X-Git-Url: https://pere.pagekite.me/gitweb/homepage.git/blobdiff_plain/525c8f4d5fe33e5fec2c764cf123c4b2fffeba52..a0a971f55f61855eb0b27b68176b325f2a65995f:/blog/archive/2010/06/06.rss diff --git a/blog/archive/2010/06/06.rss b/blog/archive/2010/06/06.rss index 611417a8df..7e91fa09b4 100644 --- a/blog/archive/2010/06/06.rss +++ b/blog/archive/2010/06/06.rss @@ -7,391 +7,211 @@ - KDM fail at boot with NVidia cards - and no one try to fix it? - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/KDM_fail_at_boot_with_NVidia_cards___and_no_one_try_to_fix_it_.html - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/KDM_fail_at_boot_with_NVidia_cards___and_no_one_try_to_fix_it_.html - Tue, 1 Jun 2010 17:05:00 +0200 - <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> + LUMA, a very nice LDAP GUI + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/LUMA__a_very_nice_LDAP_GUI.html + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/LUMA__a_very_nice_LDAP_GUI.html + Mon, 28 Jun 2010 00:30:00 +0200 + <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 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>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>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 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>I wonder why we end up handling bugs this way.</p> - - - - - Togsatsing på norsk, mot sykkel - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Togsatsing_p__norsk__mot_sykkel.html - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Togsatsing_p__norsk__mot_sykkel.html - Wed, 2 Jun 2010 23:45:00 +0200 - <p>Det står dårlig til med toget når en finner på å la det -<a href="http://www.aftenposten.no/nyheter/iriks/article3677060.ece">kappkjøre -med sykkel</a>... Jeg tror det trengs strukturendringer for å få -fikset på togproblemene i Norge.</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>Mon tro hva toglinje mellom Narvik og Tromsø ville hatt slags -effekt på området der?</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> - Sitesummary tip: Listing computer hardware models used at site - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Sitesummary_tip__Listing_computer_hardware_models_used_at_site.html - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Sitesummary_tip__Listing_computer_hardware_models_used_at_site.html - Thu, 3 Jun 2010 12:05:00 +0200 - <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> + Idea for a change to LDAP schemas allowing DNS and DHCP info to be combined into one object + 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 + 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 + Thu, 24 Jun 2010 00:35:00 +0200 + <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> -<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>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>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 no 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>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>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> - - - - - A manual for standards wars... - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/A_manual_for_standards_wars___.html - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/A_manual_for_standards_wars___.html - Sun, 6 Jun 2010 14:15:00 +0200 - <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> +<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> - Upstart or sysvinit - as init.d scripts see it - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Upstart_or_sysvinit___as_init_d_scripts_see_it.html - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Upstart_or_sysvinit___as_init_d_scripts_see_it.html - Sun, 6 Jun 2010 23:55:00 +0200 - <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> + Calling tasksel like the installer, while still getting useful output + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Calling_tasksel_like_the_installer__while_still_getting_useful_output.html + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Calling_tasksel_like_the_installer__while_still_getting_useful_output.html + Wed, 16 Jun 2010 14:55:00 +0200 + <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> -DEFAULT_RUNLEVEL=2 -previous=N -PREVLEVEL= -RUNLEVEL= -runlevel=S -UPSTART_EVENTS=startup -UPSTART_INSTANCE= -UPSTART_JOB=rc-sysinit +export DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive +tasksel --new-install </pre></blockquote> -<p>With sysvinit, these environment variables are set for the same -script.</p> +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> -INIT_VERSION=sysvinit-2.88 -previous=N -PREVLEVEL=N -RUNLEVEL=S -runlevel=S +export DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive +cmd="$(in_target tasksel -t --new-install | sed 's/debconf-apt-progress -- //')" +$cmd </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>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>For scripts needing to behave differently when upstart is used, -looking for the UPSTART_JOB environment variable seem to be a good -choice.</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> - Skolelinux er laget for sentraldrifting, naturligvis - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Skolelinux_er_laget_for_sentraldrifting__naturligvis.html - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Skolelinux_er_laget_for_sentraldrifting__naturligvis.html - Wed, 9 Jun 2010 12:30:00 +0200 - <p>Det er merkelig hvordan myter om Skolelinux overlever. En slik -myte er at Skolelinux ikke kan sentraldriftes og ha sentralt plasserte -tjenermaskiner. I siste Computerworld Norge er -<a href="http://www.idg.no/computerworld/article169432.ece">IT-sjef -Viggo Billdal i Steinkjer intervjuet</a>, og forteller uten -blygsel:</p> - -<blockquote><p>Vi hadde Skolelinux, men det har vi sluttet med. Vi testet -om det lønte seg med Microsoft eller en åpen plattform. Vi fant ut at -Microsoft egentlig var totalt sett bedre egnet. Det var store -driftskostnader med Skolelinux, blant annet på grunn av -desentraliserte servere. Det var komplisert, så vi gikk vekk fra det -og bruker nå bare Windows.</p></blockquote> - -<p>En <a -href="https://init.linpro.no/pipermail/skolelinux.no/bruker/2010-June/009101.html">rask -sjekk</a> mot den norske brukerlista i Skolelinuxprosjektet forteller -at Steinkjers forsøk foregikk fram til 2004/2005, og at Røysing skole -i Steinkjer skal ha vært svært fornøyd med Skolelinux men at kommunen -overkjørte skolen og krevde at de gikk over til Windows. Et søk på -nettet sendte meg til -<a href="http://www.dn.no/multimedia/archive/00090/Dagens_it_nr__18_90826a.pdf">Dagens -IT nr. 18 2005</a> hvor en kan lese på side 18:</p> - -<blockquote><p>Inge Tømmerås ved Røysing skole i Steinkjer kjører ennå -Microsoft, men forteller at kompetanseutfordringen med Skolelinux ikke -var så stor. ­ Jeg syntes Skolelinux var utrolig lett å drifte uten -forkunnskaper. Men man må jo selvsagt ha tilgang på ekstern kompetanse -til installasjoner og maskinvarefeil, sier Tømmerås.</p></blockquote> + Vinmonopolet bryter loven åpenlyst - og flere planlegger å gjøre det samme + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Vinmonopolet_bryter_loven__penlyst___og_flere_planlegger___gj_re_det_samme.html + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Vinmonopolet_bryter_loven__penlyst___og_flere_planlegger___gj_re_det_samme.html + Wed, 16 Jun 2010 11:00:00 +0200 + <p><a href="http://www.dagbladet.no/2010/06/16/nyheter/innenriks/streik/arbeidsliv/12157858/">Dagbladet +melder</a> at Vinmonopolet med bakgrunn i vekterstreiken som pågår i +Norge for tiden, har bestemt seg for med vitende og vilje å bryte +sentralbanklovens paragraf 14 ved å nekte folk å betale med +kontanter, og at flere butikker planlegger å følge deres eksempel. +Jeg synes det er hårreisende hvis de slipper unna med et slikt +soleklart lovbrudd, og lurer på hva slags muligheter jeg vil ha hvis +jeg blir nektet å handle med kontanter. Jeg handler i hovedsak med +kontanter selv, da jeg anser det som en borgerrett å kunne handle +anonymt uten at det blir registrert. For meg er det et angrep på mitt +personvern å nekte å ta imot kontant betaling.</p> -<p>Som systemarkitekten bak Skolelinux, kan jeg bare riste på hodet -over påstanden om at Skolelinux krever desentraliserte tjenere. -Skolelinux-arkitekturen er laget for sentralisert drift og plassering -av tjenerne lokalt eller sentralt alt etter behov og nettkapasitet. -Den er modellert på nettverks- og tjenerløsningen som brukes på -Universitetet i Tromsø og Oslo, der jeg jobber med utvikling av -driftstjenester. Dette er det heldigvis noen som har fått med seg, og -jeg er glad for å kunne sitere fra en kommentar på den overnevnte -artikkelen. Min venn og gamle kollega Sturle Sunde forteller der: +<p><a href="http://www.lovdata.no/all/tl-19850524-028-003.html#14">Paragrafen +i sentralbankloven</a> lyder:</p> <blockquote> -<p>I Flora kommune køyrer vi Skulelinux på skular med alt frå 15 til -meir enn 500 elevar. Dei store skulane har eigen tenar, for det er -mest praktisk. Eg, som er driftsansvarleg for heile nettet, ser -sjeldan dei tenarane fysisk, men at dei står der gjer skulane mindre -avhengige av eksterne linjer som er trege eller dyre. Dei minste -skulane har ikkje eigen tenar. Å bruke sentral tenar er heller ikkje -noko problem. Småskulane klarar seg fint med 1 mbit-linje til ein -sentral tenar eller tenaren på ein større skule.</p> +<p>§ 14. Tvungent betalingsmiddel</p> -<p>Det beste med Skulelinux er halvtjukke klientar. Dei treng ikkje -harddisk og brukar minimalt med ressursar på tenaren fordi dei køyrer -programma lokalt. Eit klasserom med 30 sju-åtte år gamle maskiner har -mykje meir CPU og RAM totalt enn nokon moderne tenar til under -millionen. Det trengst to kommandoar på den sentrale tenaren for å -oppdatere alle klientane, både tynne og halvtjukke. Vi har ingen -problem med diskar som ryk heller, som var eit problem før fordi -elevane sat og sparka i maskinene. Og dei krev lite bandbreidde i -nettet, so det er fullt mogleg å køyre slike på småskular med trege -linjer mot tenaren på ein større skule.</p> +<p>Bankens sedler og mynter er tvungent betalingsmiddel i Norge. Ingen +er pliktig til i én betaling å ta imot mer enn femogtyve mynter av +hver enhet.</p> -<p>Flora kommune har nesten 800 Linux-maskiner i sitt skulenett, og -ein person som tek seg av drift av heile nettet, inkludert tenarar, -klientar, operativsystem, programvare, heimekontorløysing og -administrasjon av brukarar.</p> +<p>Sterkt skadde sedler og mynter er ikke tvungent +betalingsmiddel. Banken gir nærmere forskrifter om erstatning for +bortkomne, brente eller skadde sedler og mynter.</p> -<p>No skal det seiast at vi ikkje køyrer rein Skulelinux ut av -boksen. Vi har gjort ein del tilpassingar mot noko Novell-greier som -var der frå før, og som har komplisert installasjonen vår. Etter at -oppsettet var gjort har løysinga vore stabil og kravd minimalt med -arbeid.</p> +<p>Selv om en avtale inneholder klausul om betaling av en +pengeforpliktelse i gullverdi, kan skyldneren frigjøre seg med tvungne +betalingsmidler uten hensyn til denne klausul.</p> </blockquote> -<p>Jeg vet at Narvik, Harstad og Oslo er kommuner der Skolelinux -sentraldriftes med sentrale tjenere. Det forteller meg at Steinkjers -IT-sjef neppe bør skylde på Skolelinux-løsningen for sine 5 år gamle -minner.</p> +<p>Det er med bakgrunn i denne lovet ikke tillatt å nekte å ta imot +kontakt betaling. Det er en lov jeg har sans for, og som jeg mener må +håndheves strengt.</p> - Automatic upgrade testing from Lenny to Squeeze - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Automatic_upgrade_testing_from_Lenny_to_Squeeze.html - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Automatic_upgrade_testing_from_Lenny_to_Squeeze.html - Fri, 11 Jun 2010 22:50:00 +0200 - <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> + Officeshots taking shape + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Officeshots_taking_shape.html + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Officeshots_taking_shape.html + Sun, 13 Jun 2010 11:40:00 +0200 + <p>For those of us caring about document exchange and +interoperability, <a href="http://www.officeshots.org/">OfficeShots</a> +is a great service. It is to ODF documents what +<a href="http://browsershots.org/">BrowserShots</a> is for web +pages.</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> - - - - - Åpne trådløsnett er et samfunnsgode - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/_pne_tr_dl_snett_er_et_samfunnsgode.html - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/_pne_tr_dl_snett_er_et_samfunnsgode.html - Sat, 12 Jun 2010 12:45:00 +0200 - <p>Veldig glad for å oppdage via -<a href="http://yro.slashdot.org/story/10/06/11/1841256/Finland-To-Legalize-Use-of-Unsecured-Wi-Fi">Slashdot</a> -at folk i Finland har forstått at åpne trådløsnett er et samfunnsgode. -Jeg ser på åpne trådløsnett som et fellesgode på linje med retten til -ferdsel i utmark og retten til å bevege seg i strandsonen. Jeg har -glede av åpne trådløsnett når jeg finner dem, og deler gladelig nett -med andre så lenge de ikke forstyrrer min bruk av eget nett. -Nettkapasiteten er sjelden en begrensning ved normal browsing og enkel -SSH-innlogging (som er min vanligste nettbruk), og nett kan brukes til -så mye positivt og nyttig (som nyhetslesing, sjekke været, kontakte -slekt og venner, holde seg oppdatert om politiske saker, kontakte -organisasjoner og politikere, etc), at det for meg er helt urimelig å -blokkere dette for alle som ikke gjør en flue fortred. De som mener -at potensialet for misbruk er grunn nok til å hindre all den positive -og lovlydige bruken av et åpent trådløsnett har jeg dermed ingen -forståelse for. En kan ikke la eksistensen av forbrytere styre hvordan -samfunnet skal organiseres. Da får en et kontrollsamfunn de færreste -ønsker å leve i, og det at vi har et samfunn i Norge der tilliten til -hverandre er høy gjør at samfunnet fungerer ganske godt. Det bør vi -anstrenge oss for å beholde.</p> +<p>A while back, I was contacted by Knut Yrvin at the part of Nokia +that used to be Trolltech, who wanted to help the OfficeShots project +and wondered if the University of Oslo where I work would be +interested in supporting the project. I helped him to navigate his +request to the right people at work, and his request was answered with +a spot in the machine room with power and network connected, and Knut +arranged funding for a machine to fill the spot. The machine is +administrated by the OfficeShots people, so I do not have daily +contact with its progress, and thus from time to time check back to +see how the project is doing.</p> + +<p>Today I had a look, and was happy to see that the Dell box in our +machine room now is the host for several virtual machines running as +OfficeShots factories, and the project is able to render ODF documents +in 17 different document processing implementation on Linux and +Windows. This is great.</p> @@ -572,211 +392,391 @@ continue.</p> - Officeshots taking shape - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Officeshots_taking_shape.html - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Officeshots_taking_shape.html - Sun, 13 Jun 2010 11:40:00 +0200 - <p>For those of us caring about document exchange and -interoperability, <a href="http://www.officeshots.org/">OfficeShots</a> -is a great service. It is to ODF documents what -<a href="http://browsershots.org/">BrowserShots</a> is for web -pages.</p> + Åpne trådløsnett er et samfunnsgode + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/_pne_tr_dl_snett_er_et_samfunnsgode.html + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/_pne_tr_dl_snett_er_et_samfunnsgode.html + Sat, 12 Jun 2010 12:45:00 +0200 + <p>Veldig glad for å oppdage via +<a href="http://yro.slashdot.org/story/10/06/11/1841256/Finland-To-Legalize-Use-of-Unsecured-Wi-Fi">Slashdot</a> +at folk i Finland har forstått at åpne trådløsnett er et samfunnsgode. +Jeg ser på åpne trådløsnett som et fellesgode på linje med retten til +ferdsel i utmark og retten til å bevege seg i strandsonen. Jeg har +glede av åpne trådløsnett når jeg finner dem, og deler gladelig nett +med andre så lenge de ikke forstyrrer min bruk av eget nett. +Nettkapasiteten er sjelden en begrensning ved normal browsing og enkel +SSH-innlogging (som er min vanligste nettbruk), og nett kan brukes til +så mye positivt og nyttig (som nyhetslesing, sjekke været, kontakte +slekt og venner, holde seg oppdatert om politiske saker, kontakte +organisasjoner og politikere, etc), at det for meg er helt urimelig å +blokkere dette for alle som ikke gjør en flue fortred. De som mener +at potensialet for misbruk er grunn nok til å hindre all den positive +og lovlydige bruken av et åpent trådløsnett har jeg dermed ingen +forståelse for. En kan ikke la eksistensen av forbrytere styre hvordan +samfunnet skal organiseres. Da får en et kontrollsamfunn de færreste +ønsker å leve i, og det at vi har et samfunn i Norge der tilliten til +hverandre er høy gjør at samfunnet fungerer ganske godt. Det bør vi +anstrenge oss for å beholde.</p> + + + + + Automatic upgrade testing from Lenny to Squeeze + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Automatic_upgrade_testing_from_Lenny_to_Squeeze.html + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Automatic_upgrade_testing_from_Lenny_to_Squeeze.html + Fri, 11 Jun 2010 22:50:00 +0200 + <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>A while back, I was contacted by Knut Yrvin at the part of Nokia -that used to be Trolltech, who wanted to help the OfficeShots project -and wondered if the University of Oslo where I work would be -interested in supporting the project. I helped him to navigate his -request to the right people at work, and his request was answered with -a spot in the machine room with power and network connected, and Knut -arranged funding for a machine to fill the spot. The machine is -administrated by the OfficeShots people, so I do not have daily -contact with its progress, and thus from time to time check back to -see how the project is doing.</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>Today I had a look, and was happy to see that the Dell box in our -machine room now is the host for several virtual machines running as -OfficeShots factories, and the project is able to render ODF documents -in 17 different document processing implementation on Linux and -Windows. This is great.</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> - Vinmonopolet bryter loven åpenlyst - og flere planlegger å gjøre det samme - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Vinmonopolet_bryter_loven__penlyst___og_flere_planlegger___gj_re_det_samme.html - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Vinmonopolet_bryter_loven__penlyst___og_flere_planlegger___gj_re_det_samme.html - Wed, 16 Jun 2010 11:00:00 +0200 - <p><a href="http://www.dagbladet.no/2010/06/16/nyheter/innenriks/streik/arbeidsliv/12157858/">Dagbladet -melder</a> at Vinmonopolet med bakgrunn i vekterstreiken som pågår i -Norge for tiden, har bestemt seg for med vitende og vilje å bryte -sentralbanklovens paragraf 14 ved å nekte folk å betale med -kontanter, og at flere butikker planlegger å følge deres eksempel. -Jeg synes det er hårreisende hvis de slipper unna med et slikt -soleklart lovbrudd, og lurer på hva slags muligheter jeg vil ha hvis -jeg blir nektet å handle med kontanter. Jeg handler i hovedsak med -kontanter selv, da jeg anser det som en borgerrett å kunne handle -anonymt uten at det blir registrert. For meg er det et angrep på mitt -personvern å nekte å ta imot kontant betaling.</p> + Skolelinux er laget for sentraldrifting, naturligvis + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Skolelinux_er_laget_for_sentraldrifting__naturligvis.html + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Skolelinux_er_laget_for_sentraldrifting__naturligvis.html + Wed, 9 Jun 2010 12:30:00 +0200 + <p>Det er merkelig hvordan myter om Skolelinux overlever. En slik +myte er at Skolelinux ikke kan sentraldriftes og ha sentralt plasserte +tjenermaskiner. I siste Computerworld Norge er +<a href="http://www.idg.no/computerworld/article169432.ece">IT-sjef +Viggo Billdal i Steinkjer intervjuet</a>, og forteller uten +blygsel:</p> -<p><a href="http://www.lovdata.no/all/tl-19850524-028-003.html#14">Paragrafen -i sentralbankloven</a> lyder:</p> +<blockquote><p>Vi hadde Skolelinux, men det har vi sluttet med. Vi testet +om det lønte seg med Microsoft eller en åpen plattform. Vi fant ut at +Microsoft egentlig var totalt sett bedre egnet. Det var store +driftskostnader med Skolelinux, blant annet på grunn av +desentraliserte servere. Det var komplisert, så vi gikk vekk fra det +og bruker nå bare Windows.</p></blockquote> + +<p>En <a +href="https://init.linpro.no/pipermail/skolelinux.no/bruker/2010-June/009101.html">rask +sjekk</a> mot den norske brukerlista i Skolelinuxprosjektet forteller +at Steinkjers forsøk foregikk fram til 2004/2005, og at Røysing skole +i Steinkjer skal ha vært svært fornøyd med Skolelinux men at kommunen +overkjørte skolen og krevde at de gikk over til Windows. Et søk på +nettet sendte meg til +<a href="http://www.dn.no/multimedia/archive/00090/Dagens_it_nr__18_90826a.pdf">Dagens +IT nr. 18 2005</a> hvor en kan lese på side 18:</p> + +<blockquote><p>Inge Tømmerås ved Røysing skole i Steinkjer kjører ennå +Microsoft, men forteller at kompetanseutfordringen med Skolelinux ikke +var så stor. ­ Jeg syntes Skolelinux var utrolig lett å drifte uten +forkunnskaper. Men man må jo selvsagt ha tilgang på ekstern kompetanse +til installasjoner og maskinvarefeil, sier Tømmerås.</p></blockquote> + +<p>Som systemarkitekten bak Skolelinux, kan jeg bare riste på hodet +over påstanden om at Skolelinux krever desentraliserte tjenere. +Skolelinux-arkitekturen er laget for sentralisert drift og plassering +av tjenerne lokalt eller sentralt alt etter behov og nettkapasitet. +Den er modellert på nettverks- og tjenerløsningen som brukes på +Universitetet i Tromsø og Oslo, der jeg jobber med utvikling av +driftstjenester. Dette er det heldigvis noen som har fått med seg, og +jeg er glad for å kunne sitere fra en kommentar på den overnevnte +artikkelen. Min venn og gamle kollega Sturle Sunde forteller der: <blockquote> -<p>§ 14. Tvungent betalingsmiddel</p> +<p>I Flora kommune køyrer vi Skulelinux på skular med alt frå 15 til +meir enn 500 elevar. Dei store skulane har eigen tenar, for det er +mest praktisk. Eg, som er driftsansvarleg for heile nettet, ser +sjeldan dei tenarane fysisk, men at dei står der gjer skulane mindre +avhengige av eksterne linjer som er trege eller dyre. Dei minste +skulane har ikkje eigen tenar. Å bruke sentral tenar er heller ikkje +noko problem. Småskulane klarar seg fint med 1 mbit-linje til ein +sentral tenar eller tenaren på ein større skule.</p> -<p>Bankens sedler og mynter er tvungent betalingsmiddel i Norge. Ingen -er pliktig til i én betaling å ta imot mer enn femogtyve mynter av -hver enhet.</p> +<p>Det beste med Skulelinux er halvtjukke klientar. Dei treng ikkje +harddisk og brukar minimalt med ressursar på tenaren fordi dei køyrer +programma lokalt. Eit klasserom med 30 sju-åtte år gamle maskiner har +mykje meir CPU og RAM totalt enn nokon moderne tenar til under +millionen. Det trengst to kommandoar på den sentrale tenaren for å +oppdatere alle klientane, både tynne og halvtjukke. Vi har ingen +problem med diskar som ryk heller, som var eit problem før fordi +elevane sat og sparka i maskinene. Og dei krev lite bandbreidde i +nettet, so det er fullt mogleg å køyre slike på småskular med trege +linjer mot tenaren på ein større skule.</p> -<p>Sterkt skadde sedler og mynter er ikke tvungent -betalingsmiddel. Banken gir nærmere forskrifter om erstatning for -bortkomne, brente eller skadde sedler og mynter.</p> +<p>Flora kommune har nesten 800 Linux-maskiner i sitt skulenett, og +ein person som tek seg av drift av heile nettet, inkludert tenarar, +klientar, operativsystem, programvare, heimekontorløysing og +administrasjon av brukarar.</p> -<p>Selv om en avtale inneholder klausul om betaling av en -pengeforpliktelse i gullverdi, kan skyldneren frigjøre seg med tvungne -betalingsmidler uten hensyn til denne klausul.</p> +<p>No skal det seiast at vi ikkje køyrer rein Skulelinux ut av +boksen. Vi har gjort ein del tilpassingar mot noko Novell-greier som +var der frå før, og som har komplisert installasjonen vår. Etter at +oppsettet var gjort har løysinga vore stabil og kravd minimalt med +arbeid.</p> </blockquote> -<p>Det er med bakgrunn i denne lovet ikke tillatt å nekte å ta imot -kontakt betaling. Det er en lov jeg har sans for, og som jeg mener må -håndheves strengt.</p> +<p>Jeg vet at Narvik, Harstad og Oslo er kommuner der Skolelinux +sentraldriftes med sentrale tjenere. Det forteller meg at Steinkjers +IT-sjef neppe bør skylde på Skolelinux-løsningen for sine 5 år gamle +minner.</p> - Calling tasksel like the installer, while still getting useful output - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Calling_tasksel_like_the_installer__while_still_getting_useful_output.html - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Calling_tasksel_like_the_installer__while_still_getting_useful_output.html - Wed, 16 Jun 2010 14:55:00 +0200 - <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: + Upstart or sysvinit - as init.d scripts see it + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Upstart_or_sysvinit___as_init_d_scripts_see_it.html + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Upstart_or_sysvinit___as_init_d_scripts_see_it.html + Sun, 6 Jun 2010 23:55:00 +0200 + <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> -export DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive -tasksel --new-install +DEFAULT_RUNLEVEL=2 +previous=N +PREVLEVEL= +RUNLEVEL= +runlevel=S +UPSTART_EVENTS=startup +UPSTART_INSTANCE= +UPSTART_JOB=rc-sysinit </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: +<p>With sysvinit, these environment variables are set for the same +script.</p> <blockquote><pre> -export DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive -cmd="$(in_target tasksel -t --new-install | sed 's/debconf-apt-progress -- //')" -$cmd +INIT_VERSION=sysvinit-2.88 +previous=N +PREVLEVEL=N +RUNLEVEL=S +runlevel=S </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>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>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> +<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> - Idea for a change to LDAP schemas allowing DNS and DHCP info to be combined into one object - 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 - 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 - Thu, 24 Jun 2010 00:35:00 +0200 - <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> + A manual for standards wars... + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/A_manual_for_standards_wars___.html + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/A_manual_for_standards_wars___.html + Sun, 6 Jun 2010 14:15:00 +0200 + <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> + + + + + Sitesummary tip: Listing computer hardware models used at site + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Sitesummary_tip__Listing_computer_hardware_models_used_at_site.html + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Sitesummary_tip__Listing_computer_hardware_models_used_at_site.html + Thu, 3 Jun 2010 12:05:00 +0200 + <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> -<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> +<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>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>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 no 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>If you want to help out with implementing this for Debian Edu, -please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.</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> - LUMA, a very nice LDAP GUI - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/LUMA__a_very_nice_LDAP_GUI.html - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/LUMA__a_very_nice_LDAP_GUI.html - Mon, 28 Jun 2010 00:30:00 +0200 - <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> + Togsatsing på norsk, mot sykkel + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Togsatsing_p__norsk__mot_sykkel.html + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Togsatsing_p__norsk__mot_sykkel.html + Wed, 2 Jun 2010 23:45:00 +0200 + <p>Det står dårlig til med toget når en finner på å la det +<a href="http://www.aftenposten.no/nyheter/iriks/article3677060.ece">kappkjøre +med sykkel</a>... Jeg tror det trengs strukturendringer for å få +fikset på togproblemene i Norge.</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>Mon tro hva toglinje mellom Narvik og Tromsø ville hatt slags +effekt på området der?</p> + + + + + KDM fail at boot with NVidia cards - and no one try to fix it? + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/KDM_fail_at_boot_with_NVidia_cards___and_no_one_try_to_fix_it_.html + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/KDM_fail_at_boot_with_NVidia_cards___and_no_one_try_to_fix_it_.html + Tue, 1 Jun 2010 17:05:00 +0200 + <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 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>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>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>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>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> +<p>I wonder why we end up handling bugs this way.</p>