+ <item>
+ <title>KDM fail at boot with NVidia cards - and no one try to fix it?</title>
+ <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/KDM_fail_at_boot_with_NVidia_cards___and_no_one_try_to_fix_it_.html</link>
+ <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>
+ <pubDate>Tue, 1 Jun 2010 17:05:00 +0200</pubDate>
+ <description>
+<p>It is strange to watch how a bug in Debian causing KDM to fail to
+start at boot when an NVidia video card is used is handled. The
+problem seem to be that the nvidia X.org driver uses a long time to
+initialize, and this duration is longer than kdm is configured to
+wait.</p>
+
+<p>I came across two bugs related to this issue,
+<a href="http://bugs.debian.org/583312">#583312</a> initially filed
+against initscripts and passed on to nvidia-glx when it became obvious
+that the nvidia drivers were involved, and
+<a href="http://bugs.debian.org/524751">#524751</a> initially filed against
+kdm and passed on to src:nvidia-graphics-drivers for unknown reasons.</p>
+
+<p>To me, it seem that no-one is interested in actually solving the
+problem nvidia video card owners experience and make sure the Debian
+distribution work out of the box for these users. The nvidia driver
+maintainers expect kdm to be set up to wait longer, while kdm expect
+the nvidia driver maintainers to fix the driver to start faster, and
+while they wait for each other I guess the users end up switching to a
+distribution that work for them. I have no idea what the solution is,
+but I am pretty sure that waiting for each other is not it.</p>
+
+<p>I wonder why we end up handling bugs this way.</p>
+</description>
+ </item>
+
+ <item>
+ <title>Sitesummary tip: Listing computer hardware models used at site</title>
+ <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Sitesummary_tip__Listing_computer_hardware_models_used_at_site.html</link>
+ <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Sitesummary_tip__Listing_computer_hardware_models_used_at_site.html</guid>
+ <pubDate>Thu, 3 Jun 2010 12:05:00 +0200</pubDate>
+ <description>
+<p>When using sitesummary at a site to track machines, it is possible
+to get a list of the machine types in use thanks to the DMI
+information extracted from each machine. The script to do so is
+included in the sitesummary package, and here is example output from
+the Skolelinux build servers:</p>
+
+<blockquote><pre>
+maintainer:~# /usr/lib/sitesummary/hardware-model-summary
+ vendor count
+ Dell Computer Corporation 1
+ PowerEdge 1750 1
+ IBM 1
+ eserver xSeries 345 -[8670M1X]- 1
+ Intel 2
+ [no-dmi-info] 3
+maintainer:~#
+</pre></blockquote>
+
+<p>The quality of the report depend on the quality of the DMI tables
+provided in each machine. Here there are Intel machines without model
+information listed with Intel as vendor and mo model, and virtual Xen
+machines listed as [no-dmi-info]. One can add -l as a command line
+option to list the individual machines.</p>
+
+<p>A larger list is
+<a href="http://narvikskolen.no/sitesummary/">available from the the
+city of Narvik</a>, which uses Skolelinux on all their shools and also
+provide the basic sitesummary report publicly. In their report there
+are ~1400 machines. I know they use both Ubuntu and Skolelinux on
+their machines, and as sitesummary is available in both distributions,
+it is trivial to get all of them to report to the same central
+collector.</p>
+</description>
+ </item>
+
+ <item>
+ <title>A manual for standards wars...</title>
+ <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/A_manual_for_standards_wars___.html</link>
+ <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/A_manual_for_standards_wars___.html</guid>
+ <pubDate>Sun, 6 Jun 2010 14:15:00 +0200</pubDate>
+ <description>
+<p>Via the
+<a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/robweir/antic-atom/~3/QzU4RgoAGMg/weekly-links-10.html">blog
+of Rob Weir</a> I came across the very interesting essay named
+<a href="http://faculty.haas.berkeley.edu/shapiro/wars.pdf">The Art of
+Standards Wars</a> (PDF 25 pages). I recommend it for everyone
+following the standards wars of today.</p>
+</description>
+ </item>
+
+ <item>
+ <title>Upstart or sysvinit - as init.d scripts see it</title>
+ <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Upstart_or_sysvinit___as_init_d_scripts_see_it.html</link>
+ <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Upstart_or_sysvinit___as_init_d_scripts_see_it.html</guid>
+ <pubDate>Sun, 6 Jun 2010 23:55:00 +0200</pubDate>
+ <description>
+<p>If Debian is to migrate to upstart on Linux, I expect some init.d
+scripts to migrate (some of) their operations to upstart job while
+keeping the init.d for hurd and kfreebsd. The packages with such
+needs will need a way to get their init.d scripts to behave
+differently when used with sysvinit and with upstart. Because of
+this, I had a look at the environment variables set when a init.d
+script is running under upstart, and when it is not.</p>
+
+<p>With upstart, I notice these environment variables are set when a
+script is started from rcS.d/ (ignoring some irrelevant ones like
+COLUMNS):</p>
+
+<blockquote><pre>
+DEFAULT_RUNLEVEL=2
+previous=N
+PREVLEVEL=
+RUNLEVEL=
+runlevel=S
+UPSTART_EVENTS=startup
+UPSTART_INSTANCE=
+UPSTART_JOB=rc-sysinit
+</pre></blockquote>
+
+<p>With sysvinit, these environment variables are set for the same
+script.</p>
+
+<blockquote><pre>
+INIT_VERSION=sysvinit-2.88
+previous=N
+PREVLEVEL=N
+RUNLEVEL=S
+runlevel=S
+</pre></blockquote>
+
+<p>The RUNLEVEL and PREVLEVEL environment variables passed on from
+sysvinit are not set by upstart. Not sure if it is intentional or not
+to not be compatible with sysvinit in this regard.</p>
+
+<p>For scripts needing to behave differently when upstart is used,
+looking for the UPSTART_JOB environment variable seem to be a good
+choice.</p>
+</description>
+ </item>
+
+ <item>
+ <title>Automatic upgrade testing from Lenny to Squeeze</title>
+ <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Automatic_upgrade_testing_from_Lenny_to_Squeeze.html</link>
+ <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Automatic_upgrade_testing_from_Lenny_to_Squeeze.html</guid>
+ <pubDate>Fri, 11 Jun 2010 22:50:00 +0200</pubDate>
+ <description>
+<p>The last few days I have done some upgrade testing in Debian, to
+see if the upgrade from Lenny to Squeeze will go smoothly. A few bugs
+have been discovered and reported in the process
+(<a href="http://bugs.debian.org/585410">#585410</a> in nagios3-cgi,
+<a href="http://bugs.debian.org/584879">#584879</a> already fixed in
+enscript and <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/584861">#584861</a> in
+kdebase-workspace-data), and to get a more regular testing going on, I
+am working on a script to automate the test.</p>
+
+<p>The idea is to create a Lenny chroot and use tasksel to install a
+Gnome or KDE desktop installation inside the chroot before upgrading
+it. To ensure no services are started in the chroot, a policy-rc.d
+script is inserted. To make sure tasksel believe it is to install a
+desktop on a laptop, the tasksel tests are replaced in the chroot
+(only acceptable because this is a throw-away chroot).</p>
+
+<p>A naive upgrade from Lenny to Squeeze using aptitude dist-upgrade
+currently always fail because udev refuses to upgrade with the kernel
+in Lenny, so to avoid that problem the file /etc/udev/kernel-upgrade
+is created. The bug report
+<a href="http://bugs.debian.org/566000">#566000</a> make me suspect
+this problem do not trigger in a chroot, but I touch the file anyway
+to make sure the upgrade go well. Testing on virtual and real
+hardware have failed me because of udev so far, and creating this file
+do the trick in such settings anyway. This is a
+<a href="http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/debian-26/failed-dist-upgrade-due-to-udev-config_sysfs_deprecated-nonsense-804130/">known
+issue</a> and the current udev behaviour is intended by the udev
+maintainer because he lack the resources to rewrite udev to keep
+working with old kernels or something like that. I really wish the
+udev upstream would keep udev backwards compatible, to avoid such
+upgrade problem, but given that they fail to do so, I guess
+documenting the way out of this mess is the best option we got for
+Debian Squeeze.</p>
+
+<p>Anyway, back to the task at hand, testing upgrades. This test
+script, which I call <tt>upgrade-test</tt> for now, is doing the
+trick:</p>
+
+<blockquote><pre>
+#!/bin/sh
+set -ex
+
+if [ "$1" ] ; then
+ desktop=$1
+else
+ desktop=gnome
+fi
+
+from=lenny
+to=squeeze
+
+exec &lt; /dev/null
+unset LANG
+mirror=http://ftp.skolelinux.org/debian
+tmpdir=chroot-$from-upgrade-$to-$desktop
+fuser -mv .
+debootstrap $from $tmpdir $mirror
+chroot $tmpdir aptitude update
+cat > $tmpdir/usr/sbin/policy-rc.d &lt;&lt;EOF
+#!/bin/sh
+exit 101
+EOF
+chmod a+rx $tmpdir/usr/sbin/policy-rc.d
+exit_cleanup() {
+ umount $tmpdir/proc
+}
+mount -t proc proc $tmpdir/proc
+# Make sure proc is unmounted also on failure
+trap exit_cleanup EXIT INT
+
+chroot $tmpdir aptitude -y install debconf-utils
+
+# Make sure tasksel autoselection trigger. It need the test scripts
+# to return the correct answers.
+echo tasksel tasksel/desktop multiselect $desktop | \
+ chroot $tmpdir debconf-set-selections
+
+# Include the desktop and laptop task
+for test in desktop laptop ; do
+ echo > $tmpdir/usr/lib/tasksel/tests/$test &lt;&lt;EOF
+#!/bin/sh
+exit 2
+EOF
+ chmod a+rx $tmpdir/usr/lib/tasksel/tests/$test
+done
+
+DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive
+DEBIAN_PRIORITY=critical
+export DEBIAN_FRONTEND DEBIAN_PRIORITY
+chroot $tmpdir tasksel --new-install
+
+echo deb $mirror $to main > $tmpdir/etc/apt/sources.list
+chroot $tmpdir aptitude update
+touch $tmpdir/etc/udev/kernel-upgrade
+chroot $tmpdir aptitude -y dist-upgrade
+fuser -mv
+</pre></blockquote>
+
+<p>I suspect it would be useful to test upgrades with both apt-get and
+with aptitude, but I have not had time to look at how they behave
+differently so far. I hope to get a cron job running to do the test
+regularly and post the result on the web. The Gnome upgrade currently
+work, while the KDE upgrade fail because of the bug in
+kdebase-workspace-data</p>
+
+<p>I am not quite sure what kind of extract from the huge upgrade logs
+(KDE 167 KiB, Gnome 516 KiB) it make sense to include in this blog
+post, so I will refrain from trying. I can report that for Gnome,
+aptitude report 760 packages upgraded, 448 newly installed, 129 to
+remove and 1 not upgraded and 1024MB need to be downloaded while for
+KDE the same numbers are 702 packages upgraded, 507 newly installed,
+193 to remove and 0 not upgraded and 1117MB need to be downloaded</p>
+
+<p>I am very happy to notice that the Gnome desktop + laptop upgrade
+is able to migrate to dependency based boot sequencing and parallel
+booting without a hitch. Was unsure if there were still bugs with
+packages failing to clean up their obsolete init.d script during
+upgrades, and no such problem seem to affect the Gnome desktop+laptop
+packages.</p>
+</description>
+ </item>
+
+ <item>
+ <title>Lenny->Squeeze upgrades, removals by apt and aptitude</title>
+ <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lenny__Squeeze_upgrades__removals_by_apt_and_aptitude.html</link>
+ <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lenny__Squeeze_upgrades__removals_by_apt_and_aptitude.html</guid>
+ <pubDate>Sun, 13 Jun 2010 09:05:00 +0200</pubDate>
+ <description>
+<p>My
+<a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Automatic_upgrade_testing_from_Lenny_to_Squeeze.html">testing
+of Debian upgrades</a> from Lenny to Squeeze continues, and I've
+finally made the upgrade logs available from
+<a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/debian-upgrade-testing/">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/debian-upgrade-testing/</a>.
+I am now testing dist-upgrade of Gnome and KDE in a chroot using both
+apt and aptitude, and found their differences interesting. This time
+I will only focus on their removal plans.</p>
+
+<p>After installing a Gnome desktop and the laptop task, apt-get wants
+to remove 72 packages when dist-upgrading from Lenny to Squeeze. The
+surprising part is that it want to remove xorg and all
+xserver-xorg-video* drivers. Clearly not a good choice, but I am not
+sure why. When asking aptitude to do the same, it want to remove 129
+packages, but most of them are library packages I suspect are no
+longer needed. Both of them want to remove bluetooth packages, which
+I do not know. Perhaps these bluetooth packages are obsolete?</p>
+
+<p>For KDE, apt-get want to remove 82 packages, among them kdebase
+which seem like a bad idea and xorg the same way as with Gnome. Asking
+aptitude for the same, it wants to remove 192 packages, none which are
+too surprising.</p>
+
+<p>I guess the removal of xorg during upgrades should be investigated
+and avoided, and perhaps others as well. Here are the complete list
+of planned removals. The complete logs is available from the URL
+above. Note if you want to repeat these tests, that the upgrade test
+for kde+apt-get hung in the tasksel setup because of dpkg asking
+conffile questions. No idea why. I worked around it by using
+'<tt>echo >> /proc/<em>pidofdpkg</em>/fd/0</tt>' to tell dpkg to
+continue.</p>
+
+<p><b>apt-get gnome 72</b>
+<br>bluez-gnome cupsddk-drivers deskbar-applet gnome
+ gnome-desktop-environment gnome-network-admin gtkhtml3.14
+ iceweasel-gnome-support libavcodec51 libdatrie0 libgdl-1-0
+ libgnomekbd2 libgnomekbdui2 libmetacity0 libslab0 libxcb-xlib0
+ nautilus-cd-burner python-gnome2-desktop python-gnome2-extras
+ serpentine swfdec-mozilla update-manager xorg xserver-xorg
+ xserver-xorg-core xserver-xorg-input-all xserver-xorg-input-evdev
+ xserver-xorg-input-kbd xserver-xorg-input-mouse
+ xserver-xorg-input-synaptics xserver-xorg-input-wacom
+ xserver-xorg-video-all xserver-xorg-video-apm xserver-xorg-video-ark
+ xserver-xorg-video-ati xserver-xorg-video-chips
+ xserver-xorg-video-cirrus xserver-xorg-video-cyrix
+ xserver-xorg-video-dummy xserver-xorg-video-fbdev
+ xserver-xorg-video-glint xserver-xorg-video-i128
+ xserver-xorg-video-i740 xserver-xorg-video-imstt
+ xserver-xorg-video-intel xserver-xorg-video-mach64
+ xserver-xorg-video-mga xserver-xorg-video-neomagic
+ xserver-xorg-video-nsc xserver-xorg-video-nv
+ xserver-xorg-video-openchrome xserver-xorg-video-r128
+ xserver-xorg-video-radeon xserver-xorg-video-radeonhd
+ xserver-xorg-video-rendition xserver-xorg-video-s3
+ xserver-xorg-video-s3virge xserver-xorg-video-savage
+ xserver-xorg-video-siliconmotion xserver-xorg-video-sis
+ xserver-xorg-video-sisusb xserver-xorg-video-tdfx
+ xserver-xorg-video-tga xserver-xorg-video-trident
+ xserver-xorg-video-tseng xserver-xorg-video-v4l
+ xserver-xorg-video-vesa xserver-xorg-video-vga
+ xserver-xorg-video-vmware xserver-xorg-video-voodoo xulrunner-1.9
+ xulrunner-1.9-gnome-support</p>
+
+<p><b>aptitude gnome 129</b>
+
+<br>bluez-gnome bluez-utils cpp-4.3 cupsddk-drivers dhcdbd
+ djvulibre-desktop finger gnome-app-install gnome-mount
+ gnome-network-admin gnome-spell gnome-vfs-obexftp
+ gnome-volume-manager gstreamer0.10-gnomevfs gtkhtml3.14 libao2
+ libavahi-compat-libdnssd1 libavahi-core5 libavcodec51 libbluetooth2
+ libcamel1.2-11 libcdio7 libcucul0 libcupsys2 libcurl3 libdatrie0
+ libdirectfb-1.0-0 libdvdread3 libedataserver1.2-9 libeel2-2.20
+ libeel2-data libepc-1.0-1 libepc-ui-1.0-1 libfaad0 libgail-common
+ libgd2-noxpm libgda3-3 libgda3-common libgdl-1-0 libgdl-1-common
+ libggz2 libggzcore9 libggzmod4 libgksu1.2-0 libgksuui1.0-1 libgmyth0
+ libgnomecups1.0-1 libgnomekbd2 libgnomekbdui2 libgnomeprint2.2-0
+ libgnomeprint2.2-data libgnomeprintui2.2-0 libgnomeprintui2.2-common
+ libgnomevfs2-bin libgpod3 libgraphviz4 libgtkhtml2-0
+ libgtksourceview-common libgtksourceview1.0-0 libgucharmap6
+ libhesiod0 libicu38 libiw29 libkpathsea4 libltdl3 libmagick++10
+ libmagick10 libmalaga7 libmetacity0 libmtp7 libmysqlclient15off
+ libnautilus-burn4 libneon27 libnm-glib0 libnm-util0 libopal-2.2
+ libosp5 libparted1.8-10 libpoppler-glib3 libpoppler3 libpt-1.10.10
+ libpt-1.10.10-plugins-alsa libpt-1.10.10-plugins-v4l libraw1394-8
+ libsensors3 libslab0 libsmbios2 libsoup2.2-8 libssh2-1
+ libsuitesparse-3.1.0 libswfdec-0.6-90 libtalloc1 libtotem-plparser10
+ libtrackerclient0 libxalan2-java libxalan2-java-gcj libxcb-xlib0
+ libxerces2-java libxerces2-java-gcj libxklavier12 libxtrap6
+ libxxf86misc1 libzephyr3 mysql-common nautilus-cd-burner
+ openoffice.org-writer2latex openssl-blacklist p7zip
+ python-4suite-xml python-eggtrayicon python-gnome2-desktop
+ python-gnome2-extras python-gtkhtml2 python-gtkmozembed
+ python-numeric python-sexy serpentine svgalibg1 swfdec-gnome
+ swfdec-mozilla totem-gstreamer update-manager wodim
+ xserver-xorg-video-cyrix xserver-xorg-video-imstt
+ xserver-xorg-video-nsc xserver-xorg-video-v4l xserver-xorg-video-vga
+ zip</p>
+
+<p><b>apt-get kde 82</b>
+
+<br>cupsddk-drivers karm kaudiocreator kcoloredit kcontrol kde kde-core
+ kdeaddons kdeartwork kdebase kdebase-bin kdebase-bin-kde3
+ kdebase-kio-plugins kdesktop kdeutils khelpcenter kicker
+ kicker-applets knewsticker kolourpaint konq-plugins konqueror korn
+ kpersonalizer kscreensaver ksplash libavcodec51 libdatrie0 libkiten1
+ libxcb-xlib0 quanta superkaramba texlive-base-bin xorg xserver-xorg
+ xserver-xorg-core xserver-xorg-input-all xserver-xorg-input-evdev
+ xserver-xorg-input-kbd xserver-xorg-input-mouse
+ xserver-xorg-input-synaptics xserver-xorg-input-wacom
+ xserver-xorg-video-all xserver-xorg-video-apm xserver-xorg-video-ark
+ xserver-xorg-video-ati xserver-xorg-video-chips
+ xserver-xorg-video-cirrus xserver-xorg-video-cyrix
+ xserver-xorg-video-dummy xserver-xorg-video-fbdev
+ xserver-xorg-video-glint xserver-xorg-video-i128
+ xserver-xorg-video-i740 xserver-xorg-video-imstt
+ xserver-xorg-video-intel xserver-xorg-video-mach64
+ xserver-xorg-video-mga xserver-xorg-video-neomagic
+ xserver-xorg-video-nsc xserver-xorg-video-nv
+ xserver-xorg-video-openchrome xserver-xorg-video-r128
+ xserver-xorg-video-radeon xserver-xorg-video-radeonhd
+ xserver-xorg-video-rendition xserver-xorg-video-s3
+ xserver-xorg-video-s3virge xserver-xorg-video-savage
+ xserver-xorg-video-siliconmotion xserver-xorg-video-sis
+ xserver-xorg-video-sisusb xserver-xorg-video-tdfx
+ xserver-xorg-video-tga xserver-xorg-video-trident
+ xserver-xorg-video-tseng xserver-xorg-video-v4l
+ xserver-xorg-video-vesa xserver-xorg-video-vga
+ xserver-xorg-video-vmware xserver-xorg-video-voodoo xulrunner-1.9</p>
+
+<p><b>aptitude kde 192</b>
+<br>bluez-utils cpp-4.3 cupsddk-drivers cvs dcoprss dhcdbd
+ djvulibre-desktop dosfstools eyesapplet fifteenapplet finger gettext
+ ghostscript-x imlib-base imlib11 indi kandy karm kasteroids
+ kaudiocreator kbackgammon kbstate kcoloredit kcontrol kcron kdat
+ kdeadmin-kfile-plugins kdeartwork-misc kdeartwork-theme-window
+ kdebase-bin-kde3 kdebase-kio-plugins kdeedu-data
+ kdegraphics-kfile-plugins kdelirc kdemultimedia-kappfinder-data
+ kdemultimedia-kfile-plugins kdenetwork-kfile-plugins
+ kdepim-kfile-plugins kdepim-kio-plugins kdeprint kdesktop kdessh
+ kdict kdnssd kdvi kedit keduca kenolaba kfax kfaxview kfouleggs
+ kghostview khelpcenter khexedit kiconedit kitchensync klatin
+ klickety kmailcvt kmenuedit kmid kmilo kmoon kmrml kodo kolourpaint
+ kooka korn kpager kpdf kpercentage kpf kpilot kpoker kpovmodeler
+ krec kregexpeditor ksayit ksim ksirc ksirtet ksmiletris ksmserver
+ ksnake ksokoban ksplash ksvg ksysv ktip ktnef kuickshow kverbos
+ kview kviewshell kvoctrain kwifimanager kwin kwin4 kworldclock
+ kxsldbg libakode2 libao2 libarts1-akode libarts1-audiofile
+ libarts1-mpeglib libarts1-xine libavahi-compat-libdnssd1
+ libavahi-core5 libavc1394-0 libavcodec51 libbluetooth2
+ libboost-python1.34.1 libcucul0 libcurl3 libcvsservice0 libdatrie0
+ libdirectfb-1.0-0 libdjvulibre21 libdvdread3 libfaad0 libfreebob0
+ libgail-common libgd2-noxpm libgraphviz4 libgsmme1c2a libgtkhtml2-0
+ libicu38 libiec61883-0 libindex0 libiw29 libk3b3 libkcal2b libkcddb1
+ libkdeedu3 libkdepim1a libkgantt0 libkiten1 libkleopatra1 libkmime2
+ libkpathsea4 libkpimexchange1 libkpimidentities1 libkscan1
+ libksieve0 libktnef1 liblockdev1 libltdl3 libmagick10 libmimelib1c2a
+ libmozjs1d libmpcdec3 libneon27 libnm-util0 libopensync0 libpisock9
+ libpoppler-glib3 libpoppler-qt2 libpoppler3 libraw1394-8 libsmbios2
+ libssh2-1 libsuitesparse-3.1.0 libtalloc1 libtiff-tools
+ libxalan2-java libxalan2-java-gcj libxcb-xlib0 libxerces2-java
+ libxerces2-java-gcj libxtrap6 mpeglib networkstatus
+ openoffice.org-writer2latex pmount poster psutils quanta quanta-data
+ superkaramba svgalibg1 tex-common texlive-base texlive-base-bin
+ texlive-common texlive-doc-base texlive-fonts-recommended
+ xserver-xorg-video-cyrix xserver-xorg-video-imstt
+ xserver-xorg-video-nsc xserver-xorg-video-v4l xserver-xorg-video-vga
+ xulrunner-1.9</p>
+
+</description>
+ </item>
+
+ <item>
+ <title>Calling tasksel like the installer, while still getting useful output</title>
+ <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Calling_tasksel_like_the_installer__while_still_getting_useful_output.html</link>
+ <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Calling_tasksel_like_the_installer__while_still_getting_useful_output.html</guid>
+ <pubDate>Wed, 16 Jun 2010 14:55:00 +0200</pubDate>
+ <description>
+<p>A few times I have had the need to simulate the way tasksel
+installs packages during the normal debian-installer run. Until now,
+I have ended up letting tasksel do the work, with the annoying problem
+of not getting any feedback at all when something fails (like a
+conffile question from dpkg or a download that fails), using code like
+this:
+
+<blockquote><pre>
+export DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive
+tasksel --new-install
+</pre></blockquote>
+
+This would invoke tasksel, let its automatic task selection pick the
+tasks to install, and continue to install the requested tasks without
+any output what so ever.
+
+Recently I revisited this problem while working on the automatic
+package upgrade testing, because tasksel would some times hang without
+any useful feedback, and I want to see what is going on when it
+happen. Then it occured to me, I can parse the output from tasksel
+when asked to run in test mode, and use that aptitude command line
+printed by tasksel then to simulate the tasksel run. I ended up using
+code like this:
+
+<blockquote><pre>
+export DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive
+cmd="$(in_target tasksel -t --new-install | sed 's/debconf-apt-progress -- //')"
+$cmd
+</pre></blockquote>
+
+<p>The content of $cmd is typically something like "<tt>aptitude -q
+--without-recommends -o APT::Install-Recommends=no -y install
+~t^desktop$ ~t^gnome-desktop$ ~t^laptop$ ~pstandard ~prequired
+~pimportant</tt>", which will install the gnome desktop task, the
+laptop task and all packages with priority standard , required and
+important, just like tasksel would have done it during
+installation.</p>
+
+<p>A better approach is probably to extend tasksel to be able to
+install packages without using debconf-apt-progress, for use cases
+like this.</p>
+</description>
+ </item>
+
+ <item>
+ <title>Idea for a change to LDAP schemas allowing DNS and DHCP info to be combined into one object</title>
+ <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>
+ <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>
+ <pubDate>Thu, 24 Jun 2010 00:35:00 +0200</pubDate>
+ <description>
+<p>A while back, I
+<a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Time_for_new__LDAP_schemas_replacing_RFC_2307_.html">complained
+about the fact</a> that it is not possible with the provided schemas
+for storing DNS and DHCP information in LDAP to combine the two sets
+of information into one LDAP object representing a computer.</p>
+
+<p>In the mean time, I discovered that a simple fix would be to make
+the dhcpHost object class auxiliary, to allow it to be combined with
+the dNSDomain object class, and thus forming one object for one
+computer when storing both DHCP and DNS information in LDAP.</p>
+
+<p>If I understand this correctly, it is not safe to do this change
+without also changing the assigned number for the object class, and I
+do not know enough about LDAP schema design to do that properly for
+Debian Edu.</p>
+
+<p>Anyway, for future reference, this is how I believe we could change
+the
+<a href="http://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-ietf-dhc-ldap-schema-00">DHCP
+schema</a> to solve at least part of the problem with the LDAP schemas
+available today from IETF.</p>
+
+<pre>
+--- dhcp.schema (revision 65192)
++++ dhcp.schema (working copy)
+@@ -376,7 +376,7 @@
+ objectclass ( 2.16.840.1.113719.1.203.6.6
+ NAME 'dhcpHost'
+ DESC 'This represents information about a particular client'
+- SUP top
++ SUP top AUXILIARY
+ MUST cn
+ MAY (dhcpLeaseDN $ dhcpHWAddress $ dhcpOptionsDN $ dhcpStatements $ dhcpComments $ dhcpOption)
+ X-NDS_CONTAINMENT ('dhcpService' 'dhcpSubnet' 'dhcpGroup') )
+</pre>
+
+<p>I very much welcome clues on how to do this properly for Debian
+Edu/Squeeze. We provide the DHCP schema in our debian-edu-config
+package, and should thus be free to rewrite it as we see fit.</p>
+
+<p>If you want to help out with implementing this for Debian Edu,
+please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.</p>
+</description>
+ </item>
+
+ <item>
+ <title>LUMA, a very nice LDAP GUI</title>
+ <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/LUMA__a_very_nice_LDAP_GUI.html</link>
+ <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/LUMA__a_very_nice_LDAP_GUI.html</guid>
+ <pubDate>Mon, 28 Jun 2010 00:30:00 +0200</pubDate>
+ <description>
+<p>The last few days I have been looking into the status of the LDAP
+directory in Debian Edu, and in the process I started to miss a GUI
+tool to browse the LDAP tree. The only one I was able to find in
+Debian/Squeeze and Lenny is
+<a href="http://luma.sourceforge.net/">LUMA</a>, which has proved to
+be a great tool to get a overview of the current LDAP directory
+populated by default in Skolelinux. Thanks to it, I have been able to
+find empty and obsolete subtrees, misplaced objects and duplicate
+objects. It will be installed by default in Debian/Squeeze. If you
+are working with LDAP, give it a go. :)</p>
+
+<p>I did notice one problem with it I have not had time to report to
+the BTS yet. There is no .desktop file in the package, so the tool do
+not show up in the Gnome and KDE menus, but only deep down in in the
+Debian submenu in KDE. I hope that can be fixed before Squeeze is
+released.</p>
+
+<p>I have not yet been able to get it to modify the tree yet. I would
+like to move objects and remove subtrees directly in the GUI, but have
+not found a way to do that with LUMA yet. So in the mean time, I use
+<a href="http://www.lichteblau.com/ldapvi/">ldapvi</a> for that.</p>
+
+<p>If you have tips on other GUI tools for LDAP that might be useful
+in Debian Edu, please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.</p>
+
+<p>Update 2010-06-29: Ross Reedstrom tipped us about the
+<a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/g/gq.html">gq</a> package as a
+useful GUI alternative. It seem like a good tool, but is unmaintained
+in Debian and got a RC bug keeping it out of Squeeze. Unless that
+changes, it will not be an option for Debian Edu based on Squeeze.</p>
+</description>
+ </item>
+
+ <item>
+ <title>Lenny->Squeeze upgrades, apt vs aptitude with the Gnome desktop</title>
+ <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lenny__Squeeze_upgrades__apt_vs_aptitude_with_the_Gnome_desktop.html</link>
+ <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lenny__Squeeze_upgrades__apt_vs_aptitude_with_the_Gnome_desktop.html</guid>
+ <pubDate>Sat, 3 Jul 2010 23:55:00 +0200</pubDate>
+ <description>
+<p>Here is a short update on my <a
+href="http://people.skolelinux.org/~pere/debian-upgrade-testing/">my
+Debian Lenny->Squeeze upgrade testing</a>. Here is a summary of the
+difference for Gnome when it is upgraded by apt-get and aptitude. I'm
+not reporting the status for KDE, because the upgrade crashes when
+aptitude try because of missing conflicts
+(<a href="http://bugs.debian.org/584861">#584861</a> and
+<a href="http://bugs.debian.org/585716">#585716</a>).</p>
+
+<p>At the end of the upgrade test script, dpkg -l is executed to get a
+complete list of the installed packages. Based on this I see these
+differences when I did a test run today. As usual, I do not really
+know what the correct set of packages would be, but thought it best to
+publish the difference.</p>
+
+<p>Installed using apt-get, missing with aptitude</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>
+ at-spi cpp-4.3 finger gnome-spell gstreamer0.10-gnomevfs
+ libatspi1.0-0 libcupsys2 libeel2-data libgail-common libgdl-1-common
+ libgnomeprint2.2-data libgnomeprintui2.2-common libgnomevfs2-bin
+ libgtksourceview-common libpt-1.10.10-plugins-alsa
+ libpt-1.10.10-plugins-v4l libservlet2.4-java libxalan2-java
+ libxerces2-java openoffice.org-writer2latex openssl-blacklist p7zip
+ python-4suite-xml python-eggtrayicon python-gtkhtml2
+ python-gtkmozembed svgalibg1 xserver-xephyr zip
+</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>Installed using apt-get, removed with aptitude</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>
+ bluez-utils dhcdbd djvulibre-desktop epiphany-gecko
+ gnome-app-install gnome-mount gnome-vfs-obexftp gnome-volume-manager
+ libao2 libavahi-compat-libdnssd1 libavahi-core5 libbind9-50
+ libbluetooth2 libcamel1.2-11 libcdio7 libcucul0 libcurl3
+ libdirectfb-1.0-0 libdvdread3 libedata-cal1.2-6 libedataserver1.2-9
+ libeel2-2.20 libepc-1.0-1 libepc-ui-1.0-1 libexchange-storage1.2-3
+ libfaad0 libgd2-noxpm libgda3-3 libgda3-common libggz2 libggzcore9
+ libggzmod4 libgksu1.2-0 libgksuui1.0-1 libgmyth0 libgnome-desktop-2
+ libgnome-pilot2 libgnomecups1.0-1 libgnomeprint2.2-0
+ libgnomeprintui2.2-0 libgpod3 libgraphviz4 libgtkhtml2-0
+ libgtksourceview1.0-0 libgucharmap6 libhesiod0 libicu38 libisccc50
+ libisccfg50 libiw29 libkpathsea4 libltdl3 liblwres50 libmagick++10
+ libmagick10 libmalaga7 libmtp7 libmysqlclient15off libnautilus-burn4
+ libneon27 libnm-glib0 libnm-util0 libopal-2.2 libosp5
+ libparted1.8-10 libpisock9 libpisync1 libpoppler-glib3 libpoppler3
+ libpt-1.10.10 libraw1394-8 libsensors3 libsmbios2 libsoup2.2-8
+ libssh2-1 libsuitesparse-3.1.0 libswfdec-0.6-90 libtalloc1
+ libtotem-plparser10 libtrackerclient0 libvoikko1 libxalan2-java-gcj
+ libxerces2-java-gcj libxklavier12 libxtrap6 libxxf86misc1 libzephyr3
+ mysql-common swfdec-gnome totem-gstreamer wodim
+</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>Installed using aptitude, missing with apt-get</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>
+ gnome gnome-desktop-environment hamster-applet python-gnomeapplet
+ python-gnomekeyring python-wnck rhythmbox-plugins xorg
+ xserver-xorg-input-all xserver-xorg-input-evdev
+ xserver-xorg-input-kbd xserver-xorg-input-mouse
+ xserver-xorg-input-synaptics xserver-xorg-video-all
+ xserver-xorg-video-apm xserver-xorg-video-ark xserver-xorg-video-ati
+ xserver-xorg-video-chips xserver-xorg-video-cirrus
+ xserver-xorg-video-dummy xserver-xorg-video-fbdev
+ xserver-xorg-video-glint xserver-xorg-video-i128
+ xserver-xorg-video-i740 xserver-xorg-video-mach64
+ xserver-xorg-video-mga xserver-xorg-video-neomagic
+ xserver-xorg-video-nouveau xserver-xorg-video-nv
+ xserver-xorg-video-r128 xserver-xorg-video-radeon
+ xserver-xorg-video-radeonhd xserver-xorg-video-rendition
+ xserver-xorg-video-s3 xserver-xorg-video-s3virge
+ xserver-xorg-video-savage xserver-xorg-video-siliconmotion
+ xserver-xorg-video-sis xserver-xorg-video-sisusb
+ xserver-xorg-video-tdfx xserver-xorg-video-tga
+ xserver-xorg-video-trident xserver-xorg-video-tseng
+ xserver-xorg-video-vesa xserver-xorg-video-vmware
+ xserver-xorg-video-voodoo
+</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>Installed using aptitude, removed with apt-get</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>
+ deskbar-applet xserver-xorg xserver-xorg-core
+ xserver-xorg-input-wacom xserver-xorg-video-intel
+ xserver-xorg-video-openchrome
+</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>I was told on IRC that the xorg-xserver package was
+<a href="http://git.debian.org/?p=pkg-xorg/xserver/xorg-server.git;a=commit;h=9c8080d06c457932d3bfec021c69ac000aa60120">changed
+in git</a> today to try to get apt-get to not remove xorg completely.
+No idea when it hits Squeeze, but when it does I hope it will reduce
+the difference somewhat.
+</description>
+ </item>
+
+ <item>
+ <title>jXplorer, a very nice LDAP GUI</title>
+ <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/jXplorer__a_very_nice_LDAP_GUI.html</link>
+ <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/jXplorer__a_very_nice_LDAP_GUI.html</guid>
+ <pubDate>Fri, 9 Jul 2010 12:55:00 +0200</pubDate>
+ <description>
+<p>Since
+<a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/LUMA__a_very_nice_LDAP_GUI.html">my
+last post</a> about available LDAP tools in Debian, I was told about a
+LDAP GUI that is even better than luma. The java application
+<a href="http://jxplorer.org/">jXplorer</a> is claimed to be capable of
+moving LDAP objects and subtrees using drag-and-drop, and can
+authenticate using Kerberos. I have only tested the Kerberos
+authentication, but do not have a LDAP setup allowing me to rewrite
+LDAP with my test user yet. It is
+<a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/j/jxplorer.html">available in
+Debian</a> testing and unstable at the moment. The only problem I
+have with it is how it handle errors. If something go wrong, its
+non-intuitive behaviour require me to go through some query work list
+and remove the failing query. Nothing big, but very annoying.</p>
+</description>
+ </item>
+
+ <item>
+ <title>Idea for storing LTSP configuration in LDAP</title>
+ <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Idea_for_storing_LTSP_configuration_in_LDAP.html</link>
+ <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Idea_for_storing_LTSP_configuration_in_LDAP.html</guid>
+ <pubDate>Sun, 11 Jul 2010 22:00:00 +0200</pubDate>
+ <description>
+<p>Vagrant mentioned on IRC today that ltsp_config now support
+sourcing files from /usr/share/ltsp/ltsp_config.d/ on the thin
+clients, and that this can be used to fetch configuration from LDAP if
+Debian Edu choose to store configuration there.</p>
+
+<p>Armed with this information, I got inspired and wrote a test module
+to get configuration from LDAP. The idea is to look up the MAC
+address of the client in LDAP, and look for attributes on the form
+ltspconfigsetting=value, and use this to export SETTING=value to the
+LTSP clients.</p>
+
+<p>The goal is to be able to store the LTSP configuration attributes
+in a "computer" LDAP object used by both DNS and DHCP, and thus
+allowing us to store all information about a computer in one place.</p>
+
+<p>This is a untested draft implementation, and I welcome feedback on
+this approach. A real LDAP schema for the ltspClientAux objectclass
+need to be written. Comments, suggestions, etc?</p>
+
+<blockquote><pre>
+# Store in /opt/ltsp/$arch/usr/share/ltsp/ltsp_config.d/ldap-config
+#
+# Fetch LTSP client settings from LDAP based on MAC address
+#
+# Uses ethernet address as stored in the dhcpHost objectclass using
+# the dhcpHWAddress attribute or ethernet address stored in the
+# ieee802Device objectclass with the macAddress attribute.
+#
+# This module is written to be schema agnostic, and only depend on the
+# existence of attribute names.
+#
+# The LTSP configuration variables are saved directly using a
+# ltspConfig prefix and uppercasing the rest of the attribute name.
+# To set the SERVER variable, set the ltspConfigServer attribute.
+#
+# Some LDAP schema should be created with all the relevant
+# configuration settings. Something like this should work:
+#
+# objectclass ( 1.1.2.2 NAME 'ltspClientAux'
+# SUP top
+# AUXILIARY
+# MAY ( ltspConfigServer $ ltsConfigSound $ ... )
+
+LDAPSERVER=$(debian-edu-ldapserver)
+if [ "$LDAPSERVER" ] ; then
+ LDAPBASE=$(debian-edu-ldapserver -b)
+ for MAC in $(LANG=C ifconfig |grep -i hwaddr| awk '{print $5}'|sort -u) ; do
+ filter="(|(dhcpHWAddress=ethernet $MAC)(macAddress=$MAC))"
+ ldapsearch -h "$LDAPSERVER" -b "$LDAPBASE" -v -x "$filter" | \
+ grep '^ltspConfig' | while read attr value ; do
+ # Remove prefix and convert to upper case
+ attr=$(echo $attr | sed 's/^ltspConfig//i' | tr a-z A-Z)
+ # bass value on to clients
+ eval "$attr=$value; export $attr"
+ done
+ done
+fi
+</pre></blockquote>
+
+<p>I'm not sure this shell construction will work, because I suspect
+the while block might end up in a subshell causing the variables set
+there to not show up in ltsp-config, but if that is the case I am sure
+the code can be restructured to make sure the variables are passed on.
+I expect that can be solved with some testing. :)</p>
+
+<p>If you want to help out with implementing this for Debian Edu,
+please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.</p>
+
+<p>Update 2010-07-17: I am aware of another effort to store LTSP
+configuration in LDAP that was created around year 2000 by
+<a href="http://www.pcxperience.com/thinclient/documentation/ldap.html">PC
+Xperience, Inc., 2000</a>. I found its
+<a href="http://people.redhat.com/alikins/ltsp/ldap/">files</a> on a
+personal home page over at redhat.com.</p>
+</description>
+ </item>
+
+ <item>
+ <title>Combining PowerDNS and ISC DHCP LDAP objects</title>
+ <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Combining_PowerDNS_and_ISC_DHCP_LDAP_objects.html</link>
+ <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Combining_PowerDNS_and_ISC_DHCP_LDAP_objects.html</guid>
+ <pubDate>Wed, 14 Jul 2010 23:45:00 +0200</pubDate>
+ <description>
+<p>For a while now, I have wanted to find a way to change the DNS and
+DHCP services in Debian Edu to use the same LDAP objects for a given
+computer, to avoid the possibility of having a inconsistent state for
+a computer in LDAP (as in DHCP but no DNS entry or the other way
+around) and make it easier to add computers to LDAP.</p>
+
+<p>I've looked at how powerdns and dhcpd is using LDAP, and using this
+information finally found a solution that seem to work.</p>
+
+<p>The old setup required three LDAP objects for a given computer.
+One forward DNS entry, one reverse DNS entry and one DHCP entry. If
+we switch powerdns to use its strict LDAP method (ldap-method=strict
+in pdns-debian-edu.conf), the forward and reverse DNS entries are
+merged into one while making it impossible to transfer the reverse map
+to a slave DNS server.</p>
+
+<p>If we also replace the object class used to get the DNS related
+attributes to one allowing these attributes to be combined with the
+dhcphost object class, we can merge the DNS and DHCP entries into one.
+I've written such object class in the dnsdomainaux.schema file (need
+proper OIDs, but that is a minor issue), and tested the setup. It
+seem to work.</p>
+
+<p>With this test setup in place, we can get away with one LDAP object
+for both DNS and DHCP, and even the LTSP configuration I suggested in
+an earlier email. The combined LDAP object will look something like
+this:</p>
+
+<blockquote><pre>
+ dn: cn=hostname,cn=group1,cn=THINCLIENTS,cn=DHCP Config,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
+ cn: hostname
+ objectClass: dhcphost
+ objectclass: domainrelatedobject
+ objectclass: dnsdomainaux
+ associateddomain: hostname.intern
+ arecord: 10.11.12.13
+ dhcphwaddress: ethernet 00:00:00:00:00:00
+ dhcpstatements: fixed-address hostname
+ ldapconfigsound: Y
+</pre></blockquote>
+
+<p>The DNS server uses the associateddomain and arecord entries, while
+the DHCP server uses the dhcphwaddress and dhcpstatements entries
+before asking DNS to resolve the fixed-adddress. LTSP will use
+dhcphwaddress or associateddomain and the ldapconfig* attributes.</p>
+
+<p>I am not yet sure if I can get the DHCP server to look for its
+dhcphost in a different location, to allow us to put the objects
+outside the "DHCP Config" subtree, but hope to figure out a way to do
+that. If I can't figure out a way to do that, we can still get rid of
+the hosts subtree and move all its content into the DHCP Config tree
+(which probably should be renamed to be more related to the new
+content. I suspect cn=dnsdhcp,ou=services or something like that
+might be a good place to put it.</p>
+
+<p>If you want to help out with implementing this for Debian Edu,
+please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.</p>
+</description>
+ </item>
+
+ <item>
+ <title>What are they searching for - PowerDNS and ISC DHCP in LDAP</title>
+ <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/What_are_they_searching_for___PowerDNS_and_ISC_DHCP_in_LDAP.html</link>
+ <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/What_are_they_searching_for___PowerDNS_and_ISC_DHCP_in_LDAP.html</guid>
+ <pubDate>Sat, 17 Jul 2010 21:00:00 +0200</pubDate>
+ <description>
+<p>This is a
+<a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Time_for_new__LDAP_schemas_replacing_RFC_2307_.html">followup</a>
+on my
+<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
+work</a> on
+<a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Combining_PowerDNS_and_ISC_DHCP_LDAP_objects.html">merging
+all</a> the computer related LDAP objects in Debian Edu.</p>
+
+<p>As a step to try to see if it possible to merge the DNS and DHCP
+LDAP objects, I have had a look at how the packages pdns-backend-ldap
+and dhcp3-server-ldap in Debian use the LDAP server. The two
+implementations are quite different in how they use LDAP.</p>
+
+To get this information, I started slapd with debugging enabled and
+dumped the debug output to a file to get the LDAP searches performed
+on a Debian Edu main-server. Here is a summary.
+
+<p><strong>powerdns</strong></p>
+
+<a href="http://www.linuxnetworks.de/doc/index.php/PowerDNS_LDAP_Backend">Clues
+on how to</a> set up PowerDNS to use a LDAP backend is available on
+the web.
+
+<p>PowerDNS have two modes of operation using LDAP as its backend.
+One "strict" mode where the forward and reverse DNS lookups are done
+using the same LDAP objects, and a "tree" mode where the forward and
+reverse entries are in two different subtrees in LDAP with a structure
+based on the DNS names, as in tjener.intern and
+2.2.0.10.in-addr.arpa.</p>
+
+<p>In tree mode, the server is set up to use a LDAP subtree as its
+base, and uses a "base" scoped search for the DNS name by adding
+"dc=tjener,dc=intern," to the base with a filter for
+"(associateddomain=tjener.intern)" for the forward entry and
+"dc=2,dc=2,dc=0,dc=10,dc=in-addr,dc=arpa," with a filter for
+"(associateddomain=2.2.0.10.in-addr.arpa)" for the reverse entry. For
+forward entries, it is looking for attributes named dnsttl, arecord,
+nsrecord, cnamerecord, soarecord, ptrrecord, hinforecord, mxrecord,
+txtrecord, rprecord, afsdbrecord, keyrecord, aaaarecord, locrecord,
+srvrecord, naptrrecord, kxrecord, certrecord, dsrecord, sshfprecord,
+ipseckeyrecord, rrsigrecord, nsecrecord, dnskeyrecord, dhcidrecord,
+spfrecord and modifytimestamp. For reverse entries it is looking for
+the attributes dnsttl, arecord, nsrecord, cnamerecord, soarecord,
+ptrrecord, hinforecord, mxrecord, txtrecord, rprecord, aaaarecord,
+locrecord, srvrecord, naptrrecord and modifytimestamp. The equivalent
+ldapsearch commands could look like this:</p>
+
+<blockquote><pre>
+ldapsearch -h ldap \
+ -b dc=tjener,dc=intern,ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no \
+ -s base -x '(associateddomain=tjener.intern)' dNSTTL aRecord nSRecord \
+ cNAMERecord sOARecord pTRRecord hInfoRecord mXRecord tXTRecord \
+ rPRecord aFSDBRecord KeyRecord aAAARecord lOCRecord sRVRecord \
+ nAPTRRecord kXRecord certRecord dSRecord sSHFPRecord iPSecKeyRecord \
+ rRSIGRecord nSECRecord dNSKeyRecord dHCIDRecord sPFRecord modifyTimestamp
+
+ldapsearch -h ldap \
+ -b dc=2,dc=2,dc=0,dc=10,dc=in-addr,dc=arpa,ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no \
+ -s base -x '(associateddomain=2.2.0.10.in-addr.arpa)'
+ dnsttl, arecord, nsrecord, cnamerecord soarecord ptrrecord \
+ hinforecord mxrecord txtrecord rprecord aaaarecord locrecord \
+ srvrecord naptrrecord modifytimestamp
+</pre></blockquote>
+
+<p>In Debian Edu/Lenny, the PowerDNS tree mode is used with
+ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no as the base, and these are two
+example LDAP objects used there. In addition to these objects, the
+parent objects all th way up to ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
+also exist.</p>
+
+<blockquote><pre>
+dn: dc=tjener,dc=intern,ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
+objectclass: top
+objectclass: dnsdomain
+objectclass: domainrelatedobject
+dc: tjener
+arecord: 10.0.2.2
+associateddomain: tjener.intern
+
+dn: dc=2,dc=2,dc=0,dc=10,dc=in-addr,dc=arpa,ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
+objectclass: top
+objectclass: dnsdomain2
+objectclass: domainrelatedobject
+dc: 2
+ptrrecord: tjener.intern
+associateddomain: 2.2.0.10.in-addr.arpa
+</pre></blockquote>
+
+<p>In strict mode, the server behaves differently. When looking for
+forward DNS entries, it is doing a "subtree" scoped search with the
+same base as in the tree mode for a object with filter
+"(associateddomain=tjener.intern)" and requests the attributes dnsttl,
+arecord, nsrecord, cnamerecord, soarecord, ptrrecord, hinforecord,
+mxrecord, txtrecord, rprecord, aaaarecord, locrecord, srvrecord,
+naptrrecord and modifytimestamp. For reverse entires it also do a
+subtree scoped search but this time the filter is "(arecord=10.0.2.2)"
+and the requested attributes are associateddomain, dnsttl and
+modifytimestamp. In short, in strict mode the objects with ptrrecord
+go away, and the arecord attribute in the forward object is used
+instead.</p>
+
+<p>The forward and reverse searches can be simulated using ldapsearch
+like this:</p>
+
+<blockquote><pre>
+ldapsearch -h ldap -b ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no -s sub -x \
+ '(associateddomain=tjener.intern)' dNSTTL aRecord nSRecord \
+ cNAMERecord sOARecord pTRRecord hInfoRecord mXRecord tXTRecord \
+ rPRecord aFSDBRecord KeyRecord aAAARecord lOCRecord sRVRecord \
+ nAPTRRecord kXRecord certRecord dSRecord sSHFPRecord iPSecKeyRecord \
+ rRSIGRecord nSECRecord dNSKeyRecord dHCIDRecord sPFRecord modifyTimestamp
+
+ldapsearch -h ldap -b ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no -s sub -x \
+ '(arecord=10.0.2.2)' associateddomain dnsttl modifytimestamp
+</pre></blockquote>
+
+<p>In addition to the forward and reverse searches , there is also a
+search for SOA records, which behave similar to the forward and
+reverse lookups.</p>
+
+<p>A thing to note with the PowerDNS behaviour is that it do not
+specify any objectclass names, and instead look for the attributes it
+need to generate a DNS reply. This make it able to work with any
+objectclass that provide the needed attributes.</p>
+
+<p>The attributes are normally provided in the cosine (RFC 1274) and
+dnsdomain2 schemas. The latter is used for reverse entries like
+ptrrecord and recent DNS additions like aaaarecord and srvrecord.</p>
+
+<p>In Debian Edu, we have created DNS objects using the object classes
+dcobject (for dc), dnsdomain or dnsdomain2 (structural, for the DNS
+attributes) and domainrelatedobject (for associatedDomain). The use
+of structural object classes make it impossible to combine these
+classes with the object classes used by DHCP.</p>
+
+<p>There are other schemas that could be used too, for example the
+dnszone structural object class used by Gosa and bind-sdb for the DNS
+attributes combined with the domainrelatedobject object class, but in
+this case some unused attributes would have to be included as well
+(zonename and relativedomainname).</p>
+
+<p>My proposal for Debian Edu would be to switch PowerDNS to strict
+mode and not use any of the existing objectclasses (dnsdomain,
+dnsdomain2 and dnszone) when one want to combine the DNS information
+with DHCP information, and instead create a auxiliary object class
+defined something like this (using the attributes defined for
+dnsdomain and dnsdomain2 or dnszone):</p>
+
+<blockquote><pre>
+objectclass ( some-oid NAME 'dnsDomainAux'
+ SUP top
+ AUXILIARY
+ MAY ( ARecord $ MDRecord $ MXRecord $ NSRecord $ SOARecord $ CNAMERecord $
+ DNSTTL $ DNSClass $ PTRRecord $ HINFORecord $ MINFORecord $
+ TXTRecord $ SIGRecord $ KEYRecord $ AAAARecord $ LOCRecord $
+ NXTRecord $ SRVRecord $ NAPTRRecord $ KXRecord $ CERTRecord $
+ A6Record $ DNAMERecord
+ ))
+</pre></blockquote>
+
+<p>This will allow any object to become a DNS entry when combined with
+the domainrelatedobject object class, and allow any entity to include
+all the attributes PowerDNS wants. I've sent an email to the PowerDNS
+developers asking for their view on this schema and if they are
+interested in providing such schema with PowerDNS, and I hope my
+message will be accepted into their mailing list soon.</p>
+
+<p><strong>ISC dhcp</strong></p>
+
+<p>The DHCP server searches for specific objectclass and requests all
+the object attributes, and then uses the attributes it want. This
+make it harder to figure out exactly what attributes are used, but
+thanks to the working example in Debian Edu I can at least get an idea
+what is needed without having to read the source code.</p>
+
+<p>In the DHCP server configuration, the LDAP base to use and the
+search filter to use to locate the correct dhcpServer entity is
+stored. These are the relevant entries from
+/etc/dhcp3/dhcpd.conf:</p>
+
+<blockquote><pre>
+ldap-base-dn "dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no";
+ldap-dhcp-server-cn "dhcp";
+</pre></blockquote>
+
+<p>The DHCP server uses this information to nest all the DHCP
+configuration it need. The cn "dhcp" is located using the given LDAP
+base and the filter "(&(objectClass=dhcpServer)(cn=dhcp))". The
+search result is this entry:</p>
+
+<blockquote><pre>
+dn: cn=dhcp,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
+cn: dhcp
+objectClass: top
+objectClass: dhcpServer
+dhcpServiceDN: cn=DHCP Config,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
+</pre></blockquote>
+
+<p>The content of the dhcpServiceDN attribute is next used to locate the
+subtree with DHCP configuration. The DHCP configuration subtree base
+is located using a base scope search with base "cn=DHCP
+Config,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no" and filter
+"(&(objectClass=dhcpService)(|(dhcpPrimaryDN=cn=dhcp,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no)(dhcpSecondaryDN=cn=dhcp,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no)))".
+The search result is this entry:</p>
+
+<blockquote><pre>
+dn: cn=DHCP Config,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
+cn: DHCP Config
+objectClass: top
+objectClass: dhcpService
+objectClass: dhcpOptions
+dhcpPrimaryDN: cn=dhcp, dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
+dhcpStatements: ddns-update-style none
+dhcpStatements: authoritative
+dhcpOption: smtp-server code 69 = array of ip-address
+dhcpOption: www-server code 72 = array of ip-address
+dhcpOption: wpad-url code 252 = text
+</pre></blockquote>
+
+<p>Next, the entire subtree is processed, one level at the time. When
+all the DHCP configuration is loaded, it is ready to receive requests.
+The subtree in Debian Edu contain objects with object classes
+top/dhcpService/dhcpOptions, top/dhcpSharedNetwork/dhcpOptions,
+top/dhcpSubnet, top/dhcpGroup and top/dhcpHost. These provide options
+and information about netmasks, dynamic range etc. Leaving out the
+details here because it is not relevant for the focus of my
+investigation, which is to see if it is possible to merge dns and dhcp
+related computer objects.</p>
+
+<p>When a DHCP request come in, LDAP is searched for the MAC address
+of the client (00:00:00:00:00:00 in this example), using a subtree
+scoped search with "cn=DHCP Config,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no" as
+the base and "(&(objectClass=dhcpHost)(dhcpHWAddress=ethernet
+00:00:00:00:00:00))" as the filter. This is what a host object look
+like:</p>
+
+<blockquote><pre>
+dn: cn=hostname,cn=group1,cn=THINCLIENTS,cn=DHCP Config,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
+cn: hostname
+objectClass: top
+objectClass: dhcpHost
+dhcpHWAddress: ethernet 00:00:00:00:00:00
+dhcpStatements: fixed-address hostname
+</pre></blockquote>
+
+<p>There is less flexiblity in the way LDAP searches are done here.
+The object classes need to have fixed names, and the configuration
+need to be stored in a fairly specific LDAP structure. On the
+positive side, the invidiual dhcpHost entires can be anywhere without
+the DN pointed to by the dhcpServer entries. The latter should make
+it possible to group all host entries in a subtree next to the
+configuration entries, and this subtree can also be shared with the
+DNS server if the schema proposed above is combined with the dhcpHost
+structural object class.
+
+<p><strong>Conclusion</strong></p>
+
+<p>The PowerDNS implementation seem to be very flexible when it come
+to which LDAP schemas to use. While its "tree" mode is rigid when it
+come to the the LDAP structure, the "strict" mode is very flexible,
+allowing DNS objects to be stored anywhere under the base cn specified
+in the configuration.</p>
+
+<p>The DHCP implementation on the other hand is very inflexible, both
+regarding which LDAP schemas to use and which LDAP structure to use.
+I guess one could implement ones own schema, as long as the
+objectclasses and attributes have the names used, but this do not
+really help when the DHCP subtree need to have a fairly fixed
+structure.</p>
+
+<p>Based on the observed behaviour, I suspect a LDAP structure like
+this might work for Debian Edu:</p>
+
+<blockquote><pre>
+ou=services
+ cn=machine-info (dhcpService) - dhcpServiceDN points here
+ cn=dhcp (dhcpServer)
+ cn=dhcp-internal (dhcpSharedNetwork/dhcpOptions)
+ cn=10.0.2.0 (dhcpSubnet)
+ cn=group1 (dhcpGroup/dhcpOptions)
+ cn=dhcp-thinclients (dhcpSharedNetwork/dhcpOptions)
+ cn=192.168.0.0 (dhcpSubnet)
+ cn=group1 (dhcpGroup/dhcpOptions)
+ ou=machines - PowerDNS base points here
+ cn=hostname (dhcpHost/domainrelatedobject/dnsDomainAux)
+</pre></blockquote>
+
+<P>This is not tested yet. If the DHCP server require the dhcpHost
+entries to be in the dhcpGroup subtrees, the entries can be stored
+there instead of a common machines subtree, and the PowerDNS base
+would have to be moved one level up to the machine-info subtree.</p>
+
+<p>The combined object under the machines subtree would look something
+like this:</p>
+
+<blockquote><pre>
+dn: dc=hostname,ou=machines,cn=machine-info,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
+dc: hostname
+objectClass: top
+objectClass: dhcpHost
+objectclass: domainrelatedobject
+objectclass: dnsDomainAux
+associateddomain: hostname.intern
+arecord: 10.11.12.13
+dhcpHWAddress: ethernet 00:00:00:00:00:00
+dhcpStatements: fixed-address hostname.intern
+</pre></blockquote>
+
+</p>One could even add the LTSP configuration associated with a given
+machine, as long as the required attributes are available in a
+auxiliary object class.</p>
+</description>
+ </item>
+
+ <item>
+ <title>Circular package dependencies harms apt recovery</title>
+ <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Circular_package_dependencies_harms_apt_recovery.html</link>
+ <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Circular_package_dependencies_harms_apt_recovery.html</guid>
+ <pubDate>Tue, 27 Jul 2010 23:50:00 +0200</pubDate>
+ <description>
+<p>I discovered this while doing
+<a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Automatic_upgrade_testing_from_Lenny_to_Squeeze.html">automated
+testing of upgrades from Debian Lenny to Squeeze</a>. A few packages
+in Debian still got circular dependencies, and it is often claimed
+that apt and aptitude should be able to handle this just fine, but
+some times these dependency loops causes apt to fail.</p>
+
+<p>An example is from todays
+<a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/~pere/debian-upgrade-testing//test-20100727-lenny-squeeze-kde-aptitude.txt">upgrade
+of KDE using aptitude</a>. In it, a bug in kdebase-workspace-data
+causes perl-modules to fail to upgrade. The cause is simple. If a
+package fail to unpack, then only part of packages with the circular
+dependency might end up being unpacked when unpacking aborts, and the
+ones already unpacked will fail to configure in the recovery phase
+because its dependencies are unavailable.</p>
+
+<p>In this log, the problem manifest itself with this error:</p>
+
+<blockquote><pre>
+dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of perl-modules:
+ perl-modules depends on perl (>= 5.10.1-1); however:
+ Version of perl on system is 5.10.0-19lenny2.
+dpkg: error processing perl-modules (--configure):
+ dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
+</pre></blockquote>
+
+<p>The perl/perl-modules circular dependency is already
+<a href="http://bugs.debian.org/527917">reported as a bug</a>, and will
+hopefully be solved as soon as possible, but it is not the only one,
+and each one of these loops in the dependency tree can cause similar
+failures. Of course, they only occur when there are bugs in other
+packages causing the unpacking to fail, but it is rather nasty when
+the failure of one package causes the problem to become worse because
+of dependency loops.</p>
+
+<p>Thanks to
+<a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2010/06/msg00116.html">the
+tireless effort by Bill Allombert</a>, the number of circular
+dependencies
+<a href="http://debian.semistable.com/debgraph.out.html">left in Debian
+is dropping</a>, and perhaps it will reach zero one day. :)</p>
+
+<p>Todays testing also exposed a bug in
+<a href="http://bugs.debian.org/590605">update-notifier</a> and
+<a href="http://bugs.debian.org/590604">different behaviour</a> between
+apt-get and aptitude, the latter possibly caused by some circular
+dependency. Reported both to BTS to try to get someone to look at
+it.</p>
+</description>
+ </item>
+
+ <item>
+ <title>Some notes on Flash in Debian and Debian Edu</title>
+ <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Some_notes_on_Flash_in_Debian_and_Debian_Edu.html</link>
+ <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Some_notes_on_Flash_in_Debian_and_Debian_Edu.html</guid>
+ <pubDate>Sat, 4 Sep 2010 10:10:00 +0200</pubDate>
+ <description>
+<p>In the <a href="http://popcon.debian.org/unknown/by_vote">Debian
+popularity-contest numbers</a>, the adobe-flashplugin package the
+second most popular used package that is missing in Debian. The sixth
+most popular is flashplayer-mozilla. This is a clear indication that
+working flash is important for Debian users. Around 10 percent of the
+users submitting data to popcon.debian.org have this package
+installed.</p>
+
+<p>In the report written by Lars Risan in August 2008
+(«<a href="http://wiki.skolelinux.no/Dokumentasjon/Rapporter?action=AttachFile&do=view&target=Skolelinux_i_bruk_rapport_1.0.pdf">Skolelinux
+i bruk – Rapport for Hurum kommune, Universitetet i Agder og
+stiftelsen SLX Debian Labs</a>»), one of the most important problems
+schools experienced with <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian
+Edu/Skolelinux</a> was the lack of working Flash. A lot of educational
+web sites require Flash to work, and lacking working Flash support in
+the web browser and the problems with installing it was perceived as a
+good reason to stay with Windows.</p>
+
+<p>I once saw a funny and sad comment in a web forum, where Linux was
+said to be the retarded cousin that did not really understand
+everything you told him but could work fairly well. This was a
+comment regarding the problems Linux have with proprietary formats and
+non-standard web pages, and is sad because it exposes a fairly common
+understanding of whose fault it is if web pages that only work in for
+example Internet Explorer 6 fail to work on Firefox, and funny because
+it explain very well how annoying it is for users when Linux
+distributions do not work with the documents they receive or the web
+pages they want to visit.</p>
+
+<p>This is part of the reason why I believe it is important for Debian
+and Debian Edu to have a well working Flash implementation in the
+distribution, to get at least popular sites as Youtube and Google
+Video to working out of the box. For Squeeze, Debian have the chance
+to include the latest version of Gnash that will make this happen, as
+the new release 0.8.8 was published a few weeks ago and is resting in
+unstable. The new version work with more sites that version 0.8.7.
+The Gnash maintainers have asked for a freeze exception, but the
+release team have not had time to reply to it yet. I hope they agree
+with me that Flash is important for the Debian desktop users, and thus
+accept the new package into Squeeze.</p>
+</description>
+ </item>
+
+ <item>
+ <title>Software updates 2010-10-24</title>
+ <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Software_updates_2010_10_24.html</link>
+ <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Software_updates_2010_10_24.html</guid>
+ <pubDate>Sun, 24 Oct 2010 22:45:00 +0200</pubDate>
+ <description>
+<p>Some updates.</p>
+
+<p>My <a href="http://pledgebank.com/gnash-avm2">gnash pledge</a> to
+raise money for the project is going well. The lower limit of 10
+signers was reached in 24 hours, and so far 13 people have signed it.
+More signers and more funding is most welcome, and I am really curious
+how far we can get before the time limit of December 24 is reached.
+:)</p>
+
+<p>On the #gnash IRC channel on irc.freenode.net, I was just tipped
+about what appear to be a great code coverage tool capable of
+generating code coverage stats without any changes to the source code.
+It is called
+<a href="http://simonkagstrom.github.com/kcov/index.html">kcov</a>,
+and can be used using <tt>kcov &lt;directory&gt; &lt;binary&gt;</tt>.
+It is missing in Debian, but the git source built just fine in Squeeze
+after I installed libelf-dev, libdwarf-dev, pkg-config and
+libglib2.0-dev. Failed to build in Lenny, but suspect that is
+solvable. I hope kcov make it into Debian soon.</p>
+
+<p>Finally found time to wrap up the release notes for <a
+href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-edu-announce/2010/10/msg00002.html">a
+new alpha release of Debian Edu</a>, and just published the second
+alpha test release of the Squeeze based Debian Edu /
+<a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Skolelinux</a>
+release. Give it a try if you need a complete linux solution for your
+school, including central infrastructure server, workstations, thin
+client servers and diskless workstations. A nice touch added
+yesterday is RDP support on the thin client servers, for windows
+clients to get a Linux desktop on request.</p>
+</description>
+ </item>
+
+ <item>
+ <title>Debian in 3D</title>
+ <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_in_3D.html</link>
+ <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_in_3D.html</guid>
+ <pubDate>Tue, 9 Nov 2010 16:10:00 +0100</pubDate>
+ <description>
+<p><img src="http://thingiverse-production.s3.amazonaws.com/renders/23/e0/c4/f9/2b/debswagtdose_preview_medium.jpg"></p>
+
+<p>3D printing is just great. I just came across this Debian logo in
+3D linked in from
+<a href="http://blog.thingiverse.com/2010/11/09/participatory-branding/">the
+thingiverse blog</a>.</p>
+</description>
+ </item>
+
+ <item>
+ <title>Gnash buildbot slave and Debian kfreebsd</title>
+ <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Gnash_buildbot_slave_and_Debian_kfreebsd.html</link>
+ <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Gnash_buildbot_slave_and_Debian_kfreebsd.html</guid>
+ <pubDate>Sat, 20 Nov 2010 07:20:00 +0100</pubDate>
+ <description>
+<p>Answering
+<a href="http://www.listware.net/201011/gnash-dev/67431-gnash-dev-buildbot-looking-for-slaves.html">the
+call from the Gnash project</a> for
+<a href="http://www.gnashdev.org:8010">buildbot</a> slaves to test the
+current source, I have set up a virtual KVM machine on the Debian
+Edu/Skolelinux virtualization host to test the git source on
+Debian/Squeeze. I hope this can help the developers in getting new
+releases out more often.</p>
+
+<p>As the developers want less main-stream build platforms tested to,
+I have considered setting up a <a
+href="http://www.debian.org/ports/kfreebsd-gnu/">Debian/kfreebsd</a>
+machine as well. I have also considered using the kfreebsd
+architecture in Debian as a file server in NUUG to get access to the 5
+TB zfs volume we currently use to store DV video. Because of this, I
+finally got around to do a test installation of Debian/Squeeze with
+kfreebsd. Installation went fairly smooth, thought I noticed some
+visual glitches in the cdebconf dialogs (black cursor left on the
+screen at random locations). Have not gotten very far with the
+testing. Noticed cfdisk did not work, but fdisk did so it was not a
+fatal problem. Have to spend some more time on it to see if it is
+useful as a file server for NUUG. Will try to find time to set up a
+gnash buildbot slave on the Debian Edu/Skolelinux this weekend.</p>
+</description>
+ </item>
+
+ <item>
+ <title>Lenny->Squeeze upgrades, apt vs aptitude with the Gnome and KDE desktop</title>
+ <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lenny__Squeeze_upgrades__apt_vs_aptitude_with_the_Gnome_and_KDE_desktop.html</link>
+ <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lenny__Squeeze_upgrades__apt_vs_aptitude_with_the_Gnome_and_KDE_desktop.html</guid>
+ <pubDate>Sat, 20 Nov 2010 22:50:00 +0100</pubDate>
+ <description>
+<p>I'm still running upgrade testing of the
+<a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/~pere/debian-upgrade-testing/">Lenny
+Gnome and KDE Desktop</a>, but have not had time to spend on reporting the
+status. Here is a short update based on a test I ran 20101118.</p>
+
+<p>I still do not know what a correct migration should look like, so I
+report any differences between apt and aptitude and hope someone else
+can see if anything should be changed.</p>
+
+<p>This is for Gnome:</p>
+
+<p>Installed using apt-get, missing with aptitude</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>
+ apache2.2-bin aptdaemon at-spi baobab binfmt-support
+ browser-plugin-gnash cheese-common cli-common cpp-4.3 cups-pk-helper
+ dmz-cursor-theme empathy empathy-common finger
+ freedesktop-sound-theme freeglut3 gconf-defaults-service gdm-themes
+ gedit-plugins geoclue geoclue-hostip geoclue-localnet geoclue-manual
+ geoclue-yahoo gnash gnash-common gnome gnome-backgrounds
+ gnome-cards-data gnome-codec-install gnome-core
+ gnome-desktop-environment gnome-disk-utility gnome-screenshot
+ gnome-search-tool gnome-session-canberra gnome-spell
+ gnome-system-log gnome-themes-extras gnome-themes-more
+ gnome-user-share gs-common gstreamer0.10-fluendo-mp3
+ gstreamer0.10-tools gtk2-engines gtk2-engines-pixbuf
+ gtk2-engines-smooth hal-info hamster-applet libapache2-mod-dnssd
+ libapr1 libaprutil1 libaprutil1-dbd-sqlite3 libaprutil1-ldap
+ libart2.0-cil libatspi1.0-0 libboost-date-time1.42.0
+ libboost-python1.42.0 libboost-thread1.42.0 libchamplain-0.4-0
+ libchamplain-gtk-0.4-0 libcheese-gtk18 libclutter-gtk-0.10-0
+ libcryptui0 libcupsys2 libdiscid0 libeel2-data libelf1 libepc-1.0-2
+ libepc-common libepc-ui-1.0-2 libfreerdp-plugins-standard
+ libfreerdp0 libgail-common libgconf2.0-cil libgdata-common libgdata7
+ libgdl-1-common libgdu-gtk0 libgee2 libgeoclue0 libgexiv2-0 libgif4
+ libglade2.0-cil libglib2.0-cil libgmime2.4-cil libgnome-vfs2.0-cil
+ libgnome2.24-cil libgnomepanel2.24-cil libgnomeprint2.2-data
+ libgnomeprintui2.2-common libgnomevfs2-bin libgpod-common libgpod4
+ libgtk2.0-cil libgtkglext1 libgtksourceview-common
+ libgtksourceview2.0-common libmono-addins-gui0.2-cil
+ libmono-addins0.2-cil libmono-cairo2.0-cil libmono-corlib2.0-cil
+ libmono-i18n-west2.0-cil libmono-posix2.0-cil
+ libmono-security2.0-cil libmono-sharpzip2.84-cil
+ libmono-system2.0-cil libmtp8 libmusicbrainz3-6
+ libndesk-dbus-glib1.0-cil libndesk-dbus1.0-cil libopal3.6.8
+ libpolkit-gtk-1-0 libpt-1.10.10-plugins-alsa
+ libpt-1.10.10-plugins-v4l libpt2.6.7 libpython2.6 librpm1 librpmio1
+ libsdl1.2debian libservlet2.4-java libsrtp0 libssh-4
+ libtelepathy-farsight0 libtelepathy-glib0 libtidy-0.99-0
+ libxalan2-java libxerces2-java media-player-info mesa-utils
+ mono-2.0-gac mono-gac mono-runtime nautilus-sendto
+ nautilus-sendto-empathy openoffice.org-writer2latex
+ openssl-blacklist p7zip p7zip-full pkg-config python-4suite-xml
+ python-aptdaemon python-aptdaemon-gtk python-axiom
+ python-beautifulsoup python-bugbuddy python-clientform
+ python-coherence python-configobj python-crypto python-cupshelpers
+ python-cupsutils python-eggtrayicon python-elementtree
+ python-epsilon python-evolution python-feedparser python-gdata
+ python-gdbm python-gst0.10 python-gtkglext1 python-gtkmozembed
+ python-gtksourceview2 python-httplib2 python-louie python-mako
+ python-markupsafe python-mechanize python-nevow python-notify
+ python-opengl python-openssl python-pam python-pkg-resources
+ python-pyasn1 python-pysqlite2 python-rdflib python-serial
+ python-tagpy python-twisted-bin python-twisted-conch
+ python-twisted-core python-twisted-web python-utidylib python-webkit
+ python-xdg python-zope.interface remmina remmina-plugin-data
+ remmina-plugin-rdp remmina-plugin-vnc rhythmbox-plugin-cdrecorder
+ rhythmbox-plugins rpm-common rpm2cpio seahorse-plugins shotwell
+ software-center svgalibg1 system-config-printer-udev
+ telepathy-gabble telepathy-mission-control-5 telepathy-salut tomboy
+ totem totem-coherence totem-mozilla totem-plugins
+ transmission-common xdg-user-dirs xdg-user-dirs-gtk xserver-xephyr
+ zip
+</p></blockquote>
+
+Installed using apt-get, removed with aptitude
+
+<blockquote><p>
+ arj bluez-utils cheese dhcdbd djvulibre-desktop ekiga eog
+ epiphany-extensions epiphany-gecko evolution-exchange
+ fast-user-switch-applet file-roller gcalctool gconf-editor gdm gedit
+ gedit-common gnome-app-install gnome-games gnome-games-data
+ gnome-nettool gnome-system-tools gnome-themes gnome-utils
+ gnome-vfs-obexftp gnome-volume-manager gnuchess gucharmap
+ guile-1.8-libs hal libavahi-compat-libdnssd1 libavahi-core5
+ libavahi-ui0 libbind9-50 libbluetooth2 libcamel1.2-11 libcdio7
+ libcucul0 libcurl3 libdirectfb-1.0-0 libdmx1 libdvdread3
+ libedata-cal1.2-6 libedataserver1.2-9 libeel2-2.20 libepc-1.0-1
+ libepc-ui-1.0-1 libexchange-storage1.2-3 libfaad0 libgadu3
+ libgalago3 libgd2-noxpm libgda3-3 libgda3-common libggz2 libggzcore9
+ libggzmod4 libgksu1.2-0 libgksuui1.0-1 libgmyth0 libgnome-desktop-2
+ libgnome-pilot2 libgnomecups1.0-1 libgnomeprint2.2-0
+ libgnomeprintui2.2-0 libgpod3 libgraphviz4 libgtk-vnc-1.0-0
+ libgtkhtml2-0 libgtksourceview1.0-0 libgtksourceview2.0-0
+ libgucharmap6 libhesiod0 libicu38 libisccc50 libisccfg50 libiw29
+ libjaxp1.3-java-gcj libkpathsea4 liblircclient0 libltdl3 liblwres50
+ libmagick++10 libmagick10 libmalaga7 libmozjs1d libmpfr1ldbl libmtp7
+ libmysqlclient15off libnautilus-burn4 libneon27 libnm-glib0
+ libnm-util0 libopal-2.2 libosp5 libparted1.8-10 libpisock9
+ libpisync1 libpoppler-glib3 libpoppler3 libpt-1.10.10 libraw1394-8
+ libsdl1.2debian-alsa libsensors3 libsexy2 libsmbios2 libsoup2.2-8
+ libspeexdsp1 libssh2-1 libsuitesparse-3.1.0 libsvga1
+ libswfdec-0.6-90 libtalloc1 libtotem-plparser10 libtrackerclient0
+ libvoikko1 libxalan2-java-gcj libxerces2-java-gcj libxklavier12
+ libxtrap6 libxxf86misc1 libzephyr3 mysql-common rhythmbox seahorse
+ sound-juicer swfdec-gnome system-config-printer totem-common
+ totem-gstreamer transmission-gtk vinagre vino w3c-dtd-xhtml wodim
+</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>Installed using aptitude, missing with apt-get</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>
+ gstreamer0.10-gnomevfs
+</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>Installed using aptitude, removed with apt-get</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>
+[nothing]
+</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>This is for KDE:</p>
+
+<p>Installed using apt-get, missing with aptitude</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>
+ autopoint bomber bovo cantor cantor-backend-kalgebra cpp-4.3 dcoprss
+ edict espeak espeak-data eyesapplet fifteenapplet finger gettext
+ ghostscript-x git gnome-audio gnugo granatier gs-common
+ gstreamer0.10-pulseaudio indi kaddressbook-plugins kalgebra
+ kalzium-data kanjidic kapman kate-plugins kblocks kbreakout kbstate
+ kde-icons-mono kdeaccessibility kdeaddons-kfile-plugins
+ kdeadmin-kfile-plugins kdeartwork-misc kdeartwork-theme-window
+ kdeedu kdeedu-data kdeedu-kvtml-data kdegames kdegames-card-data
+ kdegames-mahjongg-data kdegraphics-kfile-plugins kdelirc
+ kdemultimedia-kfile-plugins kdenetwork-kfile-plugins
+ kdepim-kfile-plugins kdepim-kio-plugins kdessh kdetoys kdewebdev
+ kdiamond kdnssd kfilereplace kfourinline kgeography-data kigo
+ killbots kiriki klettres-data kmoon kmrml knewsticker-scripts
+ kollision kpf krosspython ksirk ksmserver ksquares kstars-data
+ ksudoku kubrick kweather libasound2-plugins libboost-python1.42.0
+ libcfitsio3 libconvert-binhex-perl libcrypt-ssleay-perl libdb4.6++
+ libdjvulibre-text libdotconf1.0 liberror-perl libespeak1
+ libfinance-quote-perl libgail-common libgsl0ldbl libhtml-parser-perl
+ libhtml-tableextract-perl libhtml-tagset-perl libhtml-tree-perl
+ libio-stringy-perl libkdeedu4 libkdegames5 libkiten4 libkpathsea5
+ libkrossui4 libmailtools-perl libmime-tools-perl
+ libnews-nntpclient-perl libopenbabel3 libportaudio2 libpulse-browse0
+ libservlet2.4-java libspeechd2 libtiff-tools libtimedate-perl
+ libunistring0 liburi-perl libwww-perl libxalan2-java libxerces2-java
+ lirc luatex marble networkstatus noatun-plugins
+ openoffice.org-writer2latex palapeli palapeli-data parley
+ parley-data poster psutils pulseaudio pulseaudio-esound-compat
+ pulseaudio-module-x11 pulseaudio-utils quanta-data rocs rsync
+ speech-dispatcher step svgalibg1 texlive-binaries texlive-luatex
+ ttf-sazanami-gothic
+</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>Installed using apt-get, removed with aptitude</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>
+ amor artsbuilder atlantik atlantikdesigner blinken bluez-utils cvs
+ dhcdbd djvulibre-desktop imlib-base imlib11 kalzium kanagram kandy
+ kasteroids katomic kbackgammon kbattleship kblackbox kbounce kbruch
+ kcron kdat kdemultimedia-kappfinder-data kdeprint kdict kdvi kedit
+ keduca kenolaba kfax kfaxview kfouleggs kgeography kghostview
+ kgoldrunner khangman khexedit kiconedit kig kimagemapeditor
+ kitchensync kiten kjumpingcube klatin klettres klickety klines
+ klinkstatus kmag kmahjongg kmailcvt kmenuedit kmid kmilo kmines
+ kmousetool kmouth kmplot knetwalk kodo kolf kommander konquest kooka
+ kpager kpat kpdf kpercentage kpilot kpoker kpovmodeler krec
+ kregexpeditor kreversi ksame ksayit kshisen ksig ksim ksirc ksirtet
+ ksmiletris ksnake ksokoban kspaceduel kstars ksvg ksysv kteatime
+ ktip ktnef ktouch ktron kttsd ktuberling kturtle ktux kuickshow
+ kverbos kview kviewshell kvoctrain kwifimanager kwin kwin4 kwordquiz
+ kworldclock kxsldbg libakode2 libarts1-akode libarts1-audiofile
+ libarts1-mpeglib libarts1-xine libavahi-compat-libdnssd1
+ libavahi-core5 libavc1394-0 libbind9-50 libbluetooth2
+ libboost-python1.34.1 libcucul0 libcurl3 libcvsservice0
+ libdirectfb-1.0-0 libdjvulibre21 libdvdread3 libfaad0 libfreebob0
+ libgd2-noxpm libgraphviz4 libgsmme1c2a libgtkhtml2-0 libicu38
+ libiec61883-0 libindex0 libisccc50 libisccfg50 libiw29
+ libjaxp1.3-java-gcj libk3b3 libkcal2b libkcddb1 libkdeedu3
+ libkdegames1 libkdepim1a libkgantt0 libkleopatra1 libkmime2
+ libkpathsea4 libkpimexchange1 libkpimidentities1 libkscan1
+ libksieve0 libktnef1 liblockdev1 libltdl3 liblwres50 libmagick10
+ libmimelib1c2a libmodplug0c2 libmozjs1d libmpcdec3 libmpfr1ldbl
+ libneon27 libnm-util0 libopensync0 libpisock9 libpoppler-glib3
+ libpoppler-qt2 libpoppler3 libraw1394-8 librss1 libsensors3
+ libsmbios2 libssh2-1 libsuitesparse-3.1.0 libswfdec-0.6-90
+ libtalloc1 libxalan2-java-gcj libxerces2-java-gcj libxtrap6 lskat
+ mpeglib network-manager-kde noatun pmount tex-common texlive-base
+ texlive-common texlive-doc-base texlive-fonts-recommended tidy
+ ttf-dustin ttf-kochi-gothic ttf-sjfonts
+</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>Installed using aptitude, missing with apt-get</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>
+ dolphin kde-core kde-plasma-desktop kde-standard kde-window-manager
+ kdeartwork kdebase kdebase-apps kdebase-workspace
+ kdebase-workspace-bin kdebase-workspace-data kdeutils kscreensaver
+ kscreensaver-xsavers libgle3 libkonq5 libkonq5-templates libnetpbm10
+ netpbm plasma-widget-folderview plasma-widget-networkmanagement
+ xscreensaver-data-extra xscreensaver-gl xscreensaver-gl-extra
+ xscreensaver-screensaver-bsod
+</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>Installed using aptitude, removed with apt-get</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>
+ kdebase-bin konq-plugins konqueror
+</p></blockquote>
+</description>
+ </item>
+
+ <item>
+ <title>Migrating Xen virtual machines using LVM to KVM using disk images</title>
+ <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Migrating_Xen_virtual_machines_using_LVM_to_KVM_using_disk_images.html</link>
+ <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Migrating_Xen_virtual_machines_using_LVM_to_KVM_using_disk_images.html</guid>
+ <pubDate>Mon, 22 Nov 2010 11:20:00 +0100</pubDate>
+ <description>
+<p>Most of the computers in use by the
+<a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu/Skolelinux project</a>
+are virtual machines. And they have been Xen machines running on a
+fairly old IBM eserver xseries 345 machine, and we wanted to migrate
+them to KVM on a newer Dell PowerEdge 2950 host machine. This was a
+bit harder that it could have been, because we set up the Xen virtual
+machines to get the virtual partitions from LVM, which as far as I
+know is not supported by KVM. So to migrate, we had to convert
+several LVM logical volumes to partitions on a virtual disk file.</p>
+
+<p>I found
+<a href="http://searchnetworking.techtarget.com.au/articles/35011-Six-steps-for-migrating-Xen-virtual-machines-to-KVM">a
+nice recipe</a> to do this, and wrote the following script to do the
+migration. It uses qemu-img from the qemu package to make the disk
+image, parted to partition it, losetup and kpartx to present the disk
+image partions as devices, and dd to copy the data. I NFS mounted the
+new servers storage area on the old server to do the migration.</p>
+
+<pre>
+#!/bin/sh
+
+# Based on
+# http://searchnetworking.techtarget.com.au/articles/35011-Six-steps-for-migrating-Xen-virtual-machines-to-KVM
+
+set -e
+set -x
+
+if [ -z "$1" ] ; then
+ echo "Usage: $0 &lt;hostname&gt;"
+ exit 1
+else
+ host="$1"
+fi
+
+if [ ! -e /dev/vg_data/$host-disk ] ; then
+ echo "error: unable to find LVM volume for $host"
+ exit 1
+fi
+
+# Partitions need to be a bit bigger than the LVM LVs. not sure why.
+disksize=$( lvs --units m | grep $host-disk | awk '{sum = sum + $4} END { print int(sum * 1.05) }')
+swapsize=$( lvs --units m | grep $host-swap | awk '{sum = sum + $4} END { print int(sum * 1.05) }')
+totalsize=$(( ( $disksize + $swapsize ) ))
+
+img=$host.img
+#dd if=/dev/zero of=$img bs=1M count=$(( $disksize + $swapsize ))
+qemu-img create $img ${totalsize}MMaking room on the Debian Edu/Sqeeze DVD
+
+parted $img mklabel msdos
+parted $img mkpart primary linux-swap 0 $disksize
+parted $img mkpart primary ext2 $disksize $totalsize
+parted $img set 1 boot on
+
+modprobe dm-mod
+losetup /dev/loop0 $img
+kpartx -a /dev/loop0
+
+dd if=/dev/vg_data/$host-disk of=/dev/mapper/loop0p1 bs=1M
+fsck.ext3 -f /dev/mapper/loop0p1 || true
+mkswap /dev/mapper/loop0p2
+
+kpartx -d /dev/loop0
+losetup -d /dev/loop0
+</pre>
+
+<p>The script is perhaps so simple that it is not copyrightable, but
+if it is, it is licenced using GPL v2 or later at your discretion.</p>
+
+<p>After doing this, I booted a Debian CD in rescue mode in KVM with
+the new disk image attached, installed grub-pc and linux-image-686 and
+set up grub to boot from the disk image. After this, the KVM machines
+seem to work just fine.</p>
+</description>
+ </item>
+
+ <item>
+ <title>Lenny->Squeeze upgrades of the Gnome and KDE desktop, now with apt-get autoremove</title>
+ <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lenny__Squeeze_upgrades_of_the_Gnome_and_KDE_desktop__now_with_apt_get_autoremove.html</link>
+ <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>
+ <pubDate>Mon, 22 Nov 2010 14:15:00 +0100</pubDate>
+ <description>
+<p>Michael Biebl suggested to me on IRC, that I changed my automated
+upgrade testing of the
+<a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/~pere/debian-upgrade-testing/">Lenny
+Gnome and KDE Desktop</a> to do <tt>apt-get autoremove</tt> when using apt-get.
+This seem like a very good idea, so I adjusted by test scripts and
+can now present the updated result from today:</p>
+
+<p>This is for Gnome:</p>
+
+<p>Installed using apt-get, missing with aptitude</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>
+ apache2.2-bin
+ aptdaemon
+ baobab
+ binfmt-support
+ browser-plugin-gnash
+ cheese-common
+ cli-common
+ cups-pk-helper
+ dmz-cursor-theme
+ empathy
+ empathy-common
+ freedesktop-sound-theme
+ freeglut3
+ gconf-defaults-service
+ gdm-themes
+ gedit-plugins
+ geoclue
+ geoclue-hostip
+ geoclue-localnet
+ geoclue-manual
+ geoclue-yahoo
+ gnash
+ gnash-common
+ gnome
+ gnome-backgrounds
+ gnome-cards-data
+ gnome-codec-install
+ gnome-core
+ gnome-desktop-environment
+ gnome-disk-utility
+ gnome-screenshot
+ gnome-search-tool
+ gnome-session-canberra
+ gnome-system-log
+ gnome-themes-extras
+ gnome-themes-more
+ gnome-user-share
+ gstreamer0.10-fluendo-mp3
+ gstreamer0.10-tools
+ gtk2-engines
+ gtk2-engines-pixbuf
+ gtk2-engines-smooth
+ hamster-applet
+ libapache2-mod-dnssd
+ libapr1
+ libaprutil1
+ libaprutil1-dbd-sqlite3
+ libaprutil1-ldap
+ libart2.0-cil
+ libboost-date-time1.42.0
+ libboost-python1.42.0
+ libboost-thread1.42.0
+ libchamplain-0.4-0
+ libchamplain-gtk-0.4-0
+ libcheese-gtk18
+ libclutter-gtk-0.10-0
+ libcryptui0
+ libdiscid0
+ libelf1
+ libepc-1.0-2
+ libepc-common
+ libepc-ui-1.0-2
+ libfreerdp-plugins-standard
+ libfreerdp0
+ libgconf2.0-cil
+ libgdata-common
+ libgdata7
+ libgdu-gtk0
+ libgee2
+ libgeoclue0
+ libgexiv2-0
+ libgif4
+ libglade2.0-cil
+ libglib2.0-cil
+ libgmime2.4-cil
+ libgnome-vfs2.0-cil
+ libgnome2.24-cil
+ libgnomepanel2.24-cil
+ libgpod-common
+ libgpod4
+ libgtk2.0-cil
+ libgtkglext1
+ libgtksourceview2.0-common
+ libmono-addins-gui0.2-cil
+ libmono-addins0.2-cil
+ libmono-cairo2.0-cil
+ libmono-corlib2.0-cil
+ libmono-i18n-west2.0-cil
+ libmono-posix2.0-cil
+ libmono-security2.0-cil
+ libmono-sharpzip2.84-cil
+ libmono-system2.0-cil
+ libmtp8
+ libmusicbrainz3-6
+ libndesk-dbus-glib1.0-cil
+ libndesk-dbus1.0-cil
+ libopal3.6.8
+ libpolkit-gtk-1-0
+ libpt2.6.7
+ libpython2.6
+ librpm1
+ librpmio1
+ libsdl1.2debian
+ libsrtp0
+ libssh-4
+ libtelepathy-farsight0
+ libtelepathy-glib0
+ libtidy-0.99-0
+ media-player-info
+ mesa-utils
+ mono-2.0-gac
+ mono-gac
+ mono-runtime
+ nautilus-sendto
+ nautilus-sendto-empathy
+ p7zip-full
+ pkg-config
+ python-aptdaemon
+ python-aptdaemon-gtk
+ python-axiom
+ python-beautifulsoup
+ python-bugbuddy
+ python-clientform
+ python-coherence
+ python-configobj
+ python-crypto
+ python-cupshelpers
+ python-elementtree
+ python-epsilon
+ python-evolution
+ python-feedparser
+ python-gdata
+ python-gdbm
+ python-gst0.10
+ python-gtkglext1
+ python-gtksourceview2
+ python-httplib2
+ python-louie
+ python-mako
+ python-markupsafe
+ python-mechanize
+ python-nevow
+ python-notify
+ python-opengl
+ python-openssl
+ python-pam
+ python-pkg-resources
+ python-pyasn1
+ python-pysqlite2
+ python-rdflib
+ python-serial
+ python-tagpy
+ python-twisted-bin
+ python-twisted-conch
+ python-twisted-core
+ python-twisted-web
+ python-utidylib
+ python-webkit
+ python-xdg
+ python-zope.interface
+ remmina
+ remmina-plugin-data
+ remmina-plugin-rdp
+ remmina-plugin-vnc
+ rhythmbox-plugin-cdrecorder
+ rhythmbox-plugins
+ rpm-common
+ rpm2cpio
+ seahorse-plugins
+ shotwell
+ software-center
+ system-config-printer-udev
+ telepathy-gabble
+ telepathy-mission-control-5
+ telepathy-salut
+ tomboy
+ totem
+ totem-coherence
+ totem-mozilla
+ totem-plugins
+ transmission-common
+ xdg-user-dirs
+ xdg-user-dirs-gtk
+ xserver-xephyr
+</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>Installed using apt-get, removed with aptitude</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>
+ cheese
+ ekiga
+ eog
+ epiphany-extensions
+ evolution-exchange
+ fast-user-switch-applet
+ file-roller
+ gcalctool
+ gconf-editor
+ gdm
+ gedit
+ gedit-common
+ gnome-games
+ gnome-games-data
+ gnome-nettool
+ gnome-system-tools
+ gnome-themes
+ gnuchess
+ gucharmap
+ guile-1.8-libs
+ libavahi-ui0
+ libdmx1
+ libgalago3
+ libgtk-vnc-1.0-0
+ libgtksourceview2.0-0
+ liblircclient0
+ libsdl1.2debian-alsa
+ libspeexdsp1
+ libsvga1
+ rhythmbox
+ seahorse
+ sound-juicer
+ system-config-printer
+ totem-common
+ transmission-gtk
+ vinagre
+ vino
+</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>Installed using aptitude, missing with apt-get</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>
+ gstreamer0.10-gnomevfs
+</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>Installed using aptitude, removed with apt-get</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>
+[nothing]
+</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>This is for KDE:</p>
+
+<p>Installed using apt-get, missing with aptitude</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>
+ ksmserver
+</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>Installed using apt-get, removed with aptitude</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>
+ kwin
+ network-manager-kde
+</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>Installed using aptitude, missing with apt-get</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>
+ arts
+ dolphin
+ freespacenotifier
+ google-gadgets-gst
+ google-gadgets-xul
+ kappfinder
+ kcalc
+ kcharselect
+ kde-core
+ kde-plasma-desktop
+ kde-standard
+ kde-window-manager
+ kdeartwork
+ kdeartwork-emoticons
+ kdeartwork-style
+ kdeartwork-theme-icon
+ kdebase
+ kdebase-apps
+ kdebase-workspace
+ kdebase-workspace-bin
+ kdebase-workspace-data
+ kdeeject
+ kdelibs
+ kdeplasma-addons
+ kdeutils
+ kdewallpapers
+ kdf
+ kfloppy
+ kgpg
+ khelpcenter4
+ kinfocenter
+ konq-plugins-l10n
+ konqueror-nsplugins
+ kscreensaver
+ kscreensaver-xsavers
+ ktimer
+ kwrite
+ libgle3
+ libkde4-ruby1.8
+ libkonq5
+ libkonq5-templates
+ libnetpbm10
+ libplasma-ruby
+ libplasma-ruby1.8
+ libqt4-ruby1.8
+ marble-data
+ marble-plugins
+ netpbm
+ nuvola-icon-theme
+ plasma-dataengines-workspace
+ plasma-desktop
+ plasma-desktopthemes-artwork
+ plasma-runners-addons
+ plasma-scriptengine-googlegadgets
+ plasma-scriptengine-python
+ plasma-scriptengine-qedje
+ plasma-scriptengine-ruby
+ plasma-scriptengine-webkit
+ plasma-scriptengines
+ plasma-wallpapers-addons
+ plasma-widget-folderview
+ plasma-widget-networkmanagement
+ ruby
+ sweeper
+ update-notifier-kde
+ xscreensaver-data-extra
+ xscreensaver-gl
+ xscreensaver-gl-extra
+ xscreensaver-screensaver-bsod
+</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>Installed using aptitude, removed with apt-get</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>
+ ark
+ google-gadgets-common
+ google-gadgets-qt
+ htdig
+ kate
+ kdebase-bin
+ kdebase-data
+ kdepasswd
+ kfind
+ klipper
+ konq-plugins
+ konqueror
+ ksysguard
+ ksysguardd
+ libarchive1
+ libcln6
+ libeet1
+ libeina-svn-06
+ libggadget-1.0-0b
+ libggadget-qt-1.0-0b
+ libgps19
+ libkdecorations4
+ libkephal4
+ libkonq4
+ libkonqsidebarplugin4a
+ libkscreensaver5
+ libksgrd4
+ libksignalplotter4
+ libkunitconversion4
+ libkwineffects1a
+ libmarblewidget4
+ libntrack-qt4-1
+ libntrack0
+ libplasma-geolocation-interface4
+ libplasmaclock4a
+ libplasmagenericshell4
+ libprocesscore4a
+ libprocessui4a
+ libqalculate5
+ libqedje0a
+ libqtruby4shared2
+ libqzion0a
+ libruby1.8
+ libscim8c2a
+ libsmokekdecore4-3
+ libsmokekdeui4-3
+ libsmokekfile3
+ libsmokekhtml3
+ libsmokekio3
+ libsmokeknewstuff2-3
+ libsmokeknewstuff3-3
+ libsmokekparts3
+ libsmokektexteditor3
+ libsmokekutils3
+ libsmokenepomuk3
+ libsmokephonon3
+ libsmokeplasma3
+ libsmokeqtcore4-3
+ libsmokeqtdbus4-3
+ libsmokeqtgui4-3
+ libsmokeqtnetwork4-3
+ libsmokeqtopengl4-3
+ libsmokeqtscript4-3
+ libsmokeqtsql4-3
+ libsmokeqtsvg4-3
+ libsmokeqttest4-3
+ libsmokeqtuitools4-3
+ libsmokeqtwebkit4-3
+ libsmokeqtxml4-3
+ libsmokesolid3
+ libsmokesoprano3
+ libtaskmanager4a
+ libtidy-0.99-0
+ libweather-ion4a
+ libxklavier16
+ libxxf86misc1
+ okteta
+ oxygencursors
+ plasma-dataengines-addons
+ plasma-scriptengine-superkaramba
+ plasma-widget-lancelot
+ plasma-widgets-addons
+ plasma-widgets-workspace
+ polkit-kde-1
+ ruby1.8
+ systemsettings
+ update-notifier-common
+</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>Running apt-get autoremove made the results using apt-get and
+aptitude a bit more similar, but there are still quite a lott of
+differences. I have no idea what packages should be installed after
+the upgrade, but hope those that do can have a look.</p>
+</description>
+ </item>
+
+ <item>
+ <title>Why isn't Debian Edu using VLC?</title>
+ <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Why_isn_t_Debian_Edu_using_VLC_.html</link>
+ <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Why_isn_t_Debian_Edu_using_VLC_.html</guid>
+ <pubDate>Sat, 27 Nov 2010 11:30:00 +0100</pubDate>
+ <description>
+<p>In the latest issue of Linux Journal, the readers choices were
+presented, and the winner among the multimedia player were VLC.
+Personally, I like VLC, and it is my player of choice when I first try
+to play a video file or stream. Only if VLC fail will I drag out
+gmplayer to see if it can do better. The reason is mostly the failure
+model and trust. When VLC fail, it normally pop up a error message
+reporting the problem. When mplayer fail, it normally segfault or
+just hangs. The latter failure mode drain my trust in the program.<p>
+
+<p>But even if VLC is my player of choice, we have choosen to use
+mplayer in <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian
+Edu/Skolelinux</a>. The reason is simple. We need a good browser
+plugin to play web videos seamlessly, and the VLC browser plugin is
+not very good. For example, it lack in-line control buttons, so there
+is no way for the user to pause the video. Also, when I
+<a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/BrowserMultimedia">last
+tested the browser plugins</a> available in Debian, the VLC plugin
+failed on several video pages where mplayer based plugins worked. If
+the browser plugin for VLC was as good as the gecko-mediaplayer
+package (which uses mplayer), we would switch.</P>
+
+<p>While VLC is a good player, its user interface is slightly
+annoying. The most annoying feature is its inconsistent use of
+keyboard shortcuts. When the player is in full screen mode, its
+shortcuts are different from when it is playing the video in a window.
+For example, space only work as pause when in full screen mode. I
+wish it had consisten shortcuts and that space also would work when in
+window mode. Another nice shortcut in gmplayer is [enter] to restart
+the current video. It is very nice when playing short videos from the
+web and want to restart it when new people arrive to have a look at
+what is going on.</p>
+</description>
+ </item>
+
+ <item>
+ <title>Now accepting bitcoins - anonymous and distributed p2p crypto-money</title>
+ <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Now_accepting_bitcoins___anonymous_and_distributed_p2p_crypto_money.html</link>
+ <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Now_accepting_bitcoins___anonymous_and_distributed_p2p_crypto_money.html</guid>
+ <pubDate>Fri, 10 Dec 2010 08:20:00 +0100</pubDate>
+ <description>
+<p>With this weeks lawless
+<a href="http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2010/12/06/wikileaks/index.html">governmental
+attacks</a> on Wikileak and
+<a href="http://www.salon.com/technology/dan_gillmor/2010/12/06/war_on_speech">free
+speech</a>, it has become obvious that PayPal, visa and mastercard can
+not be trusted to handle money transactions.
+A blog post from
+<a href="http://webmink.com/2010/12/06/now-accepting-bitcoin/">Simon
+Phipps on bitcoin</a> reminded me about a project that a friend of
+mine mentioned earlier. I decided to follow Simon's example, and get
+involved with <a href="http://www.bitcoin.org/">BitCoin</a>. I got
+some help from my friend to get it all running, and he even handed me
+some bitcoins to get started. I even donated a few bitcoins to Simon
+for helping me remember BitCoin.</p>
+
+<p>So, what is bitcoins, you probably wonder? It is a digital
+crypto-currency, decentralised and handled using peer-to-peer
+networks. It allows anonymous transactions and prohibits central
+control over the transactions, making it impossible for governments
+and companies alike to block donations and other transactions. The
+source is free software, and while the key dependency wxWidgets 2.9
+for the graphical user interface is missing in Debian, the command
+line client builds just fine. Hopefully Jonas
+<a href="http://bugs.debian.org/578157">will get the package into
+Debian</a> soon.</p>
+
+<p>Bitcoins can be converted to other currencies, like USD and EUR.
+There are <a href="http://www.bitcoin.org/trade">companies accepting
+bitcoins</a> when selling services and goods, and there are even
+currency "stock" markets where the exchange rate is decided. There
+are not many users so far, but the concept seems promising. If you
+want to get started and lack a friend with any bitcoins to spare,
+you can even get
+<a href="https://freebitcoins.appspot.com/">some for free</a> (0.05
+bitcoin at the time of writing). Use
+<a href="http://www.bitcoinwatch.com/">BitcoinWatch</a> to keep an eye
+on the current exchange rates.</p>
+
+<p>As an experiment, I have decided to set up bitcoind on one of my
+machines. If you want to support my activity, please send Bitcoin
+donations to the address
+<b>15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</b>. Thank you!</p>
+</description>
+ </item>
+
+ <item>
+ <title>Some thoughts on BitCoins</title>
+ <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Some_thoughts_on_BitCoins.html</link>
+ <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Some_thoughts_on_BitCoins.html</guid>
+ <pubDate>Sat, 11 Dec 2010 15:10:00 +0100</pubDate>
+ <description>
+<p>As I continue to explore
+<a href="http://www.bitcoin.org/">BitCoin</a>, I've starting to wonder
+what properties the system have, and how it will be affected by laws
+and regulations here in Norway. Here are some random notes.</p>
+
+<p>One interesting thing to note is that since the transactions are
+verified using a peer to peer network, all details about a transaction
+is known to everyone. This means that if a BitCoin address has been
+published like I did with mine in my initial post about BitCoin, it is
+possible for everyone to see how many BitCoins have been transfered to
+that address. There is even a web service to look at the details for
+all transactions. There I can see that my address
+<a href="http://blockexplorer.com/address/15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a>
+have received 16.06 Bitcoin, the
+<a href="http://blockexplorer.com/address/1LfdGnGuWkpSJgbQySxxCWhv8MHqvwst3">1LfdGnGuWkpSJgbQySxxCWhv8MHqvwst3</a>
+address of Simon Phipps have received 181.97 BitCoin and the address
+<a href="http://blockexplorer.com/address/1MCwBbhNGp5hRm5rC1Aims2YFRe2SXPYKt">1MCwBbhNGp5hRm5rC1Aims2YFRe2SXPYKt</A>
+of EFF have received 2447.38 BitCoins so far. Thank you to each and
+every one of you that donated bitcoins to support my activity. The
+fact that anyone can see how much money was transfered to a given
+address make it more obvious why the BitCoin community recommend to
+generate and hand out a new address for each transaction. I'm told
+there is no way to track which addresses belong to a given person or
+organisation without the person or organisation revealing it
+themselves, as Simon, EFF and I have done.</p>
+
+<p>In Norway, and in most other countries, there are laws and
+regulations limiting how much money one can transfer across the border
+without declaring it. There are money laundering, tax and accounting
+laws and regulations I would expect to apply to the use of BitCoin.
+If the Skolelinux foundation
+(<a href="http://linuxiskolen.no/slxdebianlabs/donations.html">SLX
+Debian Labs</a>) were to accept donations in BitCoin in addition to
+normal bank transfers like EFF is doing, how should this be accounted?
+Given that it is impossible to know if money can across the border or
+not, should everything or nothing be declared? What exchange rate
+should be used when calculating taxes? Would receivers have to pay
+income tax if the foundation were to pay Skolelinux contributors in
+BitCoin? I have no idea, but it would be interesting to know.</p>
+
+<p>For a currency to be useful and successful, it must be trusted and
+accepted by a lot of users. It must be possible to get easy access to
+the currency (as a wage or using currency exchanges), and it must be
+easy to spend it. At the moment BitCoin seem fairly easy to get
+access to, but there are very few places to spend it. I am not really
+a regular user of any of the vendor types currently accepting BitCoin,
+so I wonder when my kind of shop would start accepting BitCoins. I
+would like to buy electronics, travels and subway tickets, not herbs
+and books. :) The currency is young, and this will improve over time
+if it become popular, but I suspect regular banks will start to lobby
+to get BitCoin declared illegal if it become popular. I'm sure they
+will claim it is helping fund terrorism and money laundering (which
+probably would be true, as is any currency in existence), but I
+believe the problems should be solved elsewhere and not by blaming
+currencies.</p>
+
+<p>The process of creating new BitCoins is called mining, and it is
+CPU intensive process that depend on a bit of luck as well (as one is
+competing against all the other miners currently spending CPU cycles
+to see which one get the next lump of cash). The "winner" get 50
+BitCoin when this happen. Yesterday I came across the obvious way to
+join forces to increase ones changes of getting at least some coins,
+by coordinating the work on mining BitCoins across several machines
+and people, and sharing the result if one is lucky and get the 50
+BitCoins. Check out
+<a href="http://www.bluishcoder.co.nz/bitcoin-pool/">BitCoin Pool</a>
+if this sounds interesting. I have not had time to try to set up a
+machine to participate there yet, but have seen that running on ones
+own for a few days have not yield any BitCoins througth mining
+yet.</p>
+
+<p>Update 2010-12-15: Found an <a
+href="http://inertia.posterous.com/reply-to-the-underground-economist-why-bitcoi">interesting
+criticism</a> of bitcoin. Not quite sure how valid it is, but thought
+it was interesting to read. The arguments presented seem to be
+equally valid for gold, which was used as a currency for many years.</p>
+</description>
+ </item>
+
+ <item>
+ <title>How to test if a laptop is working with Linux</title>
+ <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_test_if_a_laptop_is_working_with_Linux.html</link>
+ <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_test_if_a_laptop_is_working_with_Linux.html</guid>
+ <pubDate>Wed, 22 Dec 2010 14:55:00 +0100</pubDate>
+ <description>
+<p>The last few days I have spent at work here at the <a
+href="http://www.uio.no/">University of oslo</a> testing if the new
+batch of computers will work with Linux. Every year for the last few
+years the university have organized shared bid of a few thousand
+computers, and this year HP won the bid. Two different desktops and
+five different laptops are on the list this year. We in the UNIX
+group want to know which one of these computers work well with RHEL
+and Ubuntu, the two Linux distributions we currently handle at the
+university.</p>
+
+<p>My test method is simple, and I share it here to get feedback and
+perhaps inspire others to test hardware as well. To test, I PXE
+install the OS version of choice, and log in as my normal user and run
+a few applications and plug in selected pieces of hardware. When
+something fail, I make a note about this in the test matrix and move
+on. If I have some spare time I try to report the bug to the OS
+vendor, but as I only have the machines for a short time, I rarely
+have the time to do this for all the problems I find.</p>
+
+<p>Anyway, to get to the point of this post. Here is the simple tests
+I perform on a new model.</p>
+
+<ul>
+
+<li>Is PXE installation working? I'm testing with RHEL6, Ubuntu Lucid
+and Ubuntu Maverik at the moment. If I feel like it, I also test with
+RHEL5 and Debian Edu/Squeeze.</li>
+
+<li>Is X.org working? If the graphical login screen show up after
+installation, X.org is working.</li>
+
+<li>Is hardware accelerated OpenGL working? Running glxgears (in
+package mesa-utils on Ubuntu) and writing down the frames per second
+reported by the program.</li>
+
+<li>Is sound working? With Gnome and KDE, a sound is played when
+logging in, and if I can hear this the test is successful. If there
+are several audio exits on the machine, I try them all and check if
+the Gnome/KDE audio mixer can control where to send the sound. I
+normally test this by playing
+<a href="http://www.nuug.no/aktiviteter/20101012-chef/ ">a HTML5
+video</a> in Firefox/Iceweasel.</li>
+
+<li>Is the USB subsystem working? I test this by plugging in a USB
+memory stick and see if Gnome/KDE notices this.</li>
+
+<li>Is the CD/DVD player working? I test this by inserting any CD/DVD
+I have lying around, and see if Gnome/KDE notices this.</li>
+
+<li>Is any built in camera working? Test using cheese, and see if a
+picture from the v4l device show up.</li>
+
+<li>Is bluetooth working? Use the Gnome/KDE browsing tool to see if
+any bluetooth devices are discovered. In my office, I normally see a
+few.</li>
+
+<li>For laptops, is the SD or Compaq Flash reader working. I have
+memory modules lying around, and stick them in and see if Gnome/KDE
+notice this.</li>
+
+<li>For laptops, is suspecd/hibernate working? I'm testing if the
+special button work, and if the laptop continue to work after
+resume.</li>
+
+<li>For laptops, is the extra buttons working, like audio level,
+adjusting background light, switching on/off external video output,
+switching on/off wifi, bluetooth, etc? The set of buttons differ from
+laptop to laptop, so I just write down which are working and which are
+not.</li>
+
+<li>Some laptops have smart card readers, finger print readers,
+acceleration sensors etc. I rarely test these, as I do not know how
+to quickly test if they are working or not, so I only document their
+existence.</li>
+
+</ul>
+
+<p>By now I suspect you are really curious what the test results are
+for the HP machines I am testing. I'm not done yet, so I will report
+the test results later. For now I can report that HP 8100 Elite work
+fine, and hibernation fail with HP EliteBook 8440p on Ubuntu Lucid,
+and audio fail on RHEL6. Ubuntu Maverik worked with 8440p. As you
+can see, I have most machines left to test. One interesting
+observation is that Ubuntu Lucid has almost twice the framerate than
+RHEL6 with glxgears. No idea why.</p>
+</description>
+ </item>
+
projects / homepage.git / blobdiff