X-Git-Url: https://pere.pagekite.me/gitweb/homepage.git/blobdiff_plain/59845cad515532d9f32bb1540b4d6748d991e863..4973d2dfbff2c0e25f6c85cafa5a2c0265deef25:/blog/index.rss diff --git a/blog/index.rss b/blog/index.rss index 1ad105bcad..2b61d6ba9c 100644 --- a/blog/index.rss +++ b/blog/index.rss @@ -6,6 +6,151 @@ http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/ + + Debian Edu - some ideas for the future versions + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu___some_ideas_for_the_future_versions.html + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu___some_ideas_for_the_future_versions.html + Mon, 11 Jun 2012 14:30:00 +0200 + <p>During my work on Debian Edu based on Squeeze, I came across some +issues that should be addressed in the Wheezy release. I finally +found time to wrap up my notes and provide quick summary of what I +found, with a bit explanation.</p> + +<p><ul> + +<li>We need to rewrite our package installation framework, as tasksel +changed from using tasksel tasks to using meta packages (aka packages +with dependencies like our education-* packages), and our installation +system depend on tasksel tasks in +/usr/share/tasksel/debian-edu-tasks.desc for package +installation.</li> + +<li>Enable Kerberos login for more services. Now with the Kerberos +foundation in place, we should use it to get single sign on with more +services, and avoiding unneeded password / login questions. We should +at least try to enable it for these services: +<ul> + + <li>CUPS for admins to add/configure printers and users when using + quotas.</li> + <li>Nagios for admins checking the system status.</li> + <li>GOsa for admins updating LDAP and users changing their passwords.</li> + <li>LDAP for admins updating LDAP.</li> + <li>Squid for users when exam mode / filtering is active.</li> + <li>ssh for admins and users to save a password prompt.</li> + +</ul></li> + +<li>When we move GOsa to use Kerberos instead of LDAP bind to +authenticate users, we should try to block or at least limit access to +use LDAP bind for authentication, to ensure Kerberos is used when it +is intended, and nothing fall back to using the less safe LDAP bind</li> + +<li>Merge debian-edu-config and debian-edu-install. The split made +sense when d-e-install did a lot more, but these days it is just an +inconvenience when we update the debconf preseeding values.</li> + +<li>Fix partman-auto to allow us to abort the installation before +touching the disk if the disk is too small. This is +<a href="http://bugs.debian.org/653305">BTS report #653305</a> and the +d-i developers are fine with the patch and someone just need to apply +it and upload.</li> + +<li>Adjust to new LTSP framework (boot time config instead of install +time config). LTSP changed its design, and our hooks to install +packages and update the configuration is most likely not going to work +in Wheezy. + +<li>Consider switching to NBD instead of NFS for LTSP root, to allow +the Kernel to cache files in its normal file cache, possibly speeding +up KDE login on slow networks.</li> + +<li>Make it possible to create expired user passwords that need to +change on first login. This is useful when handing out password on +paper, to make sure only the user know the password. This require +fixes to the PAM handling of kdm and gdm.</li> + +<li>Make GUI for adding new machines automatically from sitesummary. +The current command line script is not very friendly to people most +familiar with GUIs. This should probably be integrated into GOsa to +have it available where the admin will be looking for it..</li> + +<li>We should find way for Nagios to check that the DHCP service +actually is working (as in handling out IP addresses). None of the +Nagios checks I have found so far have been working for me.</li> + +<li>We should switch from libpam-nss-ldapd to sssd for all profiles +using LDAP, and not only on for roaming workstations, to have less +packages to configure and consistent setup across all profiles.</li> + +<li>We should configure Kerberos to update LDAP and Samba password +when changing password using the Kerberos protocol. The hook was +requested in <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/588968">BTS report +#588968</a> and is now available in Wheezy. We might need to write a +MIT Kerberos plugin in C to get this.</li> + +<li>We should clean up the set of applications installed by default. +<ul> + +<li>reduce the number of chemistry visualisers</li> +<li>consider dropping xpaint</li> +<li>and probably more?</li> +</ul></li> + +<li>Some hardware need external firmware to work properly. This is +mostly the case for WiFi network cards, but there are some other +examples too. For popular laptops to work out of the box, such +firmware need to be installed from non-free, and we should provide +some GUI to do this. Ubuntu already have this implemented, and we +could consider using their packages. At the moment we have some +command line script to do this (one for the running system, another +for the LTSP chroot).</li> + + +<li>In Squeeze, we provide KDE, Gnome and LXDE as desktop options. We +should extend the list to Xfce and Sugar, and preferably find a way to +install several and allow the admin or the user to select which one to +use.</li> + +<li>The golearn tool from the goplay package make it easy to check out +interesting educational packages. We should work on the package +tagging in Debian to ensure it represent all the useful educational +packages, and extend the tool to allow it to use packagekit to install +new applications with a simple mouse click.</li> + +<li>The Squeeze version got half a exam solution already in place, +with the introduction of iptable based network blocking, but for it to +be a complete exam solution the Squid proxy need to enable +filtering/blocking as well when the exam mode is enabled. We should +implement a way to easily enable this for the schools that want it, +instead of the "it is documented" method of today.</li> + +<li>A feature used in several schools is the ability for a teacher to +"take over" the desktop of individual or all computers in the room. +There are at least three implementations, +<a href="italc.sourceforge.net/">italc</a>, +<a href="http://www.itais.net/help/en/">controlaula</a> og +<a href="http://www.epoptes.org/">epoptes</a> and we should pick one of +them and make it trivial to set it up in a school. The challenges is +how to distribute crypto keys and how to group computers in one room +and how to set up which machine/user can control the machines in a +given room.</li> + +<li>Tablets and surf boards are getting more and more popular, and we +should look into providing a good solution for integrating these into +the Debian Edu network. Not quite sure how. Perhaps we should +provide a installation profile with better touch screen support for +them, or add some sync services to allow them to exchange +configuration and data with the central server. This should be +investigated.</li> + +</ul></p> + +<p>I guess we will discover more as we continue to work on the Wheezy +version.</p> + + + Litt statistikk fra Offentlig Elektronisk postjournal http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Litt_statistikk_fra_Offentlig_Elektronisk_postjournal.html @@ -684,45 +829,5 @@ legge inn og hente ut informasjon. Så får vi se hva de sier.</p> - - Database over bensinpriser fra dinside.no - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Database_over_bensinpriser_fra_dinside_no.html - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Database_over_bensinpriser_fra_dinside_no.html - Wed, 30 May 2012 14:30:00 +0200 - <p>En god og offentlig kilde til bensinpriser i Norge er -<a href="http://www.dinside.no/1931/her-faar-du-billigst-bensin-diesel">dinside.no -sin prisoversikt</a> samlet inn på dugnad fra frivillige over hele -landet. Den har ikke like mange priser rapportert inn som Bitfactorys -mobil-app, men informasjonen som samles inn er enkelt offentlig -tilgjengelig på web. Dessverre forsvinner prisene fra web etter noen -dager, så for å kunne lage analyser og se trender må en lage en -database ved å hente ut informasjon fra dinside.no sine nettsider over -en lengre periode. Jeg startet for litt over en uke siden en -innsamlingstjeneste som gjør nettopp dette. Jeg har de siste ukene -lært meg å bruke <a href="http://www.scraperwiki.com/">Scraperwiki</a>, -et nytt og nyttig verktøy for å hente ut og strukturere informasjon -tilgjengelig fra nettsider, PDF-er og andre kilder og som trenger -strukturering. Hvis du vil se hvordan prisene har utviklet seg, ta en -titt på -<a href="https://scraperwiki.com/scrapers/dinside-bensinpriser/">scraperwiki-siden -med databasen</a> over bensinpriser. Den henter ned priser fra -dinside.no hver time. Hvis du vil bidra til å bedre oversikt over -bensinprisene i Norge -<a href="http://www.dinside.no/php/int/vis_endre.php?ny=1">registrer -deg</a> hos dinside.no og legg inn prisene fra dine lokale -bensinstasjoner.</p> - -<p>Jeg har kun gjort dette med informasjonen fra dinside.no og ikke -informasjonen fra Bitfactory pga. bekymring rundt opphavsrettslige -problemstillinger. Faktainformasjonen samlet inn av brukerene av -dinside.no nettsider er åpenbart publisert offentlig, mens jeg -mistenker det er en juridisk gråsone om det samme gjelder -informasjonen samlet inn av brukerne av bitfactorys mobilapp. Derfor -bidrar jeg med å samle inn priser hos dinside.no, og anbefaler andre å -gjøre det samme. Jeg prioriterer å bidra hos de som forstår verdien -av å dele informasjon med andre uten bruksbegresninger.</p> - - -