X-Git-Url: https://pere.pagekite.me/gitweb/homepage.git/blobdiff_plain/ab7fed4f9062b2b526b583c7da8eac92593983f3..9c943b75ce7d17578919dbebd2db751399d7beb9:/blog/index.rss?ds=sidebyside diff --git a/blog/index.rss b/blog/index.rss index 1fa2b41d62..753873684a 100644 --- a/blog/index.rss +++ b/blog/index.rss @@ -7,653 +7,876 @@ - BankID skal ikke gi tilgang til min personsensitive informasjon - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/BankID_skal_ikke_gi_tilgang_til_min_personsensitive_informasjon.html - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/BankID_skal_ikke_gi_tilgang_til_min_personsensitive_informasjon.html - Fri, 16 Nov 2012 12:10:00 +0100 - <p>Onsdag i denne uka annonserte -<a href="http://www.fad.dep.no/">Fornyingsdepartementet</a> at de har -inngått kontrakt med BankID Norge om bruk av BankID for å la borgerne -logge inn på offentlige nettsider der en kan få tilgang til -personsensitiv informasjon. Jeg skrev i 2009 litt om -<a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Jeg_vil_ikke_ha_BankID.html">hvorfor -jeg ikke vil ha BankID</a> &mdash; jeg ikke stoler nok på en bank til -å gi dem mulighet til å inngå avtaler på mine vegne. Jeg forlanger at -jeg skal være involvert når det skal inngås avtaler på mine vegne.</p> - -<p>Jeg har derfor valgt å bruke -<a href="http://www.skandibanken.no/">Skandiabanken</a> (det er flere -banker som ikke krever BankID, se -<a href="http://no.wikipedia.org/wiki/BankID">Wikipedia for en -liste</a>) på grunn av at de ikke tvinger sine kunder til å bruke -BankID. I motsetning til Postbanken, som løy til meg i 2009 da -kundestøtten der sa at det var blitt et krav fra Kreditttilsynet og -BBS om at norske banker måtte innføre BankID, har ikke Skandiabanken -forsøkt å tvinge meg til å ta i bruk BankID. Jeg fikk nylig endelig -spurt Finanstilsynet (de har byttet navn siden 2009), og fikk beskjed -fra Frank Robert Berg hos Finanstilsynet i epost 2012-09-17 at -Finanstilsynet ikke har fremsatt slike krav. Med andre ord snakket -ikke Postbankens kundestøtte sant i 2009.</p> - -<p>Når en i tillegg fra -<a href="http://www.aftenposten.no/nyheter/iriks/Tyver-kan-tappe-kontoen-din---selv-uten-passord-og-pinkode--6989793.html">oppslag -i Aftenposten</a> vet at de som jobber i alle bankene som bruker -BankID i dag, det være seg utro tjenere, eller de som lar seg lure av -falsk legitimasjon, kan lage og dele ut en BankID som gir tilgang til -mine kontoer og rett til å inngå avtaler på mine vegne, blir det -viktigere enn noen gang å få reservert seg mot BankID. Det holder -ikke å la være å bruke det selv. Jeg sendte derfor følgende -epost-brev til Fornyingsdepartementet i går:</p> - -<p><blockquote> -<p>Date: Thu, 15 Nov 2012 11:08:31 +0100 -<br>From: Petter Reinholdtsen &lt;pere (at) hungry.com&gt; -<br>To: postmottak (at) fad.dep.no -<br>Subject: Forespørsel om reservasjon mot bruk av BankID i ID-porten</p> - -<p>Jeg viser til nyheten om at staten har tildelt kontrakt for å -levere elektronisk ID for offentlige digitale tjenester til BankID -Norge, referert til blant annet i Digi[1] og i FADs -pressemelding[2].</p> - -<p>1) &lt;URL: <a href="http://www.digi.no/906093/staten-gaar-for-bankid">http://www.digi.no/906093/staten-gaar-for-bankid</a> &gt; -<br>2) &lt;URL: <a href="http://www.regjeringen.no/nb/dep/fad/pressesenter/pressemeldinger/2012/staten-inngar-avtale-med-bankid.html">http://www.regjeringen.no/nb/dep/fad/pressesenter/pressemeldinger/2012/staten-inngar-avtale-med-bankid.html</a> &gt;</p> - -<p>Gitt BankIDs utforming, der BankID-utsteder har både privat og -offentlig del av kundens nøkkel hos seg, er jeg ikke villig til å gi -tilgang til informasjon som hører til min min privatsfære ved hjelp av -innlogging med BankID.</p> - -<p>Jeg ber derfor herved om at løsningen settes opp slik at ingen kan -logge inn som meg på offentlige digitale tjenester ved hjelp av -BankID, det vil si at jeg reserverer meg mot enhver bruk av BankID for -å logge meg inn på slike tjenester som kan inneholde personsensitiv -informasjon om meg.</p> - -<p>Jeg har ikke BankID i dag, men som en kan se i oppslag i Aftenposten -2012-09-13[3] er det ikke til hindrer for at andre kan bruke BankID på -mine vegne for å få tilgang. Det sikkerhetsproblemet kommer i tillegg -til utformingsproblemet omtalt over, og forsterker bare mitt syn på at -BankID ikke er aktuelt for meg til noe annet enn å logge inn i en -nettbank der banken i større grad bærer risikoen ved misbruk.</p> - -<p>3) &lt;URL: <a href="http://www.aftenposten.no/nyheter/iriks/Tyver-kan-tappe-kontoen-din---selv-uten-passord-og-pinkode--6989793.html">http://www.aftenposten.no/nyheter/iriks/Tyver-kan-tappe-kontoen-din---selv-uten-passord-og-pinkode--6989793.html</a> &gt;</p> - -<p>Jeg ber om rask tilbakemelding med saksnummer for min henvendelse. -Jeg ber videre om bekreftelse på at BankID-innlogging er blokkert når -det gjelder tilgang til "min" informasjon hos det offentlige, i -forkant av BankID-integrasjon mot ID-porten som i følge -pressemeldingen skal komme på plass i løpet av et par uker.</p> - -<p>-- -<br>Vennlig hilsen -<br>Petter Reinholdtsen</p> -</blockquote> - -<p>Jeg venter spent på svaret. Jeg mistenker jeg må sende tilsvarende -beskjed til mine bankforbindelser for å sikre mine bankkontoer.</p> - -<p>Hvis det skal brukes offentlig nøkkel-teknologi til å inngå avtaler -på mine vegne og skaffe seg personsensitiv informasjon om meg, så er -mitt krav at det kun er jeg som har tilgang på min private nøkkel. -Alt annet blir å gi for mye tillit til andre. Med BankID sitter andre -på både "min" offentlige og private nøkkel.</p> - - - - - Debian Edu interview: Angela Fuß - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__Angela_Fu_.html - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__Angela_Fu_.html - Wed, 14 Nov 2012 21:30:00 +0100 - <p>Here is another interview with one of the people in the <a -href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu and Skolelinux</a> -community. I am running short on people willing to be interviewed, so -if you know about someone I should interview, Please send me an email. -After asking for many months, I finally managed to lure another one of -the people behind the German -"<a href="http://wiki.it-zukunft-schule.de/">IT-Zukunft Schule</a>" -project out from maternity leave to conduct an interview. Give a warm -welcome to Angela Fuß. :)</p> - -<p><strong>Who are you, and how do you spend your days?</strong></p> - -<p>I am a 39-year-old woman living in the very north of Germany near -Denmark. I live in a patchwork family with "my man" Mike Gabriel, my -two daughters, Mikes daughter and Mikes and my rather newborn son. - -<p>At the moment - because of our little baby - I am spending most of -the day by being a caring and organising mom for all the kids. -Besides that I am really involved into and occupied with several inner -growth processes: New born souls always bring the whole familiar -system into movement and that needs time and focus ;-). We are also -in the middle of buying a house and moving to it.</p> - -<p>In 2013 I will work again in my job in a German foundation for -nature conservation. I am doing public relation work there. Besides -that - and that is the connection to Skolelinux / Debian Edu - I am -working in our own school project "IT-Zukunft Schule" in North -Germany. I am responsible for the quality assurance, the customer -relationship management and the communication processes in the -project.</p> - -<p>Since 2001 I constantly have been training myself in communication -and leadership. Besides that I am a forester, a landscaping gardener -and a yoga teacher.</p> - -<p><strong>How did you get in contact with the Skolelinux / Debian Edu -project?</strong></p> - -<p>I fell in love with Mike ;-).</p> - -<p>Very soon after getting to know him I was completely enrolled into -Free Software. At this time Mike did IT-services for one newly -founded school in Kiel. Other schools in Kiel needed concepts for -their IT environment. Often when Mike came home from working at the -newly founded school I found myself listening to his complaints about -several points where the communication with the schools head or the -teachers did not work. So we were clear that he would not work for -one more school if we did not set up a structure for communication -between him, the schools head, the teachers, the students and the -parents.</p> - -<p>Together with our friend and hardware supplier Andreas Buchholz we -started to get an overview of free software solutions suitable for -schools. One day before Christmas 2010 Mike and I had a date with Kurt -Gramlich in Gütersloh. As Kurt and I are really interested in building -networks of people and in being in communication we dived into -Skolelinux and brought it to the first grammar schools in Northern -Germany.</p> - -<p>For information about our school project you can read -<a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__Mike_Gabriel.html">the -interview with Mike Gabriel</a>.</p> - -<p><strong>What do you see as the advantages of Skolelinux / Debian -Edu?</strong></p> - -<p>First I have to say: I cannot answer this question technically. My -answer comes rather from a social point of view.</p> - -<p>The biggest advantage of Skolelinux / Debian Edu I see is the large -and strong international community of Debian Developers in the -background which is very alive and connected over mailinglists, blogs -and meetings. My constant feeling for the Debian Community is: If -something does not work they will somehow fix it. All is well -;-). This is of course a user experience. What I also get as a big -advantage of Skolelinux / Debian Edu is that everybody who uses it and -works with it can also contribute to it - that includes students, -teachers, parents...</p> - -<p><strong>What do you see as the disadvantages of Skolelinux / Debian -Edu?</strong></p> - -<p>I will answer this question relating to the internal structure of -Skolelinux / Debian Edu.</p> - -<p>What I see as a major disadvantage is that there is a gap between -the group of developers for Debian Edu and the people who make the -marketing, that means the people that bring Skolelinux to the -schools. There is a lack of communication between these two groups and -I think that does not really work for Skolelinux / Debian Edu.</p> - -<p>Further I appreciate that Skolelinux / Debian Edu is known as a -do-ocracy. Nevertheless I keep asking myself if at some points a -democracy or some kind of hierarchical project structure would be good -and helpful. I am also missing some kind of contact between the -Skolelinux / Debian Edu communities in Europe or on an international -level. I think it would be good if there was more sharing between the -different countries using Skolelinux / Debian Edu.</p> - -<p><strong>Which free software do you use daily?</strong></p> - -<p>On my laptop I am still using an Ubuntu 10.04 with a Gnome Desktop -on. As applications I use Openoffice.org, Gedit, Firefox, Pidgin, -LaTeX and GnuCash. For mails I am using Horde. And I am really fond of -my N900 running with Maemo.</p> - -<p><strong>Which strategy do you believe is the right one to use to -get schools to use free software?</strong></p> - -<p>I am really convinced that in our school project "IT-Zukunft -Schule" we have developed (and keep developing) a great way to get -schools to use Free Software. We have written a detailed concept for -that so I cannot explain the whole thing here. But in a nutshell the -strategy has three crucial pillars:</p> + Thank you Thinkpad X41, for your long and trustworthy service + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Thank_you_Thinkpad_X41__for_your_long_and_trustworthy_service.html + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Thank_you_Thinkpad_X41__for_your_long_and_trustworthy_service.html + Sat, 19 Jan 2013 09:20:00 +0100 + <p>This Christmas my trusty old laptop died. It died quietly and +suddenly in bed. With a quiet whimper, it went completely quiet and +black. The power button was no longer able to turn it on. It was a +IBM Thinkpad X41, and the best laptop I ever had. Better than both +Thinkpads X30, X31, X40, X60, X61 and X61S. Far better than the +Compaq I had before that. Now I need to find a replacement. To keep +going during Christmas, I moved the one year old SSD disk to my old +X40 where it fitted (only one I had left that could use it), but it is +not a durable solution. + +<p>My laptop needs are fairly modest. This is my wishlist from when I +got a new one more than 10 years ago. It still holds true.:)</p> <ul> -<li>We really take time to get what sort of stories, questions and -concerns the schools head and the teachers have about using different -kinds of IT and we take time to enrol them into Free Software.</li> - -<li>Our solution for schools is never just technical. In the centre -are always the people who are going to use the software. From the very -beginning of the planning for a school, we tell the schools head that -they are paying us not only for a technical solution for their school, -they also pay us for leading all the communication processes -needed. If they do not want that, we are not working with them because -we cannot give a guarantee for the quality of our work then.</li> - -<li>Another focus lies in the training of teachers and students in -co-administrating the IT-System at their school. They start getting in -contact with the Skolelinux / Debian Edu community and they get the -offer to become more and more independent from us.</li> +<li>Lightweight (around 1 kg) and small volume (preferably smaller + than A4).</li> +<li>Robust, it will be in my backpack every day.</li> +<li>Three button mouse and a mouse pin instead of touch pad.</li> +<li>Long battery life time. Preferable a week.</li> +<li>Internal WIFI network card.</li> +<li>Internal Twisted Pair network card.</li> +<li>Some USB slots (2-3 is plenty)</li> +<li>Good keyboard - similar to the Thinkpad.</li> +<li>Video resolution at least 1024x768, with size around 12" (A4 paper +size).</li> +<li>Hardware supported by Debian Stable, ie the default kernel and + X.org packages.</li> +<li>Quiet, preferably fan free (or at least not using the fan most of + the time). </ul> + +<p>You will notice that there are no RAM and CPU requirements in the +list. The reason is simply that the specifications on laptops the +last 10-15 years have been sufficient for my needs, and I have to look +at other features to choose my laptop. But are there still made as +robust laptops as my X41? The Thinkpad X60/X61 proved to be less +robust, and Thinkpads seem to be heading in the wrong direction since +Lenovo took over. But I've been told that X220 and X1 Carbon might +still be useful.</p> + +<p>Perhaps I should rethink my needs, and look for a pad with an +external keyboard? I'll have to check the +<a href="http://www.linux-laptop.net/">Linux Laptops site</a> for +well-supported laptops, or perhaps just buy one preinstalled from one +of the vendors listed on the <a href="http://linuxpreloaded.com/">Linux +Pre-loaded site</a>.</p> - RFID-pass deler bilder av fingeravtrykkene dine ved enhver grensepassering - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/RFID_pass_deler_bilder_av_fingeravtrykkene_dine_ved_enhver_grensepassering.html - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/RFID_pass_deler_bilder_av_fingeravtrykkene_dine_ved_enhver_grensepassering.html - Sun, 11 Nov 2012 23:40:00 +0100 - <p>Leste nettopp -<a href="http://www.digi.no/905822/fikk-koffert-avtale">Digiartikkel om -Idex</a>, som stolt fortalte at de hadde fått en stor ny kunde av -fingeravtrykksløsningen de lager: - -<blockquote> -Kunden skal utvikle sikkerhetslåser til bruk på kofferter som skal -produseres av markedsledende produsenter. Idexs fingeravtrykksensor og -tilhørende programvare vil bli en del av den elektroniske låsen, som -erstatning for nøkkel eller kode. Brukeren «innrullerer» fingeravtrykk -direkte på låsen og mekanismen vil låses opp bare dersom brukeren -sveiper en innrullert finger over sensoren. -</blockquote> - -<p>Det fascinerer meg at noen i Norge tror fingeravtrykk kan brukes -til å sikre noe som helst, gitt at elektroniske pass har bilder av -fingeravtrykkene elektronisk lesbart via RFID, og en må anta bildene -blir lest og arkivert ved enhver grensepassering en foretar seg. I -tillegg kan RFID-pass leses på betydelig avstand (10-20 meter sier de -som har testet, f.eks. -<a href="http://www.papersplease.org/wp/2009/02/03/drive-by-reader-for-rfid-drivers-licenses-and-passport-cards/">Chris -Paget</a>), slik at en ikke lenger trenger å invitere noen på et glass -eller en kaffe for å kunne få tak i vedkommendes fingeravtrykk. Det -holder å ta med seg en RFID-leser til utenfor huset til vedkommende -eller kontrollere en passkontroll. F.eks. skryter -<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Arab_Emirates">De forente -Arabiske Emirater</a> av at -<a href="http://yro.slashdot.org/story/12/10/15/1651216/the-uae-claims-to-hold-the-worlds-largest-biometric-database">de -har verdens største biometriske database</a>, der databasen inneholder -103 millioner digitale fingeravtrykk. Med en befolkning i følge -Wikipedia estimert i 2010 til 8.3 millioner har jeg vanskelig for å -tro at det kun er landets innbyggere de har fingeravtrykkene til. -Innbyggerne har neppe mer enn 10 fingre hver...</p> - -<p>RFID-pass med fingeravtrykk betyr at bilder av ens fingeravtrykk er -på vidvanke, og en kan dermed ikke i god tro anta at fingeravtrykk kun -befinner seg hos fingerens eier. Jeg vil ikke ha et slikt pass.</p> + How to find a browser plugin supporting a given MIME type + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_find_a_browser_plugin_supporting_a_given_MIME_type.html + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_find_a_browser_plugin_supporting_a_given_MIME_type.html + Fri, 18 Jan 2013 10:40:00 +0100 + <p>Some times I try to figure out which Iceweasel browser plugin to +install to get support for a given MIME type. Thanks to +<a href="https://wiki.ubuntu.com/MozillaTeam/Plugins">specifications +done by Ubuntu</a> and Mozilla, it is possible to do this in Debian. +Unfortunately, not very many packages provide the needed meta +information, Anyway, here is a small script to look up all browser +plugin packages announcing ther MIME support using this specification:</p> + +<pre> +#!/usr/bin/python +import sys +import apt +def pkgs_handling_mimetype(mimetype): + cache = apt.Cache() + cache.open(None) + thepkgs = [] + for pkg in cache: + version = pkg.candidate + if version is None: + version = pkg.installed + if version is None: + continue + record = version.record + if not record.has_key('Npp-MimeType'): + continue + mime_types = record['Npp-MimeType'].split(',') + for t in mime_types: + t = t.rstrip().strip() + if t == mimetype: + thepkgs.append(pkg.name) + return thepkgs +mimetype = "audio/ogg" +if 1 < len(sys.argv): + mimetype = sys.argv[1] +print "Browser plugin packages supporting %s:" % mimetype +for pkg in pkgs_handling_mimetype(mimetype): + print " %s" %pkg +</pre> + +<p>It can be used like this to look up a given MIME type:</p> + +<pre> +% ./apt-find-browserplug-for-mimetype +Browser plugin packages supporting audio/ogg: + gecko-mediaplayer +% ./apt-find-browserplug-for-mimetype application/x-shockwave-flash +Browser plugin packages supporting application/x-shockwave-flash: + browser-plugin-gnash +% +</pre> + +<p>In Ubuntu this mechanism is combined with support in the browser +itself to query for plugins and propose to install the needed +packages. It would be great if Debian supported such feature too. Is +anyone working on adding it?</p> + +<p><strong>Update 2013-01-18 14:20</strong>: The Debian BTS +request for icweasel support for this feature is +<a href="http://bugs.debian.org/484010">#484010</a> from 2008 (and +<a href="http://bugs.debian.org/698426">#698426</a> from today). Lack +of manpower and wish for a different design is the reason thus feature +is not yet in iceweasel from Debian.</p> - 59 kommuner omfavner nå FiksGataMi - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/59_kommuner_omfavner_n__FiksGataMi.html - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/59_kommuner_omfavner_n__FiksGataMi.html - Mon, 5 Nov 2012 23:00:00 +0100 - <p><a href="http://maps.google.com/?q=http://www.nuug.no/prosjekt/fiksgatami/fiksgatami-municipalities-201210.kml"><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2012-10-17-fiksgatami.png"></a></p> - -<p>For noen dager siden omfavnet to nye kommuner NUUGs -<a href="http://www.fiksgatami.no/">FiksGataMi</a>. Med 59 kommuner -som lenker til FiksGataMi fra sine hjemmesider er "markedsandelen" -13,8 % (av 429 kommuner). Sist ut er Stange og Utsira kommune, som -slår følge med kommunene Askim, Askøy, Audnedal, Aure, Balestrand, -Bærum, Eide, Farsund, Flekkefjord, Folldal, Gran, Grue, Hadsel, -Halden, Halsa, Hamar, Hobøl, Holtålen, Hægebostad, Høyanger, -Kongsberg, Kristiansund, Kvinesdal, Kviteseid, Levanger, Lindesnes, -Luster, Lyngdal, Løten, Mandal, Marnardal, Moss, Namsos, Nissedal, -Nordreisa, Randaberg, Rindal, Sel, Sirdal, Skiptvet, Sortland, -Spydeberg, Stjørdal, Stord, Søgne, Sør-Odal, Tolga, Trysil, Tynset, -Tysvær, Ullensvang Herad, Vennesla, Verdal, Vågan, Vågå, Våler og -Åseral. Oppdatert liste er tilgjengelig fra -<a href="http://wiki.nuug.no/grupper/fiksgatami/positivemottakere">NUUGs -wiki</a>. Kartet er dog ikke oppdatert med de siste kommunene.</p> - -<p>Kanskje du bør høre med din kommune om de vil bli mer aktive -brukere av FiksGataMi? Se -<a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/40_kommuner_lenker_n__til_FiksGataMi_fra_sine_nettsider___gj_r_din_.html">en -tidligere bloggpost</a> med tips om hvordan det kan gjøres.</p> - -<p>I snitt rapporteres det nå via FiksGataMi ca. 100 meldinger i uka fra -innbyggerne om feil på offentlig infrastruktur.</p> + What is the most supported MIME type in Debian? + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/What_is_the_most_supported_MIME_type_in_Debian_.html + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/What_is_the_most_supported_MIME_type_in_Debian_.html + Wed, 16 Jan 2013 10:10:00 +0100 + <p>The <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/AppStreamDebianProposal">DEP-11 +proposal to add AppStream information to the Debian archive</a>, is a +proposal to make it possible for a Desktop application to propose to +the user some package to install to gain support for a given MIME +type, font, library etc. that is currently missing. With such +mechanism in place, it would be possible for the desktop to +automatically propose and install leocad if some LDraw file is +downloaded by the browser.</p> + +<p>To get some idea about the current content of the archive, I decided +to write a simple program to extract all .desktop files from the +Debian archive and look up the claimed MIME support there. The result +can be found on the +<a href="http://ftp.skolelinux.org/pub/AppStreamTest">Skolelinux FTP +site</a>. Using the collected information, it become possible to +answer the question in the title. Here are the 20 most supported MIME +types in Debian stable (Squeeze), testing (Wheezy) and unstable (Sid). +The complete list is available from the link above.</p> + +<p><strong>Debian Stable:</strong></p> + +<pre> + count MIME type + ----- ----------------------- + 32 text/plain + 30 audio/mpeg + 29 image/png + 28 image/jpeg + 27 application/ogg + 26 audio/x-mp3 + 25 image/tiff + 25 image/gif + 22 image/bmp + 22 audio/x-wav + 20 audio/x-flac + 19 audio/x-mpegurl + 18 video/x-ms-asf + 18 audio/x-musepack + 18 audio/x-mpeg + 18 application/x-ogg + 17 video/mpeg + 17 audio/x-scpls + 17 audio/ogg + 16 video/x-ms-wmv +</pre> + +<p><strong>Debian Testing:</strong></p> + +<pre> + count MIME type + ----- ----------------------- + 33 text/plain + 32 image/png + 32 image/jpeg + 29 audio/mpeg + 27 image/gif + 26 image/tiff + 26 application/ogg + 25 audio/x-mp3 + 22 image/bmp + 21 audio/x-wav + 19 audio/x-mpegurl + 19 audio/x-mpeg + 18 video/mpeg + 18 audio/x-scpls + 18 audio/x-flac + 18 application/x-ogg + 17 video/x-ms-asf + 17 text/html + 17 audio/x-musepack + 16 image/x-xbitmap +</pre> + +<p><strong>Debian Unstable:</strong></p> + +<pre> + count MIME type + ----- ----------------------- + 31 text/plain + 31 image/png + 31 image/jpeg + 29 audio/mpeg + 28 application/ogg + 27 image/gif + 26 image/tiff + 26 audio/x-mp3 + 23 audio/x-wav + 22 image/bmp + 21 audio/x-flac + 20 audio/x-mpegurl + 19 audio/x-mpeg + 18 video/x-ms-asf + 18 video/mpeg + 18 audio/x-scpls + 18 application/x-ogg + 17 audio/x-musepack + 16 video/x-ms-wmv + 16 video/x-msvideo +</pre> + +<p>I am told that PackageKit can provide an API to access the kind of +information mentioned in DEP-11. I have not yet had time to look at +it, but hope the PackageKit people in Debian are on top of these +issues.</p> + +<p><strong>Update 2013-01-16 13:35</strong>: Updated numbers after +discovering a typo in my script.</p> - The European Central Bank (ECB) take a look at bitcoin - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_European_Central_Bank__ECB__take_a_look_at_bitcoin.html - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_European_Central_Bank__ECB__take_a_look_at_bitcoin.html - Sun, 4 Nov 2012 08:30:00 +0100 - <p>Slashdot just ran a story about the European Central Bank (ECB) -<a href="http://www.ecb.europa.eu/pub/pdf/other/virtualcurrencyschemes201210en.pdf">releasing -a report (PDF)</a> about virtual currencies and -<a href="http://www.bitcoin.org/">bitcoin</a>. It is interesting to -see how a member of the bitcoin community -<a href="http://blog.bitinstant.com/blog/2012/10/30/the-ecb-report-on-bitcoin-and-virtual-currencies.html">receive -the report</a>. As for the future, I suspect the central banks and -the governments will outlaw bitcoin if it gain any popularity, to avoid -competition. My thoughts go to the -<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wörgl">Wörgl experiment</a> with -negative inflation on cash which was such a success that it was -terminated by the Austrian National Bank in 1933. A successful -alternative would be a threat to the current money system and gain -powerful forces to work against it.</p> - -<p>While checking out the current status of bitcoin, I also discovered -that the community already seem to have -<a href="http://www.theverge.com/2012/8/27/3271637/bitcoin-savings-trust-pyramid-scheme-shuts-down">experienced -its first pyramid game / Ponzi scheme</a>. Not very surprising, given -how members of "small" communities tend to trust each other. I guess -enterprising crocks will try again and again, as they do anywhere -wealth is available.</p> + Using modalias info to find packages handling my hardware + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Using_modalias_info_to_find_packages_handling_my_hardware.html + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Using_modalias_info_to_find_packages_handling_my_hardware.html + Tue, 15 Jan 2013 08:00:00 +0100 + <p>Yesterday, I wrote about the +<a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Modalias_strings___a_practical_way_to_map__stuff__to_hardware.html">modalias +values provided by the Linux kernel</a> following my hope for +<a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lets_make_hardware_dongles_easier_to_use_in_Debian.html">better +dongle support in Debian</a>. Using this knowledge, I have tested how +modalias values attached to package names can be used to map packages +to hardware. This allow the system to look up and suggest relevant +packages when I plug in some new hardware into my machine, and replace +discover and discover-data as the database used to map hardware to +packages.</p> + +<p>I create a modaliases file with entries like the following, +containing package name, kernel module name (if relevant, otherwise +the package name) and globs matching the relevant hardware +modalias.</p> + +<p><blockquote> +Package: package-name +<br>Modaliases: module(modaliasglob, modaliasglob, modaliasglob)</p> +</blockquote></p> + +<p>It is fairly trivial to write code to find the relevant packages +for a given modalias value using this file.</p> + +<p>An entry like this would suggest the video and picture application +cheese for many USB web cameras (interface bus class 0E01):</p> + +<p><blockquote> +Package: cheese +<br>Modaliases: cheese(usb:v*p*d*dc*dsc*dp*ic0Eisc01ip*)</p> +</blockquote></p> + +<p>An entry like this would suggest the pcmciautils package when a +CardBus bridge (bus class 0607) PCI device is present:</p> + +<p><blockquote> +Package: pcmciautils +<br>Modaliases: pcmciautils(pci:v*d*sv*sd*bc06sc07i*) +</blockquote></p> + +<p>An entry like this would suggest the package colorhug-client when +plugging in a ColorHug with USB IDs 04D8:F8DA:</p> + +<p><blockquote> +Package: colorhug-client +<br>Modaliases: colorhug-client(usb:v04D8pF8DAd*)</p> +</blockquote></p> + +<p>I believe the format is compatible with the format of the Packages +file in the Debian archive. Ubuntu already uses their Packages file +to store their mappings from packages to hardware.</p> + +<p>By adding a XB-Modaliases: header in debian/control, any .deb can +announce the hardware it support in a way my prototype understand. +This allow those publishing packages in an APT source outside the +Debian archive as well as those backporting packages to make sure the +hardware mapping are included in the package meta information. I've +tested such header in the pymissile package, and its modalias mapping +is working as it should with my prototype. It even made it to Ubuntu +Raring.</p> + +<p>To test if it was possible to look up supported hardware using only +the shell tools available in the Debian installer, I wrote a shell +implementation of the lookup code. The idea is to create files for +each modalias and let the shell do the matching. Please check out and +try the +<a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/hw-support-lookup?view=co">hw-support-lookup</a> +shell script. It run without any extra dependencies and fetch the +hardware mappings from the Debian archive and the subversion +repository where I currently work on my prototype.</p> + +<p>When I use it on a machine with a yubikey inserted, it suggest to +install yubikey-personalization:</p> + +<p><blockquote> +% ./hw-support-lookup +<br>yubikey-personalization +<br>% +</blockquote></p> + +<p>When I run it on my Thinkpad X40 with a PCMCIA/CardBus slot, it +propose to install the pcmciautils package:</p> + +<p><blockquote> +% ./hw-support-lookup +<br>pcmciautils +<br>% +</blockquote></p> + +<p>If you know of any hardware-package mapping that should be added to +<a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/modaliases?view=co">my +database</a>, please tell me about it.</p> + +<p>It could be possible to generate several of the mappings between +packages and hardware. One source would be to look at packages with +kernel modules, ie packages with *.ko files in /lib/modules/, and +extract their modalias information. Another would be to look at +packages with udev rules, ie packages with files in +/lib/udev/rules.d/, and extract their vendor/model information to +generate a modalias matching rule. I have not tested any of these to +see if it work.</p> + +<p>If you want to help implementing a system to let us propose what +packages to install when new hardware is plugged into a Debian +machine, please send me an email or talk to me on +<a href="irc://irc.debian.org/%23debian-devel">#debian-devel</a>.</p> - Ode til Frikanalen... - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Ode_til_Frikanalen___.html - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Ode_til_Frikanalen___.html - Fri, 2 Nov 2012 23:00:00 +0100 - <p>I 2009 bidro vi i <a href="http://www.nuug.no/">NUUG</a> til at -<a href="http://www.frikanalen.no/">Frikanalen</a> ble -<a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Frikanalen_og_jul_i_studentr_det.html">tilgjengelig -i et fritt og åpent standardisert videoformat</a>. Bakgrunnen var at -vi i NUUG likte tanken på «Youtube på TV», der enhver borger kunne få -mulighet til å kringkaste sin video på TV, og NUUG ble medlem i -Frikanalen for å støtte dette arbeidet. Frikanalen er borger-TV, der -alle kan være sin egen redaktør og lage TV uten solid finansielle -muskler. Siden den gang har vi bistått kanalen på ulikt vis, blant -annet med å hjelpe til med å utvikle en løsning basert på fri -programvare for drift av TV-kanalen. Dette utviklingsarbeidet pågår -fortsatt, men det er god fremgang og godt håp om å få på plass en -webbasert løsning for styring av TV-kanalen basert på fri programvare. -Dagens produksjonsløsning er basert på Windows og proprietær -programvare, et resultat av at kulturdepartementet krevde at -Frikanalen kom på lufta veldig raskt da departementet overtalte -Frivillighet Norge til å snappe opp konseptet. Dagens -produksjonsløsning er dyr i drift, og en fri programvareløsning bør -kutte kostnadene litt. Men det er fortsatt dyrt å kjøpe tilgang til å -sende ut på RiksTV og andre TV-distributører, noe som spiser av -kanalens begrensede midler.</p> - -<p>Nytt for 2013 er dessverre at kulturdepartementet kutter all støtte -til Frikanalen. Mens det i -<a href="http://www.regjeringen.no/pages/35168579/PDFS/PRP201120120001KUDDDDPDFS.pdf">statsbudsjettet -for 2012</a> sto følgende (side 55):</p> - -<blockquote> - -Det foreslås et driftstilskudd på 1 mill. kroner i 2012 til -Frikanalen. Kulturdepartementet har inngått avtale om investerings- og -driftsstøtte til Frikanalen som gir et økonomisk grunnlag for kanalen -i oppstartsårene. En forutsetning for støtten er bl.a. at Frikanalen -tilstreber å være en reell ytringskanal for samtlige partier og lister -i forbindelse med valg. - -</blockquote> - -<p>Så har kulturdepartementet -<a href="http://www.knif.no/Innkjop/Knif-Samfunn/Informasjonsbrev/Informasjonsbrev-2012/Frikanalen">kuttet -all støtte for 2013</a>:</p> - -<blockquote> - -<p>Statsbudsjettet 2013: Frikanalen</p> -<p>Det er ikke satt av penger i statsbudsjettet for 2013 til Frikanalen.</p> - -<p>Frivillighet Norge var fødselshjelper for foreningen Frikanalen i -2007. Kanalen har fått 1 mill kr i altfor lav bevilgning hvis kanalen -skulle klare å realisere målet om å være en opplæringsarena for -frivillige organisasjoner som ville lære å bruke billedspråk.</p> - -<p>TV-mediets posisjon som kommunikasjonskanal har endret seg -betydelig siden Frikanalen ble etablert. Det er supplert og til dels -erstattet av andre kommunikasjonskanaler, som det også er -ressurskrevende for organisasjonene å ta i bruk.</p> - -</blockquote> - -<p>Når en ser bort fra den merkelige begrunnelsen, da Frikanalen så -vidt jeg vet aldri har tatt mål av seg «å være en opplæringsarena for -frivillige organisasjoner som ville lære å bruke billedspråk», så er -det veldig trist at kulturdepartementet kutter støtten.</p> - -<p>Fundamentet for Frikanalen ble lagt da Stortinget vedtok -innføringen av det digitale bakkenettet. En oversikt over -<a href="http://www.openchannel.no/stortinget.html">det Stortinget -skrev</a> da finnes på nettsidene til åpen kanal. Der het det blant -annet om «åpne kanaler»:</p> - -<blockquote> - -Et annet flertall, alle unntatt medlemmene fra Fremskrittspartiet, vil -også peke på at man ut fra ønsket om en bredt anlagt offentlig debatt, -må se på den faktiske tilgjengelighet allmennheten har til -TV-mediet. I mange land har man ønsket å sikre denne tilgangen gjennom -egen lovgivning som forplikter allmennkringkastere eller distributører -å holde av en del av sendekapasiteten til livssynskanaler, ideelle -organisasjoner og lignende. I Norden betegnes dette gjerne som åpne -kanaler. Dette flertallet mener dette er et interessant område sett i -et ytringsfrihetsperspektiv. Dette flertallet mener derfor at staten -bør legge til rette for dette når man ved innføring av nye -distribusjonskanaler skal utarbeide regelverk og gi konsesjoner. -</blockquote> - -<p>Veien frem har gått over svært ulendt terreng, noe en kan se litt -av konturene av i en artikkel hos Vox Publica med tittel -«<a href="http://voxpublica.no/2007/03/hvor-apen-blir-frikanalen/">Hvor -åpen blir “Frikanalen”?</a>». Begge tekstene er nyttig lesning for å -forstå mer om hva Frikanalen er. Jeg anbefaler alle å støtte opp om -Frikanalen, bli medlem, lage og sende programmer der.</p> + Modalias strings - a practical way to map "stuff" to hardware + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Modalias_strings___a_practical_way_to_map__stuff__to_hardware.html + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Modalias_strings___a_practical_way_to_map__stuff__to_hardware.html + Mon, 14 Jan 2013 11:20:00 +0100 + <p>While looking into how to look up Debian packages based on hardware +information, to find the packages that support a given piece of +hardware, I refreshed my memory regarding modalias values, and decided +to document the details. Here are my findings so far, also available +in +<a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/">the +Debian Edu subversion repository</a>: + +<p><strong>Modalias decoded</strong></p> + +<p>This document try to explain what the different types of modalias +values stands for. It is in part based on information from +&lt;URL: <a href="https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Modalias">https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Modalias</a> &gt;, +&lt;URL: <a href="http://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/26132/how-to-assign-usb-driver-to-device">http://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/26132/how-to-assign-usb-driver-to-device</a> &gt;, +&lt;URL: <a href="http://code.metager.de/source/history/linux/stable/scripts/mod/file2alias.c">http://code.metager.de/source/history/linux/stable/scripts/mod/file2alias.c</a> &gt; and +&lt;URL: <a href="http://cvs.savannah.gnu.org/viewvc/dmidecode/dmidecode.c?root=dmidecode&view=markup">http://cvs.savannah.gnu.org/viewvc/dmidecode/dmidecode.c?root=dmidecode&view=markup</a> &gt;. + +<p>The modalias entries for a given Linux machine can be found using +this shell script:</p> + +<pre> +find /sys -name modalias -print0 | xargs -0 cat | sort -u +</pre> + +<p>The supported modalias globs for a given kernel module can be found +using modinfo:</p> + +<pre> +% /sbin/modinfo psmouse | grep alias: +alias: serio:ty05pr*id*ex* +alias: serio:ty01pr*id*ex* +% +</pre> + +<p><strong>PCI subtype</strong></p> + +<p>A typical PCI entry can look like this. This is an Intel Host +Bridge memory controller:</p> + +<p><blockquote> +pci:v00008086d00002770sv00001028sd000001ADbc06sc00i00 +</blockquote></p> + +<p>This represent these values:</p> + +<pre> + v 00008086 (vendor) + d 00002770 (device) + sv 00001028 (subvendor) + sd 000001AD (subdevice) + bc 06 (bus class) + sc 00 (bus subclass) + i 00 (interface) +</pre> + +<p>The vendor/device values are the same values outputted from 'lspci +-n' as 8086:2770. The bus class/subclass is also shown by lspci as +0600. The 0600 class is a host bridge. Other useful bus values are +0300 (VGA compatible card) and 0200 (Ethernet controller).</p> + +<p>Not sure how to figure out the interface value, nor what it +means.</p> + +<p><strong>USB subtype</strong></p> + +<p>Some typical USB entries can look like this. This is an internal +USB hub in a laptop:</p> + +<p><blockquote> +usb:v1D6Bp0001d0206dc09dsc00dp00ic09isc00ip00 +</blockquote></p> + +<p>Here is the values included in this alias:</p> + +<pre> + v 1D6B (device vendor) + p 0001 (device product) + d 0206 (bcddevice) + dc 09 (device class) + dsc 00 (device subclass) + dp 00 (device protocol) + ic 09 (interface class) + isc 00 (interface subclass) + ip 00 (interface protocol) +</pre> + +<p>The 0900 device class/subclass means hub. Some times the relevant +class is in the interface class section. For a simple USB web camera, +these alias entries show up:</p> + +<p><blockquote> +usb:v0AC8p3420d5000dcEFdsc02dp01ic01isc01ip00 +<br>usb:v0AC8p3420d5000dcEFdsc02dp01ic01isc02ip00 +<br>usb:v0AC8p3420d5000dcEFdsc02dp01ic0Eisc01ip00 +<br>usb:v0AC8p3420d5000dcEFdsc02dp01ic0Eisc02ip00 +</blockquote></p> + +<p>Interface class 0E01 is video control, 0E02 is video streaming (aka +camera), 0101 is audio control device and 0102 is audio streaming (aka +microphone). Thus this is a camera with microphone included.</p> + +<p><strong>ACPI subtype</strong></p> + +<p>The ACPI type is used for several non-PCI/USB stuff. This is an IR +receiver in a Thinkpad X40:</p> + +<p><blockquote> +acpi:IBM0071:PNP0511: +</blockquote></p> + +<p>The values between the colons are IDs.</p> + +<p><strong>DMI subtype</strong></p> + +<p>The DMI table contain lots of information about the computer case +and model. This is an entry for a IBM Thinkpad X40, fetched from +/sys/devices/virtual/dmi/id/modalias:</p> + +<p><blockquote> +dmi:bvnIBM:bvr1UETB6WW(1.66):bd06/15/2005:svnIBM:pn2371H4G:pvrThinkPadX40:rvnIBM:rn2371H4G:rvrNotAvailable:cvnIBM:ct10:cvrNotAvailable: +</blockquote></p> + +<p>The values present are</p> + +<pre> + bvn IBM (BIOS vendor) + bvr 1UETB6WW(1.66) (BIOS version) + bd 06/15/2005 (BIOS date) + svn IBM (system vendor) + pn 2371H4G (product name) + pvr ThinkPadX40 (product version) + rvn IBM (board vendor) + rn 2371H4G (board name) + rvr NotAvailable (board version) + cvn IBM (chassis vendor) + ct 10 (chassis type) + cvr NotAvailable (chassis version) +</pre> + +<p>The chassis type 10 is Notebook. Other interesting values can be +found in the dmidecode source:</p> + +<pre> + 3 Desktop + 4 Low Profile Desktop + 5 Pizza Box + 6 Mini Tower + 7 Tower + 8 Portable + 9 Laptop + 10 Notebook + 11 Hand Held + 12 Docking Station + 13 All In One + 14 Sub Notebook + 15 Space-saving + 16 Lunch Box + 17 Main Server Chassis + 18 Expansion Chassis + 19 Sub Chassis + 20 Bus Expansion Chassis + 21 Peripheral Chassis + 22 RAID Chassis + 23 Rack Mount Chassis + 24 Sealed-case PC + 25 Multi-system + 26 CompactPCI + 27 AdvancedTCA + 28 Blade + 29 Blade Enclosing +</pre> + +<p>The chassis type values are not always accurately set in the DMI +table. For example my home server is a tower, but the DMI modalias +claim it is a desktop.</p> + +<p><strong>SerIO subtype</strong></p> + +<p>This type is used for PS/2 mouse plugs. One example is from my +test machine:</p> + +<p><blockquote> +serio:ty01pr00id00ex00 +</blockquote></p> + +<p>The values present are</p> + +<pre> + ty 01 (type) + pr 00 (prototype) + id 00 (id) + ex 00 (extra) +</pre> + +<p>This type is supported by the psmouse driver. I am not sure what +the valid values are.</p> + +<p><strong>Other subtypes</strong></p> + +<p>There are heaps of other modalias subtypes according to +file2alias.c. There is the rest of the list from that source: amba, +ap, bcma, ccw, css, eisa, hid, i2c, ieee1394, input, ipack, isapnp, +mdio, of, parisc, pcmcia, platform, scsi, sdio, spi, ssb, vio, virtio, +vmbus, x86cpu and zorro. I did not spend time documenting all of +these, as they do not seem relevant for my intended use with mapping +hardware to packages when new stuff is inserted during run time.</p> + +<p><strong>Looking up kernel modules using modalias values</strong></p> + +<p>To check which kernel modules provide support for a given modalias, +one can use the following shell script:</p> + +<pre> + for id in $(find /sys -name modalias -print0 | xargs -0 cat | sort -u); do \ + echo "$id" ; \ + /sbin/modprobe --show-depends "$id"|sed 's/^/ /' ; \ + done +</pre> + +<p>The output can look like this (only the first few entries as the +list is very long on my test machine):</p> + +<pre> + acpi:ACPI0003: + insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/drivers/acpi/ac.ko + acpi:device: + FATAL: Module acpi:device: not found. + acpi:IBM0068: + insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/drivers/char/nvram.ko + insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/drivers/leds/led-class.ko + insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/net/rfkill/rfkill.ko + insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/drivers/platform/x86/thinkpad_acpi.ko + acpi:IBM0071:PNP0511: + insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/lib/crc-ccitt.ko + insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/net/irda/irda.ko + insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/drivers/net/irda/nsc-ircc.ko + [...] +</pre> + +<p>If you want to help implementing a system to let us propose what +packages to install when new hardware is plugged into a Debian +machine, please send me an email or talk to me on +<a href="irc://irc.debian.org/%23debian-devel">#debian-devel</a>.</p> + +<p><strong>Update 2013-01-15:</strong> Rewrite "cat $(find ...)" to +"find ... -print0 | xargs -0 cat" to make sure it handle directories +in /sys/ with space in them.</p> - 12 years of outages - summarised by Stuart Kendrick - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/12_years_of_outages___summarised_by_Stuart_Kendrick.html - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/12_years_of_outages___summarised_by_Stuart_Kendrick.html - Fri, 26 Oct 2012 14:20:00 +0200 - <p>I work at the <a href="http://www.uio.no/">University of Oslo</a> -looking after the computers, mostly on the unix side, but in general -all over the place. I am also a member (and currently leader) of -<a href="http://www.nuug.no/">the NUUG association</a>, which in turn -make me a member of <a href="http://www.usenix.org/">USENIX</a>. NUUG -is an member organisation for us in Norway interested in free -software, open standards and unix like operating systems, and USENIX -is a US based member organisation with similar targets. And thanks to -these memberships, I get all issues of the great USENIX magazine -<a href="https://www.usenix.org/publications/login">;login:</a> in the -mail several times a year. The magazine is great, and I read most of -it every time.</p> - -<p>In the last issue of the USENIX magazine ;login:, there is an -article by <a href="http://www.skendric.com/">Stuart Kendrick</a> from -Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center titled -"<a href="https://www.usenix.org/publications/login/october-2012-volume-37-number-5/what-takes-us-down">What -Takes Us Down</a>" (longer version also -<a href="http://www.skendric.com/problem/incident-analysis/2012-06-30/What-Takes-Us-Down.pdf">available -from his own site</a>), where he report what he found when he -processed the outage reports (both planned and unplanned) from the -last twelve years and classified them according to cause, time of day, -etc etc. The article is a good read to get some empirical data on -what kind of problems affect a data centre, but what really inspired -me was the kind of reporting they had put in place since 2000.<p> - -<p>The centre set up a mailing list, and started to send fairly -standardised messages to this list when a outage was planned or when -it already occurred, to announce the plan and get feedback on the -assumtions on scope and user impact. Here is the two example from the -article: First the unplanned outage: - -<blockquote><pre> -Subject: Exchange 2003 Cluster Issues -Severity: Critical (Unplanned) -Start: Monday, May 7, 2012, 11:58 -End: Monday, May 7, 2012, 12:38 -Duration: 40 minutes -Scope: Exchange 2003 -Description: The HTTPS service on the Exchange cluster crashed, triggering - a cluster failover. - -User Impact: During this period, all Exchange users were unable to - access e-mail. Zimbra users were unaffected. -Technician: [xxx] -</pre></blockquote> - -Next the planned outage: - -<blockquote><pre> -Subject: H Building Switch Upgrades -Severity: Major (Planned) -Start: Saturday, June 16, 2012, 06:00 -End: Saturday, June 16, 2012, 16:00 -Duration: 10 hours -Scope: H2 Transport -Description: Currently, Catalyst 4006s provide 10/100 Ethernet to end- - stations. We will replace these with newer Catalyst - 4510s. -User Impact: All users on H2 will be isolated from the network during - this work. Afterward, they will have gigabit - connectivity. -Technician: [xxx] -</pre></blockquote> - -<p>He notes in his article that the date formats and other fields have -been a bit too free form to make it easy to automatically process them -into a database for further analysis, and I would have used ISO 8601 -dates myself to make it easier to process (in other words I would ask -people to write '2012-06-16 06:00 +0000' instead of the start time -format listed above). There are also other issues with the format -that could be improved, read the article for the details.</p> - -<p>I find the idea of standardising outage messages seem to be such a -good idea that I would like to get it implemented here at the -university too. We do register -<a href="http://www.uio.no/tjenester/it/aktuelt/planlagte-tjenesteavbrudd/">planned -changes and outages in a calendar</a>, and report the to a mailing -list, but we do not do so in a structured format and there is not a -report to the same location for unplanned outages. Perhaps something -for other sites to consider too?</p> + Moved the pymissile Debian packaging to collab-maint + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Moved_the_pymissile_Debian_packaging_to_collab_maint.html + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Moved_the_pymissile_Debian_packaging_to_collab_maint.html + Thu, 10 Jan 2013 20:40:00 +0100 + <p>As part of my investigation on how to improve the support in Debian +for hardware dongles, I dug up my old Mark and Spencer USB Rocket +Launcher and updated the Debian package +<a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/pymissile">pymissile</a> to make +sure udev will fix the device permissions when it is plugged in. I +also added a "Modaliases" header to test it in the Debian archive and +hopefully make the package be proposed by jockey in Ubuntu when a user +plug in his rocket launcher. In the process I moved the source to a +git repository under collab-maint, to make it easier for any DD to +contribute. <a href="http://code.google.com/p/pymissile/">Upstream</a> +is not very active, but the software still work for me even after five +years of relative silence. The new git repository is not listed in +the uploaded package yet, because I want to test the other changes a +bit more before I upload the new version. If you want to check out +the new version with a .desktop file included, visit the +<a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/gitweb/?p=collab-maint/pymissile.git">gitweb +view</a> or use "<tt>git clone +git://anonscm.debian.org/collab-maint/pymissile.git</tt>".</p> + + + + + Lets make hardware dongles easier to use in Debian + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lets_make_hardware_dongles_easier_to_use_in_Debian.html + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lets_make_hardware_dongles_easier_to_use_in_Debian.html + Wed, 9 Jan 2013 15:40:00 +0100 + <p>One thing that annoys me with Debian and Linux distributions in +general, is that there is a great package management system with the +ability to automatically install software packages by downloading them +from the distribution mirrors, but no way to get it to automatically +install the packages I need to use the hardware I plug into my +machine. Even if the package to use it is easily available from the +Linux distribution. When I plug in a LEGO Mindstorms NXT, it could +suggest to automatically install the python-nxt, nbc and t2n packages +I need to talk to it. When I plug in a Yubikey, it could propose the +yubikey-personalization package. The information required to do this +is available, but no-one have pulled all the pieces together.</p> + +<p>Some years ago, I proposed to +<a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2010/05/msg01206.html">use +the discover subsystem to implement this</a>. The idea is fairly +simple: + +<ul> + +<li>Add a desktop entry in /usr/share/autostart/ pointing to a program + starting when a user log in.</li> + +<li>Set this program up to listen for kernel events emitted when new + hardware is inserted into the computer.</li> + +<li>When new hardware is inserted, look up the hardware ID in a + database mapping to packages, and take note of any non-installed + packages.</li> + +<li>Show a message to the user proposing to install the discovered + package, and make it easy to install it.</li> + +</ul> + +<p>I am not sure what the best way to implement this is, but my +initial idea was to use dbus events to discover new hardware, the +discover database to find packages and +<a href="http://www.packagekit.org/">PackageKit</a> to install +packages.</p> + +<p>Yesterday, I found time to try to implement this idea, and the +draft package is now checked into +<a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/">the +Debian Edu subversion repository</a>. In the process, I updated the +<a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/d/discover-data.html">discover-data</a> +package to map the USB ids of LEGO Mindstorms and Yubikey devices to +the relevant packages in Debian, and uploaded a new version +2.2013.01.09 to unstable. I also discovered that the current +<a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/d/discover.html">discover</a> +package in Debian no longer discovered any USB devices, because +/proc/bus/usb/devices is no longer present. I ported it to use +libusb as a fall back option to get it working. The fixed package +version 2.1.2-6 is now in experimental (didn't upload it to unstable +because of the freeze).</p> + +<p>With this prototype in place, I can insert my Yubikey, and get this +desktop notification to show up (only once, the first time it is +inserted):</p> + +<p align="center"><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-01-09-hw-autoinstall.png"></p> + +<p>For this prototype to be really useful, some way to automatically +install the proposed packages by pressing the "Please install +program(s)" button should to be implemented.</p> + +<p>If this idea seem useful to you, and you want to help make it +happen, please help me update the discover-data database with mappings +from hardware to Debian packages. Check if 'discover-pkginstall -l' +list the package you would like to have installed when a given +hardware device is inserted into your computer, and report bugs using +reportbug if it isn't. Or, if you know of a better way to provide +such mapping, please let me know.</p> + +<p>This prototype need more work, and there are several questions that +should be considered before it is ready for production use. Is dbus +the correct way to detect new hardware? At the moment I look for HAL +dbus events on the system bus, because that is the events I could see +on my Debian Squeeze KDE desktop. Are there better events to use? +How should the user be notified? Is the desktop notification +mechanism the best option, or should the background daemon raise a +popup instead? How should packages be installed? When should they +not be installed?</p> + +<p>If you want to help getting such feature implemented in Debian, +please send me an email. :)</p> - Amazon steal books from customer and throw out her out without any explanation - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Amazon_steal_books_from_customer_and_throw_out_her_out_without_any_explanation.html - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Amazon_steal_books_from_customer_and_throw_out_her_out_without_any_explanation.html - Mon, 22 Oct 2012 20:30:00 +0200 - <p>A blog post from Martin Bekkelund today tell the story of -<a href="http://www.bekkelund.net/2012/10/22/outlawed-by-amazon-drm/">how -Amazon erased the books from a customer's kindle, locked the account -and refuse to tell the customer why</a>. If a real book store did -this to a customer, it would be called breaking into private property -and theft. The story has spread around the net today. A bit more -background information is available in Norwegian from -<a href="http://www.digi.no/904658/hun-ble-kastet-ut-av-amazon">digi.no</a>. -It is no surprise that digital restriction mechanisms (DRM) are used -this way, as it has been warned about such abuse since DRM was -introduced many years back. And Amazon proved in 2009 that it was -willing to -<a href="http://boingboing.net/2009/07/20/amazons-orwellian-de.html"> -break into customers equipment and remove the books</a> people had -bought, when it removed the book 1984 by George Orwell from all the -customers who had bought it. From the official comments, it even -sounded like -<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/18/technology/companies/18amazon.html">Amazon -would never do that again</a>. And here we are, three years -later.</p> - -<p>And thought this action is -<a href="http://www.itavisen.no/904648/forbrukerraadet-helt-haarreisende">against -Norwegian regulations and law</a>, it is according to the terms of use -as written by Amazon, and it is hard to hold Amazon accountable to -Norwegian laws. It is just yet another example of unacceptable terms -of use on the web, and how they are used to remove customer -rights.</p> - -<p>Luckily for electronic books, there are alternatives without -unacceptable terms. For example -<a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/">Project Gutenberg</a> (about 40,000 -books), <a href="http://runeberg.org/">Project Runenberg</a> (1,652 -books) and <a href="http://www.archive.org/details/texts">The Internet -Archive</a> (3,641,797 books) have heaps of books without DRM, which -can read by anyone and shared with anyone.</p> - -<p>Update 2012-10-23: This story broke in the morning on Monday. In -the evening after the story had spread all across the Internet, Amazon -restored the account of the user, as reported by -<a href="http://www.digi.no/904675/helomvending-fra-amazon">digi.no</a> -and <a href="http://nrk.no/kultur-og-underholdning/1.8368487">NRK</a>. -Apparently public pressure work. The story from Martin have seen -several twitter messages per minute the last 24 hours, which is quite -a lot, and is still drawing a lot of attention. But even when the -account is restored, the fundamental problem still exist. I recommend -reading two opinions from -<a href="http://blogs.computerworlduk.com/simon-says/2012/10/rights-you-have-no-right-to-your-ebooks/index.htm">Simon -Phipps</a> and -<a href="http://blogs.computerworlduk.com/open-enterprise/2012/10/is-amazon-playing-fair/index.htm">Glen -Moody</a> if you want to learn more about the fundamentals and more -details about the original story.</p> + New IRC channel for LEGO designers using Debian + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/New_IRC_channel_for_LEGO_designers_using_Debian.html + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/New_IRC_channel_for_LEGO_designers_using_Debian.html + Wed, 2 Jan 2013 15:40:00 +0100 + <p>During Christmas, I have worked a bit on the Debian support for +<a href="http://mindstorms.lego.com/en-us/Default.aspx">LEGO Mindstorm +NXT</a>. My son and I have played a bit with my NXT set, and I +discovered I had to build all the tools myself because none were +already in Debian Squeeze. If Debian support for LEGO is something +you care about, please join me on the IRC channel +<a href="irc://irc.debian.org/%23debian-lego">#debian-lego</a> (server +irc.debian.org). There is a lot that could be done to improve the +Debian support for LEGO designers. For example both CAD software +and Mindstorm compilers are missing. :)</p> + +<p>Update 2012-01-03: A +<a href="http://wiki.debian.org/LegoDesigners">project page</a> +including links to Lego related packages is now available.</p> - The fight for freedom and privacy - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_fight_for_freedom_and_privacy.html - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_fight_for_freedom_and_privacy.html - Thu, 18 Oct 2012 10:50:00 +0200 - <p>Civil liberties and privacy in the western world are going down the -drain, and it is hard to fight against it. I try to do my best, but -time is limited. I hope you do your best too. A few years ago I came -across a marvellous drawing by -<a href="http://www.claybennett.com/about.html">Clay Bennett</a> -visualising some of what is going on. - -<p><a href="http://www.claybennett.com/pages/security_fence.html"> -<img src="http://www.claybennett.com/images/archivetoons/security_fence.jpg"></a></p> - -<blockquote> -«They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary -safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.» - Benjamin Franklin -</blockquote> - -<p>Do you feel safe at the airport? I do not. Do you feel safe when -you see a surveillance camera? I do not. Do you feel safe when you -leave electronic traces of your behaviour and opinions? I do not. I -just remember <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panopticon">the -Panopticom</a>, and can not help help to think that we are slowly -transforming our society to a huge Panopticom on our own.</p> + Lenker for 2013-01-01 + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lenker_for_2013_01_01.html + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lenker_for_2013_01_01.html + Tue, 1 Jan 2013 09:20:00 +0100 + <p>Her er noen lenker til tekster jeg har satt pris på å lese den +siste måneden.</p> + +<ul> + +<li>2012-12-07 + <a href="http://www.idg.no/computerworld/article262047.ece">Myter og + FUD om fri programvare</a> av min venn Christer Gundersen som + kommenterer noen av de påstandene som er spredt via Computerworld + Norge de siste månedene.</li> + +<li>BankID er et opplegg der utsteder (dvs. banken eller dens + leverandør) sitter på alt som trengs for å bruke BankID, men har + lovet å ikke bruke den unntatt på oppdrag fra deg. Det er greit nok + for banktjenester, der banken allerede har full kontroll over + resultatet, men problematisk når det gjelder tilgang til + helseopplysninger og avtaleinngåelse med andre enn banken. Jeg + håper protestene brer om seg. + + <ul> + + <li>2012-12-11 <a href="http://www.aftenposten.no/meninger/debatt/BankID-blottlegger-helseopplysninger-7067148.html">BankID + blottlegger helseopplysninger</a></li> + + <li>2012-12-07 <a href="http://www.nrk.no/nyheter/norge/1.9695027">- + Helseopplysningene ikke sikre med Bank-ID</a></li> + + <li>2012-12-07 + <a href="https://www.bankid.no/Presse-og-nyheter/Nyhetsarkiv/2012/Papeker-alvorlige-men-kjente-utfordringer/">Påpeker + alvorlige, men kjente utfordringer</a> er den offisielle + holdningen til de som lager BankID.</li> + + <li>2012-12-08 + <a href="http://www.tnp.no/norway/panorama/3419-ntnu-researcher-warns-against-security-of-bank-id-password">NTNU + Researcher Warns against Security of Bank ID Password</a> + + </ul> + +<li>2012-12-11 <a href="http://www.aftenposten.no/nyheter/iriks/Norske-elever-er-darligst-i-Europa-pa-algebra-7066752.html">Norske elever er dårligst i Europa på algebra</a> + +<li>2012-12-11 + <a href="http://www.aftenposten.no/meninger/debatt/Realfagsdodaren-7067173.html">Realfagsdødaren</a> + +<li>2012-12-21 + <a href="http://www.bt.no/nyheter/innenriks/112/--Forventningene-er-for-hoye-2816450.html">- + Noen må bli skuffet</a> - Politiet i Bergen forteller hvor lavt de + prioriterer hverdagskriminalitet.</li> + +<li>2012-05-03 + <a href="http://e24.no/jobb/kripos-ansatt-doemt-for-snoking-for-venn/20208585"> + Kripos-ansatt dømt for snoking for venn</A> - viser hvor svak + reaksjonen blir når politiet misbruker innsamlet informasjon. En + forvarsel på konsekvensene av nasjonal brev- og besøkskontroll - + ofte kalt Datalagringsdirektivet.</li> + +<li>2012-12-14 + <a href="http://www.dagbladet.no/2012/12/14/kultur/debatt/kronikk/jul/ensomhet/24838541/">Å + smøre en forskjell</a> - om ensomhet og jul.</li> + +<li>2012-12-18 + <a href="http://www.aftenposten.no/meninger/kronikker/n-krise-av-gangen_-takk-7072452.html">Én + krise av gangen, takk!</a> + + +<li>2012-12-17 + <a href="http://www.aftenposten.no/meninger/NAV-Et-mangehodet-monster--7072165.html">NAV: + Et mangehodet monster</a></li> + +<li>2011-01-12 + <a href="http://www.dagbladet.no/2011/01/12/kultur/debatt/kronikk/personvern/15027203/">Pasienter + uten vern</a> - forteller litt om hvordan Norsk Pasientregister og + andre helseregister raderer bort pasienters privatsfære.</li> + + +<li>2012-12-19 + <a href="http://www.aftenposten.no/meninger/debatt/Hvorfor-er-barnefamilier-fattige-7073951.html">Hvorfor + er barnefamilier fattige?</a></li> + +<li>2012-12-25 + <a href="http://www.aftenposten.no/meninger/spaltister/Den-skjulte-minoriteten--konservative-kristne-i-Norge-7075518.html">Den + skjulte minoriteten – konservative kristne i Norge</a> - kronikk av + Bjørn Stærk fra aftenposten</li> + +<li>2009-05-04 + <a href="http://deltemeninger.no/-/bulletin/show/303429_folkebiblioteket-2-0?ref=checkpoint">Folkebiblioteket + 2.0</a> - Min venn Sturle om opphavsrett og Internett, i debatt med + Olav Torvund.</li> + +</ul> + +<p>Og et godt nytt år til dere alle!</p> - 57 kommuner omfavner nå FiksGataMi - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/57_kommuner_omfavner_n__FiksGataMi.html - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/57_kommuner_omfavner_n__FiksGataMi.html - Wed, 17 Oct 2012 23:40:00 +0200 - <p><a href="http://maps.google.com/?q=http://www.nuug.no/prosjekt/fiksgatami/fiksgatami-municipalities-201210.kml"><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2012-10-17-fiksgatami.png"></a></p> - -<p>For noen dager siden omfavnet nok en kommune NUUGs -<a href="http://www.fiksgatami.no/">FiksGataMi</a>. Med 57 kommuner -som lenker til FiksGataMi fra sine hjemmesider er "markedsandelen" -13% (av 429 kommuner). Sist ut er Våler kommune, som slår -følge med kommunene Askim, Askøy, Audnedal, Aure, Balestrand, Bærum, -Eide, Farsund, Flekkefjord, Folldal, Gran, Grue, Hadsel, Halden, -Halsa, Hamar, Hobøl, Holtålen, Hægebostad, Høyanger, Kongsberg, -Kristiansund, Kvinesdal, Kviteseid, Levanger, Lindesnes, Luster, -Lyngdal, Løten, Mandal, Marnardal, Moss, Namsos, Nissedal, Nordreisa, -Randaberg, Rindal, Sel, Sirdal, Skiptvet, Sortland, Spydeberg, -Stjørdal, Stord, Søgne, Sør-Odal, Tolga, Trysil, Tynset, Tysvær, -Ullensvang Herad, Vennesla, Verdal, Vågan, Vågå og Åseral. Oppdatert -liste og kart er tilgjengelig fra -<a href="http://wiki.nuug.no/grupper/fiksgatami/positivemottakere">NUUGs -wiki</a>. - -<p>I snitt rapporteres det nå via FiksGataMi ca. 110 meldinger fra -innbyggerne i uka om feil på offentlig infrastruktur.</p> + A Christmas present for Skolelinux / Debian Edu + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/A_Christmas_present_for_Skolelinux___Debian_Edu.html + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/A_Christmas_present_for_Skolelinux___Debian_Edu.html + Fri, 28 Dec 2012 09:20:00 +0100 + <p>I was happy to discover a few days ago that the +<a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Skolelinux / Debian Edu</a> +project also this year received a Christmas present from Another +Agency in Trondheim. NOK 1000,- showed up on our donation account +December 24th. I want to express our thanks for this very welcome +present. As the Debian Edu / Skolelinux project is very short on +funding these days, and thus lack the money to do regular developer +gatherings, this donation was most welcome. One developer gathering +cost around NOK 15&nbsp;000,-, so we need quite a lot more to keep the +development pace we want. Thus, I hope their example this year is +followed by many others. :)</p> + +<p>The public list of donors can be found on +<a href="http://www.linuxiskolen.no/slxdebianlabs/donations.html">the +donation page</a> for the project, which also contain instructions if +you want to donate to the project.</p>