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Wenn Du auch in Zukunft in einem Staat leben möchtst, der nicht dem Überwachungsstaat aus "1984" gleicht und/oder Du möchtest, daß weiterhin jede(r) Software entwickeln und vertreiben kann, gibt es verschiedene Möglichkeiten, sich zu engagieren. Ich möchte Dir diese vier Organisationen empfehlen:
Free software and civil rights need your help!
Act against police state and software patents
If you don't want to live in a state à la "1984" and you want that development and distribution of software should remain legal for everyone, then you have different possibilities to get into the act. I would like to recommend these four organisations:
m23 is a free software distribution system licensed under the GPL, that installs and administrates clients with
m23 is controlled via webbrowser. The installation of a new m23 client is done in only three steps and the integration of existing clients is possible, too. Group functions and mass installation tools make managing a vast number of clients comfortable. Client backup and server backup are included to avoid data loss. With the integrated virtualisation software, m23 can create and manage virtual m23 clients, that run on real m23 clients or the m23 server. Scripts and software packages (for installation on the clients) can be created directly from the m23 web interface.
Copyright and usage notice for this text read more...
m23 features
Administration via webbrowser
The entire administration is done via webbrowser and is possible from all computers having access to the m23 server via network. The installation of additional administration software is not necessary. A remote access to the m23 server via PDA or laptop is easily possible. Authentification and SSL encryption secure the communication and prevent undesirable access.
Three steps to your complete client
Installing a client with m23 is rather simple. Only three steps are required for a completely installed client.
1. Adding the client
2. Partitioning, formatting and installation of the operating system
3. Installation of additional software
First, you need to enter some values for the client. These are, for example, the network settings (IP, networkmask, etc.), user name and password or the name of an LDAP server that manages your user accounts.
All clients can be partitioned and formatted individually. The resulting partitions can be used for the installation of the operating system, the creation of software RAIDs, for data storage or as swap space. The installation will start after the selection of the operating system.
You can install additional software packages in the last (optional) step.
Integration of existing clients into m23
Existing Debian-based systems (Debian, Ubuntu, Kubuntu, Xubuntu) can be assimilated into the m23 system easily and are then administered like a normal client that was installed with m23. Only the specification of the client's name, its IP or hostname and the root password are required. The client, which is to be integrated, is then scanned and its hardware information and the status of installed packages are transmitted to the m23 server.
Group functions
You will like the convenient group functions if you have a big amount of clients that need to install new software or if other routine jobs need to be done. E.g. a new software package can be installed on all clients or be removed from all clients of a group. In addition, an update or a client recovery can be accomplished on all group members.
Mass installation
The mass installation tools are handy, if you need to install a big amount of clients with similar requirements (and maybe different hardware). The mass installation is done in three steps.
1. Creation of a defined client
2. Choosing the parameter generator options
A model client, that holds the basic settings (such as the default gateway or the group name), is defined (but not installed). The real clients are to be derived from this defined client. The defined client gets a partitioning and formatting for its virtual harddrive (as well as rules what to do if the real harddrives are differing in size or type), the operation system and appropriate software packages.
Now you have to choose which of the settings, that can or have to be different on each client, shall be kept (e.g. user name), generated automatically (e.g. client name) or read from a file or entered by hand (e.g. MAC address). The partitioning of the virtual harddisk will be adjusted on client deployment.
3. Final review of the client parameters
In this last step you see all the parameters and values of all clients in a table and you can change the values by hand. It is possible to change the number of clients, too. Automatically generated client parameters will be calculated in the required amount or existing clients will be removed.
Client features
Operating systems
m23 supports:
m23 supports Debian, Ubuntu,
Kubuntu, Xubuntu, Fedora, Linux Mint and openSUSE. The choice of the Linux distribution is a matter of taste and a question of the functional range. m23 gives the administrator the chance to choose the right distribution for each client individually which can be installed automatically. m23 allows to manages all clients via the same m23 administration interface, no matter which distribution is installed.
Free partitioning and formatting
In addition to the automatic partitioning and formatting, m23 supports individual harddrive setups. The resulting partitions can be used for the operating system, to store data and for swapping. The m23 interface includes all necessary functions for deleting, adding and formatting of partitions and for assigning them to mountpoints, installation or swap usage. In addition, it is possible to reuse the existing partition layout for the installation.
Support for software RAIDs
Partitions or entire harddrives can be combined into software RAIDs. m23 supports the RAID levels 0, 1, 4, 5, 6 and 10. These RAID levels have advantages and disadvantages in relation to speed increase and data reliability. RAIDs can be used like normal partitions to install operating systems to or to use them as swap or storage space. You can install the Linux kernel and its modules on a separate (non-RAID) partition to be able to install an operating system on all possible RAID levels.
User accounts can be managed with a central LDAP server. This increases the ease of use in environments with many clients and a lot of users. The OpenLDAP server is shipped with the m23 server and can be administered via the highly integrated phpLDAPadmin. m23 can use existing LDAP entries for new m23 clients or add extra entries on adding an m23 client.
NFS for storing home directories
An NFS server for storing the user's home directories is a good supplement to an existing LDAP server. Using an NFS server simplifies the making of backups dramatically in contrast to a lot of clients storing the home directories on local harddrives. As a benefit of this combination the user has the alternative to log in into any client and find her or his own desktop and files.
Software packages
Thousands of software packages like office packages, graphic tools, server applications or games can be installed via the webinterface. Software installation or removal jobs are carried out at boot time or while the client is in normal use.
Software choice in different distributions
The Linux distributions that are installable with m23 offer a large variety of free software, which can be installed easily. In addition to the package sources recommended by m23 other package sources can be added to install software from other suppliers.
Package dependency check
You can check if the removal or installation of software will be sucessful before the actual process. The administration interface gives a warning message, e.g. if a package can not be installed due to unsolved dependencies.
Automatic software package caching
Software packages are downloaded from the internet to keep them up-to-date. The packages are then cached to ensure that every package is downloaded only once. If a certain package is installed a second time, the package will be installed from the cache. In case that a new version of the package exists, the latest package will first be downloaded and stored in the cache. On your m23 server this job is done by the proxy cache Squid.
Pool builder for building package sources
The pool builder makes it possible to combine software packages from different media (CD, DVD, internet) on the m23 server and convert them to a package source. These package sources can be used to install clients. This can be done without an internet connection or if the internet connection is rather slow. It is possible, too, to add selfmade packages to the pool.
The m23 clients can be installed as workstation with the graphical user interfaces KDE, Gnome, XFce and pure X11 or as a server without graphical subsystem. In most server setups, the server doesn't need a user interface because most of the server software runs in text mode. If you choose the Ubuntu distribution you can install "Ubuntu desktop" (Gnome based) or "Kubuntu desktop" (KDE based) on Kubuntu.
Imaging: Installation using image files
An image file of a partition or entire harddisk can be used to install other clients. These image files are taken from installed clients with all their software packages and settings. The creation of these image files is included in the m23 administration interface for your comfort. Image files can be compressed to save storage space and bandwidth on rollout. An image file can be used to install any number of clients. After the end of the transfer, the client will be adjusted like a client that was installed from software packages. This is done on Debian, Ubuntu, Kubuntu and Xubuntu clients. These "image clients" can be managed like "normal clients" with m23, this includes software installation and other administrative tasks.
Client backup
Personal data and additional settings can be backupped and restored with the integrated software BackupPC. This is necessary for all personal data which is not handled by m23.
Client recovery
A client can be reinstalled with excactly the same software selection and configuration as it was installed with m23 before. This is done with the recovery feature directly from the m23 interface. The recovery includes the complete installation with partitioning and formatting. All settings done with m23 will be restored. Manual changes need a recovery from a backup medium.
Rescue system
The m23 rescue system is a minimal Linux environment that can be booted on the clients via the network. You can use it for on-location maintenance or via an SSH console. The administrator has full access to the client and can do all administrative work. Additional tools (e.g. the client log) support the administrator with his/her fault analysis.
Client virtualisation
The free virtualisation solution VirtualBox OSE is now (optional) part of m23 and can be installed directly on the m23 server as well as on the managed m23 clients. Required for virtualisation is a current Debian system (Debian Lenny or Squeeze). Virtual m23 clients which act on the network just like normal m23 clients are managed via the m23 server as usual. These virtual clients can be partitioned and formatted like a normal PC and of course the operating system and additional software can be installed as well.
VirtualBox OSE packages are available for 32 and 64 bit machines, that can be installed directly via the m23 web interface on the m23 clients. These m23 clients are virtualisation hosts for virtual m23 clients after the installation. Virtualisation may be useful to use the existing ressources of your computers better (e.g. office PCs that usually wait for user input most of the time or on a web server).
You can check the usage of harddisk and memory on the virtualisation host in the "VM creation dialog" before you create a new virtual m23 client. So you can take care not to assign too much harddisk space or memory to the VM. The newly created VM runs through the usual 3-step-setup after the creation is done.
Virtual m23 clients can run in graphical mode or without visible output. A modified VNC server was integrated for the graphical output to replace the VRDP feature of the non-free VirtualBox edition. It can be used to access the virtual clients from the boot on and allows to engage if problems occur. The VNC session contains the VirtualBox window with the running virtual m23 client and is based on the lightweight window manager flwm. An analog clock, a terminal and a button to shut down the session together with the VirtualBox machine are visible too.
Improve m23
The m23 interface and the entire m23 system can be improved with extra functions.
The MDK (m23 Development Kit) is a powerful environment to adjust m23 to your needs. E.g. you can create your own m23 server installation CD or build new network boot images with new modules.
Using the m23 extension halfSister, the ambitious administrator can easily make his or her favourite Linux distribution installable with m23, like it was already done with openSUSE and Fedora.
Server features
How does it work?
m23 differentiates between servers and clients. An m23 server is used for software deployment and the management of the clients. Computers which are administered by the m23 server are the clients.
The client is booted over the network during the installation of the operating system. It is possible to start the client with a bootrom on its network card, with a boot disk or with a boot CD. The client's hardware is detected and set up. The gathered hardware and partition information is sent to the m23 server. Afterwards, this information is shown in the m23 administration interface. Now the administrator has to choose how to partition and format the client. Other settings include e.g. the distribution to be installed on the client.
Server backup
The server backup function stores the m23 server with all its data at given points in time. The backups contain all information necessary to restore the whole m23 server functionality. Multiple points in time can be selected for this purpose. GPG encrypted backup files can be transferred to external servers automatically.
A GPG key management was integrated into the m23 webinterface, too. After a data fault the restore script will first install an "empty" m23 server and use the backup to bring it into a previously saved state. A short guide showing the restoring steps can be printed out directly from the m23 web interface (and should be before an emergency occurs!).
Variable firewall
A variable firewall makes sure that only safe values will be handed to the database. This should make SQL injection attacs impossible.
Copyright and usage notice for this text
You are allowed to use this text entirely, partly or in a modified form (e.g. for a press article or for product description in CD shops). This text is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 License.
And of course we would be very happy, if we got a copy of your article or a URL where to find it ;-)
The new year has only just begun - and already, a new m23 version with many new features and (of course) some corrections is available! Among the highlights, you will find the "m23 remote administration service", the reactivation of openSUSE and Debian Lenny, the migration to new mirrors, support for arbitrary file systems and extended package manager settings (e.g. LibreOffice from Debian backports) in the package sources lists and a Java applet for accessing the "m23 VirtualBox OSE Console" directly from the m23 interface.
"on-demand" administration help
One key aspect is the new m23 remote administration service. The support of goos-habermann.de can help you to manage your m23 server and clients if you choose to use this service. For this purpose, the m23 server integrates an encrypted port forwarding, which goos-habermann.de can use to access your m23 server (only if registered and activated). You can activate this realtime administration when you need it. In addition, the new chat function integrated into the m23 interface provides a direct connection to the support of goos-habermann.de.
Download server migrations (and more)
The new m23 version had to make some structural adaptations due to changes on external servers. openSUSE reactivated: The mirror, which was used for openSUSE is no longer available and was replaced by another mirror in the package sources list. Debian Lenny reactivated: A similar problem was created by the restructuring of the SourceForge file release system (FRS), which creates an additional HTML page, if a file cannot be downloaded. This additional page was recognized by the m23 client as base system archive, which led to Debian Lenny not being able to install from the Debian packages. Instead, the client installation routine tried to unpack this erroneous base system archive, which obviously must fail. Faster package downloads: The packages for m23 server and client have now moved to the SourceForge FRS servers. This is a big advantage, as download and installation now happen faster and the m23 community web page will not be blocked again because of too many downloads ;-). Creation of xorg.conf more robust: The script m23-xorg.conf-generator.sh, which is responsible for the creation of the xorg.conf, now has a more robust routine, which performs a better check on the existence of VirtualBox guest addition packages and the ISO and downloads and installs them correctly. New Trinity mirror: There is now an extra mirror for the Trinity Desktop Environment in the FRS. Nagios plugins: To be able to spot failures of the SourceForge downloads faster, there are now two Nagios plugins to check for the base system archives (check_baseSysAvailability) and Debian mirrors (check_debSourceChecker) along with an example configuration (debSourceChecker.cfg). Of course, these plugins are not only interesting to m23 users ;-)
Extended package sources lists
The package sources lists were extended by further configuration options, where the file systems supported by the distribution can be indicated and the package manager can be configured individually. Support for new file systems: Until lately, the file system ext3 - which is supported by all m23 distributions - was the least common denominator. As ext3 is not exactly up-to-date, we needed a solution, which allows a more individual and current selection of file systems per distribution. If an older distribution (for example one without support for ext4) is chosen after partitioning and formatting, there will now be an automatic conversion of the formatting to a supported file system. Debian now also with LibreOffice: Another improvement allows to create configuration files, which can, for example, contain settings for the package manager of the distribution. The new package source "squeeze+libreoffice" uses this option by including the LibreOffice packages from the backports and rising their priority in order to allow a normal installation.
Interface improvements
The m23 interface has also undergone some improvements. VNC applet: Specially for Java fans, the m23 interface now contains a signed Java applet, by use of which you can access the "m23 VirtualBox OSE console" directly from the browser (if the Java plugin is present and activated). Additionally, you'll find an easy way to sign your own Java applets in the script java-jar-signer.sh. The small things: The m23 interface now lists special packages in a form easier to read. After the adding of a new client, a message is displayed saying that the client can now be booted via network (including different options), menu entries that were clicked on are now also displayed as clicked-on and the server update page now has a reload button to check if the update is still on the way.
Corrections and improvements
Beside the aforementioned download problems, further corrections and adjustments to m23 have been made. Ubuntu specific: The integration of existing Ubuntu 11.10 and 12.04 systems is now possible. The SSL certificate check by wget was deactivated permanently, as, due to a bug, these Ubuntu versions do not accept the server certificate (even if the certificate is embedded). openSUSE specific: The installation of openSUSE systems now again runs smoothly till the end. Packages have been changed, deleted or replaced by others, which disrupted the m23 installation routine. Cron is now explicitly deactivated during system installation, so that no further tasks will be fetched from the m23 server if another task is still running. XFCE will now be entered as standard desktop environment in the login manager when it is installed. Package sources editor: Package sources lists may now contain quotation marks. Before, with every save, the quotation marks were doubled ;-) DHCP management: Unnecessary entries of clients, which need not be booted via network, will now be deleted from the dhcpd.conf, which also allows a correct display of the network boot status. In addition to this, network booting can be (de)activated on the client status page. Long-term SSL certificates: The SSL certificate of the m23 server is now valid for 10 years.
You can get the latest m23 version as update (via the m23 interface), via APT, as ISO to burn your own m23 server installation CD or as preinstalled virtual machine (the last two to be found in the download section).
Now the CMS, which is used for the m23 community web page, is available for download. The m23 CMS is based on the database-less devalcms, but contains some differences (detailed description below).
Database-less? Why should anyone want something like that? The m23 web page was managed with a CMS that put everthing into a database for several years. For every larger update of the CMS software, a cumbersome export of the whole database (with a huge number of tables), the local installation of the CMS, the import and adjustment of the database structure and the packaging and uploading of the local installation and the modified database to the Sourceforge server were necessary. This circuitous procedure was necessary, as the updated mechanisms of the CMS have never worked because of the safety restrictions on the Sourceforge servers, which do make life miserable not only for hackers. On the whole, an update of the CMS meant investing at least half a day of work.
Consequently, we needed an alternative. devalcms, which works completely without databases and where everything is configured and saved into text files, became our CMS of choice. The synchronisation of a devalcms installation with another system is accomplished by simply copying the files, which can be achieved very efficiently with rsync in a network. The original functionality of devalcms was extended by many functions in the course of time, some of which also need database access. Though, during development, the developers made a point of not putting any contents into the database, but only data (visitor counter, download counter...), which are not essential for the functioning of the web page.
The logic of the m23-CMS is a simple one: Every content (e.g. an article or a download link) is one file. The m23 CMS enhances devalcms by additional modules: download management (where categories are represented by directories), visitor counter, download statistics, message box ("send message to developer"), search function, multilanguage support and development blog.
So when you have always wanted to try an (almost) database-less CMS, you can download and try the m23 CMS ;-)
There would almost have been another m23 version this year - but in the end we decided to release it next year so that we have more time for testing. Those who would like to sneak a preview of the next m23 version 12.1 can try out the preliminary packages (like a christmas gift ;-). You can find those packages - and the instructions on how to install them - here: m23 testing packages.
Amongst other things, the new packages contain:
Installation corrections for openSUSE
m23 Remote Administration Service
Configuration of the package manager from the package source list (backports etc.)
A new package source list where LibreOffice is installable
Improvements to the installation of the VirtualBox additions
and - of course - a lot more ;-)
PS. During testing, we found these Christmas penguins in openSUSE and we wouldn't miss to share them with you ;-)
We've done it! m23 rock 11.4 is ready - and now Debian Squeeze is available as an additional client distribution and TDE (which can be seen as a continuation of KDE3) was added to the list of desktop interfaces to choose from.
Everybody who used KDE3 before and missed it painfully in the new distributions can now use an alternative: TDE (Trinity Desktop Environment) can now be installed with m23 on Debian Squeeze clients. The differences to the KDE3 you are used to are so irrelevant - except for some small details - that KDE3 users will find their way around the new desktop easily. Of course, there is not only the Trinity desktop available, but also the corresponding program packages.
There have been made improvements on the installation of KDE4, too. By default, gstreamer is now used as backend for the multimedia API Phonon, which is quite useful - as multimedia content (for example audio streams in amarok) can now be played right away.
We had to make some adjustments for m23 to be able to install Debian Squeeze. For example, the m23-xorg.conf generator, which is necessary to set up the graphic mode and the VirtualBox guest additions automatically, was made more robust and now supports newer VirtualBox versions. In this context, the m23 installation routine for the VirtualBox server was adapted for the automatic setup on Debian Squeeze (and other Linux distributions using the same VirtualBox version). Because of their new LSB conformity, the m23 initscripts are now executed smoothly and on time.
To make it possible that software packages can be installed using non-default settings, we added configuration pages for the packages from Debian Squeeze and Ubuntu Lucid that give you the same adjustment options as in manual installation and package configuration.
The m23 user interface now offers more information about clients both installed with m23 and integrated into m23. So now the client properties of both show the first and last name of the main user, the system language, user and group numbers for LDAP and extensive DMI information. Moreover, the readability of the m23 interface was improved by showing table rows in alternating colours in many dialogues. The client status in the client task overview is now shown in the language of the m23 interface.
And of course, there have also been some corrections and bug fixes. Making and deployment of disk and partition images is working again. The m23 server installation program will now find the drive with the installation CD in every case (thanks to the two hardworking administrators Stephan and Bernd) and will adjust the keybord language for the local terminal correctly. The client boot media for amd64 now also contain the file libresolv.so.2, which is necessary for lspci, so more hardware information can be sent to the m23 server. Further minor changes, which cover several configuration 'special cases', which occur in practice, were added to the m23 packages so m23 can work smoothly. More about those minor changes can be found in the Changelog.
The new version is available as an update from the m23 interface, via APT, as ISO file for burning the m23 server installation CD or as preinstalled virtual machine (the two last to be found in the Download section).
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Development blog
2012-01-05
cha: m23-xorg-configurator: Now checks if the vbox file under sysconfig and sysconfig2 exists and adds the error codes to the result of vdiff.
fix: DHCP_activateBoot: Now activates network booting only if it was not activated before and vice versa.
cha: DHCP_activateBoot: Now has an extra parameter to specify the boot type.
cha: CLIENT_addClient, CLIENT_deleteClient, CLIENT_changeClient: Now are using DHCP_activateBoot only.
+++++
2012-01-02
patch 100545: Installation fixes for openSUSE.
fix: OS11.4 / pkgInstallXFce: Now chooses xfce as default WM.
+++++
2012-01-01
fix: OS11.4 / sysWriteCrontabm23fetchjobEvery5Minutes: Now stops cron to make sure that it will not influence the installation procedure
new: check_baseSysAvailability: Nagios script that checks an URL on SourceForge for a file that should be available or not.
cha: OS11.4 / pkgUpdateCache, pkgInstall, pkgInstallPreview, pkgDeinstall, pkgDeinstallPreview, pkgNormalUpdate, pkgNormalUpdatePreview, pkgFullUpdate, pkgFullUpdatePreview, pkgListContents, sysSetLanguage, sysCleanSystem: Now are calling the proxy deactivation script.
cha: OS11.4 / pkgSetPackageProxy: Now creates a script for deactivating the proxy.
cha: Package sources unstable, sid, testing, lucid, lenny, Linux Mint 9 KDE, squeeze, squeeze+libreoffice: Now are using switch.dl.sourceforge.net for the m23 client packages.
+++++
2011-12-31
new: check_debSourceChecker: Nagios script for testing Debian repositories.
cha: OS11.4 / pkgInstallGnome: Added sleeps after every command (maybe this fixes breaking the installation ;-)).
cha: OS11.4 / pkgInstallGnome: Now installs teh apckage MozillaFirefox instead of firefox, because firefox was removed.
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The free virtualisation solution VirtualBox OSE is now (optional) part of m23 and can be installed directly on the m23 server as well as on the managed m23 clients. Required for virtualisation is a current Debian system (Debian Lenny or Squeeze). Virtual m23 clients which act on the network just like normal m23 clients are managed via the m23 server as usual. These virtual clients can be partitioned and formatted like a normal PC and of course the operating system and additional software can be installed as well.
