<div class="entry">
<div class="title">
- <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Fixing_an_hanging_debian_installer_for_Debian_Edu.html">Fixing an hanging debian installer for Debian Edu</a>
+ <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Handling_non_free_firmware_in_Debian_Edu_Squeeze.html">Handling non-free firmware in Debian Edu/Squeeze</a>
</div>
<div class="date">
- 3rd January 2012
+ 27th January 2012
</div>
<div class="body">
- <p>During christmas, I have been working getting the next version of
-<a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux</a> ready
-for release. The initial problem I looked at was particularly
-interesting.</p>
+ <p>With some computer hardware, one need non-free firmware blobs.
+This is the sad fact of todays computers. In the next version of
+<a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux</a> based
+on Squeeze, we provide several scripts and modifications to make
+firmware blobs easier to handle. The common use case I run into is a
+laptop with a wireless network card requiring non-free firmware to
+work, but there are other use cases as well.</p>
-<P>The installer would hang at the end when it was doing it
-post-installation configuration, and whatevery I did to try to find
-the cause and fix it always worked while I tested it, but never when I
-integrated it into the installer and ran the installation from
-scratch. I would try to restart processes, close file descriptors,
-remove or create files, and the installer would always unblock and
-wrap up its tasks.</p>
+<p>First and foremost, Debian Edu provide ISO images for DVD and CD
+with all firmware packages in the Debian sections main and non-free
+included, to ensure debian-installer find and can install all of them
+during installation. This take care firmware for network devices used
+by the installer when installing from from local media. But for
+example multimedia devices are not activated in the installer and are
+not taken care of by this.</p>
-<p>Eventually the cause was found. The kernel was simply running out
-of entropy, causing the Kerberos setup to hang waiting for more.
-Pressing keys was adding entropy to the kernel, and thus all my tries
-to fix the problem worked not because what I was typing to fix it, but
-because I was typing.</P>
+<p>For non-network devices, we provide the script
+<tt>/usr/share/debian-edu-config/tools/auto-addfirmware</tt> which
+search through the <tt>dmesg</tt> output for drivers requesting extra
+firmware. The firmware file name is looked up in the Contents-ARCH.gz
+file available in the package repository, and the packages providing
+the requested firmware file(s) is installed. I have proposed to do
+something similar in debian-installer (BTS report
+<a href="http://bugs.debian.org/655507">#655507</a>), to allow PXE
+installs of Debian to handle firmware installation better. Run the
+script as root from the command line to fetch and install the needed
+firmware packages.</p>
-<p>The fix I implemented was to add a background process looking at
-the level of entropy in the kernel (by checking
-/proc/sys/kernel/random/entropy_avail), and if it was too small, the
-installer will flush the kernel file buffers and do 'find /' to
-generate some disk IO. Disk IO generate entropy in the kernel, and is
-one of the few things that can be initated from within the system to
-generate entropy.</p>
+<p>Debian Edu provide PXE installation of Debian out of the box, and
+because some machines need firmware to get their network cards
+working, the installation initrd some times need extra firmware
+included to be able to install at all. To fill the PXE installation
+initrd with extra firmware, the
+<tt>/usr/share/debian-edu-config/tools/pxe-addfirmware</tt> script is
+provided. Again, just run it as root on the command line to fill the
+PXE initrd with firmware packages.</p>
-<p>The fix is in
-<a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Documentation/Squeeze/Installation">beta1
-of the Debian Edu/Squeeze</a> version, and we
-<a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu">welcome more testers and
-developers</a>. We plan to release beta2 this weekend.</p>
+<p>Last, some LTSP clients might also need firmware to get their
+network cards working. For this,
+<tt>/usr/share/debian-edu-config/tools/ltsp-addfirmware</tt> is
+provided to update the LTSP initrd with firmware blobs. It is used
+the same way as the other firmware related tools.</p>
+
+<p>At the moment, we do not run any of these during installation. We
+do not know if this is acceptable for the local administrator to use
+non-free software, and it is their choice.</p>
+
+<p>We plan to release beta3 this weekend. You might want to give it a
+try.</p>
</div>
<div class="tags">
<div class="entry">
<div class="title">
- <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Second_beta_version_of_Debian_Edu___Skolelinux_based_on_Squeeze.html">Second beta version of Debian Edu / Skolelinux based on Squeeze</a>
+ <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Skjermbilder_fra_nordsamisk_installasjon_av_Skolelinux_Squeeze.html">Skjermbilder fra nordsamisk installasjon av Skolelinux/Squeeze</a>
</div>
<div class="date">
- 7th January 2012
+ 26th January 2012
</div>
<div class="body">
- <p>I am happy to announce that today we managed to wrap up and publish
-the second beta version of
-<a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux</a>. If
-you want to test a LDAP backed Kerberos server with out of the box PXE
-configuration for running diskless machines and installing new
-machines, check it out. If you need a software solution for your
-school, check it out too. The full announcement is
-<a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-edu-announce/2012/01/msg00000.html">available</a>
-on the project announcement list.</p>
+ <p>For morro skyld har jeg gjennomført en nordsamisk installasjon for
+neste utgave av <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Skolelinux</a>
+(Squeeze) og knipset skjermbilder av resultatet.</p>
+
+<p>Som en kan se der er det noen oversettelser som mangler. Det hadde
+vært hyggelig hvis alle tekstene som vises i Skolelinux-installasjonen
+ble oversatt til nordsamisk, men for å få det til må noen som forstår
+språket melde seg til dyst. Det er mangel på nordsamiske oversettere
+av fri programvare. Hvis noen starter raskt, så bør en rekke å
+fullføre Wheezy-utgaven før den gis ut. :)</p>
+
+<p>Se <a href="http://d-i.debian.org/l10n-stats/">oversetterstatistikk for
+debian installer</a> for detaljert status. Jeg har tipset
+<a href="https://lister.ping.uio.no/mailman/listinfo/i18n-sme">epostlisten for samiskoversettelser</a>,
+men det har vært veldig liten aktivitet der de siste årene.</p>
+
+<p><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2012-01-26-skolelinux-sme/01-isomenu.png"><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2012-01-26-skolelinux-sme/01-isomenu.png" width="40%"></a>
+<a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2012-01-26-skolelinux-sme/02-sme-lang.png"><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2012-01-26-skolelinux-sme/02-sme-lang.png" width="40%"></a>
+<a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2012-01-26-skolelinux-sme/03-sme-place.png"><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2012-01-26-skolelinux-sme/03-sme-place.png" width="40%"></a>
+<a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2012-01-26-skolelinux-sme/04-sme-keymap.png"><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2012-01-26-skolelinux-sme/04-sme-keymap.png" width="40%"></a>
+<a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2012-01-26-skolelinux-sme/05-sme-profile.png"><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2012-01-26-skolelinux-sme/05-sme-profile.png" width="40%"></a>
+<a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2012-01-26-skolelinux-sme/06-sme-autopart.png"><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2012-01-26-skolelinux-sme/06-sme-autopart.png" width="40%"></a>
+<a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2012-01-26-skolelinux-sme/07-sme-popcon.png"><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2012-01-26-skolelinux-sme/07-sme-popcon.png" width="40%"></a>
+<a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2012-01-26-skolelinux-sme/08-sme-rootpw1.png"><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2012-01-26-skolelinux-sme/08-sme-rootpw1.png" width="40%"></a>
+<a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2012-01-26-skolelinux-sme/09-sme-rootpw2.png"><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2012-01-26-skolelinux-sme/09-sme-rootpw2.png" width="40%"></a>
+<a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2012-01-26-skolelinux-sme/10-sme-firstuser.png"><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2012-01-26-skolelinux-sme/10-sme-firstuser.png" width="40%"></a>
+<a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2012-01-26-skolelinux-sme/11-sme-firstusername.png"><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2012-01-26-skolelinux-sme/11-sme-firstusername.png" width="40%"></a>
+<a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2012-01-26-skolelinux-sme/12-sme-firstuserpw1.png"><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2012-01-26-skolelinux-sme/12-sme-firstuserpw1.png" width="40%"></a>
+<a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2012-01-26-skolelinux-sme/13-sme-firstuserpw2.png"><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2012-01-26-skolelinux-sme/13-sme-firstuserpw2.png" width="40%"></a>
+<a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2012-01-26-skolelinux-sme/14-sme-part.png"><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2012-01-26-skolelinux-sme/14-sme-part.png" width="40%"></a>
+<a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2012-01-26-skolelinux-sme/15-sme-debootstrap.png"><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2012-01-26-skolelinux-sme/15-sme-debootstrap.png" width="40%"></a>
+<a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2012-01-26-skolelinux-sme/16-sme-tasksel.png"><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2012-01-26-skolelinux-sme/16-sme-tasksel.png" width="40%"></a>
+<a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2012-01-26-skolelinux-sme/17-sme-wordlist.png"><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2012-01-26-skolelinux-sme/17-sme-wordlist.png" width="40%"></a>
+<a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2012-01-26-skolelinux-sme/18-sme-tasksel.png"><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2012-01-26-skolelinux-sme/18-sme-tasksel.png" width="40%"></a>
+<a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2012-01-26-skolelinux-sme/19-sme-ltsp.png"><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2012-01-26-skolelinux-sme/19-sme-ltsp.png" width="40%"></a>
+<a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2012-01-26-skolelinux-sme/20-sme-grub.png"><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2012-01-26-skolelinux-sme/20-sme-grub.png" width="40%"></a>
+<a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2012-01-26-skolelinux-sme/21-sme-finish-install.png"><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2012-01-26-skolelinux-sme/21-sme-finish-install.png" width="40%"></a>
+<a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2012-01-26-skolelinux-sme/22-sme-finish-message.png"><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2012-01-26-skolelinux-sme/22-sme-finish-message.png" width="40%"></a></p>
</div>
<div class="tags">
- Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
+ Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/norsk">norsk</a>.
</div>
<div class="entry">
<div class="title">
- <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Changing_the_default_Iceweasel_start_page_in_Debian_Edu_Squeeze.html">Changing the default Iceweasel start page in Debian Edu/Squeeze</a>
+ <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Setting_up_a_new_school_with_Debian_Edu_Squeeze.html">Setting up a new school with Debian Edu/Squeeze</a>
</div>
<div class="date">
- 10th January 2012
+ 25th January 2012
</div>
<div class="body">
- <p>In the Squeeze version of
-<a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux</a> soon
-to be released, users of the system will get their default browser
-start page set from LDAP, allowing the system administrator to point
-all users to the school web page by updating one setting in LDAP. In
-addition to setting the default start page when a machine boots, users
-are shown the same page as a welcome page when they log in for the
-first time.</p>
+ <p>The next version of <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu
+/ Skolelinux</a> will include a new tool
+<tt>sitesummary2ldapdhcp</tt>, which can be used to quickly set up all
+the computers in a school without much manual labour. Here is a short
+summary on how to use it to set up a new school.</p>
-<p>The LDAP object dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no have an attribute
-labeledURI with "http://www/ LDAP for Debian Edu/Skolelinux" as the
-default content. By changing this value to another URL, all users get
-to see the page behind this new URL.</p>
+<p>First, install a combined Main Server and Thin Client Server as the
+central server in the network. Next, PXE boot all the client machines
+as thin clients and wait 5 minutes after the last client booted to
+allow the clients to report their existence to the central server. When
+this is done, log on to the central server and run
+<tt>sitesummary2ldapdhcp -a</tt> in the <tt>konsole</tt> to use the
+collected information to generate system objects in LDAP. The output
+will look similar to this:</p>
-<p>An easy way to update it is by using the ldapvi tool. It can be
-called as "<tt>ldapvi -ZD '(cn=admin)'</tt>' to update LDAP with the
-new setting.</p>
+<p><blockquote><pre>
+% sitesummary2ldapdhcp -a
+info: Updating machine tjener.intern [10.0.2.2] id ether-00:01:02:03:04:05.
+info: Create GOsa machine for auto-mac-00-01-02-03-04-06 [10.0.16.20] id ether-00:01:02:03:04:06.
-<p>We have written the code to adjust the default start page and show
-the welcome page, and I wonder if there is an easier way to do this
-from within Iceweasel instead.</p>
+Enter password if you want to activate these changes, and ^c to abort.
+
+Connecting to LDAP as cn=admin,ou=ldap-access,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
+enter password: *******
+%
+</pre></blockquote></p>
+
+<p>After providing the LDAP administrative password (the same as the
+root password set during installation), the LDAP database will be
+populated with system objects for each PXE booted machine with
+automatically generated names. The final step to set up the school is
+then to log into <a href="https://oss.gonicus.de/labs/gosa/">GOsa</a>,
+the web based user, group and system administration system to change
+system names, add systems to the correct host groups and finally
+enable DHCP and DNS for the systems. All clients that should be used
+as diskless workstations should be added to the workstation-hosts
+group. After this is done, all computers can be booted again via PXE
+and get their assigned names and group based configuration
+automatically.</p>
+
+<p>We plan to release beta3 with the updated version of this feature
+enabled this weekend. You might want to give it a try.</p>
+
+<p>Update 2012-01-28: When calling sitesummary2ldapdhcp to add new
+hosts, one need to add the option -a. I forgot to mention this in my
+original text, and have added it to the text now.</p>
</div>
<div class="tags">
- Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/web">web</a>.
+ Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sitesummary">sitesummary</a>.
</div>
<div class="entry">
<div class="title">
- <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Setting_up_a_new_school_with_Debian_Edu_Squeeze.html">Setting up a new school with Debian Edu/Squeeze</a>
+ <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Changing_the_default_Iceweasel_start_page_in_Debian_Edu_Squeeze.html">Changing the default Iceweasel start page in Debian Edu/Squeeze</a>
</div>
<div class="date">
- 25th January 2012
+ 10th January 2012
</div>
<div class="body">
- <p>The next version of <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu
-/ Skolelinux</a> will include a new tool
-<tt>sitesummary2ldapdhcp</tt>, which can be used to quickly set up all
-the computers in a school without much manual labour. Here is a short
-summary on how to use it to set up a new school.</p>
-
-<p>First, install a combined Main Server and Thin Client Server as the
-central server in the network. Next, PXE boot all the client machines
-as thin clients and wait 5 minutes after the last client booted to
-allow the clients to report their existence to the central server. When
-this is done, log on to the central server and run
-<tt>sitesummary2ldapdhcp -a</tt> in the <tt>konsole</tt> to use the
-collected information to generate system objects in LDAP. The output
-will look similar to this:</p>
-
-<p><blockquote><pre>
-% sitesummary2ldapdhcp -a
-info: Updating machine tjener.intern [10.0.2.2] id ether-00:01:02:03:04:05.
-info: Create GOsa machine for auto-mac-00-01-02-03-04-06 [10.0.16.20] id ether-00:01:02:03:04:06.
-
-Enter password if you want to activate these changes, and ^c to abort.
-
-Connecting to LDAP as cn=admin,ou=ldap-access,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
-enter password: *******
-%
-</pre></blockquote></p>
+ <p>In the Squeeze version of
+<a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux</a> soon
+to be released, users of the system will get their default browser
+start page set from LDAP, allowing the system administrator to point
+all users to the school web page by updating one setting in LDAP. In
+addition to setting the default start page when a machine boots, users
+are shown the same page as a welcome page when they log in for the
+first time.</p>
-<p>After providing the LDAP administrative password (the same as the
-root password set during installation), the LDAP database will be
-populated with system objects for each PXE booted machine with
-automatically generated names. The final step to set up the school is
-then to log into <a href="https://oss.gonicus.de/labs/gosa/">GOsa</a>,
-the web based user, group and system administration system to change
-system names, add systems to the correct host groups and finally
-enable DHCP and DNS for the systems. All clients that should be used
-as diskless workstations should be added to the workstation-hosts
-group. After this is done, all computers can be booted again via PXE
-and get their assigned names and group based configuration
-automatically.</p>
+<p>The LDAP object dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no have an attribute
+labeledURI with "http://www/ LDAP for Debian Edu/Skolelinux" as the
+default content. By changing this value to another URL, all users get
+to see the page behind this new URL.</p>
-<p>We plan to release beta3 with the updated version of this feature
-enabled this weekend. You might want to give it a try.</p>
+<p>An easy way to update it is by using the ldapvi tool. It can be
+called as "<tt>ldapvi -ZD '(cn=admin)'</tt>' to update LDAP with the
+new setting.</p>
-<p>Update 2012-01-28: When calling sitesummary2ldapdhcp to add new
-hosts, one need to add the option -a. I forgot to mention this in my
-original text, and have added it to the text now.</p>
+<p>We have written the code to adjust the default start page and show
+the welcome page, and I wonder if there is an easier way to do this
+from within Iceweasel instead.</p>
</div>
<div class="tags">
- Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sitesummary">sitesummary</a>.
+ Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/web">web</a>.
</div>
<div class="entry">
<div class="title">
- <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Skjermbilder_fra_nordsamisk_installasjon_av_Skolelinux_Squeeze.html">Skjermbilder fra nordsamisk installasjon av Skolelinux/Squeeze</a>
+ <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Second_beta_version_of_Debian_Edu___Skolelinux_based_on_Squeeze.html">Second beta version of Debian Edu / Skolelinux based on Squeeze</a>
</div>
<div class="date">
- 26th January 2012
+ 7th January 2012
</div>
<div class="body">
- <p>For morro skyld har jeg gjennomført en nordsamisk installasjon for
-neste utgave av <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Skolelinux</a>
-(Squeeze) og knipset skjermbilder av resultatet.</p>
-
-<p>Som en kan se der er det noen oversettelser som mangler. Det hadde
-vært hyggelig hvis alle tekstene som vises i Skolelinux-installasjonen
-ble oversatt til nordsamisk, men for å få det til må noen som forstår
-språket melde seg til dyst. Det er mangel på nordsamiske oversettere
-av fri programvare. Hvis noen starter raskt, så bør en rekke å
-fullføre Wheezy-utgaven før den gis ut. :)</p>
-
-<p>Se <a href="http://d-i.debian.org/l10n-stats/">oversetterstatistikk for
-debian installer</a> for detaljert status. Jeg har tipset
-<a href="https://lister.ping.uio.no/mailman/listinfo/i18n-sme">epostlisten for samiskoversettelser</a>,
-men det har vært veldig liten aktivitet der de siste årene.</p>
-
-<p><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2012-01-26-skolelinux-sme/01-isomenu.png"><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2012-01-26-skolelinux-sme/01-isomenu.png" width="40%"></a>
-<a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2012-01-26-skolelinux-sme/02-sme-lang.png"><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2012-01-26-skolelinux-sme/02-sme-lang.png" width="40%"></a>
-<a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2012-01-26-skolelinux-sme/03-sme-place.png"><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2012-01-26-skolelinux-sme/03-sme-place.png" width="40%"></a>
-<a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2012-01-26-skolelinux-sme/04-sme-keymap.png"><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2012-01-26-skolelinux-sme/04-sme-keymap.png" width="40%"></a>
-<a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2012-01-26-skolelinux-sme/05-sme-profile.png"><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2012-01-26-skolelinux-sme/05-sme-profile.png" width="40%"></a>
-<a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2012-01-26-skolelinux-sme/06-sme-autopart.png"><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2012-01-26-skolelinux-sme/06-sme-autopart.png" width="40%"></a>
-<a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2012-01-26-skolelinux-sme/07-sme-popcon.png"><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2012-01-26-skolelinux-sme/07-sme-popcon.png" width="40%"></a>
-<a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2012-01-26-skolelinux-sme/08-sme-rootpw1.png"><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2012-01-26-skolelinux-sme/08-sme-rootpw1.png" width="40%"></a>
-<a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2012-01-26-skolelinux-sme/09-sme-rootpw2.png"><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2012-01-26-skolelinux-sme/09-sme-rootpw2.png" width="40%"></a>
-<a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2012-01-26-skolelinux-sme/10-sme-firstuser.png"><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2012-01-26-skolelinux-sme/10-sme-firstuser.png" width="40%"></a>
-<a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2012-01-26-skolelinux-sme/11-sme-firstusername.png"><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2012-01-26-skolelinux-sme/11-sme-firstusername.png" width="40%"></a>
-<a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2012-01-26-skolelinux-sme/12-sme-firstuserpw1.png"><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2012-01-26-skolelinux-sme/12-sme-firstuserpw1.png" width="40%"></a>
-<a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2012-01-26-skolelinux-sme/13-sme-firstuserpw2.png"><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2012-01-26-skolelinux-sme/13-sme-firstuserpw2.png" width="40%"></a>
-<a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2012-01-26-skolelinux-sme/14-sme-part.png"><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2012-01-26-skolelinux-sme/14-sme-part.png" width="40%"></a>
-<a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2012-01-26-skolelinux-sme/15-sme-debootstrap.png"><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2012-01-26-skolelinux-sme/15-sme-debootstrap.png" width="40%"></a>
-<a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2012-01-26-skolelinux-sme/16-sme-tasksel.png"><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2012-01-26-skolelinux-sme/16-sme-tasksel.png" width="40%"></a>
-<a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2012-01-26-skolelinux-sme/17-sme-wordlist.png"><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2012-01-26-skolelinux-sme/17-sme-wordlist.png" width="40%"></a>
-<a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2012-01-26-skolelinux-sme/18-sme-tasksel.png"><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2012-01-26-skolelinux-sme/18-sme-tasksel.png" width="40%"></a>
-<a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2012-01-26-skolelinux-sme/19-sme-ltsp.png"><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2012-01-26-skolelinux-sme/19-sme-ltsp.png" width="40%"></a>
-<a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2012-01-26-skolelinux-sme/20-sme-grub.png"><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2012-01-26-skolelinux-sme/20-sme-grub.png" width="40%"></a>
-<a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2012-01-26-skolelinux-sme/21-sme-finish-install.png"><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2012-01-26-skolelinux-sme/21-sme-finish-install.png" width="40%"></a>
-<a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2012-01-26-skolelinux-sme/22-sme-finish-message.png"><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2012-01-26-skolelinux-sme/22-sme-finish-message.png" width="40%"></a></p>
+ <p>I am happy to announce that today we managed to wrap up and publish
+the second beta version of
+<a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux</a>. If
+you want to test a LDAP backed Kerberos server with out of the box PXE
+configuration for running diskless machines and installing new
+machines, check it out. If you need a software solution for your
+school, check it out too. The full announcement is
+<a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-edu-announce/2012/01/msg00000.html">available</a>
+on the project announcement list.</p>
</div>
<div class="tags">
- Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/norsk">norsk</a>.
+ Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
</div>
<div class="entry">
<div class="title">
- <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Handling_non_free_firmware_in_Debian_Edu_Squeeze.html">Handling non-free firmware in Debian Edu/Squeeze</a>
+ <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Fixing_an_hanging_debian_installer_for_Debian_Edu.html">Fixing an hanging debian installer for Debian Edu</a>
</div>
<div class="date">
- 27th January 2012
+ 3rd January 2012
</div>
<div class="body">
- <p>With some computer hardware, one need non-free firmware blobs.
-This is the sad fact of todays computers. In the next version of
-<a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux</a> based
-on Squeeze, we provide several scripts and modifications to make
-firmware blobs easier to handle. The common use case I run into is a
-laptop with a wireless network card requiring non-free firmware to
-work, but there are other use cases as well.</p>
-
-<p>First and foremost, Debian Edu provide ISO images for DVD and CD
-with all firmware packages in the Debian sections main and non-free
-included, to ensure debian-installer find and can install all of them
-during installation. This take care firmware for network devices used
-by the installer when installing from from local media. But for
-example multimedia devices are not activated in the installer and are
-not taken care of by this.</p>
-
-<p>For non-network devices, we provide the script
-<tt>/usr/share/debian-edu-config/tools/auto-addfirmware</tt> which
-search through the <tt>dmesg</tt> output for drivers requesting extra
-firmware. The firmware file name is looked up in the Contents-ARCH.gz
-file available in the package repository, and the packages providing
-the requested firmware file(s) is installed. I have proposed to do
-something similar in debian-installer (BTS report
-<a href="http://bugs.debian.org/655507">#655507</a>), to allow PXE
-installs of Debian to handle firmware installation better. Run the
-script as root from the command line to fetch and install the needed
-firmware packages.</p>
+ <p>During christmas, I have been working getting the next version of
+<a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux</a> ready
+for release. The initial problem I looked at was particularly
+interesting.</p>
-<p>Debian Edu provide PXE installation of Debian out of the box, and
-because some machines need firmware to get their network cards
-working, the installation initrd some times need extra firmware
-included to be able to install at all. To fill the PXE installation
-initrd with extra firmware, the
-<tt>/usr/share/debian-edu-config/tools/pxe-addfirmware</tt> script is
-provided. Again, just run it as root on the command line to fill the
-PXE initrd with firmware packages.</p>
+<P>The installer would hang at the end when it was doing it
+post-installation configuration, and whatevery I did to try to find
+the cause and fix it always worked while I tested it, but never when I
+integrated it into the installer and ran the installation from
+scratch. I would try to restart processes, close file descriptors,
+remove or create files, and the installer would always unblock and
+wrap up its tasks.</p>
-<p>Last, some LTSP clients might also need firmware to get their
-network cards working. For this,
-<tt>/usr/share/debian-edu-config/tools/ltsp-addfirmware</tt> is
-provided to update the LTSP initrd with firmware blobs. It is used
-the same way as the other firmware related tools.</p>
+<p>Eventually the cause was found. The kernel was simply running out
+of entropy, causing the Kerberos setup to hang waiting for more.
+Pressing keys was adding entropy to the kernel, and thus all my tries
+to fix the problem worked not because what I was typing to fix it, but
+because I was typing.</P>
-<p>At the moment, we do not run any of these during installation. We
-do not know if this is acceptable for the local administrator to use
-non-free software, and it is their choice.</p>
+<p>The fix I implemented was to add a background process looking at
+the level of entropy in the kernel (by checking
+/proc/sys/kernel/random/entropy_avail), and if it was too small, the
+installer will flush the kernel file buffers and do 'find /' to
+generate some disk IO. Disk IO generate entropy in the kernel, and is
+one of the few things that can be initated from within the system to
+generate entropy.</p>
-<p>We plan to release beta3 this weekend. You might want to give it a
-try.</p>
+<p>The fix is in
+<a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Documentation/Squeeze/Installation">beta1
+of the Debian Edu/Squeeze</a> version, and we
+<a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu">welcome more testers and
+developers</a>. We plan to release beta2 this weekend.</p>
</div>
<div class="tags">
projects / homepage.git / blobdiff