+ A day in court challenging seizure of popcorn-time.no for #domstolkontroll +

+ 3rd February 2017 +

+ +

On Wednesday, I spent the entire day in court in Follo Tingrett +representing the member association +NUUG, alongside the member +association EFN and the DNS registrar +IMC, challenging the seizure of the DNS name popcorn-time.no. It +was interesting to sit in a court of law for the first time in my +life. Our team can be seen in the picture above: attorney Ola +TellesbÃ¸, EFN board member Tom Fredrik Blenning, IMC CEO Morten Emil +Eriksen and NUUG board member Petter Reinholdtsen.

+ +

The +case at hand is that the Norwegian National Authority for +Investigation and Prosecution of Economic and Environmental Crime (aka +Ãkokrim) decided on their own, to seize a DNS domain early last +year, without following +the +official policy of the Norwegian DNS authority which require a +court decision. The web site in question was a site covering Popcorn +Time. And Popcorn Time is the name of a technology with both legal +and illegal applications. Popcorn Time is a client combining +searching a Bittorrent directory available on the Internet with +downloading/distribute content via Bittorrent and playing the +downloaded content on screen. It can be used illegally if it is used +to distribute content against the will of the right holder, but it can +also be used legally to play a lot of content, for example the +millions of movies +available from the +Internet Archive or the collection +available from Vodo. We created +a +video demonstrating legally use of Popcorn Time and played it in +Court. It can of course be downloaded using Bittorrent.

+ +

I did not quite know what to expect from a day in court. The +government held on to their version of the story and we held on to +ours, and I hope the judge is able to make sense of it all. We will +know in two weeks time. Unfortunately I do not have high hopes, as +the Government have the upper hand here with more knowledge about the +case, better training in handling criminal law and in general higher +standing in the courts than fairly unknown DNS registrar and member +associations. It is expensive to be right also in Norway. So far the +case have cost more than NOK 70 000,-. To help fund the case, NUUG +and EFN have asked for donations, and managed to collect around NOK 25 +000,- so far. Given the presentation from the Government, I expect +the government to appeal if the case go our way. And if the case do +not go our way, I hope we have enough funding to appeal.

+ +

From the other side came two people from Ãkokrim. On the benches, +appearing to be part of the group from the government were two people +from the Simonsen Vogt Wiik lawyer office, and three others I am not +quite sure who was. Ãkokrim had proposed to present two witnesses +from The Motion Picture Association, but this was rejected because +they did not speak Norwegian and it was a bit late to bring in a +translator, but perhaps the two from MPA were present anyway. All +seven appeared to know each other. Good to see the case is take +seriously.

+ +

If you, like me, believe the courts should be involved before a DNS +domain is hijacked by the government, or you believe the Popcorn Time +technology have a lot of useful and legal applications, I suggest you +too donate to +the NUUG defense fund. Both Bitcoin and bank transfer are +available. If NUUG get more than we need for the legal action (very +unlikely), the rest will be spend promoting free software, open +standards and unix-like operating systems in Norway, so no matter what +happens the money will be put to good use.

+ +

If you want to lean more about the case, I recommend you check out +the blog +posts from NUUG covering the case. They cover the legal arguments +on both sides.

+ +

+ + + Tags: english, nuug, offentlig innsyn, opphavsrett. + + +

+ Where did that package go? — geolocated IP traceroute +

+ 9th January 2017 +

Did you ever wonder where the web trafic really flow to reach the +web servers, and who own the network equipment it is flowing through? +It is possible to get a glimpse of this from using traceroute, but it +is hard to find all the details. Many years ago, I wrote a system to +map the Norwegian Internet (trying to figure out if our plans for a +network game service would get low enough latency, and who we needed +to talk to about setting up game servers close to the users. Back +then I used traceroute output from many locations (I asked my friends +to run a script and send me their traceroute output) to create the +graph and the map. The output from traceroute typically look like +this: + +

+traceroute to www.stortinget.no (85.88.67.10), 30 hops max, 60 byte packets
+ 1  uio-gw10.uio.no (129.240.202.1)  0.447 ms  0.486 ms  0.621 ms
+ 2  uio-gw8.uio.no (129.240.24.229)  0.467 ms  0.578 ms  0.675 ms
+ 3  oslo-gw1.uninett.no (128.39.65.17)  0.385 ms  0.373 ms  0.358 ms
+ 4  te3-1-2.br1.fn3.as2116.net (193.156.90.3)  1.174 ms  1.172 ms  1.153 ms
+ 5  he16-1-1.cr1.san110.as2116.net (195.0.244.234)  2.627 ms he16-1-1.cr2.oslosda310.as2116.net (195.0.244.48)  3.172 ms he16-1-1.cr1.san110.as2116.net (195.0.244.234)  2.857 ms
+ 6  ae1.ar8.oslosda310.as2116.net (195.0.242.39)  0.662 ms  0.637 ms ae0.ar8.oslosda310.as2116.net (195.0.242.23)  0.622 ms
+ 7  89.191.10.146 (89.191.10.146)  0.931 ms  0.917 ms  0.955 ms
+ 8  * * *
+ 9  * * *
+[...]
+

+ +

This show the DNS names and IP addresses of (at least some of the) +network equipment involved in getting the data traffic from me to the +www.stortinget.no server, and how long it took in milliseconds for a +package to reach the equipment and return to me. Three packages are +sent, and some times the packages do not follow the same path. This +is shown for hop 5, where three different IP addresses replied to the +traceroute request.

+ +

There are many ways to measure trace routes. Other good traceroute +implementations I use are traceroute (using ICMP packages) mtr (can do +both ICMP, UDP and TCP) and scapy (python library with ICMP, UDP, TCP +traceroute and a lot of other capabilities). All of them are easily +available in Debian.

+ +

This time around, I wanted to know the geographic location of +different route points, to visualize how visiting a web page spread +information about the visit to a lot of servers around the globe. The +background is that a web site today often will ask the browser to get +from many servers the parts (for example HTML, JSON, fonts, +JavaScript, CSS, video) required to display the content. This will +leak information about the visit to those controlling these servers +and anyone able to peek at the data traffic passing by (like your ISP, +the ISPs backbone provider, FRA, GCHQ, NSA and others).

+ +

Lets pick an example, the Norwegian parliament web site +www.stortinget.no. It is read daily by all members of parliament and +their staff, as well as political journalists, activits and many other +citizens of Norway. A visit to the www.stortinget.no web site will +ask your browser to contact 8 other servers: ajax.googleapis.com, +insights.hotjar.com, script.hotjar.com, static.hotjar.com, +stats.g.doubleclick.net, www.google-analytics.com, +www.googletagmanager.com and www.netigate.se. I extracted this by +asking PhantomJS to visit the +Stortinget web page and tell me all the URLs PhantomJS downloaded to +render the page (in HAR format using +their +netsniff example. I am very grateful to Gorm for showing me how +to do this). My goal is to visualize network traces to all IP +addresses behind these DNS names, do show where visitors personal +information is spread when visiting the page.

+ +

When I had a look around for options, I could not find any good +free software tools to do this, and decided I needed my own traceroute +wrapper outputting KML based on locations looked up using GeoIP. KML +is easy to work with and easy to generate, and understood by several +of the GIS tools I have available. I got good help from by NUUG +colleague Anders Einar with this, and the result can be seen in +my +kmltraceroute git repository. Unfortunately, the quality of the +free GeoIP databases I could find (and the for-pay databases my +friends had access to) is not up to the task. The IP addresses of +central Internet infrastructure would typically be placed near the +controlling companies main office, and not where the router is really +located, as you can see from the +KML file I created using the GeoLite City dataset from MaxMind. + +

+ +

I also had a look at the visual traceroute graph created by +the scrapy project, +showing IP network ownership (aka AS owner) for the IP address in +question. +The +graph display a lot of useful information about the traceroute in SVG +format, and give a good indication on who control the network +equipment involved, but it do not include geolocation. This graph +make it possible to see the information is made available at least for +UNINETT, Catchcom, Stortinget, Nordunet, Google, Amazon, Telia, Level +3 Communications and NetDNA.

+ +

In the process, I came across the +web service GeoTraceroute by +Salim Gasmi. Its methology of combining guesses based on DNS names, +various location databases and finally use latecy times to rule out +candidate locations seemed to do a very good job of guessing correct +geolocation. But it could only do one trace at the time, did not have +a sensor in Norway and did not make the geolocations easily available +for postprocessing. So I contacted the developer and asked if he +would be willing to share the code (he refused until he had time to +clean it up), but he was interested in providing the geolocations in a +machine readable format, and willing to set up a sensor in Norway. So +since yesterday, it is possible to run traces from Norway in this +service thanks to a sensor node set up by +the NUUG assosiation, and get the +trace in KML format for further processing.

+ +

Here we can see a lot of trafic passes Sweden on its way to +Denmark, Germany, Holland and Ireland. Plenty of places where the +Snowden confirmations verified the traffic is read by various actors +without your best interest as their top priority.

+ +

Combining KML files is trivial using a text editor, so I could loop +over all the hosts behind the urls imported by www.stortinget.no and +ask for the KML file from GeoTraceroute, and create a combined KML +file with all the traces (unfortunately only one of the IP addresses +behind the DNS name is traced this time. To get them all, one would +have to request traces using IP number instead of DNS names from +GeoTraceroute). That might be the next step in this project.

+ +

Armed with these tools, I find it a lot easier to figure out where +the IP traffic moves and who control the boxes involved in moving it. +And every time the link crosses for example the Swedish border, we can +be sure Swedish Signal Intelligence (FRA) is listening, as GCHQ do in +Britain and NSA in USA and cables around the globe. (Hm, what should +we tell them? :) Keep that in mind if you ever send anything +unencrypted over the Internet.

+ +

PS: KML files are drawn using +the KML viewer from Ivan +Rublev , as it was less cluttered than the local Linux application +Marble. There are heaps of other options too.

+ +

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

+ +

+ + + Tags: debian, english, kart, nuug, personvern, stortinget, surveillance, web. + + +

+ Introducing ical-archiver to split out old iCalendar entries +

+ 4th January 2017 +

Do you have a large iCalendar +file with lots of old entries, and would like to archive them to save +space and resources? At least those of us using KOrganizer know that +turning on and off an event set become slower and slower the more +entries are in the set. While working on migrating our calendars to a +Radicale CalDAV server on our +Freedombox server, my +loved one wondered if I could find a way to split up the calendar file +she had in KOrganizer, and I set out to write a tool. I spent a few +days writing and polishing the system, and it is now ready for general +consumption. The +code for +ical-archiver is publicly available from a git repository on +github. The system is written in Python and depend on +the vobject Python +module.

+ +

To use it, locate the iCalendar file you want to operate on and +give it as an argument to the ical-archiver script. This will +generate a set of new files, one file per component type per year for +all components expiring more than two years in the past. The vevent, +vtodo and vjournal entries are handled by the script. The remaining +entries are stored in a 'remaining' file.

+ +

This is what a test run can look like: + +

+% ical-archiver t/2004-2016.ics 
+Found 3612 vevents
+Found 6 vtodos
+Found 2 vjournals
+Writing t/2004-2016.ics-subset-vevent-2004.ics
+Writing t/2004-2016.ics-subset-vevent-2005.ics
+Writing t/2004-2016.ics-subset-vevent-2006.ics
+Writing t/2004-2016.ics-subset-vevent-2007.ics
+Writing t/2004-2016.ics-subset-vevent-2008.ics
+Writing t/2004-2016.ics-subset-vevent-2009.ics
+Writing t/2004-2016.ics-subset-vevent-2010.ics
+Writing t/2004-2016.ics-subset-vevent-2011.ics
+Writing t/2004-2016.ics-subset-vevent-2012.ics
+Writing t/2004-2016.ics-subset-vevent-2013.ics
+Writing t/2004-2016.ics-subset-vevent-2014.ics
+Writing t/2004-2016.ics-subset-vjournal-2007.ics
+Writing t/2004-2016.ics-subset-vjournal-2011.ics
+Writing t/2004-2016.ics-subset-vtodo-2012.ics
+Writing t/2004-2016.ics-remaining.ics
+%
+

+ +

As you can see, the original file is untouched and new files are +written with names derived from the original file. If you are happy +with their content, the *-remaining.ics file can replace the original +the the others can be archived or imported as historical calendar +collections.

+ +

The script should probably be improved a bit. The error handling +when discovering broken entries is not good, and I am not sure yet if +it make sense to split different entry types into separate files or +not. The program is thus likely to change. If you find it +interesting, please get in touch. :)

+ +

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

+ +

+ + + Tags: english, standard. + + +

+ Appstream just learned how to map hardware to packages too! +

+ 23rd December 2016 +

I received a very nice Christmas present today. As my regular +readers probably know, I have been working on the +the Isenkram +system for many years. The goal of the Isenkram system is to make +it easier for users to figure out what to install to get a given piece +of hardware to work in Debian, and a key part of this system is a way +to map hardware to packages. Isenkram have its own mapping database, +and also uses data provided by each package using the AppStream +metadata format. And today, +AppStream in +Debian learned to look up hardware the same way Isenkram is doing it, +ie using fnmatch():

+ +

+% appstreamcli what-provides modalias \
+  usb:v1130p0202d0100dc00dsc00dp00ic03isc00ip00in00
+Identifier: pymissile [generic]
+Name: pymissile
+Summary: Control original Striker USB Missile Launcher
+Package: pymissile
+% appstreamcli what-provides modalias usb:v0694p0002d0000
+Identifier: libnxt [generic]
+Name: libnxt
+Summary: utility library for talking to the LEGO Mindstorms NXT brick
+Package: libnxt
+---
+Identifier: t2n [generic]
+Name: t2n
+Summary: Simple command-line tool for Lego NXT
+Package: t2n
+---
+Identifier: python-nxt [generic]
+Name: python-nxt
+Summary: Python driver/interface/wrapper for the Lego Mindstorms NXT robot
+Package: python-nxt
+---
+Identifier: nbc [generic]
+Name: nbc
+Summary: C compiler for LEGO Mindstorms NXT bricks
+Package: nbc
+%
+

+ +

A similar query can be done using the combined AppStream and +Isenkram databases using the isenkram-lookup tool:

+ +

+% isenkram-lookup usb:v1130p0202d0100dc00dsc00dp00ic03isc00ip00in00
+pymissile
+% isenkram-lookup usb:v0694p0002d0000
+libnxt
+nbc
+python-nxt
+t2n
+%
+

+ +

You can find modalias values relevant for your machine using +cat $(find /sys/devices/ -name modalias). + +

If you want to make this system a success and help Debian users +make the most of the hardware they have, please +helpadd +AppStream metadata for your package following the guidelines +documented in the wiki. So far only 11 packages provide such +information, among the several hundred hardware specific packages in +Debian. The Isenkram database on the other hand contain 101 packages, +mostly related to USB dongles. Most of the packages with hardware +mapping in AppStream are LEGO Mindstorms related, because I have, as +part of my involvement in +the Debian LEGO +team given priority to making sure LEGO users get proposed the +complete set of packages in Debian for that particular hardware. The +team also got a nice Christmas present today. The +nxt-firmware +package made it into Debian. With this package in place, it is +now possible to use the LEGO Mindstorms NXT unit with only free +software, as the nxt-firmware package contain the source and firmware +binaries for the NXT brick.

+ +

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

+ +

+ + + Tags: debian, english, isenkram. + + +

+ Isenkram updated with a lot more hardware-package mappings +

+ 20th December 2016 +

The Isenkram +system I wrote two years ago to make it easier in Debian to find +and install packages to get your hardware dongles to work, is still +going strong. It is a system to look up the hardware present on or +connected to the current system, and map the hardware to Debian +packages. It can either be done using the tools in isenkram-cli or +using the user space daemon in the isenkram package. The latter will +notify you, when inserting new hardware, about what packages to +install to get the dongle working. It will even provide a button to +click on to ask packagekit to install the packages.

+ +

Here is an command line example from my Thinkpad laptop:

+ +

+% isenkram-lookup  
+bluez
+cheese
+ethtool
+fprintd
+fprintd-demo
+gkrellm-thinkbat
+hdapsd
+libpam-fprintd
+pidgin-blinklight
+thinkfan
+tlp
+tp-smapi-dkms
+tp-smapi-source
+tpb
+%
+

+ +

It can also list the firware package providing firmware requested +by the load kernel modules, which in my case is an empty list because +I have all the firmware my machine need: + +

+% /usr/sbin/isenkram-autoinstall-firmware -l
+info: did not find any firmware files requested by loaded kernel modules.  exiting
+%
+

+ +

The last few days I had a look at several of the around 250 +packages in Debian with udev rules. These seem like good candidates +to install when a given hardware dongle is inserted, and I found +several that should be proposed by isenkram. I have not had time to +check all of them, but am happy to report that now there are 97 +packages packages mapped to hardware by Isenkram. 11 of these +packages provide hardware mapping using AppStream, while the rest are +listed in the modaliases file provided in isenkram.

+ +

These are the packages with hardware mappings at the moment. The +marked packages are also announcing their hardware +support using AppStream, for everyone to use:

+ +

air-quality-sensor, alsa-firmware-loaders, argyll, +array-info, avarice, avrdude, b43-fwcutter, +bit-babbler, bluez, bluez-firmware, brltty, +broadcom-sta-dkms, calibre, cgminer, cheese, colord, +colorhug-client, dahdi-firmware-nonfree, dahdi-linux, +dfu-util, dolphin-emu, ekeyd, ethtool, firmware-ipw2x00, fprintd, +fprintd-demo, galileo, gkrellm-thinkbat, gphoto2, +gpsbabel, gpsbabel-gui, gpsman, gpstrans, gqrx-sdr, gr-fcdproplus, +gr-osmosdr, gtkpod, hackrf, hdapsd, hdmi2usb-udev, hpijs-ppds, hplip, +ipw3945-source, ipw3945d, kde-config-tablet, kinect-audio-setup, +libnxt, libpam-fprintd, lomoco, +madwimax, minidisc-utils, mkgmap, msi-keyboard, mtkbabel, +nbc, nqc, nut-hal-drivers, ola, +open-vm-toolbox, open-vm-tools, openambit, pcgminer, pcmciautils, +pcscd, pidgin-blinklight, printer-driver-splix, +pymissile, python-nxt, qlandkartegt, +qlandkartegt-garmin, rosegarden, rt2x00-source, sispmctl, +soapysdr-module-hackrf, solaar, squeak-plugins-scratch, sunxi-tools, +t2n, thinkfan, thinkfinger-tools, tlp, tp-smapi-dkms, +tp-smapi-source, tpb, tucnak, uhd-host, usbmuxd, viking, +virtualbox-ose-guest-x11, w1retap, xawtv, xserver-xorg-input-vmmouse, +xserver-xorg-input-wacom, xserver-xorg-video-qxl, +xserver-xorg-video-vmware, yubikey-personalization and +zd1211-firmware

+ +

If you know of other packages, please let me know with a wishlist +bug report against the isenkram-cli package, and ask the package +maintainer to +add AppStream +metadata according to the guidelines to provide the information +for everyone. In time, I hope to get rid of the isenkram specific +hardware mapping and depend exclusively on AppStream.

+ +

Note, the AppStream metadata for broadcom-sta-dkms is matching too +much hardware, and suggest that the package with with any ethernet +card. See bug #838735 for +the details. I hope the maintainer find time to address it soon. In +the mean time I provide an override in isenkram.

+ +

+ + + Tags: debian, english, isenkram. + + +

+ Oolite, a life in space as vagabond and mercenary - nice free software +

+ 11th December 2016 +

+ +

In my early years, I played +the epic game +Elite on my PC. I spent many months trading and fighting in +space, and reached the 'elite' fighting status before I moved on. The +original Elite game was available on Commodore 64 and the IBM PC +edition I played had a 64 KB executable. I am still impressed today +that the authors managed to squeeze both a 3D engine and details about +more than 2000 planet systems across 7 galaxies into a binary so +small.

+ +

I have known about the free +software game Oolite inspired by Elite for a while, but did not +really have time to test it properly until a few days ago. It was +great to discover that my old knowledge about trading routes were +still valid. But my fighting and flying abilities were gone, so I had +to retrain to be able to dock on a space station. And I am still not +able to make much resistance when I am attacked by pirates, so I +bougth and mounted the most powerful laser in the rear to be able to +put up at least some resistance while fleeing for my life. :)

+ +

When playing Elite in the late eighties, I had to discover +everything on my own, and I had long lists of prices seen on different +planets to be able to decide where to trade what. This time I had the +advantages of the +Elite wiki, +where information about each planet is easily available with common +price ranges and suggested trading routes. This improved my ability +to earn money and I have been able to earn enough to buy a lot of +useful equipent in a few days. I believe I originally played for +months before I could get a docking computer, while now I could get it +after less then a week.

+ +

If you like science fiction and dreamed of a life as a vagabond in +space, you should try out Oolite. It is available for Linux, MacOSX +and Windows, and is included in Debian and derivatives since 2011.

+ +

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

+ +

+ + + Tags: debian, english, nice free software. + + +

+ Quicker Debian installations using eatmydata +

+ 25th November 2016 +

Two years ago, I did some experiments with eatmydata and the Debian +installation system, observing how using +eatmydata +could speed up the installation quite a bit. My testing measured +speedup around 20-40 percent for Debian Edu, where we install around +1000 packages from within the installer. The eatmydata package +provide a way to disable/delay file system flushing. This is a bit +risky in the general case, as files that should be stored on disk will +stay only in memory a bit longer than expected, causing problems if a +machine crashes at an inconvenient time. But for an installation, if +the machine crashes during installation the process is normally +restarted, and avoiding disk operations as much as possible to speed +up the process make perfect sense. + +

I added code in the Debian Edu specific installation code to enable +eatmydata, +but did not have time to push it any further. But a few months ago I +picked it up again and worked with the libeatmydata package maintainer +Mattia Rizzolo to make it easier for everyone to get this installation +speedup in Debian. Thanks to our cooperation There is now an +eatmydata-udeb package in Debian testing and unstable, and simply +enabling/installing it in debian-installer (d-i) is enough to get the +quicker installations. It can be enabled using preseeding. The +following untested kernel argument should do the trick:

+ +

+preseed/early_command="anna-install eatmydata-udeb"
+

+ +

This should ask d-i to install the package inside the d-i +environment early in the installation sequence. Having it installed +in d-i in turn will make sure the relevant scripts are called just +after debootstrap filled /target/ with the freshly installed Debian +system to configure apt to run dpkg with eatmydata. This is enough to +speed up the installation process. There is a proposal to +extend the idea a bit further +by using /etc/ld.so.preload instead of apt.conf, but I have not +tested its impact.

+ + +

+ + + Tags: debian, debian edu, english. + + +

+ Coz profiler for multi-threaded software is now in Debian +

+ 13th November 2016 +

The Coz profiler, a nice +profiler able to run benchmarking experiments on the instrumented +multi-threaded program, finally +made it into +Debian unstable yesterday. LluÃs Vilanova and I have spent many +months since +I +blogged about the coz tool in August working with upstream to make +it suitable for Debian. There are still issues with clang +compatibility, inline assembly only working x86 and minimized +JavaScript libraries.

+ +

To test it, install 'coz-profiler' using apt and run it like this:

+ +

+coz run --- /path/to/binary-with-debug-info +

+ +

This will produce a profile.coz file in the current working +directory with the profiling information. This is then given to a +JavaScript application provided in the package and available from +a project web page. +To start the local copy, invoke it in a browser like this:

+ +

+sensible-browser /usr/share/coz-profiler/viewer/index.htm +

+ +

See the project home page and the +USENIX +;login: article on Coz for more information on how it is +working.

+ +

+ + + Tags: debian, english. + + +

+ How to talk with your loved ones in private +

+ 7th November 2016 +

A few days ago I ran a very biased and informal survey to get an +idea about what options are being used to communicate with end to end +encryption with friends and family. I explicitly asked people not to +list options only used in a work setting. The background is the +uneasy feeling I get when using Signal, a feeling shared by others as +a blog post from Sander Venima about +why +he do not recommend Signal anymore (with +feedback from +the Signal author available from ycombinator). I wanted an +overview of the options being used, and hope to include those options +in a less biased survey later on. So far I have not taken the time to +look into the individual proposed systems. They range from text +sharing web pages, via file sharing and email to instant messaging, +VOIP and video conferencing. For those considering which system to +use, it is also useful to have a look at +the EFF Secure +messaging scorecard which is slightly out of date but still +provide valuable information.

+ +

So, on to the list. There were some used by many, some used by a +few, some rarely used ones and a few mentioned but without anyone +claiming to use them. Notice the grouping is in reality quite random +given the biased self selected set of participants. First the ones +used by many:

+ +

Signal
Email w/OpenPGP (Enigmail, GPGSuite,etc)
Whatsapp
IRC w/OTR
XMPP w/OTR

+ +

Then the ones used by a few.

+ +

Mumble
iMessage (included in iOS from Apple)
Telegram
Jitsi
Keybase file

+ +

Then the ones used by even fewer people

+ +

Ring
Bitmessage
Wire
VoIP w/ZRTP or controlled SRTP (e.g using CSipSimple, Linphone)
Matrix
Kontalk
0bin (encrypted pastebin)
Appear.in
riot
Wickr Me

+ +

And finally the ones mentioned by not marked as used by +anyone. This might be a mistake, perhaps the person adding the entry +forgot to flag it as used?

+ +

Email w/Certificates S/MIME
Crypho
CryptPad
ricochet

+ +

Given the network effect it seem obvious to me that we as a society +have been divided and conquered by those interested in keeping +encrypted and secure communication away from the masses. The +finishing remarks from Aral Balkan +in his talk "Free is a lie" about the usability of free software +really come into effect when you want to communicate in private with +your friends and family. We can not expect them to allow the +usability of communication tool to block their ability to talk to +their loved ones.

+ +

Note for example the option IRC w/OTR. Most IRC clients do not +have OTR support, so in most cases OTR would not be an option, even if +you wanted to. In my personal experience, about 1 in 20 I talk to +have a IRC client with OTR. For private communication to really be +available, most people to talk to must have the option in their +currently used client. I can not simply ask my family to install an +IRC client. I need to guide them through a technical multi-step +process of adding extensions to the client to get them going. This is +a non-starter for most.

+ +

I would like to be able to do video phone calls, audio phone calls, +exchange instant messages and share files with my loved ones, without +being forced to share with people I do not know. I do not want to +share the content of the conversations, and I do not want to share who +I communicate with or the fact that I communicate with someone. +Without all these factors in place, my private life is being more or +less invaded.

+ +

+ + + Tags: english, personvern, sikkerhet, surveillance. + + +

+ My own self balancing Lego Segway +

+ 4th November 2016 +

A while back I received a Gyro sensor for the NXT +Mindstorms controller as a birthday +present. It had been on my wishlist for a while, because I wanted to +build a Segway like balancing lego robot. I had already built +a simple balancing +robot with the kids, using the light/color sensor included in the +NXT kit as the balance sensor, but it was not working very well. It +could balance for a while, but was very sensitive to the light +condition in the room and the reflective properties of the surface and +would fall over after a short while. I wanted something more robust, +and had +the +gyro sensor from HiTechnic I believed would solve it on my +wishlist for some years before it suddenly showed up as a gift from my +loved ones. :)

+ +

Unfortunately I have not had time to sit down and play with it +since then. But that changed some days ago, when I was searching for +lego segway information and came across a recipe from HiTechnic for +building +the +HTWay, a segway like balancing robot. Build instructions and +source +code was included, so it was just a question of putting it all +together. And thanks to the great work of many Debian developers, the +compiler needed to build the source for the NXT is already included in +Debian, so I was read to go in less than an hour. The resulting robot +do not look very impressive in its simplicity:

+ +

Because I lack the infrared sensor used to control the robot in the +design from HiTechnic, I had to comment out the last task +(taskControl). I simply placed /* and */ around it get the program +working without that sensor present. Now it balances just fine until +the battery status run low:

+ +

Now we would like to teach it how to follow a line and take remote +control instructions using the included Bluetooth receiver in the NXT.

+ +

If you, like me, love LEGO and want to make sure we find the tools +they need to work with LEGO in Debian and all our derivative +distributions like Ubuntu, check out +the LEGO designers +project page and join the Debian LEGO team. Personally I own a +RCX and NXT controller (no EV3), and would like to make sure the +Debian tools needed to program the systems I own work as they +should.

+ +

+ + + Tags: debian, english, robot. + + +

+ Experience and updated recipe for using the Signal app without a mobile phone +

+ 10th October 2016 +

In July +I +wrote how to get the Signal Chrome/Chromium app working without +the ability to receive SMS messages (aka without a cell phone). It is +time to share some experiences and provide an updated setup.

+ +

The Signal app have worked fine for several months now, and I use +it regularly to chat with my loved ones. I had a major snag at the +end of my summer vacation, when the the app completely forgot my +setup, identity and keys. The reason behind this major mess was +running out of disk space. To avoid that ever happening again I have +started storing everything in userdata/ in git, to be able to +roll back to an earlier version if the files are wiped by mistake. I +had to use it once after introducing the git backup. When rolling +back to an earlier version, one need to use the 'reset session' option +in Signal to get going, and notify the people you talk with about the +problem. I assume there is some sequence number tracking in the +protocol to detect rollback attacks. The git repository is rather big +(674 MiB so far), but I have not tried to figure out if some of the +content can be added to a .gitignore file due to lack of spare +time.

+ +

I've also hit the 90 days timeout blocking, and noticed that this +make it impossible to send messages using Signal. I could still +receive them, but had to patch the code with a new timestamp to send. +I believe the timeout is added by the developers to force people to +upgrade to the latest version of the app, even when there is no +protocol changes, to reduce the version skew among the user base and +thus try to keep the number of support requests down.

+ +

Since my original recipe, the Signal source code changed slightly, +making the old patch fail to apply cleanly. Below is an updated +patch, including the shell wrapper I use to start Signal. The +original version required a new user to locate the JavaScript console +and call a function from there. I got help from a friend with more +JavaScript knowledge than me to modify the code to provide a GUI +button instead. This mean that to get started you just need to run +the wrapper and click the 'Register without mobile phone' to get going +now. I've also modified the timeout code to always set it to 90 days +in the future, to avoid having to patch the code regularly.

+ +

So, the updated recipe for Debian Jessie:

+ +

First, install required packages to get the source code and the +browser you need. Signal only work with Chrome/Chromium, as far as I +know, so you need to install it. + +
```
+apt install git tor chromium
+git clone https://github.com/WhisperSystems/Signal-Desktop.git
+
```
Modify the source code using command listed in the the patch +block below.
Start Signal using the run-signal-app wrapper (for example using +`pwd`/run-signal-app). + +
Click on the 'Register without mobile phone', will in a phone +number you can receive calls to the next minute, receive the +verification code and enter it into the form field and press +'Register'. Note, the phone number you use will be user Signal +username, ie the way others can find you on Signal.
You can now use Signal to contact others. Note, new contacts do +not show up in the contact list until you restart Signal, and there is +no way to assign names to Contacts. There is also no way to create or +update chat groups. I suspect this is because the web app do not have +a associated contact database.

+ +

I am still a bit uneasy about using Signal, because of the way its +main author moxie0 reject federation and accept dependencies to major +corporations like Google (part of the code is fetched from Google) and +Amazon (the central coordination point is owned by Amazon). See for +example +the +LibreSignal issue tracker for a thread documenting the authors +view on these issues. But the network effect is strong in this case, +and several of the people I want to communicate with already use +Signal. Perhaps we can all move to Ring +once it work on my +laptop? It already work on Windows and Android, and is included +in Debian and +Ubuntu, but not +working on Debian Stable.

+ +

Anyway, this is the patch I apply to the Signal code to get it +working. It switch to the production servers, disable to timeout, +make registration easier and add the shell wrapper:

+ +

+cd Signal-Desktop; cat <<EOF | patch -p1
+diff --git a/js/background.js b/js/background.js
+index 24b4c1d..579345f 100644
+--- a/js/background.js
++++ b/js/background.js
+@@ -33,9 +33,9 @@
+         });
+     });
+ 
+-    var SERVER_URL = 'https://textsecure-service-staging.whispersystems.org';
++    var SERVER_URL = 'https://textsecure-service-ca.whispersystems.org';
+     var SERVER_PORTS = [80, 4433, 8443];
+-    var ATTACHMENT_SERVER_URL = 'https://whispersystems-textsecure-attachments-staging.s3.amazonaws.com';
++    var ATTACHMENT_SERVER_URL = 'https://whispersystems-textsecure-attachments.s3.amazonaws.com';
+     var messageReceiver;
+     window.getSocketStatus = function() {
+         if (messageReceiver) {
+diff --git a/js/expire.js b/js/expire.js
+index 639aeae..beb91c3 100644
+--- a/js/expire.js
++++ b/js/expire.js
+@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
+ ;(function() {
+     'use strict';
+-    var BUILD_EXPIRATION = 0;
++    var BUILD_EXPIRATION = Date.now() + (90 * 24 * 60 * 60 * 1000);
+ 
+     window.extension = window.extension || {};
+ 
+diff --git a/js/views/install_view.js b/js/views/install_view.js
+index 7816f4f..1d6233b 100644
+--- a/js/views/install_view.js
++++ b/js/views/install_view.js
+@@ -38,7 +38,8 @@
+             return {
+                 'click .step1': this.selectStep.bind(this, 1),
+                 'click .step2': this.selectStep.bind(this, 2),
+-                'click .step3': this.selectStep.bind(this, 3)
++                'click .step3': this.selectStep.bind(this, 3),
++                'click .callreg': function() { extension.install('standalone') },
+             };
+         },
+         clearQR: function() {
+diff --git a/options.html b/options.html
+index dc0f28e..8d709f6 100644
+--- a/options.html
++++ b/options.html
+@@ -14,7 +14,10 @@
+         <div class='nav'>
+           <h1>{{ installWelcome }}</h1>
+           <p>{{ installTagline }}</p>
+-          <div> <a class='button step2'>{{ installGetStartedButton }}</a> </div>
++          <div> <a class='button step2'>{{ installGetStartedButton }}</a>
++	    <br> <a class="button callreg">Register without mobile phone</a>
++
++	  </div>
+           <span class='dot step1 selected'></span>
+           <span class='dot step2'></span>
+           <span class='dot step3'></span>
+--- /dev/null   2016-10-07 09:55:13.730181472 +0200
++++ b/run-signal-app   2016-10-10 08:54:09.434172391 +0200
+@@ -0,0 +1,12 @@
++#!/bin/sh
++set -e
++cd $(dirname $0)
++mkdir -p userdata
++userdata="`pwd`/userdata"
++if [ -d "$userdata" ] && [ ! -d "$userdata/.git" ] ; then
++    (cd $userdata && git init)
++fi
++(cd $userdata && git add . && git commit -m "Current status." || true)
++exec chromium \
++  --proxy-server="socks://localhost:9050" \
++  --user-data-dir=$userdata --load-and-launch-app=`pwd`
+EOF
+chmod a+rx run-signal-app
+

+ +

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

+ +

+ + + Tags: debian, english, sikkerhet, surveillance. + + +

+ Isenkram, Appstream and udev make life as a LEGO builder easier +

+ 7th October 2016 +

The Isenkram +system provide a practical and easy way to figure out which +packages support the hardware in a given machine. The command line +tool isenkram-lookup and the tasksel options provide a +convenient way to list and install packages relevant for the current +hardware during system installation, both user space packages and +firmware packages. The GUI background daemon on the other hand provide +a pop-up proposing to install packages when a new dongle is inserted +while using the computer. For example, if you plug in a smart card +reader, the system will ask if you want to install pcscd if +that package isn't already installed, and if you plug in a USB video +camera the system will ask if you want to install cheese if +cheese is currently missing. This already work just fine.

+ +

But Isenkram depend on a database mapping from hardware IDs to +package names. When I started no such database existed in Debian, so +I made my own data set and included it with the isenkram package and +made isenkram fetch the latest version of this database from git using +http. This way the isenkram users would get updated package proposals +as soon as I learned more about hardware related packages.

+ +

The hardware is identified using modalias strings. The modalias +design is from the Linux kernel where most hardware descriptors are +made available as a strings that can be matched using filename style +globbing. It handle USB, PCI, DMI and a lot of other hardware related +identifiers.

+ +

The downside to the Isenkram specific database is that there is no +information about relevant distribution / Debian version, making +isenkram propose obsolete packages too. But along came AppStream, a +cross distribution mechanism to store and collect metadata about +software packages. When I heard about the proposal, I contacted the +people involved and suggested to add a hardware matching rule using +modalias strings in the specification, to be able to use AppStream for +mapping hardware to packages. This idea was accepted and AppStream is +now a great way for a package to announce the hardware it support in a +distribution neutral way. I wrote +a +recipe on how to add such meta-information in a blog post last +December. If you have a hardware related package in Debian, please +announce the relevant hardware IDs using AppStream.

+ +

In Debian, almost all packages that can talk to a LEGO Mindestorms +RCX or NXT unit, announce this support using AppStream. The effect is +that when you insert such LEGO robot controller into your Debian +machine, Isenkram will propose to install the packages needed to get +it working. The intention is that this should allow the local user to +start programming his robot controller right away without having to +guess what packages to use or which permissions to fix.

+ +

But when I sat down with my son the other day to program our NXT +unit using his Debian Stretch computer, I discovered something +annoying. The local console user (ie my son) did not get access to +the USB device for programming the unit. This used to work, but no +longer in Jessie and Stretch. After some investigation and asking +around on #debian-devel, I discovered that this was because udev had +changed the mechanism used to grant access to local devices. The +ConsoleKit mechanism from /lib/udev/rules.d/70-udev-acl.rules +no longer applied, because LDAP users no longer was added to the +plugdev group during login. Michael Biebl told me that this method +was obsolete and the new method used ACLs instead. This was good +news, as the plugdev mechanism is a mess when using a remote user +directory like LDAP. Using ACLs would make sure a user lost device +access when she logged out, even if the user left behind a background +process which would retain the plugdev membership with the ConsoleKit +setup. Armed with this knowledge I moved on to fix the access problem +for the LEGO Mindstorms related packages.

+ +

The new system uses a udev tag, 'uaccess'. It can either be +applied directly for a device, or is applied in +/lib/udev/rules.d/70-uaccess.rules for classes of devices. As the +LEGO Mindstorms udev rules did not have a class, I decided to add the +tag directly in the udev rules files included in the packages. Here +is one example. For the nqc C compiler for the RCX, the +/lib/udev/rules.d/60-nqc.rules file now look like this: + +

+SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ACTION=="add", ATTR{idVendor}=="0694", ATTR{idProduct}=="0001", \
+    SYMLINK+="rcx-%k", TAG+="uaccess"
+

+ +

The key part is the 'TAG+="uaccess"' at the end. I suspect all +packages using plugdev in their /lib/udev/rules.d/ files should be +changed to use this tag (either directly or indirectly via +70-uaccess.rules). Perhaps a lintian check should be created +to detect this?

+ +

I've been unable to find good documentation on the uaccess feature. +It is unclear to me if the uaccess tag is an internal implementation +detail like the udev-acl tag used by +/lib/udev/rules.d/70-udev-acl.rules. If it is, I guess the +indirect method is the preferred way. Michael +asked for more +documentation from the systemd project and I hope it will make +this clearer. For now I use the generic classes when they exist and +is already handled by 70-uaccess.rules, and add the tag +directly if no such class exist.

+ +

To learn more about the isenkram system, please check out +my +blog posts tagged isenkram.

+ +

To help out making life for LEGO constructors in Debian easier, +please join us on our IRC channel +#debian-lego and join +the Debian +LEGO team in the Alioth project we created yesterday. A mailing +list is not yet created, but we are working on it. :)

+ +

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

+ +

+ + + Tags: debian, english, isenkram. + + +

+ First draft Norwegian BokmÃ¥l edition of The Debian Administrator's Handbook now public +

+ 30th August 2016 +

In April we +started +to work on a Norwegian BokmÃ¥l edition of the "open access" book on +how to set up and administrate a Debian system. Today I am happy to +report that the first draft is now publicly available. You can find +it on get the Debian +Administrator's Handbook page (under Other languages). The first +eight chapters have a first draft translation, and we are working on +proofreading the content. If you want to help out, please start +contributing using +the +hosted weblate project page, and get in touch using +the +translators mailing list. Please also check out +the instructions for +contributors. A good way to contribute is to proofread the text +and update weblate if you find errors.

+ +

Our goal is still to make the Norwegian book available on paper as well as +electronic form.

+ +

+ + + Tags: debian, english. + + +

+ Coz can help you find bottlenecks in multi-threaded software - nice free software +

+ 11th August 2016 +

This summer, I read a great article +"coz: +This Is the Profiler You're Looking For" in USENIX ;login: about +how to profile multi-threaded programs. It presented a system for +profiling software by running experiences in the running program, +testing how run time performance is affected by "speeding up" parts of +the code to various degrees compared to a normal run. It does this by +slowing down parallel threads while the "faster up" code is running +and measure how this affect processing time. The processing time is +measured using probes inserted into the code, either using progress +counters (COZ_PROGRESS) or as latency meters (COZ_BEGIN/COZ_END). It +can also measure unmodified code by measuring complete the program +runtime and running the program several times instead.

+ +

The project and presentation was so inspiring that I would like to +get the system into Debian. I +created +a WNPP request for it and contacted upstream to try to make the +system ready for Debian by sending patches. The build process need to +be changed a bit to avoid running 'git clone' to get dependencies, and +to include the JavaScript web page used to visualize the collected +profiling information included in the source package. +But I expect that should work out fairly soon.

+ +

The way the system work is fairly simple. To run an coz experiment +on a binary with debug symbols available, start the program like this: + +

+coz run --- program-to-run
+

+ +

This will create a text file profile.coz with the instrumentation +information. To show what part of the code affect the performance +most, use a web browser and either point it to +http://plasma-umass.github.io/coz/ +or use the copy from git (in the gh-pages branch). Check out this web +site to have a look at several example profiling runs and get an idea what the end result from the profile runs look like. To make the +profiling more useful you include <coz.h> and insert the +COZ_PROGRESS or COZ_BEGIN and COZ_END at appropriate places in the +code, rebuild and run the profiler. This allow coz to do more +targeted experiments.

+ +

A video published by ACM +presenting the +Coz profiler is available from Youtube. There is also a paper +from the 25th Symposium on Operating Systems Principles available +titled +Coz: +finding code that counts with causal profiling.

+ +

The source code +for Coz is available from github. It will only build with clang +because it uses a +C++ +feature missing in GCC, but I've submitted +a patch to solve +it and hope it will be included in the upstream source soon.

+ +

Please get in touch if you, like me, would like to see this piece +of software in Debian. I would very much like some help with the +packaging effort, as I lack the in depth knowledge on how to package +C++ libraries.

+ +

+ + + Tags: debian, english, nice free software. + + +

+ Sales number for the Free Culture translation, first half of 2016 +

+ 5th August 2016 +

As my regular readers probably remember, the last year I published +a French and Norwegian translation of the classic +Free Culture book by the +founder of the Creative Commons movement, Lawrence Lessig. A bit less +known is the fact that due to the way I created the translations, +using docbook and po4a, I also recreated the English original. And +because I already had created a new the PDF edition, I published it +too. The revenue from the books are sent to the Creative Commons +Corporation. In other words, I do not earn any money from this +project, I just earn the warm fuzzy feeling that the text is available +for a wider audience and more people can learn why the Creative +Commons is needed.

+ +

Today, just for fun, I had a look at the sales number over at +Lulu.com, which take care of payment, printing and shipping. Much to +my surprise, the English edition is selling better than both the +French and Norwegian edition, despite the fact that it has been +available in English since it was first published. In total, 24 paper +books was sold for USD $19.99 between 2016-01-01 and 2016-07-31:

+ + + + + + +

Title / language	Quantity
Culture Libre / French	3
Fri kultur / Norwegian	7
Free Culture / English	14

+ +

The books are available both from Lulu.com and from large book +stores like Amazon and Barnes&Noble. Most revenue, around $10 per +book, is sent to the Creative Commons project when the book is sold +directly by Lulu.com. The other channels give less revenue. The +summary from Lulu tell me 10 books was sold via the Amazon channel, 10 +via Ingram (what is this?) and 4 directly by Lulu. And Lulu.com tells +me that the revenue sent so far this year is USD $101.42. No idea +what kind of sales numbers to expect, so I do not know if that is a +good amount of sales for a 10 year old book or not. But it make me +happy that the buyers find the book, and I hope they enjoy reading it +as much as I did.

+ +

The ebook edition is available for free from +Github.

+ +

If you would like to translate and publish the book in your native +language, I would be happy to help make it happen. Please get in +touch.

+ +

+ + + Tags: docbook, english, freeculture. + + +

+ Techno TV broadcasting live across Norway and the Internet (#debconf16, #nuug) on @frikanalen +

+ 1st August 2016 +

Did you know there is a TV channel broadcasting talks from DebConf +16 across an entire country? Or that there is a TV channel +broadcasting talks by or about +Linus Torvalds, +Tor, +OpenID, +Common Lisp, +Civic Tech, +EFF founder John Barlow, +how to make 3D +printer electronics and many more fascinating topics? It works +using only free software (all of it +available from Github), and +is administrated using a web browser and a web API.

+ +

The TV channel is the Norwegian open channel +Frikanalen, and I am involved +via the NUUG member association in +running and developing the software for the channel. The channel is +organised as a member organisation where its members can upload and +broadcast what they want (think of it as Youtube for national +broadcasting television). Individuals can broadcast too. The time +slots are handled on a first come, first serve basis. Because the +channel have almost no viewers and very few active members, we can +experiment with TV technology without too much flack when we make +mistakes. And thanks to the few active members, most of the slots on +the schedule are free. I see this as an opportunity to spread +knowledge about technology and free software, and have a script I run +regularly to fill up all the open slots the next few days with +technology related video. The end result is a channel I like to +describe as Techno TV - filled with interesting talks and +presentations.

+ +

It is available on channel 50 on the Norwegian national digital TV +network (RiksTV). It is also available as a multicast stream on +Uninett. And finally, it is available as +a WebM unicast stream from +Frikanalen and NUUG. Check it out. :)

+ +

+ + + Tags: english, frikanalen, nuug, video. + + +

+ Unlocking HTC Desire HD on Linux using unruu and fastboot +

+ 7th July 2016 +

Yesterday, I tried to unlock a HTC Desire HD phone, and it proved +to be a slight challenge. Here is the recipe if I ever need to do it +again. It all started by me wanting to try the recipe to set up +an +hardened Android installation from the Tor project blog on a +device I had access to. It is a old mobile phone with a broken +microphone The initial idea had been to just +install +CyanogenMod on it, but did not quite find time to start on it +until a few days ago.

+ +

The unlock process is supposed to be simple: (1) Boot into the boot +loader (press volume down and power at the same time), (2) select +'fastboot' before (3) connecting the device via USB to a Linux +machine, (4) request the device identifier token by running 'fastboot +oem get_identifier_token', (5) request the device unlocking key using +the HTC developer web +site and unlock the phone using the key file emailed to you.

+ +

Unfortunately, this only work fi you have hboot version 2.00.0029 +or newer, and the device I was working on had 2.00.0027. This +apparently can be easily fixed by downloading a Windows program and +running it on your Windows machine, if you accept the terms Microsoft +require you to accept to use Windows - which I do not. So I had to +come up with a different approach. I got a lot of help from AndyCap +on #nuug, and would not have been able to get this working without +him.

+ +

First I needed to extract the hboot firmware from +the +windows binary for HTC Desire HD downloaded as 'the RUU' from HTC. +For this there is is a github +project named unruu using libunshield. The unshield tool did not +recognise the file format, but unruu worked and extracted rom.zip, +containing the new hboot firmware and a text file describing which +devices it would work for.

+ +

Next, I needed to get the new firmware into the device. For this I +followed some instructions +available +from HTC1Guru.com, and ran these commands as root on a Linux +machine with Debian testing:

+ +

+adb reboot-bootloader
+fastboot oem rebootRUU
+fastboot flash zip rom.zip
+fastboot flash zip rom.zip
+fastboot reboot
+

+ +

The flash command apparently need to be done twice to take effect, +as the first is just preparations and the second one do the flashing. +The adb command is just to get to the boot loader menu, so turning the +device on while holding volume down and the power button should work +too.

+ +

With the new hboot version in place I could start following the +instructions on the HTC developer web site. I got the device token +like this:

+ +

+fastboot oem get_identifier_token 2>&1 | sed 's/(bootloader) //'
+

+ +

And once I got the unlock code via email, I could use it like +this:

+ +

+fastboot flash unlocktoken Unlock_code.bin
+

+ +

And with that final step in place, the phone was unlocked and I +could start stuffing the software of my own choosing into the device. +So far I only inserted a replacement recovery image to wipe the phone +before I start. We will see what happen next. Perhaps I should +install Debian on it. :)

+ +

+ + + Tags: bootsystem, debian, english, opphavsrett, sikkerhet. + + +

+ How to use the Signal app if you only have a land line (ie no mobile phone) +

+ 3rd July 2016 +

For a while now, I have wanted to test +the Signal app, as it is +said to provide end to end encrypted communication and several of my +friends and family are already using it. As I by choice do not own a +mobile phone, this proved to be harder than expected. And I wanted to +have the source of the client and know that it was the code used on my +machine. But yesterday I managed to get it working. I used the +Github source, compared it to the source in +the +Signal Chrome app available from the Chrome web store, applied +patches to use the production Signal servers, started the app and +asked for the hidden "register without a smart phone" form. Here is +the recipe how I did it.

+ +

First, I fetched the Signal desktop source from Github, using + +

+git clone https://github.com/WhisperSystems/Signal-Desktop.git
+

+ +

Next, I patched the source to use the production servers, to be +able to talk to other Signal users:

+ +

+cat <<EOF | patch -p0
+diff -ur ./js/background.js userdata/Default/Extensions/bikioccmkafdpakkkcpdbppfkghcmihk/0.15.0_0/js/background.js
+--- ./js/background.js  2016-06-29 13:43:15.630344628 +0200
++++ userdata/Default/Extensions/bikioccmkafdpakkkcpdbppfkghcmihk/0.15.0_0/js/background.js    2016-06-29 14:06:29.530300934 +0200
+@@ -47,8 +47,8 @@
+         });
+     });
+ 
+-    var SERVER_URL = 'https://textsecure-service-staging.whispersystems.org';
+-    var ATTACHMENT_SERVER_URL = 'https://whispersystems-textsecure-attachments-staging.s3.amazonaws.com';
++    var SERVER_URL = 'https://textsecure-service-ca.whispersystems.org:4433';
++    var ATTACHMENT_SERVER_URL = 'https://whispersystems-textsecure-attachments.s3.amazonaws.com';
+     var messageReceiver;
+     window.getSocketStatus = function() {
+         if (messageReceiver) {
+diff -ur ./js/expire.js userdata/Default/Extensions/bikioccmkafdpakkkcpdbppfkghcmihk/0.15.0_0/js/expire.js
+--- ./js/expire.js      2016-06-29 13:43:15.630344628 +0200
++++ userdata/Default/Extensions/bikioccmkafdpakkkcpdbppfkghcmihk/0.15.0_0/js/expire.js2016-06-29 14:06:29.530300934 +0200
+@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
+ ;(function() {
+     'use strict';
+-    var BUILD_EXPIRATION = 0;
++    var BUILD_EXPIRATION = 1474492690000;
+ 
+     window.extension = window.extension || {};
+ 
+EOF
+

+ +

The first part is changing the servers, and the second is updating +an expiration timestamp. This timestamp need to be updated regularly. +It is set 90 days in the future by the build process (Gruntfile.js). +The value is seconds since 1970 times 1000, as far as I can tell.

+ +

Based on a tip and good help from the #nuug IRC channel, I wrote a +script to launch Signal in Chromium.

+ +

+#!/bin/sh
+cd $(dirname $0)
+mkdir -p userdata
+exec chromium \
+  --proxy-server="socks://localhost:9050" \
+  --user-data-dir=`pwd`/userdata --load-and-launch-app=`pwd`
+

+ +

The script start the app and configure Chromium to use the Tor +SOCKS5 proxy to make sure those controlling the Signal servers (today +Amazon and Whisper Systems) as well as those listening on the lines +will have a harder time location my laptop based on the Signal +connections if they use source IP address.

+ +

When the script starts, one need to follow the instructions under +"Standalone Registration" in the CONTRIBUTING.md file in the git +repository. I right clicked on the Signal window to get up the +Chromium debugging tool, visited the 'Console' tab and wrote +'extension.install("standalone")' on the console prompt to get the +registration form. Then I entered by land line phone number and +pressed 'Call'. 5 seconds later the phone rang and a robot voice +repeated the verification code three times. After entering the number +into the verification code field in the form, I could start using +Signal from my laptop. + +

As far as I can tell, The Signal app will leak who is talking to +whom and thus who know who to those controlling the central server, +but such leakage is hard to avoid with a centrally controlled server +setup. It is something to keep in mind when using Signal - the +content of your chats are harder to intercept, but the meta data +exposing your contact network is available to people you do not know. +So better than many options, but not great. And sadly the usage is +connected to my land line, thus allowing those controlling the server +to associate it to my home and person. I would prefer it if only +those I knew could tell who I was on Signal. There are options +avoiding such information leakage, but most of my friends are not +using them, so I am stuck with Signal for now.

+ +

Update 2017-01-10: There is an updated blog post +on this topic in +Experience +and updated recipe for using the Signal app without a mobile +phone.

+ +

+ + + Tags: debian, english, sikkerhet, surveillance. + + +

+ The new "best" multimedia player in Debian? +

+ 6th June 2016 +

When I set out a few weeks ago to figure out +which +multimedia player in Debian claimed to support most file formats / +MIME types, I was a bit surprised how varied the sets of MIME types +the various players claimed support for. The range was from 55 to 130 +MIME types. I suspect most media formats are supported by all +players, but this is not really reflected in the MimeTypes values in +their desktop files. There are probably also some bogus MIME types +listed, but it is hard to identify which one this is.

+ +

Anyway, in the mean time I got in touch with upstream for some of +the players suggesting to add more MIME types to their desktop files, +and decided to spend some time myself improving the situation for my +favorite media player VLC. The fixes for VLC entered Debian unstable +yesterday. The complete list of MIME types can be seen on the +Multimedia +player MIME type support status Debian wiki page.

+ +

The new "best" multimedia player in Debian? It is VLC, followed by +totem, parole, kplayer, gnome-mpv, mpv, smplayer, mplayer-gui and +kmplayer. I am sure some of the other players desktop files support +several of the formats currently listed as working only with vlc, +toten and parole.

+ +

A sad observation is that only 14 MIME types are listed as +supported by all the tested multimedia players in Debian in their +desktop files: audio/mpeg, audio/vnd.rn-realaudio, audio/x-mpegurl, +audio/x-ms-wma, audio/x-scpls, audio/x-wav, video/mp4, video/mpeg, +video/quicktime, video/vnd.rn-realvideo, video/x-matroska, +video/x-ms-asf, video/x-ms-wmv and video/x-msvideo. Personally I find +it sad that video/ogg and video/webm is not supported by all the media +players in Debian. As far as I can tell, all of them can handle both +formats.

+ +

+ + + Tags: debian, debian edu, english, multimedia, video. + + +

+ A program should be able to open its own files on Linux +

+ 5th June 2016 +

Many years ago, when koffice was fresh and with few users, I +decided to test its presentation tool when making the slides for a +talk I was giving for NUUG on Japhar, a free Java virtual machine. I +wrote the first draft of the slides, saved the result and went to bed +the day before I would give the talk. The next day I took a plane to +the location where the meeting should take place, and on the plane I +started up koffice again to polish the talk a bit, only to discover +that kpresenter refused to load its own data file. I cursed a bit and +started making the slides again from memory, to have something to +present when I arrived. I tested that the saved files could be +loaded, and the day seemed to be rescued. I continued to polish the +slides until I suddenly discovered that the saved file could no longer +be loaded into kpresenter. In the end I had to rewrite the slides +three times, condensing the content until the talk became shorter and +shorter. After the talk I was able to pinpoint the problem – +kpresenter wrote inline images in a way itself could not understand. +Eventually that bug was fixed and kpresenter ended up being a great +program to make slides. The point I'm trying to make is that we +expect a program to be able to load its own data files, and it is +embarrassing to its developers if it can't.

+ +

Did you ever experience a program failing to load its own data +files from the desktop file browser? It is not a uncommon problem. A +while back I discovered that the screencast recorder +gtk-recordmydesktop would save an Ogg Theora video file the KDE file +browser would refuse to open. No video player claimed to understand +such file. I tracked down the cause being file --mime-type +returning the application/ogg MIME type, which no video player I had +installed listed as a MIME type they would understand. I asked for +file to change its +behavour and use the MIME type video/ogg instead. I also asked +several video players to add video/ogg to their desktop files, to give +the file browser an idea what to do about Ogg Theora files. After a +while, the desktop file browsers in Debian started to handle the +output from gtk-recordmydesktop properly.

+ +

But history repeats itself. A few days ago I tested the music +system Rosegarden again, and I discovered that the KDE and xfce file +browsers did not know what to do with the Rosegarden project files +(*.rg). I've reported the +rosegarden problem to BTS and a fix is commited to git and will be +included in the next upload. To increase the chance of me remembering +how to fix the problem next time some program fail to load its files +from the file browser, here are some notes on how to fix it.

+ +

The file browsers in Debian in general operates on MIME types. +There are two sources for the MIME type of a given file. The output from +file --mime-type mentioned above, and the content of the +shared MIME type registry (under /usr/share/mime/). The file MIME +type is mapped to programs supporting the MIME type, and this +information is collected from +the +desktop files available in /usr/share/applications/. If there is +one desktop file claiming support for the MIME type of the file, it is +activated when asking to open a given file. If there are more, one +can normally select which one to use by right-clicking on the file and +selecting the wanted one using 'Open with' or similar. In general +this work well. But it depend on each program picking a good MIME +type (preferably +a +MIME type registered with IANA), file and/or the shared MIME +registry recognizing the file and the desktop file to list the MIME +type in its list of supported MIME types.

+ +

The /usr/share/mime/packages/rosegarden.xml entry for +the +Shared MIME database look like this:

+ +

+<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
+<mime-info xmlns="http://www.freedesktop.org/standards/shared-mime-info">
+  <mime-type type="audio/x-rosegarden">
+    <sub-class-of type="application/x-gzip"/>
+    <comment>Rosegarden project file</comment>
+    <glob pattern="*.rg"/>
+  </mime-type>
+</mime-info>
+

+ +

This states that audio/x-rosegarden is a kind of application/x-gzip +(it is a gzipped XML file). Note, it is much better to use an +official MIME type registered with IANA than it is to make up ones own +unofficial ones like the x-rosegarden type used by rosegarden.

+ +

The desktop file of the rosegarden program failed to list +audio/x-rosegarden in its list of supported MIME types, causing the +file browsers to have no idea what to do with *.rg files:

+ +

+% grep Mime /usr/share/applications/rosegarden.desktop
+MimeType=audio/x-rosegarden-composition;audio/x-rosegarden-device;audio/x-rosegarden-project;audio/x-rosegarden-template;audio/midi;
+X-KDE-NativeMimeType=audio/x-rosegarden-composition
+%
+

+ +

The fix was to add "audio/x-rosegarden;" at the end of the +MimeType= line.

+ +

If you run into a file which fail to open the correct program when +selected from the file browser, please check out the output from +file --mime-type for the file, ensure the file ending and +MIME type is registered somewhere under /usr/share/mime/ and check +that some desktop file under /usr/share/applications/ is claiming +support for this MIME type. If not, please report a bug to have it +fixed. :)

+ +

+ + + Tags: debian, english. + + +

+ Tor - from its creators mouth 11 years ago +

+ 28th May 2016 +

A little more than 11 years ago, one of the creators of Tor, and +the current President of the Tor +project, Roger Dingledine, gave a talk for the members of the +Norwegian Unix User group (NUUG). A +video of the talk was recorded, and today, thanks to the great help +from David Noble, I finally was able to publish the video of the talk +on Frikanalen, the Norwegian open channel TV station where NUUG +currently publishes its talks. You can +watch the live stream using a web +browser with WebM support, or check out the recording on the video +on demand page for the talk +"Tor: Anonymous +communication for the US Department of Defence...and you.".

+ +

Here is the video included for those of you using browsers with +HTML video and Ogg Theora support:

+ +

I guess the gist of the talk can be summarised quite simply: If you +want to help the military in USA (and everyone else), use Tor. :)

+ +

+ + + Tags: english, frikanalen, nuug, video. + + +

+ Isenkram with PackageKit support - new version 0.23 available in Debian unstable +

+ 25th May 2016 +

The isenkram +system is a user-focused solution in Debian for handling hardware +related packages. The idea is to have a database of mappings between +hardware and packages, and pop up a dialog suggesting for the user to +install the packages to use a given hardware dongle. Some use cases +are when you insert a Yubikey, it proposes to install the software +needed to control it; when you insert a braille reader list it +proposes to install the packages needed to send text to the reader; +and when you insert a ColorHug screen calibrator it suggests to +install the driver for it. The system work well, and even have a few +command line tools to install firmware packages and packages for the +hardware already in the machine (as opposed to hotpluggable hardware).

+ +

The system was initially written using aptdaemon, because I found +good documentation and example code on how to use it. But aptdaemon +is going away and is generally being replaced by +PackageKit, +so Isenkram needed a rewrite. And today, thanks to the great patch +from my college Sunil Mohan Adapa in the FreedomBox project, the +rewrite finally took place. I've just uploaded a new version of +Isenkram into Debian Unstable with the patch included, and the default +for the background daemon is now to use PackageKit. To check it out, +install the isenkram package and insert some hardware dongle +and see if it is recognised.

+ +

If you want to know what kind of packages isenkram would propose for +the machine it is running on, you can check out the isenkram-lookup +program. This is what it look like on a Thinkpad X230:

+ +

+% isenkram-lookup 
+bluez
+cheese
+fprintd
+fprintd-demo
+gkrellm-thinkbat
+hdapsd
+libpam-fprintd
+pidgin-blinklight
+thinkfan
+tleds
+tp-smapi-dkms
+tp-smapi-source
+tpb
+%p
+

+ +

The hardware mappings come from several places. The preferred way +is for packages to announce their hardware support using +the +cross distribution appstream system. +See +previous +blog posts about isenkram to learn how to do that.

+ +

+ + + Tags: debian, english, isenkram. + + +

+ Discharge rate estimate in new battery statistics collector for Debian +

+ 23rd May 2016 +

Yesterday I updated the +battery-stats +package in Debian with a few patches sent to me by skilled and +enterprising users. There were some nice user and visible changes. +First of all, both desktop menu entries now work. A design flaw in +one of the script made the history graph fail to show up (its PNG was +dumped in ~/.xsession-errors) if no controlling TTY was available. +The script worked when called from the command line, but not when +called from the desktop menu. I changed this to look for a DISPLAY +variable or a TTY before deciding where to draw the graph, and now the +graph window pop up as expected.

+ +

The next new feature is a discharge rate estimator in one of the +graphs (the one showing the last few hours). New is also the user of +colours showing charging in blue and discharge in red. The percentages +of this graph is relative to last full charge, not battery design +capacity.

+ +

The other graph show the entire history of the collected battery +statistics, comparing it to the design capacity of the battery to +visualise how the battery life time get shorter over time. The red +line in this graph is what the previous graph considers 100 percent: + +

+ +

In this graph you can see that I only charge the battery to 80 +percent of last full capacity, and how the capacity of the battery is +shrinking. :(

+ +

The last new feature is in the collector, which now will handle +more hardware models. On some hardware, Linux power supply +information is stored in /sys/class/power_supply/ACAD/, while the +collector previously only looked in /sys/class/power_supply/AC/. Now +both are checked to figure if there is power connected to the +machine.

+ +

If you are interested in how your laptop battery is doing, please +check out the +battery-stats +in Debian unstable, or rebuild it on Jessie to get it working on +Debian stable. :) The upstream source is available from github. +Patches are very welcome.

+ +

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

+ +

+ + + Tags: debian, english. + + +

+ French edition of Lawrence Lessigs book Cultura Libre on Amazon and Barnes & Noble +

+ 21st May 2016 +

A few weeks ago the French paperback edition of Lawrence Lessigs +2004 book Cultura Libre was published. Today I noticed that the book +is now available from book stores. You can now buy it from +Amazon +($19.99), +Barnes +& Noble ($?) and as always from +Lulu.com +($19.99). The revenue is donated to the Creative Commons project. If +you buy from Lulu.com, they currently get $10.59, while if you buy +from one of the book stores most of the revenue go to the book store +and the Creative Commons project get much (not sure how much +less).

+ +

I was a bit surprised to discover that there is a kindle edition +sold by Amazon Digital Services LLC on Amazon. Not quite sure how +that edition was created, but if you want to download a electronic +edition (PDF, EPUB, Mobi) generated from the same files used to create +the paperback edition, they are +available +from github.

+ +

+ + + Tags: docbook, english, freeculture. + + +

+ I want the courts to be involved before the police can hijack a news site DNS domain (#domstolkontroll) +

+ 19th May 2016 +

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

+ +

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

+ +

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

+ +

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

+ +

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

+ +

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

+ + + Tags: english, nuug, offentlig innsyn, opphavsrett. + + +

+ Debian now with ZFS on Linux included +

+ 12th May 2016 +

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

+ +

+ + + Tags: debian, english. + + +

+ What is the best multimedia player in Debian? +

+ 8th May 2016 +

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

+ +

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

+ +

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

+ +

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

+ +

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

+ +

+ + + Tags: debian, debian edu, english, multimedia, video. + + +

+ The Pyra - handheld computer with Debian preinstalled +

+ 4th May 2016 +

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

+ +

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

+ +

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

+ +

+ + + Tags: debian, english. + + +

+ NUUG contests Norwegian police DNS seizure of popcorn-time.no +

+ 18th April 2016 +

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

+ +

+ + + Tags: english, nuug, offentlig innsyn, opphavsrett. + + +

+ I.F. Stone - an inspiration for us all +

+ 13th April 2016 +

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

+ +

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

+ +

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

+ +

+ + + Tags: english, offentlig innsyn. + + +

+ A French paperback edition of the book Free Culture by Lawrence Lessig is now available +

+ 12th April 2016 +

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

+ +

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

+ +

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

+ +

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

+ +

+ + + Tags: docbook, english, freeculture. + + +

+ Lets make a Norwegian BokmÃ¥l edition of The Debian Administrator's Handbook +

+ 10th April 2016 +

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

+ +

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

+ +

+ + + Tags: debian, english. + + +

+ One in two hundred Debian users using ZFS on Linux? +

+ 7th April 2016 +

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

+ +

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

+ +

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

+ +

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

+ +

+ + + Tags: debian, english. + + +

+ syslog-trusted-timestamp - chain of trusted timestamps for your syslog +

+ 2nd April 2016 +

Two years ago, I had +a +look at trusted timestamping options available, and among +other things noted a still open +bug in the tsget script +included in openssl that made it harder than necessary to use openssl +as a trusted timestamping client. A few days ago I was told +the Norwegian government office DIFI is +close to releasing their own trusted timestamp service, and in the +process I was happy to learn about a replacement for the tsget script +using only curl:

+ +

+openssl ts -query -data "/etc/shells" -cert -sha256 -no_nonce \
+  | curl -s -H "Content-Type: application/timestamp-query" \
+         --data-binary "@-" http://zeitstempel.dfn.de > etc-shells.tsr
+openssl ts -reply -text -in etc-shells.tsr
+

+ +

This produces a binary timestamp file (etc-shells.tsr) which can be +used to verify that the content of the file /etc/shell with the +calculated sha256 hash existed at the point in time when the request +was made. The last command extract the content of the etc-shells.tsr +in human readable form. The idea behind such timestamp is to be able +to prove using cryptography that the content of a file have not +changed since the file was stamped.

+ +

To verify that the file on disk match the public key signature in +the timestamp file, run the following commands. It make sure you have +the required certificate for the trusted timestamp service available +and use it to compare the file content with the timestamp. In +production, one should of course use a better method to verify the +service certificate.

+ +

+wget -O ca-cert.txt https://pki.pca.dfn.de/global-services-ca/pub/cacert/chain.txt
+openssl ts -verify -data /etc/shells -in etc-shells.tsr -CAfile ca-cert.txt -text
+

+ +

Wikipedia have a lot more information about +trusted +Timestamping and +linked +timestamping, and there are several trusted timestamping services +around, both as commercial services and as free and public services. +Among the latter is +the +zeitstempel.dfn.de service mentioned above and +freetsa.org service linked to from the +wikipedia web site. I believe the DIFI service should show up on +https://tsa.difi.no, but it is not available to the public at the +moment. I hope this will change when it is into production. The +RFC 3161 trusted +timestamping protocol standard is even implemented in LibreOffice, +Microsoft Office and Adobe Acrobat, making it possible to verify when +a document was created.

+ +

I would find it useful to be able to use such trusted timestamp +service to make it possible to verify that my stored syslog files have +not been tampered with. This is not a new idea. I found one example +implemented on the Endian network appliances where +the +configuration of such feature was described in 2012.

+ +

But I could not find any free implementation of such feature when I +searched, so I decided to try to +build +a prototype named syslog-trusted-timestamp. My idea is to +generate a timestamp of the old log files after they are rotated, and +store the timestamp in the new log file just after rotation. This +will form a chain that would make it possible to see if any old log +files are tampered with. But syslog is bad at handling kilobytes of +binary data, so I decided to base64 encode the timestamp and add an ID +and line sequence numbers to the base64 data to make it possible to +reassemble the timestamp file again. To use it, simply run it like +this: + +

+syslog-trusted-timestamp /path/to/list-of-log-files
+

+ +

This will send a timestamp from one or more timestamp services (not +yet decided nor implemented) for each listed file to the syslog using +logger(1). To verify the timestamp, the same program is used with the +--verify option:

+ +

+syslog-trusted-timestamp --verify /path/to/log-file /path/to/log-with-timestamp
+

+ +

The verification step is not yet well designed. The current +implementation depend on the file path being unique and unchanging, +and this is not a solid assumption. It also uses process number as +timestamp ID, and this is bound to create ID collisions. I hope to +have time to come up with a better way to handle timestamp IDs and +verification later.

+ +

Please check out +the +prototype for syslog-trusted-timestamp on github and send +suggestions and improvement, or let me know if there already exist a +similar system for timestamping logs already to allow me to join +forces with others with the same interest.

+ +

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

+ +

+ + + Tags: english, sikkerhet. + + +

+ Full battery stats collector is now available in Debian +

+ 23rd March 2016 +

Since this morning, the battery-stats package in Debian include an +extended collector that will collect the complete battery history for +later processing and graphing. The original collector store the +battery level as percentage of last full level, while the new +collector also record battery vendor, model, serial number, design +full level, last full level and current battery level. This make it +possible to predict the lifetime of the battery as well as visualise +the energy flow when the battery is charging or discharging.

+ +

The new tools are available in /usr/share/battery-stats/ +in the version 0.5.1 package in unstable. Get the new battery level graph +and lifetime prediction by running: + +

+/usr/share/battery-stats/battery-stats-graph /var/log/battery-stats.csv
+

+ +

Or select the 'Battery Level Graph' from your application menu.

+ +

The flow in/out of the battery can be seen by running (no menu +entry yet):

+ +

+/usr/share/battery-stats/battery-stats-graph-flow
+

+ +

I'm not quite happy with the way the data is visualised, at least +when there are few data points. The graphs look a bit better with a +few years of data.

+ +

A while back one important feature I use in the battery stats +collector broke in Debian. The scripts in +/usr/lib/pm-utils/power.d/ were no longer executed. I +suspect it happened when Jessie started using systemd, but I do not +know. The issue is reported as +bug #818649 against +pm-utils. I managed to work around it by adding an udev rule to call +the collector script every time the power connector is connected and +disconnected. With this fix in place it was finally time to make a +new release of the package, and get it into Debian.

+ +

+ + + Tags: debian, english. + + +

+ UsingQR - "Electronic" paper invoices using JSON and QR codes +

+ 19th March 2016 +

Back in 2013 I proposed +a +way to make paper and PDF invoices easier to process electronically by +adding a QR code with the key information about the invoice. I +suggested using vCard field definition, to get some standard format +for name and address, but any format would work. I did not do +anything about the proposal, but hoped someone one day would make +something like it. It would make it possible to efficiently send +machine readable invoices directly between seller and buyer.

+ +

This was the background when I came across a proposal and +specification from the web based accounting and invoicing supplier +Visma in Sweden called +UsingQR. Their PDF invoices contain +a QR code with the key information of the invoice in JSON format. +This is the typical content of a QR code following the UsingQR +specification (based on a real world example, some numbers replaced to +get a more bogus entry). I've reformatted the JSON to make it easier +to read. Normally this is all on one long line:

+ +

+{
+ "vh":500.00,
+ "vm":0,
+ "vl":0,
+ "uqr":1,
+ "tp":1,
+ "nme":"Din LeverandÃ¸r",
+ "cc":"NO",
+ "cid":"997912345 MVA",
+ "iref":"12300001",
+ "idt":"20151022",
+ "ddt":"20151105",
+ "due":2500.0000,
+ "cur":"NOK",
+ "pt":"BBAN",
+ "acc":"17202612345",
+ "bc":"BIENNOK1",
+ "adr":"0313 OSLO"
+}
+

+ +

The interpretation of the fields can be found in the +format +specification (revision 2 from june 2014). The format seem to +have most of the information needed to handle accounting and payment +of invoices, at least the fields I have needed so far here in +Norway.

+ +

Unfortunately, the site and document do not mention anything about +the patent, trademark and copyright status of the format and the +specification. Because of this, I asked the people behind it back in +November to clarify. Ann-Christine Savlid (ann-christine.savlid (at) +visma.com) replied that Visma had not applied for patent or trademark +protection for this format, and that there were no copyright based +usage limitations for the format. I urged her to make sure this was +explicitly written on the web pages and in the specification, but +unfortunately this has not happened yet. So I guess if there is +submarine patents, hidden trademarks or a will to sue for copyright +infringements, those starting to use the UsingQR format might be at +risk, but if this happen there is some legal defense in the fact that +the people behind the format claimed it was safe to do so. At least +with patents, there is always +a +chance of getting sued...

+ +

I also asked if they planned to maintain the format in an +independent standard organization to give others more confidence that +they would participate in the standardization process on equal terms +with Visma, but they had no immediate plans for this. Their plan was +to work with banks to try to get more users of the format, and +evaluate the way forward if the format proved to be popular. I hope +they conclude that using an open standard organisation like +IETF is the correct place to +maintain such specification.

+ +

Update 2016-03-20: Via Twitter I became aware of +some comments +about this blog post that had several useful links and references to +similar systems. In the Czech republic, the Czech Banking Association +standard #26, with short name SPAYD, uses QR codes with payment +information. More information is available from the Wikipedia page on +Short +Payment Descriptor. And in Germany, there is a system named +BezahlCode, +(specification +v1.8 2013-12-05 available as PDF), which uses QR codes with +URL-like formatting using "bank:" as the URI schema/protocol to +provide the payment information. There is also the +ZUGFeRD +file format that perhaps could be transfered using QR codes, but I am +not sure if it is done already. Last, in Bolivia there are reports +that tax information since november 2014 need to be printed in QR +format on invoices. I have not been able to track down a +specification for this format, because of my limited language skill +sets.

+ +

+ + + Tags: english, standard. + + +

+ Making battery measurements a little easier in Debian +

+ 15th March 2016 +

Back in September, I blogged about +the +system I wrote to collect statistics about my laptop battery, and +how it showed the decay and death of this battery (now replaced). I +created a simple deb package to handle the collection and graphing, +but did not want to upload it to Debian as there were already +a battery-stats +package in Debian that should do the same thing, and I did not see +a point of uploading a competing package when battery-stats could be +fixed instead. I reported a few bugs about its non-function, and +hoped someone would step in and fix it. But no-one did.

+ +

I got tired of waiting a few days ago, and took matters in my own +hands. The end result is that I am now the new upstream developer of +battery stats (available from github) and part of the team maintaining +battery-stats in Debian, and the package in Debian unstable is finally +able to collect battery status using the /sys/class/power_supply/ +information provided by the Linux kernel. If you install the +battery-stats package from unstable now, you will be able to get a +graph of the current battery fill level, to get some idea about the +status of the battery. The source package build and work just fine in +Debian testing and stable (and probably oldstable too, but I have not +tested). The default graph you get for that system look like this:

+ +

My plans for the future is to merge my old scripts into the +battery-stats package, as my old scripts collected a lot more details +about the battery. The scripts are merged into the upstream +battery-stats git repository already, but I am not convinced they work +yet, as I changed a lot of paths along the way. Will have to test a +bit more before I make a new release.

+ +

I will also consider changing the file format slightly, as I +suspect the way I combine several values into one field might make it +impossible to know the type of the value when using it for processing +and graphing.

+ +

If you would like I would like to keep an close eye on your laptop +battery, check out the battery-stats package in +Debian and +on +github. +I would love some help to improve the system further.

+ +

+ + + Tags: debian, english. + + +

+ Creating, updating and checking debian/copyright semi-automatically +

+ 19th February 2016 +

Making packages for Debian requires quite a lot of attention to +details. And one of the details is the content of the +debian/copyright file, which should list all relevant licenses used by +the code in the package in question, preferably in +machine +readable DEP5 format.

+ +

For large packages with lots of contributors it is hard to write +and update this file manually, and if you get some detail wrong, the +package is normally rejected by the ftpmasters. So getting it right +the first time around get the package into Debian faster, and save +both you and the ftpmasters some work.. Today, while trying to figure +out what was wrong with +the +zfsonlinux copyright file, I decided to spend some time on +figuring out the options for doing this job automatically, or at least +semi-automatically.

+ +

Lucikly, there are at least two tools available for generating the +file based on the code in the source package, +debmake +and cme. I'm +not sure which one of them came first, but both seem to be able to +create a sensible draft file. As far as I can tell, none of them can +be trusted to get the result just right, so the content need to be +polished a bit before the file is OK to upload. I found the debmake +option in +a +blog posts from 2014. + +

To generate using debmake, use the -cc option: + +

+debmake -cc > debian/copyright
+

+ +

Note there are some problems with python and non-ASCII names, so +this might not be the best option.

+ +

The cme option is based on a config parsing library, and I found +this approach in +a +blog post from 2015. To generate using cme, use the 'update +dpkg-copyright' option: + +

+cme update dpkg-copyright
+

+ +

This will create or update debian/copyright. The cme tool seem to +handle UTF-8 names better than debmake.

+ +

When the copyright file is created, I would also like some help to +check if the file is correct. For this I found two good options, +debmake -k and license-reconcile. The former seem +to focus on license types and file matching, and is able to detect +ineffective blocks in the copyright file. The latter reports missing +copyright holders and years, but was confused by inconsistent license +names (like CDDL vs. CDDL-1.0). I suspect it is good to use both and +fix all issues reported by them before uploading. But I do not know +if the tools and the ftpmasters agree on what is important to fix in a +copyright file, so the package might still be rejected.

+ +

The devscripts tool licensecheck deserve mentioning. It +will read through the source and try to find all copyright statements. +It is not comparing the result to the content of debian/copyright, but +can be useful when verifying the content of the copyright file.

+ +

Are you aware of better tools in Debian to create and update +debian/copyright file. Please let me know, or blog about it on +planet.debian.org.

+ +

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

+ +

Update 2016-02-20: I got a tip from Mike Gabriel +on how to use licensecheck and cdbs to create a draft copyright file + +

+licensecheck --copyright -r `find * -type f` | \
+  /usr/lib/cdbs/licensecheck2dep5 > debian/copyright.auto
+

+ +

He mentioned that he normally check the generated file into the +version control system to make it easier to discover license and +copyright changes in the upstream source. I will try to do the same +with my packages in the future.

+ +

Update 2016-02-21: The cme author recommended +against using -quiet for new users, so I removed it from the proposed +command line.

+ +

+ + + Tags: debian, english. + + +

+ Using appstream in Debian to locate packages with firmware and mime type support +

+ 4th February 2016 +

The appstream system +is taking shape in Debian, and one provided feature is a very +convenient way to tell you which package to install to make a given +firmware file available when the kernel is looking for it. This can +be done using apt-file too, but that is for someone else to blog +about. :)

+ +

Here is a small recipe to find the package with a given firmware +file, in this example I am looking for ctfw-3.2.3.0.bin, randomly +picked from the set of firmware announced using appstream in Debian +unstable. In general you would be looking for the firmware requested +by the kernel during kernel module loading. To find the package +providing the example file, do like this:

+ +

+% apt install appstream
+[...]
+% apt update
+[...]
+% appstreamcli what-provides firmware:runtime ctfw-3.2.3.0.bin | \
+  awk '/Package:/ {print $2}'
+firmware-qlogic
+%
+

+ +

See the +appstream wiki page to learn how to embed the package metadata in +a way appstream can use.

+ +

This same approach can be used to find any package supporting a +given MIME type. This is very useful when you get a file you do not +know how to handle. First find the mime type using file +--mime-type, and next look up the package providing support for +it. Lets say you got an SVG file. Its MIME type is image/svg+xml, +and you can find all packages handling this type like this:

+ +

+% apt install appstream
+[...]
+% apt update
+[...]
+% appstreamcli what-provides mimetype image/svg+xml | \
+  awk '/Package:/ {print $2}'
+bkchem
+phototonic
+inkscape
+shutter
+tetzle
+geeqie
+xia
+pinta
+gthumb
+karbon
+comix
+mirage
+viewnior
+postr
+ristretto
+kolourpaint4
+eog
+eom
+gimagereader
+midori
+%
+

+ +

I believe the MIME types are fetched from the desktop file for +packages providing appstream metadata.

+ +

+ + + Tags: debian, english. + + +

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