datamaskin,
6081 når en tar tap av arbeidstid, fortrolige dokumenter,
6082 personopplysninger og alt annet det innebærer. Det er ingen tvil om
6083 at det er en kostbar affære å miste sin datamaskin, og det er årsaken
6084 til at jeg har kryptert harddisken på både kontormaskinen og min
6085 bærbare. Begge inneholder personopplysninger jeg ikke ønsker skal
6086 komme på avveie, den første informasjon relatert til jobben min ved
6087 Universitetet i Oslo, og den andre relatert til blant annet
6088 foreningsarbeide. Kryptering av diskene gjør at det er lite
6089 sannsynlig at dophoder som kan finne på å rappe maskinene får noe ut
6090 av dem. Maskinene låses automatisk etter noen minutter uten bruk,
6091 og en reboot vil gjøre at de ber om passord før de vil starte opp.
6092 Jeg bruker Debian på begge maskinene, og installasjonssystemet der
6093 gjør det trivielt å sette opp krypterte disker. Jeg har LVM på toppen
6094 av krypterte partisjoner, slik at alt av datapartisjoner er kryptert.
6095 Jeg anbefaler alle å kryptere diskene på sine bærbare. Kostnaden når
6096 det er gjort slik jeg gjør det er minimale, og gevinstene er
6097 betydelige. En bør dog passe på passordet. Hvis det går tapt, må
6098 maskinen reinstalleres og alt er tapt.
</p
>
6100 <p
>Krypteringen vil ikke stoppe kompetente angripere som f.eks. kjøler
6101 ned minnebrikkene før maskinen rebootes med programvare for å hente ut
6102 krypteringsnøklene. Kostnaden med å forsvare seg mot slike angripere
6103 er for min del høyere enn gevinsten. Jeg tror oddsene for at
6104 f.eks. etteretningsorganisasjoner har glede av å titte på mine
6105 maskiner er minimale, og ulempene jeg ville oppnå ved å forsøke å
6106 gjøre det vanskeligere for angripere med kompetanse og ressurser er
6107 betydelige.
</p
>
6112 <title>Two projects that have improved the quality of free software a lot
</title>
6113 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Two_projects_that_have_improved_the_quality_of_free_software_a_lot.html
</link>
6114 <guid isPermaLink=
"true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Two_projects_that_have_improved_the_quality_of_free_software_a_lot.html
</guid>
6115 <pubDate>Sat,
2 May
2009 15:
00:
00 +
0200</pubDate>
6116 <description><p
>There are two software projects that have had huge influence on the
6117 quality of free software, and I wanted to mention both in case someone
6118 do not yet know them.
</p
>
6120 <p
>The first one is
<a href=
"http://valgrind.org/
">valgrind
</a
>, a
6121 tool to detect and expose errors in the memory handling of programs.
6122 It is easy to use, all one need to do is to run
'valgrind program
',
6123 and it will report any problems on stdout. It is even better if the
6124 program include debug information. With debug information, it is able
6125 to report the source file name and line number where the problem
6126 occurs. It can report things like
'reading past memory block in file
6127 X line N, the memory block was allocated in file Y, line M
', and
6128 'using uninitialised value in control logic
'. This tool has made it
6129 trivial to investigate reproducible crash bugs in programs, and have
6130 reduced the number of this kind of bugs in free software a lot.
6132 <p
>The second one is
6133 <a href=
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coverity
">Coverity
</a
> which is
6134 a source code checker. It is able to process the source of a program
6135 and find problems in the logic without running the program. It
6136 started out as the Stanford Checker and became well known when it was
6137 used to find bugs in the Linux kernel. It is now a commercial tool
6138 and the company behind it is running
6139 <a href=
"http://www.scan.coverity.com/
">a community service
</a
> for the
6140 free software community, where a lot of free software projects get
6141 their source checked for free. Several thousand defects have been
6142 found and fixed so far. It can find errors like
'lock L taken in file
6143 X line N is never released if exiting in line M
', or
'the code in file
6144 Y lines O to P can never be executed
'. The projects included in the
6145 community service project have managed to get rid of a lot of
6146 reliability problems thanks to Coverity.
</p
>
6148 <p
>I believe tools like this, that are able to automatically find
6149 errors in the source, are vital to improve the quality of software and
6150 make sure we can get rid of the crashing and failing software we are
6151 surrounded by today.
</p
>
6156 <title>No patch is not better than a useless patch
</title>
6157 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/No_patch_is_not_better_than_a_useless_patch.html
</link>
6158 <guid isPermaLink=
"true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/No_patch_is_not_better_than_a_useless_patch.html
</guid>
6159 <pubDate>Tue,
28 Apr
2009 09:
30:
00 +
0200</pubDate>
6160 <description><p
>Julien Blache
6161 <a href=
"http://blog.technologeek.org/
2009/
04/
12/
214">claim that no
6162 patch is better than a useless patch
</a
>. I completely disagree, as a
6163 patch allow one to discuss a concrete and proposed solution, and also
6164 prove that the issue at hand is important enough for someone to spent
6165 time on fixing it. No patch do not provide any of these positive
6166 properties.
</p
>
6171 <title>Standardize on protocols and formats, not vendors and applications
</title>
6172 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Standardize_on_protocols_and_formats__not_vendors_and_applications.html
</link>
6173 <guid isPermaLink=
"true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Standardize_on_protocols_and_formats__not_vendors_and_applications.html
</guid>
6174 <pubDate>Mon,
30 Mar
2009 11:
50:
00 +
0200</pubDate>
6175 <description><p
>Where I work at the University of Oslo, one decision stand out as a
6176 very good one to form a long lived computer infrastructure. It is the
6177 simple one, lost by many in todays computer industry: Standardize on
6178 open network protocols and open exchange/storage formats, not applications.
6179 Applications come and go, while protocols and files tend to stay, and
6180 thus one want to make it easy to change application and vendor, while
6181 avoiding conversion costs and locking users to a specific platform or
6182 application.
</p
>
6184 <p
>This approach make it possible to replace the client applications
6185 independently of the server applications. One can even allow users to
6186 use several different applications as long as they handle the selected
6187 protocol and format. In the normal case, only one client application
6188 is recommended and users only get help if they choose to use this
6189 application, but those that want to deviate from the easy path are not
6190 blocked from doing so.
</p
>
6192 <p
>It also allow us to replace the server side without forcing the
6193 users to replace their applications, and thus allow us to select the
6194 best server implementation at any moment, when scale and resouce
6195 requirements change.
</p
>
6197 <p
>I strongly recommend standardizing - on open network protocols and
6198 open formats, but I would never recommend standardizing on a single
6199 application that do not use open network protocol or open formats.
</p
>
6204 <title>Returning from Skolelinux developer gathering
</title>
6205 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Returning_from_Skolelinux_developer_gathering.html
</link>
6206 <guid isPermaLink=
"true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Returning_from_Skolelinux_developer_gathering.html
</guid>
6207 <pubDate>Sun,
29 Mar
2009 21:
00:
00 +
0200</pubDate>
6208 <description><p
>I
'm sitting on the train going home from this weekends Debian
6209 Edu/Skolelinux development gathering. I got a bit done tuning the
6210 desktop, and looked into the dynamic service location protocol
6211 implementation avahi. It look like it could be useful for us. Almost
6212 30 people participated, and I believe it was a great environment to
6213 get to know the Skolelinux system. Walter Bender, involved in the
6214 development of the Sugar educational platform, presented his stuff and
6215 also helped me improve my OLPC installation. He also showed me that
6216 his Turtle Art application can be used in standalone mode, and we
6217 agreed that I would help getting it packaged for Debian. As a
6218 standalone application it would be great for Debian Edu. We also
6219 tried to get the video conferencing working with two OLPCs, but that
6220 proved to be too hard for us. The application seem to need more work
6221 before it is ready for me. I look forward to getting home and relax
6227 <title>Time for new LDAP schemas replacing RFC
2307?
</title>
6228 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Time_for_new__LDAP_schemas_replacing_RFC_2307_.html
</link>
6229 <guid isPermaLink=
"true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Time_for_new__LDAP_schemas_replacing_RFC_2307_.html
</guid>
6230 <pubDate>Sun,
29 Mar
2009 20:
30:
00 +
0200</pubDate>
6231 <description><p
>The state of standardized LDAP schemas on Linux is far from
6232 optimal. There is RFC
2307 documenting one way to store NIS maps in
6233 LDAP, and a modified version of this normally called RFC
2307bis, with
6234 some modifications to be compatible with Active Directory. The RFC
6235 specification handle the content of a lot of system databases, but do
6236 not handle DNS zones and DHCP configuration.
</p
>
6238 <p
>In
<a href=
"http://www.skolelinux.org/
">Debian Edu/Skolelinux
</a
>,
6239 we would like to store information about users, SMB clients/hosts,
6240 filegroups, netgroups (users and hosts), DHCP and DNS configuration,
6241 and LTSP configuration in LDAP. These objects have a lot in common,
6242 but with the current LDAP schemas it is not possible to have one
6243 object per entity. For example, one need to have at least three LDAP
6244 objects for a given computer, one with the SMB related stuff, one with
6245 DNS information and another with DHCP information. The schemas
6246 provided for DNS and DHCP are impossible to combine into one LDAP
6247 object. In addition, it is impossible to implement quick queries for
6248 netgroup membership, because of the way NIS triples are implemented.
6249 It just do not scale. I believe it is time for a few RFC
6250 specifications to cleam up this mess.
</p
>
6252 <p
>I would like to have one LDAP object representing each computer in
6253 the network, and this object can then keep the SMB (ie host key), DHCP
6254 (mac address/name) and DNS (name/IP address) settings in one place.
6255 It need to be efficently stored to make sure it scale well.
</p
>
6257 <p
>I would also like to have a quick way to map from a user or
6258 computer and to the net group this user or computer is a member.
</p
>
6260 <p
>Active Directory have done a better job than unix heads like myself
6261 in this regard, and the unix side need to catch up. Time to start a
6262 new IETF work group?
</p
>
6267 <title>Endelig er Debian Lenny gitt ut
</title>
6268 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Endelig_er_Debian_Lenny_gitt_ut.html
</link>
6269 <guid isPermaLink=
"true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Endelig_er_Debian_Lenny_gitt_ut.html
</guid>
6270 <pubDate>Sun,
15 Feb
2009 11:
50:
00 +
0100</pubDate>
6271 <description><p
>Endelig er
<a href=
"http://www.debian.org/
">Debian
</a
>
6272 <a href=
"http://www.debian.org/News/
2009/
20090214">Lenny
</a
> gitt ut.
6273 Et langt steg videre for Debian-prosjektet, og en rekke nye
6274 programpakker blir nå tilgjengelig for de av oss som bruker den
6275 stabile utgaven av Debian. Neste steg er nå å få
6276 <a href=
"http://www.skolelinux.org/
">Skolelinux
</a
> /
6277 <a href=
"http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/
">Debian Edu
</a
> ferdig
6278 oppdatert for den nye utgaven, slik at en oppdatert versjon kan
6279 slippes løs på skolene. Takk til alle debian-utviklerne som har
6280 gjort dette mulig. Endelig er f.eks. fungerende avhengighetsstyrt
6281 bootsekvens tilgjengelig i stabil utgave, vha pakken
6282 <tt
>insserv
</tt
>.
</p
>
6287 <title>Devcamp brought us closer to the Lenny based Debian Edu release
</title>
6288 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Devcamp_brought_us_closer_to_the_Lenny_based_Debian_Edu_release.html
</link>
6289 <guid isPermaLink=
"true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Devcamp_brought_us_closer_to_the_Lenny_based_Debian_Edu_release.html
</guid>
6290 <pubDate>Sun,
7 Dec
2008 12:
00:
00 +
0100</pubDate>
6291 <description><p
>This weekend we had a small developer gathering for Debian Edu in
6292 Oslo. Most of Saturday was used for the general assemly for the
6293 member organization, but the rest of the weekend I used to tune the
6294 LTSP installation. LTSP now work out of the box on the
10-network.
6295 Acer Aspire One proved to be a very nice thin client, with both
6296 screen, mouse and keybard in a small box. Was working on getting the
6297 diskless workstation setup configured out of the box, but did not
6298 finish it before the weekend was up.
</p
>
6300 <p
>Did not find time to look at the
4 VGA cards in one box we got from
6301 the Brazilian group, so that will have to wait for the next
6302 development gathering. Would love to have the Debian Edu installer
6303 automatically detect and configure a multiseat setup when it find one
6304 of these cards.
</p
>
6309 <title>The sorry state of multimedia browser plugins in Debian
</title>
6310 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_sorry_state_of_multimedia_browser_plugins_in_Debian.html
</link>
6311 <guid isPermaLink=
"true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_sorry_state_of_multimedia_browser_plugins_in_Debian.html
</guid>
6312 <pubDate>Tue,
25 Nov
2008 00:
10:
00 +
0100</pubDate>
6313 <description><p
>Recently I have spent some time evaluating the multimedia browser
6314 plugins available in Debian Lenny, to see which one we should use by
6315 default in Debian Edu. We need an embedded video playing plugin with
6316 control buttons to pause or stop the video, and capable of streaming
6317 all the multimedia content available on the web. The test results and
6318 notes are available on
6319 <a href=
"http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/BrowserMultimedia
">the
6320 Debian wiki
</a
>. I was surprised how few of the plugins are able to
6321 fill this need. My personal video player favorite, VLC, has a really
6322 bad plugin which fail on a lot of the test pages. A lot of the MIME
6323 types I would expect to work with any free software player (like
6324 video/ogg), just do not work. And simple formats like the
6325 audio/x-mplegurl format (m3u playlists), just isn
't supported by the
6326 totem and vlc plugins. I hope the situation will improve soon. No
6327 wonder sites use the proprietary Adobe flash to play video.
</p
>
6329 <p
>For Lenny, we seem to end up with the mplayer plugin. It seem to
6330 be the only one fitting our needs. :/
</p
>