X-Git-Url: https://pere.pagekite.me/gitweb/homepage.git/blobdiff_plain/1e3f26d5d9e14795929f28bd8016e6fbb7ead365..0d739d3eb07965c734d8ede409012f5555f6ca7d:/blog/index.html?ds=inline diff --git a/blog/index.html b/blog/index.html index 221912ff3d..e2c697a98c 100644 --- a/blog/index.html +++ b/blog/index.html @@ -20,81 +20,67 @@
-
A Debian package for SMTP via Tor (aka SMTorP) using exim4
-
10th November 2014
-

The right to communicate with your friends and family in private, -without anyone snooping, is a right every citicen have in a liberal -democracy. But this right is under serious attack these days.

- -

A while back it occurred to me that one way to make the dragnet -surveillance conducted by NSA, GCHQ, FRA and others (and confirmed by -the whisleblower Snowden) more expensive for Internet email, -is to deliver all email using SMTP via Tor. Such SMTP option would be -a nice addition to the FreedomBox project if we could send email -between FreedomBox machines without leaking metadata about the emails -to the people peeking on the wire. I -proposed -this on the FreedomBox project mailing list in October and got a -lot of useful feedback and suggestions. It also became obvious to me -that this was not a novel idea, as the same idea was tested and -documented by Johannes Berg as early as 2006, and both -the -Mailpile and the Cables systems -propose a similar method / protocol to pass emails between users.

- -

To implement such system one need to set up a Tor hidden service -providing the SMTP protocol on port 25, and use email addresses -looking like username@hidden-service-name.onion. With such addresses -the connections to port 25 on hidden-service-name.onion using Tor will -go to the correct SMTP server. To do this, one need to configure the -Tor daemon to provide the hidden service and the mail server to accept -emails for this .onion domain. To learn more about Exim configuration -in Debian and test the design provided by Johannes Berg in his FAQ, I -set out yesterday to create a Debian package for making it trivial to -set up such SMTP over Tor service based on Debian. Getting it to work -were fairly easy, and -the -source code for the Debian package is available from github. I -plan to move it into Debian if further testing prove this to be a -useful approach.

- -

If you want to test this, set up a blank Debian machine without any -mail system installed (or run apt-get purge exim4-config to -get rid of exim4). Install tor, clone the git repository mentioned -above, build the deb and install it on the machine. Next, run -/usr/lib/exim4-smtorp/setup-exim-hidden-service and follow -the instructions to get the service up and running. Restart tor and -exim when it is done, and test mail delivery using swaks like -this:

- -

-torsocks swaks --server dutlqrrmjhtfa3vp.onion \
-  --to fbx@dutlqrrmjhtfa3vp.onion
-

- -

This will test the SMTP delivery using tor. Replace the email -address with your own address to test your server. :)

- -

The setup procedure is still to complex, and I hope it can be made -easier and more automatic. Especially the tor setup need more work. -Also, the package include a tor-smtp tool written in C, but its task -should probably be rewritten in some script language to make the deb -architecture independent. It would probably also make the code easier -to review. The tor-smtp tool currently need to listen on a socket for -exim to talk to it and is started using xinetd. It would be better if -no daemon and no socket is needed. I suspect it is possible to get -exim to run a command line tool for delivery instead of talking to a -socket, and hope to figure out how in a future version of this -system.

- -

Until I wipe my test machine, I can be reached using the -fbx@dutlqrrmjhtfa3vp.onion mail address, deliverable over -SMTorP. :)

+ +
19th May 2016
+

I just donated to the +NUUG defence +"fond" to fund the effort in Norway to get the seizure of the news +site popcorn-time.no tested in court. I hope everyone that agree with +me will do the same.

+ +

Would you be worried if you knew the police in your country could +hijack DNS domains of news sites covering free software system without +talking to a judge first? I am. What if the free software system +combined search engine lookups, bittorrent downloads and video playout +and was called Popcorn Time? Would that affect your view? It still +make me worried.

+ +

In March 2016, the Norwegian police seized (as in forced NORID to +change the IP address pointed to by it to one controlled by the +police) the DNS domain popcorn-time.no, without any supervision from +the courts. I did not know about the web site back then, and assumed +the courts had been involved, and was very surprised when I discovered +that the police had hijacked the DNS domain without asking a judge for +permission first. I was even more surprised when I had a look at +the web +site content on the Internet Archive, and only found news coverage +about Popcorn Time, not any material published without the right +holders permissions.

+ +

The seizure was widely covered in the Norwegian press (see for +example Hegnar Online and +ITavisen +and +NRK), +at first due to the press release sent out by Økokrim, but then based +on +protests +from the law professor Olav Torvund and +lawyer +Jon Wessel-Aas. It even got some +coverage +on TorrentFreak.

+ +

I + +wrote about the case a month ago, when the +Norwegian Unix User Group (NUUG) +where I am a member decided to ask the courts to test this seizure. +The request was denied, but NUUG and its co-requestor EFN have not +given up, and now they are rallying for support to get the seizure +legally challenged. They accept both bank and Bitcoin transfer for +those that want to support the request.

+ +

If you as me believe news sites about free software should not be +censored, even if the free software have both legal and illegal +applications, and that DNS hijacking should be tested by the courts, I +suggest you show +your support by donating to NUUG.

@@ -102,192 +88,25 @@ SMTorP. :)

- -
27th October 2014
-

I am happy to report that I on behalf of the Debian Edu team just -sent out -this -announcement:

- -
-The Debian Edu Team is pleased to announce the release of Debian Edu
-Jessie 8.0+edu0~alpha0
-
-Debian Edu is a complete operating system for schools. Through its
-various installation profiles you can install servers, workstations
-and laptops which will work together on the school network. With
-Debian Edu, the teachers themselves or their technical support can
-roll out a complete multi-user multi-machine study environment within
-hours or a few days. Debian Edu comes with hundreds of applications
-pre-installed, but you can always add more packages from Debian.
-
-For those who want to give Debian Edu Jessie a try, download and
-installation instructions are available, including detailed
-instructions in the manual[1] explaining the first steps, such as
-setting up a network or adding users. Please note that the password
-for the user your prompted for during installation must have a length
-of at least 5 characters!
-
- [1] <URL: https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Documentation/Jessie >
-
-Would you like to give your school's computer a longer life? Are you
-tired of sneaker administration, running from computer to computer
-reinstalling the operating system? Would you like to administrate all
-the computers in your school using only a couple of hours every week?
-Check out Debian Edu Jessie!
-
-Skolelinux is used by at least two hundred schools all over the world,
-mostly in Germany and Norway.
-
-About Debian Edu and Skolelinux
-===============================
-
-Debian Edu, also known as Skolelinux[2], is a Linux distribution based
-on Debian providing an out-of-the box environment of a completely
-configured school network. Immediately after installation a school
-server running all services needed for a school network is set up just
-waiting for users and machines being added via GOsa², a comfortable
-Web-UI. A netbooting environment is prepared using PXE, so after
-initial installation of the main server from CD or USB stick all other
-machines can be installed via the network.  The provided school server
-provides LDAP database and Kerberos authentication service,
-centralized home directories, DHCP server, web proxy and many other
-services.  The desktop contains more than 60 educational software
-packages[3] and more are available from the Debian archive, and
-schools can choose between KDE, Gnome, LXDE, Xfce and MATE desktop
-environment.
-
- [2] <URL: http://www.skolelinux.org/ >
- [3] <URL: http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Educational_applications_included_in_Debian_Edu___Skolelinux__the_screenshot_collection____.html >
-
-Full release notes and manual
-=============================
-
-Below the download URLs there is a list of some of the new features
-and bugfixes of Debian Edu 8.0+edu0~alpha0 Codename Jessie. The full
-list is part of the manual. (See the feature list in the manual[4] for
-the English version.) For some languages manual translations are
-available, see the manual translation overview[5].
-
- [4] <URL: https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Documentation/Jessie/Features >
- [5] <URL: http://maintainer.skolelinux.org/debian-edu-doc/ >
-
-Where to get it
----------------
-
-To download the multiarch netinstall CD release (624 MiB) you can use
-
- * ftp://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/debian-edu-8.0+edu0~alpha0-CD.iso
- * http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/debian-edu-8.0+edu0~alpha0-CD.iso
- * rsync -avzP ftp.skolelinux.org::skolelinux-cd/debian-edu-8.0+edu0~alpha0-CD.iso .
-
-The SHA1SUM of this image is: 361188818e036ce67280a572f757de82ebfeb095
-
-New features for Debian Edu 8.0+edu0~alpha0 Codename Jessie released 2014-10-27
-===============================================================================
-
-
-Installation changes
---------------------
-
- * PXE installation now installs firmware automatically for the hardware present.
-
-Software updates
-----------------
-
-Everything which is new in Debian Jessie 8.0, eg:
-
- * Linux kernel 3.16.x
- * Desktop environments KDE "Plasma" 4.11.12, GNOME 3.14, Xfce 4.10,
-   LXDE 0.5.6 and MATE 1.8 (KDE "Plasma" is installed by default; to
-   choose one of the others see manual.)
- * the browsers Iceweasel 31 ESR and Chromium 38 
- * !LibreOffice 4.3.3
- * GOsa 2.7.4
- * LTSP 5.5.4
- * CUPS print system 1.7.5
- * new boot framework: systemd
- * Educational toolbox GCompris 14.07 
- * Music creator Rosegarden 14.02
- * Image editor Gimp 2.8.14
- * Virtual stargazer Stellarium 0.13.0
- * golearn 0.9
- * tuxpaint 0.9.22
- * New version of debian-installer from Debian Jessie.
- * Debian Jessie includes about 42000 packages available for
-   installation.
- * More information about Debian Jessie 8.0 is provided in the release
-   notes[6] and the installation manual[7].
-
- [6] <URL: http://www.debian.org/releases/jessie/releasenotes >
- [7] <URL: http://www.debian.org/releases/jessie/installmanual >
-
-Fixed bugs
-----------
-
- * Inserting incorrect DNS information in Gosa will no longer break
-   DNS completely, but instead stop DNS updates until the incorrect
-   information is corrected (Debian bug #710362)
- * and many others.
-
-Documentation and translation updates
-------------------------------------- 
-
- * The Debian Edu Jessie Manual is fully translated to German, French,
-   Italian, Danish and Dutch. Partly translated versions exist for
-   Norwegian Bokmal and Spanish.
-
-Other changes
--------------
-
- * Due to new Squid settings, powering off or rebooting the main
-   server takes more time.
- * To manage printers localhost:631 has to be used, currently www:631
-   doesn't work.
-
-Regressions / known problems
-----------------------------
-
- * Installing LTSP chroot fails with a bug related to eatmydata about
-   exim4-config failing to run its postinst (see Debian bug #765694
-   and Debian bug #762103).
- * Munin collection is not properly configured on clients (Debian bug
-   #764594).  The fix is available in a newer version of munin-node.
- * PXE setup for Main Server and Thin Client Server setup does not
-   work when installing on a machine without direct Internet access.
-   Will be fixed when Debian bug #766960 is fixed in Jessie.
-
-See the status page[8] for the complete list.
-
- [8] <URL: https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Status/Jessie >
-
-How to report bugs
-------------------
-
-<URL: http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/HowTo/ReportBugs >
-
-About Debian
-============
-
-The Debian Project was founded in 1993 by Ian Murdock to be a truly
-free community project. Since then the project has grown to be one of
-the largest and most influential open source projects. Thousands of
-volunteers from all over the world work together to create and
-maintain Debian software. Available in 70 languages, and supporting a
-huge range of computer types, Debian calls itself the universal
-operating system.
-
-Contact Information
-For further information, please visit the Debian web pages[9] or send
-mail to press@debian.org.
-
- [9] <URL: http://www.debian.org/ >
-
+ +
12th May 2016
+

Today, after many years of hard work from many people, +ZFS for Linux finally entered +Debian. The package status can be seen on +the package tracker +for zfs-linux. and +the +team status page. If you want to help out, please join us. +The +source code is available via git on Alioth. It would also be +great if you could help out with +the dkms package, as +it is an important piece of the puzzle to get ZFS working.

- Tags: debian edu, english. + Tags: debian, english.
@@ -295,32 +114,49 @@ mail to press@debian.org.
- -
23rd October 2014
-

I spent last weekend at Makercon -Nordic, a great conference and workshop for makers in Norway and -the surrounding countries. I had volunteered on behalf of the -Norwegian Unix Users Group (NUUG) to video record the talks, and we -had a great and exhausting time recording the entire day, two days in -a row. There were only two of us, Hans-Petter and me, and we used the -regular video equipment for NUUG, with a -dvswitch, a -camera and a VGA to DV convert box, and mixed video and slides -live.

- -

Hans-Petter did the post-processing, consisting of uploading the -around 180 GiB of raw video to Youtube, and the result is -now becoming -public on the MakerConNordic account. The videos have the license -NUUG always use on our recordings, which is -Creative -Commons Navngivelse-Del på samme vilkår 3.0 Norge. Many great -talks available. Check it out! :)

+ +
8th May 2016
+

Where I set out to figure out which multimedia player in +Debian claim support for most file formats.

+ +

A few years ago, I had a look at the media support for Browser +plugins in Debian, to get an idea which plugins to include in Debian +Edu. I created a script to extract the set of supported MIME types +for each plugin, and used this to find out which multimedia browser +plugin supported most file formats / media types. +The +result can still be seen on the Debian wiki, even though it have +not been updated for a while. But browser plugins are less relevant +these days, so I thought it was time to look at standalone +players.

+ +

A few days ago I was tired of VLC not being listed as a viable +player when I wanted to play videos from the Norwegian National +Broadcasting Company, and decided to investigate why. The cause is a +missing MIME type in the VLC +desktop file. In the process I wrote a script to compare the set +of MIME types announced in the desktop file and the browser plugin, +only to discover that there is quite a large difference between the +two for VLC. This discovery made me dig up the script I used to +compare browser plugins, and adjust it to compare desktop files +instead, to try to figure out which multimedia player in Debian +support most file formats.

+ +

The result can be seen on the Debian Wiki, as +a +table listing all MIME types supported by one of the packages included +in the table, with the package supporting most MIME types being +listed first in the table.

+ +

The best multimedia player in Debian? It is totem, followed by +parole, kplayer, mpv, vlc, smplayer mplayer-gui gnome-mpv and +kmplayer. Time for the other players to update their announced MIME +support?

@@ -328,91 +164,24 @@ talks available. Check it out! :)

- -
22nd October 2014
-

If you ever had to moderate a mailman list, like the ones on -alioth.debian.org, you know the web interface is fairly slow to -operate. First you visit one web page, enter the moderation password -and get a new page shown with a list of all the messages to moderate -and various options for each email address. This take a while for -every list you moderate, and you need to do it regularly to do a good -job as a list moderator. But there is a quick alternative, -the -listadmin program. It allow you to check lists for new messages -to moderate in a fraction of a second. Here is a test run on two -lists I recently took over:

- -

-% time listadmin xiph
-fetching data for pkg-xiph-commits@lists.alioth.debian.org ... nothing in queue
-fetching data for pkg-xiph-maint@lists.alioth.debian.org ... nothing in queue
-
-real    0m1.709s
-user    0m0.232s
-sys     0m0.012s
-%
-

- -

In 1.7 seconds I had checked two mailing lists and confirmed that -there are no message in the moderation queue. Every morning I -currently moderate 68 mailman lists, and it normally take around two -minutes. When I took over the two pkg-xiph lists above a few days -ago, there were 400 emails waiting in the moderator queue. It took me -less than 15 minutes to process them all using the listadmin -program.

- -

If you install -the listadmin -package from Debian and create a file ~/.listadmin.ini -with content like this, the moderation task is a breeze:

- -

-username username@example.org
-spamlevel 23
-default discard
-discard_if_reason "Posting restricted to members only. Remove us from your mail list."
-
-password secret
-adminurl https://{domain}/mailman/admindb/{list}
-mailman-list@lists.example.com
-
-password hidden
-other-list@otherserver.example.org
-

- -

There are other options to set as well. Check the manual page to -learn the details.

- -

If you are forced to moderate lists on a mailman installation where -the SSL certificate is self signed or not properly signed by a -generally accepted signing authority, you can set a environment -variable when calling listadmin to disable SSL verification:

- -

-PERL_LWP_SSL_VERIFY_HOSTNAME=0 listadmin
-

- -

If you want to moderate a subset of the lists you take care of, you -can provide an argument to the listadmin script like I do in the -initial screen dump (the xiph argument). Using an argument, only -lists matching the argument string will be processed. This make it -quick to accept messages if you notice the moderation request in your -email.

- -

Without the listadmin program, I would never be the moderator of 68 -mailing lists, as I simply do not have time to spend on that if the -process was any slower. The listadmin program have saved me hours of -time I could spend elsewhere over the years. It truly is nice free -software.

- -

As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my -activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address -15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b.

- -

Update 2014-10-27: Added missing 'username' statement in -configuration example. Also, I've been told that the -PERL_LWP_SSL_VERIFY_HOSTNAME=0 setting do not work for everyone. Not -sure why.

+ +
4th May 2016
+
A friend of mine made me aware of +The Pyra, a +handheld computer which will be delivered with Debian preinstalled. I +would love to get one of those for my birthday. :)

+ +

The machine is a complete ARM-based PC with micro HDMI, SATA, USB +plugs and many others connectors, and include a full keyboard and a 5" +LCD touch screen. The 6000mAh battery is claimed to provide a whole +day of battery life time, but I have not seen any independent tests +confirming this. The vendor is still collecting preorders, and the +last I heard last night was that 22 more orders were needed before +production started.

+ +

As far as I know, this is the first handheld preinstalled with +Debian. Please let me know if you know of any others. Is it the +first computer being sold with Debian preinstalled?

@@ -425,114 +194,28 @@ sure why.

- -
17th October 2014
-

When PXE installing laptops with Debian, I often run into the -problem that the WiFi card require some firmware to work properly. -And it has been a pain to fix this using preseeding in Debian. -Normally something more is needed. But thanks to -my isenkram -package and its recent tasksel extension, it has now become easy -to do this using simple preseeding.

- -

The isenkram-cli package provide tasksel tasks which will install -firmware for the hardware found in the machine (actually, requested by -the kernel modules for the hardware). (It can also install user space -programs supporting the hardware detected, but that is not the focus -of this story.)

- -

To get this working in the default installation, two preeseding -values are needed. First, the isenkram-cli package must be installed -into the target chroot (aka the hard drive) before tasksel is executed -in the pkgsel step of the debian-installer system. This is done by -preseeding the base-installer/includes debconf value to include the -isenkram-cli package. The package name is next passed to debootstrap -for installation. With the isenkram-cli package in place, tasksel -will automatically use the isenkram tasks to detect hardware specific -packages for the machine being installed and install them, because -isenkram-cli contain tasksel tasks.

- -

Second, one need to enable the non-free APT repository, because -most firmware unfortunately is non-free. This is done by preseeding -the apt-mirror-setup step. This is unfortunate, but for a lot of -hardware it is the only option in Debian.

- -

The end result is two lines needed in your preseeding file to get -firmware installed automatically by the installer:

- -

-base-installer base-installer/includes string isenkram-cli
-apt-mirror-setup apt-setup/non-free boolean true
-

- -

The current version of isenkram-cli in testing/jessie will install -both firmware and user space packages when using this method. It also -do not work well, so use version 0.15 or later. Installing both -firmware and user space packages might give you a bit more than you -want, so I decided to split the tasksel task in two, one for firmware -and one for user space programs. The firmware task is enabled by -default, while the one for user space programs is not. This split is -implemented in the package currently in unstable.

- -

If you decide to give this a go, please let me know (via email) how -this recipe work for you. :)

- -

So, I bet you are wondering, how can this work. First and -foremost, it work because tasksel is modular, and driven by whatever -files it find in /usr/lib/tasksel/ and /usr/share/tasksel/. So the -isenkram-cli package place two files for tasksel to find. First there -is the task description file (/usr/share/tasksel/descs/isenkram.desc):

- -

-Task: isenkram-packages
-Section: hardware
-Description: Hardware specific packages (autodetected by isenkram)
- Based on the detected hardware various hardware specific packages are
- proposed.
-Test-new-install: show show
-Relevance: 8
-Packages: for-current-hardware
-
-Task: isenkram-firmware
-Section: hardware
-Description: Hardware specific firmware packages (autodetected by isenkram)
- Based on the detected hardware various hardware specific firmware
- packages are proposed.
-Test-new-install: mark show
-Relevance: 8
-Packages: for-current-hardware-firmware
-

- -

The key parts are Test-new-install which indicate how the task -should be handled and the Packages line referencing to a script in -/usr/lib/tasksel/packages/. The scripts use other scripts to get a -list of packages to install. The for-current-hardware-firmware script -look like this to list relevant firmware for the machine: - -

-#!/bin/sh
-#
-PATH=/usr/sbin:$PATH
-export PATH
-isenkram-autoinstall-firmware -l
-

- -

With those two pieces in place, the firmware is installed by -tasksel during the normal d-i run. :)

- -

If you want to test what tasksel will install when isenkram-cli is -installed, run DEBIAN_PRIORITY=critical tasksel --test ---new-install to get the list of packages that tasksel would -install.

- -

Debian Edu will be -pilots in testing this feature, as isenkram is used there now to -install firmware, replacing the earlier scripts.

+ +
18th April 2016
+

It is days like today I am really happy to be a member of +the Norwegian Unix User group, a +member association for those of us believing in free software, open +standards and unix-like operating systems. NUUG announced today it +will +try +to bring the seizure of the DNS domain popcorn-time.no as +unlawful, to stand up for the principle that writing about a +controversial topic is not infringing copyrights, and censuring web +pages by hijacking DNS domain should be decided by the courts, not the +police. The DNS domain was seized by the Norwegian National Authority +for Investigation and Prosecution of Economic and Environmental Crime +a month ago. I hope this bring more paying members to NUUG to give +the association the financial muscle needed to bring this case as far +as it must go to stop this kind of DNS hijacking.

@@ -540,23 +223,50 @@ install firmware, replacing the earlier scripts.

- -
4th October 2014
-

Today I came across an unexpected Ubuntu boot screen. Above the -bread shelf on the ICA shop at Storo in Oslo, the grub menu of Ubuntu -with Linux kernel 3.2.0-23 (ie probably version 12.04 LTS) was stuck -on a screen normally showing the bread types and prizes:

- -

- -

If it had booted as it was supposed to, I would never had known -about this hidden Linux installation. It is interesting what -errors can reveal.

+ +
15th April 2016
+

I dag tok jeg mot til meg og pakket sammen en ny versjon av den +frie norske stavekontrollen, ca. tre og et halvt år etter forrige +gang. Resultatet kan lastes ned fra +no.speling.org-prosjeksiden, både +som kildekodepakke og som "pack"-fil som kanskje fortsatt kan brukes +av OpenOffice.org/LibreOffice. Byggesystemet trenger oppussing, men i +denne omgang hadde jeg bare tid til å fikse byggefeil forårsaket av +endringer i GNU grep. De øvrige endringene var gjort tidligere i +påvente av en ny utgave.

+ +

Her er det som er nytt (fra NEWS-fila i +kildekodepakken):

+ +

Release 2.2 (2016-04-15)

+ +
    + +
  • Rewrite how scripts/speling2words handle tripple consonants, to + avoid importing duplicate words from no.speling.org, and getting + rid of the existing duplicates in norsk.words.
  • +
  • Remove duplicate entries with tripple consonants from norsk.words.
  • +
  • Update frequency for entries in norsk.words based on + (ran 'make + freq-update').
  • +
  • Correct nn ispell build, avoid crash in munchlist causing lots of + words to fall out of the database.
  • +
  • Use grep -a to convince grep it is working on text files, to work + with newer grep versions.
  • + +
  • Remove some words disputed in the no.speling.org review process: +
      +
    • apparent (nb)
    • +
    • likke (nb)
    • +
    • ugjest, ugjesten, ugjestens (nb)
    • +
  • + +
@@ -564,49 +274,37 @@ about this hidden Linux installation. It is interesting what
- -
4th October 2014
-

The lsdvd project -got a new set of developers a few weeks ago, after the original -developer decided to step down and pass the project to fresh blood. -This project is now maintained by Petter Reinholdtsen and Steve -Dibb.

- -

I just wrapped up -a -new lsdvd release, available in git or from -the -download page. This is the changelog dated 2014-10-03 for version -0.17.

- -
    - -
  • Ignore 'phantom' audio, subtitle tracks
  • -
  • Check for garbage in the program chains, which indicate that a track is - non-existant, to work around additional copy protection
  • -
  • Fix displaying content type for audio tracks, subtitles
  • -
  • Fix pallete display of first entry
  • -
  • Fix include orders
  • -
  • Ignore read errors in titles that would not be displayed anyway
  • -
  • Fix the chapter count
  • -
  • Make sure the array size and the array limit used when initialising - the palette size is the same.
  • -
  • Fix array printing.
  • -
  • Correct subsecond calculations.
  • -
  • Add sector information to the output format.
  • -
  • Clean up code to be closer to ANSI C and compile without warnings - with more GCC compiler warnings.
  • - -
- -

This change bring together patches for lsdvd in use in various -Linux and Unix distributions, as well as patches submitted to the -project the last nine years. Please check it out. :)

+ +
13th April 2016
+

I first got to know I.F. Stone when I came across an article by Jon +Schwarz on The Intercept +about +his extraordinary contribution to investigative journalism in +USA. The article is about a new documentary in two parts +(part one is 12 minutes and +part two is 30 minutes), and +I found both truly fascinating. It is amazing what he was able to +find by digging up public sources and government papers. He +documented lots of government abuse and cover ups, and I find +his weekly news letters +inspiring to read even today.

+ +

+All governments are run by liars and nothing they say should be believed. +
- I. F. Stone +

+ +

His starting point was that reporters should not assume governments +and corporations are telling the truth, but verify all their claims as +much as possible. I wonder how many Norwegian reporters can be said +to follow the principles of I. F. Stone. They are definitely in short +supply. If you, like me half a year ago, have never heard of him, +check him out.

@@ -614,77 +312,57 @@ project the last nine years. Please check it out. :)

- -
26th September 2014
-

The Debian Edu / Skolelinux -project provide a Linux solution for schools, including a -powerful desktop with education software, a central server providing -web pages, user database, user home directories, central login and PXE -boot of both clients without disk and the installation to install Debian -Edu on machines with disk (and a few other services perhaps to small -to mention here). We in the Debian Edu team are currently working on -the Jessie based version, trying to get everything in shape before the -freeze, to avoid having to maintain our own package repository in the -future. The -current -status can be seen on the Debian wiki, and there is still heaps of -work left. Some fatal problems block testing, breaking the installer, -but it is possible to work around these to get anyway. Here is a -recipe on how to get the installation limping along.

- -

First, download the test ISO via -ftp, -http -or rsync (use -ftp.skolelinux.org::cd-edu-testing-nolocal-netinst/debian-edu-amd64-i386-NETINST-1.iso). -The ISO build was broken on Tuesday, so we do not get a new ISO every -12 hours or so, but thankfully the ISO we already got we are able to -install with some tweaking.

- -

When you get to the Debian Edu profile question, go to tty2 -(use Alt-Ctrl-F2), run

- -

-nano /usr/bin/edu-eatmydata-install
-

- -

and add 'exit 0' as the second line, disabling the eatmydata -optimization. Return to the installation, select the profile you want -and continue. Without this change, exim4-config will fail to install -due to a known bug in eatmydata.

- -

When you get the grub question at the end, answer /dev/sda (or if -this do not work, figure out what your correct value would be. All my -test machines need /dev/sda, so I have no advice if it do not fit -your need.

- -

If you installed a profile including a graphical desktop, log in as -root after the initial boot from hard drive, and install the -education-desktop-XXX metapackage. XXX can be kde, gnome, lxde, xfce -or mate. If you want several desktop options, install more than one -metapackage. Once this is done, reboot and you should have a working -graphical login screen. This workaround should no longer be needed -once the education-tasks package version 1.801 enter testing in two -days.

- -

I believe the ISO build will start working on two days when the new -tasksel package enter testing and Steve McIntyre get a chance to -update the debian-cd git repository. The eatmydata, grub and desktop -issues are already fixed in unstable and testing, and should show up -on the ISO as soon as the ISO build start working again. Well the -eatmydata optimization is really just disabled. The proper fix -require an upload by the eatmydata maintainer applying the patch -provided in bug #702711. -The rest have proper fixes in unstable.

- -

I hope this get you going with the installation testing, as we are -quickly running out of time trying to get our Jessie based -installation ready before the distribution freeze in a month.

+ +
12th April 2016
+

I'm happy to report that +the +French paperback edition of +my +project to translate the Free +Culture book by Lawrence Lessig is now available for sale on +Lulu.com. Once I have formally verified my proof reading copy, which +should be in the mail, the paperback edition should be available in +book stores like Amazon and Barnes & Noble too.

+ +

This French edition, Culture Libre, is the work of the +dblatex developer Benoît +Guillon, who created the PO file from the initial translation +available from +the Wikilivres +wiki pages and completed and corrected the translation to match +the original docbook edition my project is using, as well as +coordinated the proof reading of the final result. I believe the end +result look great, but I am biased and do not read French. In +addition to the paperback edition, the book is available in PDF, EPUB +and Mobi format from the github project page linked to above.

+ +

When enabling book store distribution on Lulu.com, I had to nearly +triple the price to allow the book stores some profit. I also had to +accept that I will get some revenue when a book is sold via Lulu.com. +But because of the non-commercial clause in the book license +(CC-BY-NC), this might be a problem. To bypass the problem I +discussed how to handle the revenue with the author, and we agreed +that the revenue for these editions go to the +Creative Commons non-profit +Corporation who handle donations to the Creative Commons project. +So far they have earned around USD 70 on sales of the +English +and +Norwegian +Bokmål editions, according to Lulu.com. They will get the revenue +for the French edition too. Their revenue is higher if you buy the +book directly from Lulu.com instead of via a book store, so I +recommend you buy directly from Lulu.com.

+ +

Perhaps you would like to get the book published in your language? +The translation is done using a web based translator service, so the +technical bar to enter is fairly low. Get in touch if you would like +to make this happen.

@@ -692,37 +370,33 @@ installation ready before the distribution freeze in a month.

- -
25th September 2014
-

I use the lsdvd tool -to handle my fairly large DVD collection. It is a nice command line -tool to get details about a DVD, like title, tracks, track length, -etc, in XML, Perl or human readable format. But lsdvd have not seen -any new development since 2006 and had a few irritating bugs affecting -its use with some DVDs. Upstream seemed to be dead, and in January I -sent a small probe asking for a version control repository for the -project, without any reply. But I use it regularly and would like to -get an updated version -into Debian. So two weeks ago I tried harder to get in touch with -the project admin, and after getting a reply from him explaining that -he was no longer interested in the project, I asked if I could take -over. And yesterday, I became project admin.

- -

I've been in touch with a Gentoo developer and the Debian -maintainer interested in joining forces to maintain the upstream -project, and I hope we can get a new release out fairly quickly, -collecting the patches spread around on the internet into on place. -I've added the relevant Debian patches to the freshly created git -repository, and expect the Gentoo patches to make it too. If you got -a DVD collection and care about command line tools, check out -the git source and join -the project mailing -list. :)

+ +
10th April 2016
+

During this weekends +bug +squashing party and developer gathering, we decided to do our part +to make sure there are good books about Debian available in Norwegian +Bokmål, and got in touch with the people behind the +Debian Administrator's Handbook +project to get started. If you want to help out, please start +contributing using +the +hosted weblate project page, and get in touch using +the +translators mailing list. Please also check out +the instructions for +contributors.

+ +

The book is already available on paper in English, French and +Japanese, and our goal is to get it available on paper in Norwegian +Bokmål too. In addition to the paper edition, there are also EPUB and +Mobi versions available. And there are incomplete translations +available for many more languages.

- Tags: debian, english, lsdvd, multimedia. + Tags: debian, english.
@@ -730,263 +404,54 @@ list. :)

- -
21st September 2014
-

Rundt omkring i Oslo og Østlandsområdet henger det bokser over -veiene som jeg har lurt på hva gjør. De har ut fra plassering og -vinkling sett ut som bokser som sniffer ut et eller annet fra -forbipasserende trafikk, men det har vært uklart for meg hva det er de -leser av. Her om dagen tok jeg bilde av en slik boks som henger under -ei -skibru på Sollihøgda:

- -

- -

Boksen er tydelig merket «Kapsch >>>», logoen til -det sveitsiske selskapet Kapsch som -blant annet lager sensorsystemer for veitrafikk. Men de lager mye -forskjellig, og jeg kjente ikke igjen boksen på utseendet etter en -kjapp titt på produktlista til selskapet.

- -

I og med at boksen henger over veien E16, en riksvei vedlikeholdt -av Statens Vegvesen, så antok jeg at det burde være mulig å bruke -REST-API-et som gir tilgang til vegvesenets database over veier, -skilter og annet veirelatert til å finne ut hva i alle dager dette -kunne være. De har både -en -datakatalog og -et -søk, der en kan søke etter ulike typer oppføringer innen for et -gitt geografisk område. Jeg laget et enkelt shell-script for å hente -ut antall av en gitt type innenfor området skibrua dekker, og listet -opp navnet på typene som ble funnet. Orket ikke slå opp hvordan -URL-koding av aktuelle strenger kunne gjøres mer generisk, og brukte -en stygg sed-linje i stedet.

- -
-#!/bin/sh
-urlmap() {
-    sed \
-    -e 's/  / /g'   -e 's/{/%7B/g'  \
-    -e 's/}/%7D/g'  -e 's/\[/%5B/g' \
-    -e 's/\]/%5D/g' -e 's/ /%20/g'  \
-    -e 's/,/%2C/g'  -e 's/\"/%22/g' \
-    -e 's/:/%3A/g'
-}
-
-lookup() {
-    url="$1"
-    curl -s -H 'Accept: application/vnd.vegvesen.nvdb-v1+xml' \
-       "https://www.vegvesen.no/nvdb/api$url" | xmllint --format -
-}
-
-for id in $(seq 1 874) ; do
-    search="{
-  lokasjon: {
-    bbox: \"10.34425,59.96386,10.34458,59.96409\",
-    srid: \"WGS84\"
-  },
-   objektTyper: [{
-     id: $id, antall: 10
-   }]
-}"
-
-    query=/sok?kriterie=$(echo $search | urlmap)
-    if lookup "$query" |
-    grep -q '<totaltAntallReturnert>0<'
-    then
-    :
-    else
-    echo $id
-    lookup "/datakatalog/objekttyper/$id" |grep '^  <navn>'
-    fi
-done
-
-exit 0
-
- -Aktuelt ID-område 1-874 var riktig i datakatalogen da jeg laget -scriptet. Det vil endre seg over tid. Skriptet listet så opp -aktuelle typer i og rundt skibrua: - -
-5
-  <navn>Rekkverk</navn>
-14
-  <navn>Rekkverksende</navn>
-47
-  <navn>Trafikklomme</navn>
-49
-  <navn>Trafikkøy</navn>
-60
-  <navn>Bru</navn>
-79
-  <navn>Stikkrenne/Kulvert</navn>
-80
-  <navn>Grøft, åpen</navn>
-86
-  <navn>Belysningsstrekning</navn>
-95
-  <navn>Skiltpunkt</navn>
-96
-  <navn>Skiltplate</navn>
-98
-  <navn>Referansestolpe</navn>
-99
-  <navn>Vegoppmerking, langsgående</navn>
-105
-  <navn>Fartsgrense</navn>
-106
-  <navn>Vinterdriftsstrategi</navn>
-172
-  <navn>Trafikkdeler</navn>
-241
-  <navn>Vegdekke</navn>
-293
-  <navn>Breddemåling</navn>
-301
-  <navn>Kantklippareal</navn>
-318
-  <navn>Snø-/isrydding</navn>
-445
-  <navn>Skred</navn>
-446
-  <navn>Dokumentasjon</navn>
-452
-  <navn>Undergang</navn>
-528
-  <navn>Tverrprofil</navn>
-532
-  <navn>Vegreferanse</navn>
-534
-  <navn>Region</navn>
-535
-  <navn>Fylke</navn>
-536
-  <navn>Kommune</navn>
-538
-  <navn>Gate</navn>
-539
-  <navn>Transportlenke</navn>
-540
-  <navn>Trafikkmengde</navn>
-570
-  <navn>Trafikkulykke</navn>
-571
-  <navn>Ulykkesinvolvert enhet</navn>
-572
-  <navn>Ulykkesinvolvert person</navn>
-579
-  <navn>Politidistrikt</navn>
-583
-  <navn>Vegbredde</navn>
-591
-  <navn>Høydebegrensning</navn>
-592
-  <navn>Nedbøyningsmåling</navn>
-597
-  <navn>Støy-luft, Strekningsdata</navn>
-601
-  <navn>Oppgravingsdata</navn>
-602
-  <navn>Oppgravingslag</navn>
-603
-  <navn>PMS-parsell</navn>
-604
-  <navn>Vegnormalstrekning</navn>
-605
-  <navn>Værrelatert strekning</navn>
-616
-  <navn>Feltstrekning</navn>
-617
-  <navn>Adressepunkt</navn>
-626
-  <navn>Friksjonsmåleserie</navn>
-629
-  <navn>Vegdekke, flatelapping</navn>
-639
-  <navn>Kurvatur, horisontalelement</navn>
-640
-  <navn>Kurvatur, vertikalelement</navn>
-642
-  <navn>Kurvatur, vertikalpunkt</navn>
-643
-  <navn>Statistikk, trafikkmengde</navn>
-647
-  <navn>Statistikk, vegbredde</navn>
-774
-  <navn>Nedbøyningsmåleserie</navn>
-775
-  <navn>ATK, influensstrekning</navn>
-794
-  <navn>Systemobjekt</navn>
-810
-  <navn>Vinterdriftsklasse</navn>
-821
-  <navn>Funksjonell vegklasse</navn>
-825
-  <navn>Kurvatur, stigning</navn>
-838
-  <navn>Vegbredde, beregnet</navn>
-862
-  <navn>Reisetidsregistreringspunkt</navn>
-871
-  <navn>Bruksklasse</navn>
-
- -

Av disse ser ID 775 og 862 mest relevant ut. ID 775 antar jeg -refererer til fotoboksen som står like ved brua, mens -«Reisetidsregistreringspunkt» kanskje kan være boksen som henger der. -Hvordan finner jeg så ut hva dette kan være for noe. En titt på -datakatalogsiden -for ID 862/Reisetidsregistreringspunkt viser at det er finnes 53 -slike målere i Norge, og hvor de er plassert, men gir ellers få -detaljer. Det er plassert 40 på østlandet og 13 i Trondheimsregionen. -Men siden nevner «AutoPASS», og hvis en slår opp oppføringen på -Sollihøgda nevner den «Ciber AS» som ID for eksternt system. (Kan det -være snakk om -Ciber -Norge AS, et selskap eid av Ciber Europe Bv?) Et nettsøk på - «Ciber AS autopass» fører meg til en artikkel fra NRK Trøndelag i - 2013 med tittel -«Sjekk -dette hvis du vil unngå kø». Artikkelen henviser til vegvesenets -nettside -reisetider.no -som har en -kartside -for Østlandet som viser at det måles mellom Sandvika og Sollihøgda. -Det kan dermed se ut til at jeg har funnet ut hva boksene gjør.

- -

Hvis det stemmer, så er dette bokser som leser av AutoPASS-ID-en -til alle passerende biler med AutoPASS-brikke, og dermed gjør det mulig -for de som kontrollerer boksene å holde rede på hvor en gitt bil er -når den passerte et slikt målepunkt. NRK-artikkelen forteller at -denne informasjonen i dag kun brukes til å koble to -AutoPASS-brikkepasseringer passeringer sammen for å beregne -reisetiden, og at bruken er godkjent av Datatilsynet. Det er desverre -ikke mulig for en sjåfør som passerer under en slik boks å kontrollere -at AutoPASS-ID-en kun brukes til dette i dag og i fremtiden.

- -

I tillegg til denne type AutoPASS-sniffere vet jeg at det også -finnes mange automatiske stasjoner som tar betalt pr. passering (aka -bomstasjoner), og der lagres informasjon om tid, sted og bilnummer i -10 år. Finnes det andre slike sniffere plassert ut på veiene?

- -

Personlig har jeg valgt å ikke bruke AutoPASS-brikke, for å gjøre -det vanskeligere og mer kostbart for de som vil invadere privatsfæren -og holde rede på hvor bilen min beveger seg til enhver tid. Jeg håper -flere vil gjøre det samme, selv om det gir litt høyere private -utgifter (dyrere bompassering). Vern om privatsfæren koster i disse -dager.

- -

Takk til Jan Kristian Jensen i Statens Vegvesen for tips om -dokumentasjon på vegvesenets REST-API.

+ +
7th April 2016
+

Just for fun I had a look at the popcon number of ZFS related +packages in Debian, and was quite surprised with what I found. I use +ZFS myself at home, but did not really expect many others to do so. +But I might be wrong.

+ +

According to +the popcon +results for spl-linux, there are 1019 Debian installations, or +0.53% of the population, with the package installed. As far as I know +the only use of the spl-linux package is as a support library for ZFS +on Linux, so I use it here as proxy for measuring the number of ZFS +installation on Linux in Debian. In the kFreeBSD variant of Debian +the ZFS feature is already available, and there +the popcon +results for zfsutils show 1625 Debian installations or 0.84% of +the population. So I guess I am not alone in using ZFS on Debian.

+ +

But even though the Debian project leader Lucas Nussbaum +announced +in April 2015 that the legal obstacles blocking ZFS on Debian were +cleared, the package is still not in Debian. The package is again in +the NEW queue. Several uploads have been rejected so far because the +debian/copyright file was incomplete or wrong, but there is no reason +to give up. The current status can be seen on +the +team status page, and +the +source code is available on Alioth.

+ +

As I want ZFS to be included in next version of Debian to make sure +my home server can function in the future using only official Debian +packages, and the current blocker is to get the debian/copyright file +accepted by the FTP masters in Debian, I decided a while back to try +to help out the team. This was the background for my blog post about +creating, +updating and checking debian/copyright semi-automatically, and I +used the techniques I explored there to try to find any errors in the +copyright file. It is not very easy to check every one of the around +2000 files in the source package, but I hope we this time got it +right. If you want to help out, check out the git source and try to +find missing entries in the debian/copyright file.

@@ -1001,6 +466,50 @@ dokumentasjon på vegvesenets REST-API.

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