blog/data/2016-12-23-isenkram.txt

   1 Title: Appstream just learned how to map hardware to packages too!
   2 Tags: english, debian, isenkram
   3 Date: 2016-12-23 10:30
   4
   5 <p>I received a very nice christmas present today.  As my regular
   6 readers probably know, I have been working on the
   7 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/isenkram">the Isenkram
   8 system</a> for many years.  It make it easier for users to figure out
   9 what to install to get a given piece of hardware to work in Debian,
  10 and a key part of this system is a way to map hardware to packages.
  11 Isenkram have its own mapping database, and also uses data provided by
  12 each package using the AppStream metadata format.  And today,
  13 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/appstream">AppStream</a> in
  14 Debian learned to look up hardware the same way Isenkram is doing it,
  15 ie using fnmatch():</p>
  16
  17 <p><pre>
  18 % appstreamcli what-provides modalias \
  19   usb:v1130p0202d0100dc00dsc00dp00ic03isc00ip00in00
  20 Identifier: pymissile [generic]
  21 Name: pymissile
  22 Summary: Control original Striker USB Missile Launcher
  23 Package: pymissile
  24 % appstreamcli what-provides modalias usb:v0694p0002d0000
  25 Identifier: libnxt [generic]
  26 Name: libnxt
  27 Summary: utility library for talking to the LEGO Mindstorms NXT brick
  28 Package: libnxt
  29 ---
  30 Identifier: t2n [generic]
  31 Name: t2n
  32 Summary: Simple command-line tool for Lego NXT
  33 Package: t2n
  34 ---
  35 Identifier: python-nxt [generic]
  36 Name: python-nxt
  37 Summary: Python driver/interface/wrapper for the Lego Mindstorms NXT robot
  38 Package: python-nxt
  39 ---
  40 Identifier: nbc [generic]
  41 Name: nbc
  42 Summary: C compiler for LEGO Mindstorms NXT bricks
  43 Package: nbc
  44 %
  45 </pre></p>
  46
  47 <p>A similar query can be done using the combined AppStream and
  48 Isenkram databases using the isenkram-lookup tool:</p>
  49
  50 <p><pre>
  51 % isenkram-lookup usb:v1130p0202d0100dc00dsc00dp00ic03isc00ip00in00
  52 pymissile
  53 % isenkram-lookup usb:v0694p0002d0000
  54 libnxt
  55 nbc
  56 python-nxt
  57 t2n
  58 %
  59 </pre></p>
  60
  61 <p>If you want to make this system a success and help Debian users
  62 make the most of the hardware they have, please
  63 help<a href="https://wiki.debian.org/AppStream/Guidelines">add
  64 AppStream metadata for your package following the guidelines</a>
  65 documented in the wiki.  So far only 11 packages provide such
  66 information, among the several hundred hardware specific packages in
  67 Debian. The Isenkram database on the other hand contain 101 packages,
  68 mostly related to USB dongles.  Most of the packages with hardware
  69 mapping in AppStream are LEGO Mindstorms related, because I have, as
  70 part of my involvement in
  71 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/LegoDesigners">the Debian LEGO
  72 team</a> given priority to making sure LEGO users get proposed the
  73 complete set of packages in Debian for that particular hardware.  The
  74 team also got a nice Christmas present today.  The
  75 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/nxt-firmware">nxt-firmware
  76 package</a> made it into Debian.  With this package in place, it is
  77 not possible to use the LEGO Mindstorms NXT unit with only free
  78 software, as the nxt-firmware package contain the source and firmware
  79 binaries for the NXT brick.</p>
  80
  81 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
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