My fosdem schedule:
Saturday:
10h00-11h30 Janson:Welcome+Free, Open Future (if $early_wake_up=true)
11h30-12h30 Janson:Debian
14h00-15h30 LPI session 1 (volunteer)
16h15-16h45 Ferrer:Lightning Opsview network monitoring
17h00-17h30 AW1.121:Debian on inexpensive NAS
18h15-18h45 Ferrer:Lightning intro to BUG
19h-ish attack of the 60 nerds to a local restaurant
Sunday
10h30-12h00 LPI session 3 (volunteer)
12h00-13h00 Janson:Upstart
13h00-14h00 H.2213:Securing CentOS with SELinux
14h00-15h00 AW1.121:Debian road to Lenny
15h00-16h00 Janson:Ext4
22h-ish Next years fosdem grid not online yet what ?!
Showing posts with label floss. Show all posts
Showing posts with label floss. Show all posts
2009-02-03
2009-01-30
Freedom
Yes we do!
And I 'm not talking about IT or gadget-of-the-week people! I'm talking about everyone who stands for Free/Libre software. We carry the very important message of Freedom. Freedom of choice in software, Freedom of source code, Freedom of information, and more. We might even be at a worldwide revolution of Freedom in all aspects of human life, Freedom for all people on this planet.
You keep going girl, because the message you carry is the message of Freedom!
And I 'm not talking about IT or gadget-of-the-week people! I'm talking about everyone who stands for Free/Libre software. We carry the very important message of Freedom. Freedom of choice in software, Freedom of source code, Freedom of information, and more. We might even be at a worldwide revolution of Freedom in all aspects of human life, Freedom for all people on this planet.
You keep going girl, because the message you carry is the message of Freedom!
2009-01-27
Samba 4 now works with GPO's
One of my students this week asked about using a Samba 4 Active Directory domain with GPO's to manage the Windows XP clients. Samba 4 alpha 6 impressed me! The download comes with a small howto.txt to setup your kerberos realm and to integrate the SRV records in DNS (a chrooted bind 9.3.4). Adding users is explained, joining Windows computers works flawlessly.
Last time, Samba 4 was unable to operate Group Policies, now I tested a few, and they work! The screenshot below is no proof, but I get a kick out of it ;-)
In this screenshot, you see a fully patched Windows 2003 server in a Samba 4 domain, in its own OU, together with the user 'brel', having applied the GPO setting "remove Search from Start Menu".
The future is free!
Last time, Samba 4 was unable to operate Group Policies, now I tested a few, and they work! The screenshot below is no proof, but I get a kick out of it ;-)
In this screenshot, you see a fully patched Windows 2003 server in a Samba 4 domain, in its own OU, together with the user 'brel', having applied the GPO setting "remove Search from Start Menu".
The future is free!
2008-06-17
geen datalimiet bij edpnet
Waauw, mooi! Edpnet heeft mijn datalimiet afgeschaft. Net nu het firefox download day is... mijn firefox-download-scriptje is net de 100 gepasseerd ;-) .
2008-05-11
personal terabyte storage
Dear Lazyweb,
i am looking for a personal storage solution with the following specifications:
- running Linux (Debian)
- two terabyte or more
- nfs, lvm, ssh, samba, aptitude
- 100Mbit or more
I'll order two of these (rsync), send offers to paul.cobbaut -at- gmail.com
i am looking for a personal storage solution with the following specifications:
- running Linux (Debian)
- two terabyte or more
- nfs, lvm, ssh, samba, aptitude
- 100Mbit or more
I'll order two of these (rsync), send offers to paul.cobbaut -at- gmail.com
2008-05-01
Features Windows should have
PC World talks about 18 features Microsoft Windows should have (but doesn't). Their list is pathetic! (except for number 9: repositories of software)
Here is my list of features Windows should have:
1. ssh
There is no easy way to get a remote shell on a Windows server, yet OpenSSH is freely available for Microsoft to include in Windows (every other OS does it).
2. syslog
I know there are third party solutions to include syslog in Windows, but this should be part of the operating system!
3. fhs
Maybe not literally fhs, but at least a file structure that includes /etc /proc /tmp /var /bin /sbin and other common directories. The current mess in drive letters and long directory names with spaces is just unmanageable.
4. nfs
I mean real built-in support for the latest nfs, listing directories in a standard /etc/exports file. Not the pathetic attempt they call "Services For Unix" (which has not been updated in over four years).
5. built-in common file systems
They should include native support for ext2,ext3,reiserfs (little late maybe),zfs etcetera. The specs are open, but we still need third party drivers to use these common file systems.
6. MBR and GRUB support
Installing Windows on a machine with GRUB will destroy GRUB. Windows should at least recognize GRUB and give a proper warning before overwriting the Master Boot Record. It would be even better if Windows would add itself to GRUB (just like any other descent operating system does).
7. GNU tools and bash
A descent shell with some handy tools.
8. /etc
Did i mention it should have /etc (not C;\windows\system32\drivers\etc with five measely files) but a real /etc with a working /etc/hosts and /etc/nsswitch.conf and all the others like /etc/resolv.conf, /etc/passwd, /etc/shadow, /etc/group, ... ditch the registry!
9. file links
It should support file links (ln and ln -s)!
10. /
Stop using those pathetic drive letters and put everything under /.
11. more handy tools
It would be nice to also have vi, man, gcc, tar, gzip, dd, cpio...
12. A home directory for users
I mean a real home directory that contains all the customized user settings for applications. Not the current mix of fifteen different locations to store some simple information.
13. repositories
The same as number 9 in the PCWorld list. In windows Control Panel there exists an icon called "Add/Remove Programs". It would be nice if it was actually possible to add or remove programs with it! The thousand most common freely available programs (firefox,anti-adware,anti-spyware,openoffice.org,gimp,...) should be in there so users can easily add them!!!
The "remove" option should really remove the software and not leave (anti-piracy)traces all over the place.
14. gpl
Microsoft should gpl the complete Windows source code and focus on supporting companies instead of ripping them of with proprietary lock-in and restrictive licenses!
Here is my list of features Windows should have:
1. ssh
There is no easy way to get a remote shell on a Windows server, yet OpenSSH is freely available for Microsoft to include in Windows (every other OS does it).
2. syslog
I know there are third party solutions to include syslog in Windows, but this should be part of the operating system!
3. fhs
Maybe not literally fhs, but at least a file structure that includes /etc /proc /tmp /var /bin /sbin and other common directories. The current mess in drive letters and long directory names with spaces is just unmanageable.
4. nfs
I mean real built-in support for the latest nfs, listing directories in a standard /etc/exports file. Not the pathetic attempt they call "Services For Unix" (which has not been updated in over four years).
5. built-in common file systems
They should include native support for ext2,ext3,reiserfs (little late maybe),zfs etcetera. The specs are open, but we still need third party drivers to use these common file systems.
6. MBR and GRUB support
Installing Windows on a machine with GRUB will destroy GRUB. Windows should at least recognize GRUB and give a proper warning before overwriting the Master Boot Record. It would be even better if Windows would add itself to GRUB (just like any other descent operating system does).
7. GNU tools and bash
A descent shell with some handy tools.
8. /etc
Did i mention it should have /etc (not C;\windows\system32\drivers\etc with five measely files) but a real /etc with a working /etc/hosts and /etc/nsswitch.conf and all the others like /etc/resolv.conf, /etc/passwd, /etc/shadow, /etc/group, ... ditch the registry!
9. file links
It should support file links (ln and ln -s)!
10. /
Stop using those pathetic drive letters and put everything under /.
11. more handy tools
It would be nice to also have vi, man, gcc, tar, gzip, dd, cpio...
12. A home directory for users
I mean a real home directory that contains all the customized user settings for applications. Not the current mix of fifteen different locations to store some simple information.
13. repositories
The same as number 9 in the PCWorld list. In windows Control Panel there exists an icon called "Add/Remove Programs". It would be nice if it was actually possible to add or remove programs with it! The thousand most common freely available programs (firefox,anti-adware,anti-spyware,openoffice.org,gimp,...) should be in there so users can easily add them!!!
The "remove" option should really remove the software and not leave (anti-piracy)traces all over the place.
14. gpl
Microsoft should gpl the complete Windows source code and focus on supporting companies instead of ripping them of with proprietary lock-in and restrictive licenses!
2008-04-16
history meme.
paul@laika:~$ history | awk '{a[$2]++}END{for(i in a){print a[i] " " i}}' | sort -rn | head
703 cd
471 vi
467 ll
204 ./make.cmd
200 evince
174 ./make_module.cmd
164 rm
151 ls
147 cp
139 cat
703 cd
471 vi
467 ll
204 ./make.cmd
200 evince
174 ./make_module.cmd
164 rm
151 ls
147 cp
139 cat
2008-03-31
Linux Training
Just put a new 'beta' version of my Linux System Administration course online. Making it public might improve my motivation to update it sooner rather than later ;-)
2008-02-25
Dear GUI File Browser makers
When i insert a usb camera in Debian Sarge, it pops up GUI window with the content (pictures and movies). This is very nice. But when i press the 'delete' key, i do expect the selected picture to be 'deleted' from the camera, not moved to the hidden .Trash-Paul directory (and thus still consuming valuable space on the camera).
2008-02-24
Fosdem 2008: Sunday
Yep, went back to fosdem today. First saw the LVM2 talk by Alasdair Kergon, very interesting (except for some demo's not working in his cvs). I learned some new command options like lvcreate vg1 -l25%FREE (use 25 percent of free space in the vg) and lvextend vg1/lvol1 -l+100%LV (grow 100 percent). He also talked abut the future of dmeventd being able to handle hot spares. And he renamed a vg with vgsplit.
Alasdair was still talking at 15h, so i left (probably only minutes before the applause)(yes, i hate being late) to go to Janson for the PackageKit talk by Richard Hughes. Again an interesting talk! Richard pointed out the most obvious flaws with current $linuxdistro application installers: "Not good enough for his mother/fiancée." The effort sounds similar to autopackage (but i'm not an expert). I do agree however that a cross linux and easy to use "add/remove programs" tool would be useful for end users. But who cares about end users ?
I stayed in the Janson for klik (application virtualization), but Simon Peter and Kurt Pfeiffe were unable to convince me. It sounds indeed like static linking of applications, a debate that ended years ago (dixit someone from the audience). I also have questions about application updates, and sharing data files between sandboxed applications. Their "i can use a thousand different animations in my" slideshow did not help their cause.
I finished fosdem in the debian devroom to get a feel of the debian community and their effort to get Lenny out in September 2008. Clearly the message in debian-world is more important than the presentation of the message. A black and white slideshow does get the job done! Imho they should have more releases (typing this on Sarge).
Alasdair was still talking at 15h, so i left (probably only minutes before the applause)(yes, i hate being late) to go to Janson for the PackageKit talk by Richard Hughes. Again an interesting talk! Richard pointed out the most obvious flaws with current $linuxdistro application installers: "Not good enough for his mother/fiancée." The effort sounds similar to autopackage (but i'm not an expert). I do agree however that a cross linux and easy to use "add/remove programs" tool would be useful for end users. But who cares about end users ?
I stayed in the Janson for klik (application virtualization), but Simon Peter and Kurt Pfeiffe were unable to convince me. It sounds indeed like static linking of applications, a debate that ended years ago (dixit someone from the audience). I also have questions about application updates, and sharing data files between sandboxed applications. Their "i can use a thousand different animations in my" slideshow did not help their cause.
I finished fosdem in the debian devroom to get a feel of the debian community and their effort to get Lenny out in September 2008. Clearly the message in debian-world is more important than the presentation of the message. A black and white slideshow does get the job done! Imho they should have more releases (typing this on Sarge).
2008-02-23
Fosdem 2008: Saturday
social fosdem
Fosdem 2008 is a hit! imho there are more visitors than last year. I was there today, looking forward to meet Louis-Philippe, Sajid, Machtelt 'who is desperately trying to involve me in her daily life' Garrels and Geert (who desperately needs to start a blog), but i only found Geert.
Luckily there were many other ubergeeks to meet like Ghosty, Kris, Wouter, Philip, P2 (when will you start blogging?), Bart, Jan, Jo, and some new faces (not yet in the name-to-face arp table cache)
In the evening there was an ubergeek dinner in Brussels (pic below) with 12, no 20, no 22, no 30 something of the worlds greatest minds. To our big surprise there were three people from Wechelderzande at our table of eight, and four (or five?) from Sint-Jan-Berchmanscollege in Westmalle. So it either is a small world, or Wechel and SJB are a breeding area of smart people ;-)
talk: Battle for Wesnoth
The first room i joined was lead developer David White's talk about development of Battle for Wesnoth. It was an interesting talk, more or less what i expected. I am already active (or passive...) on the wesnoth forum, but it was still fascinating to hear David talk about the start and the growth of the Wesnoth community.
talk: SELinux don't just switch it off
Next up was a very useful talk about SELinux! I was pleasantly surprised by the experience Jens Kühnel has in talking to groups, and in explaining in 45 minutes some of the core advantages of SELinux. He gave me enough material to build a one day 'Intro to SELinux' training. This talk was definitely a good choice!
talk: Mozilla Sunbird and Thunderbird
The presentations themselves (in this sauna) were ok, but not great. And i don't like the integration of calendar applications inside an email client... But i definitely liked the Q&A session afterwards, where you could sense the 'community' at work! (Did i mention it was hot?)
Fosdem 2008 is a hit! imho there are more visitors than last year. I was there today, looking forward to meet Louis-Philippe, Sajid, Machtelt 'who is desperately trying to involve me in her daily life' Garrels and Geert (who desperately needs to start a blog), but i only found Geert.
Luckily there were many other ubergeeks to meet like Ghosty, Kris, Wouter, Philip, P2 (when will you start blogging?), Bart, Jan, Jo, and some new faces (not yet in the name-to-face arp table cache)
In the evening there was an ubergeek dinner in Brussels (pic below) with 12, no 20, no 22, no 30 something of the worlds greatest minds. To our big surprise there were three people from Wechelderzande at our table of eight, and four (or five?) from Sint-Jan-Berchmanscollege in Westmalle. So it either is a small world, or Wechel and SJB are a breeding area of smart people ;-)
talk: Battle for Wesnoth
The first room i joined was lead developer David White's talk about development of Battle for Wesnoth. It was an interesting talk, more or less what i expected. I am already active (or passive...) on the wesnoth forum, but it was still fascinating to hear David talk about the start and the growth of the Wesnoth community.
talk: SELinux don't just switch it off
Next up was a very useful talk about SELinux! I was pleasantly surprised by the experience Jens Kühnel has in talking to groups, and in explaining in 45 minutes some of the core advantages of SELinux. He gave me enough material to build a one day 'Intro to SELinux' training. This talk was definitely a good choice!
talk: Mozilla Sunbird and Thunderbird
The presentations themselves (in this sauna) were ok, but not great. And i don't like the integration of calendar applications inside an email client... But i definitely liked the Q&A session afterwards, where you could sense the 'community' at work! (Did i mention it was hot?)
bloggers in Leuven
Gisteren naar Carolien haar blogdrink in Leuven geweest (elke blogger kreeg een eendje). Veel volk, meer dan 50 bloggers. Wel is de locatie ('t stuk café) niet de beste om ne keer met iedereen te babbelen, heel wat bloggers bleven aan tafel zitten... (later meer, als ik tijd heb...nu eerst naar Fosdem!)
2008-01-16
verkoop jezelf
Geert is een bediende die regelmatig voor zijn werk naar conferenties gaat om samenwerking tussen organisaties te bevorderen. Hij werkt voor Sony, en is er ook verantwoordelijk voor de gebruiksvriendelijkheid en veiligheid van enkele produkten.
Geert spendeert zijn vrije tijd voornamelijk als vrijwilliger om de vrijheid van verschillende culturen te garanderen. Vrijheid en samenwerking zijn voor hem heel belangrijke waarden. Hij is gekend als een open persoonlijkheid en werkt mee aan tal van belangrijke Europese projecten ter bevordering van de leesbaarheid van cultuurhistorische en andere documenten. Geert heeft op deze manier veel mensen leren kennen, en wordt door nog meer volk bewonderd voor zijn inzet en vakmanschap.
In schril contrast met Geert is er de programmeur die met het pseudoniem G.N.U. door het leven gaat. G.N.U. is reeds jaren programmeur van apparaten, hij zit heel de dag te werken achter de computer. Niemand weet precies wat hij doet, maar het heeft te maken met invoeren van rare codes op een scherm zonder windows en zonder ikoontjes. Als G.N.U. thuiskomt dan kruipt hij onmiddellijk weer achter de computer, want zijn hobby is programmeren aan een obscuur systeem dat niemand gebruikt. G.N.U. kent veel mensen via internet die hij nauwelijks ontmoet in het echte leven.
de moraal van het verhaal: Hoe je jezelf verkoopt, heeft veel te maken met wie je voor je hebt!
De eerste man, de vrijwilliger die zich inzet voor vrijheid en openheid, is mijn goeie vriend Geert Uytterhoeven. De tweede man, de dag-en-nacht obscure programmeur, is eveneens mijn goeie vriend Geert Uytterhoeven.
Mensen die nauwelijks weten wat linux, 'open' en 'vrij' betekenen, die horen liever de eerste beschrijving en begrijpen niets van de tweede. Geeks en planet.greppers vragen zich waarschijnlijk af wat het verschil is tussen de twee beschrijvingen ;-)
Geert spendeert zijn vrije tijd voornamelijk als vrijwilliger om de vrijheid van verschillende culturen te garanderen. Vrijheid en samenwerking zijn voor hem heel belangrijke waarden. Hij is gekend als een open persoonlijkheid en werkt mee aan tal van belangrijke Europese projecten ter bevordering van de leesbaarheid van cultuurhistorische en andere documenten. Geert heeft op deze manier veel mensen leren kennen, en wordt door nog meer volk bewonderd voor zijn inzet en vakmanschap.
In schril contrast met Geert is er de programmeur die met het pseudoniem G.N.U. door het leven gaat. G.N.U. is reeds jaren programmeur van apparaten, hij zit heel de dag te werken achter de computer. Niemand weet precies wat hij doet, maar het heeft te maken met invoeren van rare codes op een scherm zonder windows en zonder ikoontjes. Als G.N.U. thuiskomt dan kruipt hij onmiddellijk weer achter de computer, want zijn hobby is programmeren aan een obscuur systeem dat niemand gebruikt. G.N.U. kent veel mensen via internet die hij nauwelijks ontmoet in het echte leven.
de moraal van het verhaal: Hoe je jezelf verkoopt, heeft veel te maken met wie je voor je hebt!
De eerste man, de vrijwilliger die zich inzet voor vrijheid en openheid, is mijn goeie vriend Geert Uytterhoeven. De tweede man, de dag-en-nacht obscure programmeur, is eveneens mijn goeie vriend Geert Uytterhoeven.
Mensen die nauwelijks weten wat linux, 'open' en 'vrij' betekenen, die horen liever de eerste beschrijving en begrijpen niets van de tweede. Geeks en planet.greppers vragen zich waarschijnlijk af wat het verschil is tussen de twee beschrijvingen ;-)
2008-01-13
docbook question
Dear open source readers,
i have a persisting problem with docbook xml. Can anyone explain how i can convert this example.xml file in an example.pdf with an index ? I believe the syntax
i have a persisting problem with docbook xml. Can anyone explain how i can convert this example.xml file in an example.pdf with an index ? I believe the syntax
keyword<indexterm><primary>indexkeyword</primary></indexterm>is correct... I use docbook2pdf (in debian package docbook-utils), and this works fine for toc and other stuff, but the index stays empty. The command i use is "docbook2pdf -l /usr/share/xml/declaration/xml.dcl example.xml".
2007-12-21
Ongelooflijk maar waar
Slashdot en Ghosty ;-) komen met uitstekend nieuws voor het Samba team : De Samba developers gaan beschikken over de volledige beschrijving van Microsoft's werkgroep protocols. Op Slashdot bevestigt het Samba team zelf dat dit inclusief de Active Directory protocols is!
Dankuwel Europa, dankuwel Europese Unie.
Dankuwel Europa, dankuwel Europese Unie.
2007-12-15
NYSE moving to Linux
The NYSE is moving to Linux because they want "technology independence" and because "Linux affords a lot of flexibility". The New York Stock Exchange is the definition of Capitalism, i'm glad they see the light of free and open source software.
More and more businesses are noticing that Linux has no vendor lock-in.
(oh Microsoft tried to get Windows running the London stock exchange, but failed.)
More and more businesses are noticing that Linux has no vendor lock-in.
(oh Microsoft tried to get Windows running the London stock exchange, but failed.)
2007-10-23
2007-10-13
Slashdot party
The root of all evil was at our Slashdot party in Antwerp (Kulminator). Kris is paranoia: the Borg drone was there by accident! Anyway, i don't believe in conspiracies. Philip thinks we upset him...i don't think so.
Imho we should have offered him a beer and a CD to open his eyes.
What ? Too many links ? ;-)
Imho we should have offered him a beer and a CD to open his eyes.
What ? Too many links ? ;-)
2007-08-01
vmware server on Ubuntu 7.04
Yesterday i started teaching linux. There were thirteen identical computers in the classroom, so i brought Ubuntu CD's for everyone. I installed Ubuntu on my computer without problems, then copied the vmware server files that i downloaded last week.
I run vmware-install.pl and it fails...true, i need the vmware-any-any-update. I run the runme.pl and vmware server installs without a glitch.
I have all students copy the files to their machines, and run the runme.pl and it fails. It fails on all of them. "can't exec /etc/.vmware/installer.sh" and "unable to open installer database" with "/etc/vmware/locations".
Solution:
Turns out that first running the vmware-insatll.pl, knowing that it will fail, solves the problem. After that, the runme.pl works fine.
I run vmware-install.pl and it fails...true, i need the vmware-any-any-update. I run the runme.pl and vmware server installs without a glitch.
I have all students copy the files to their machines, and run the runme.pl and it fails. It fails on all of them. "can't exec /etc/.vmware/installer.sh" and "unable to open installer database" with "/etc/vmware/locations".
root@dtpaul:~/vmware# ll
total 8.0K
drwxr-xr-x 3 root root 4.0K 2007-07-31 14:35 vmware-any-any-update105
drwxr-xr-x 10 root root 4.0K 2007-07-31 14:36 vmware-server-distrib
root@dtpaul:~/vmware# vmware-server-distrib/vmware-install.pl
root@dtpaul:~/vmware# vmware-any-any-update105/runme.pl
root@dtpaul:~/vmware#
Solution:
Turns out that first running the vmware-insatll.pl, knowing that it will fail, solves the problem. After that, the runme.pl works fine.
2007-07-25
Samba 4 tp6
Look here, a screenshot of ADUC running on Windows XP...
...at first sight, nothing special. Except that ADUC is connected to Samba 4 running as an Active Directory domain controller.
Samba 4 is not yet ready for production, but it is getting close.
Many thanks to Ks for his Samba 4 live CD.
And many thanks to the Samba team for this nice free software.
...at first sight, nothing special. Except that ADUC is connected to Samba 4 running as an Active Directory domain controller.
Samba 4 is not yet ready for production, but it is getting close.
Many thanks to Ks for his Samba 4 live CD.
And many thanks to the Samba team for this nice free software.
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