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  13  <h1>
  14      <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/">Petter Reinholdtsen</a>
  15
  16  </h1>
  17
  18 </div>
  19
  20
  21     <h3>Entries tagged "isenkram".</h3>
  22
  23     <div class="entry">
  24       <div class="title">
  25         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Welcome_to_the_world__Isenkram_.html">Welcome to the world, Isenkram!</a>
  26       </div>
  27       <div class="date">
  28         22nd January 2013
  29       </div>
  30       <div class="body">
  31         <p>Yesterday, I
  32 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/First_prototype_ready_making_hardware_easier_to_use_in_Debian.html">asked
  33 for testers</a> for my prototype for making Debian better at handling
  34 pluggable hardware devices, which I
  35 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lets_make_hardware_dongles_easier_to_use_in_Debian.html">set
  36 out to create</a> earlier this month.  Several valuable testers showed
  37 up, and caused me to really want to to open up the development to more
  38 people.  But before I did this, I want to come up with a sensible name
  39 for this project.  Today I finally decided on a new name, and I have
  40 renamed the project from hw-support-handler to this new name.  In the
  41 process, I moved the source to git and made it available as a
  42 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/gitweb/?p=collab-maint/isenkram.git">collab-maint</a>
  43 repository in Debian.  The new name?  It is <strong>Isenkram</strong>.
  44 To fetch and build the latest version of the source, use</p>
  45
  46 <pre>
  47 git clone git://anonscm.debian.org/collab-maint/isenkram.git
  48 cd isenkram && git-buildpackage -us -uc
  49 </pre>
  50
  51 <p>I have not yet adjusted all files to use the new name yet.  If you
  52 want to hack on the source or improve the package, please go ahead.
  53 But please talk to me first on IRC or via email before you do major
  54 changes, to make sure we do not step on each others toes. :)</p>
  55
  56 <p>If you wonder what 'isenkram' is, it is a Norwegian word for iron
  57 stuff, typically meaning tools, nails, screws, etc.  Typical hardware
  58 stuff, in other words.  I've been told it is the Norwegian variant of
  59 the German word eisenkram, for those that are familiar with that
  60 word.</p>
  61
  62 <p><strong>Update 2013-01-26</strong>: Added -us -us to build
  63 instructions, to avoid confusing people with an error from the signing
  64 process.</p>
  65
  66       </div>
  67       <div class="tags">
  68
  69
  70         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram">isenkram</a>.
  71
  72
  73       </div>
  74     </div>
  75     <div class="padding"></div>
  76
  77     <div class="entry">
  78       <div class="title">
  79         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/First_prototype_ready_making_hardware_easier_to_use_in_Debian.html">First prototype ready making hardware easier to use in Debian</a>
  80       </div>
  81       <div class="date">
  82         21st January 2013
  83       </div>
  84       <div class="body">
  85         <p>Early this month I set out to try to
  86 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lets_make_hardware_dongles_easier_to_use_in_Debian.html">improve
  87 the Debian support for pluggable hardware devices</a>.  Now my
  88 prototype is working, and it is ready for a larger audience.  To test
  89 it, fetch the
  90 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/">source
  91 from the Debian Edu subversion repository</a>, build and install the
  92 package.  You might have to log out and in again activate the
  93 autostart script.</p>
  94
  95 <p>The design is simple:</p>
  96
  97 <ul>
  98
  99 <li>Add desktop entry in /usr/share/autostart/ causing a program
 100 hw-support-handlerd to start when the user log in.</li>
 101
 102 <li>This program listen for kernel events about new hardware (directly
 103 from the kernel like udev does), not using HAL dbus events as I
 104 initially did.</li>
 105
 106 <li>When new hardware is inserted, look up the hardware modalias in
 107 the APT database, a database
 108 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/modaliases?view=markup">available
 109 via HTTP</a> and a database available as part of the package.</li>
 110
 111 <li>If a package is mapped to the hardware in question, the package
 112 isn't installed yet and this is the first time the hardware was
 113 plugged in, show a desktop notification suggesting to install the
 114 package or packages.</li>
 115
 116 <li>If the user click on the 'install package now' button, ask
 117 aptdaemon via the PackageKit API to install the requrired package.</li>
 118
 119 <li>aptdaemon ask for root password or sudo password, and install the
 120 package while showing progress information in a window.</li>
 121
 122 </ul>
 123
 124 <p>I still need to come up with a better name for the system.  Here
 125 are some screen shots showing the prototype in action.  First the
 126 notification, then the password request, and finally the request to
 127 approve all the dependencies.  Sorry for the Norwegian Bokmål GUI.</p>
 128
 129 <p><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-01-21-hw-support-1-notification.png">
 130 <br><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-01-21-hw-support-2-password.png">
 131 <br><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-01-21-hw-support-3-dependencies.png">
 132 <br><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-01-21-hw-support-4-installing.png">
 133 <br><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-01-21-hw-support-5-installing-details.png" width="70%"></p>
 134
 135 <p>The prototype still need to be improved with longer timeouts, but
 136 is already useful.  The database of hardware to package mappings also
 137 need more work.  It is currently compatible with the Ubuntu way of
 138 storing such information in the package control file, but could be
 139 changed to use other formats instead or in addition to the current
 140 method.  I've dropped the use of discover for this mapping, as the
 141 modalias approach is more flexible and easier to use on Linux as long
 142 as the Linux kernel expose its modalias strings directly.</p>
 143
 144 <p><strong>Update 2013-01-21 16:50</strong>: Due to popular demand,
 145 here is the command required to check out and build the source: Use
 146 '<tt>svn checkout
 147 svn://svn.debian.org/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/; cd
 148 hw-support-handler; debuild</tt>'.  If you lack debuild, install the
 149 devscripts package.</p>
 150
 151 <p><strong>Update 2013-01-23 12:00</strong>: The project is now
 152 renamed to Isenkram and the source moved from the Debian Edu
 153 subversion repository to a Debian collab-maint git repository.  See
 154 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Welcome_to_the_world__Isenkram_.html">build
 155 instructions</a> for details.</p>
 156
 157       </div>
 158       <div class="tags">
 159
 160
 161         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram">isenkram</a>.
 162
 163
 164       </div>
 165     </div>
 166     <div class="padding"></div>
 167
 168     <div class="entry">
 169       <div class="title">
 170         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Using_modalias_info_to_find_packages_handling_my_hardware.html">Using modalias info to find packages handling my hardware</a>
 171       </div>
 172       <div class="date">
 173         15th January 2013
 174       </div>
 175       <div class="body">
 176         <p>Yesterday, I wrote about the
 177 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Modalias_strings___a_practical_way_to_map__stuff__to_hardware.html">modalias
 178 values provided by the Linux kernel</a> following my hope for
 179 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lets_make_hardware_dongles_easier_to_use_in_Debian.html">better
 180 dongle support in Debian</a>.  Using this knowledge, I have tested how
 181 modalias values attached to package names can be used to map packages
 182 to hardware.  This allow the system to look up and suggest relevant
 183 packages when I plug in some new hardware into my machine, and replace
 184 discover and discover-data as the database used to map hardware to
 185 packages.</p>
 186
 187 <p>I create a modaliases file with entries like the following,
 188 containing package name, kernel module name (if relevant, otherwise
 189 the package name) and globs matching the relevant hardware
 190 modalias.</p>
 191
 192 <p><blockquote>
 193 Package: package-name
 194 <br>Modaliases: module(modaliasglob, modaliasglob, modaliasglob)</p>
 195 </blockquote></p>
 196
 197 <p>It is fairly trivial to write code to find the relevant packages
 198 for a given modalias value using this file.</p>
 199
 200 <p>An entry like this would suggest the video and picture application
 201 cheese for many USB web cameras (interface bus class 0E01):</p>
 202
 203 <p><blockquote>
 204 Package: cheese
 205 <br>Modaliases: cheese(usb:v*p*d*dc*dsc*dp*ic0Eisc01ip*)</p>
 206 </blockquote></p>
 207
 208 <p>An entry like this would suggest the pcmciautils package when a
 209 CardBus bridge (bus class 0607) PCI device is present:</p>
 210
 211 <p><blockquote>
 212 Package: pcmciautils
 213 <br>Modaliases: pcmciautils(pci:v*d*sv*sd*bc06sc07i*)
 214 </blockquote></p>
 215
 216 <p>An entry like this would suggest the package colorhug-client when
 217 plugging in a ColorHug with USB IDs 04D8:F8DA:</p>
 218
 219 <p><blockquote>
 220 Package: colorhug-client
 221 <br>Modaliases: colorhug-client(usb:v04D8pF8DAd*)</p>
 222 </blockquote></p>
 223
 224 <p>I believe the format is compatible with the format of the Packages
 225 file in the Debian archive.  Ubuntu already uses their Packages file
 226 to store their mappings from packages to hardware.</p>
 227
 228 <p>By adding a XB-Modaliases: header in debian/control, any .deb can
 229 announce the hardware it support in a way my prototype understand.
 230 This allow those publishing packages in an APT source outside the
 231 Debian archive as well as those backporting packages to make sure the
 232 hardware mapping are included in the package meta information.  I've
 233 tested such header in the pymissile package, and its modalias mapping
 234 is working as it should with my prototype.  It even made it to Ubuntu
 235 Raring.</p>
 236
 237 <p>To test if it was possible to look up supported hardware using only
 238 the shell tools available in the Debian installer, I wrote a shell
 239 implementation of the lookup code.  The idea is to create files for
 240 each modalias and let the shell do the matching.  Please check out and
 241 try the
 242 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/hw-support-lookup?view=co">hw-support-lookup</a>
 243 shell script.  It run without any extra dependencies and fetch the
 244 hardware mappings from the Debian archive and the subversion
 245 repository where I currently work on my prototype.</p>
 246
 247 <p>When I use it on a machine with a yubikey inserted, it suggest to
 248 install yubikey-personalization:</p>
 249
 250 <p><blockquote>
 251 % ./hw-support-lookup
 252 <br>yubikey-personalization
 253 <br>%
 254 </blockquote></p>
 255
 256 <p>When I run it on my Thinkpad X40 with a PCMCIA/CardBus slot, it
 257 propose to install the pcmciautils package:</p>
 258
 259 <p><blockquote>
 260 % ./hw-support-lookup
 261 <br>pcmciautils
 262 <br>%
 263 </blockquote></p>
 264
 265 <p>If you know of any hardware-package mapping that should be added to
 266 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/modaliases?view=co">my
 267 database</a>, please tell me about it.</p>
 268
 269 <p>It could be possible to generate several of the mappings between
 270 packages and hardware.  One source would be to look at packages with
 271 kernel modules, ie packages with *.ko files in /lib/modules/, and
 272 extract their modalias information.  Another would be to look at
 273 packages with udev rules, ie packages with files in
 274 /lib/udev/rules.d/, and extract their vendor/model information to
 275 generate a modalias matching rule.  I have not tested any of these to
 276 see if it work.</p>
 277
 278 <p>If you want to help implementing a system to let us propose what
 279 packages to install when new hardware is plugged into a Debian
 280 machine, please send me an email or talk to me on
 281 <a href="irc://irc.debian.org/%23debian-devel">#debian-devel</a>.</p>
 282
 283       </div>
 284       <div class="tags">
 285
 286
 287         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram">isenkram</a>.
 288
 289
 290       </div>
 291     </div>
 292     <div class="padding"></div>
 293
 294     <div class="entry">
 295       <div class="title">
 296         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Modalias_strings___a_practical_way_to_map__stuff__to_hardware.html">Modalias strings - a practical way to map "stuff" to hardware</a>
 297       </div>
 298       <div class="date">
 299         14th January 2013
 300       </div>
 301       <div class="body">
 302         <p>While looking into how to look up Debian packages based on hardware
 303 information, to find the packages that support a given piece of
 304 hardware, I refreshed my memory regarding modalias values, and decided
 305 to document the details.  Here are my findings so far, also available
 306 in
 307 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/">the
 308 Debian Edu subversion repository</a>:
 309
 310 <p><strong>Modalias decoded</strong></p>
 311
 312 <p>This document try to explain what the different types of modalias
 313 values stands for.  It is in part based on information from
 314 &lt;URL: <a href="https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Modalias">https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Modalias</a> &gt;,
 315 &lt;URL: <a href="http://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/26132/how-to-assign-usb-driver-to-device">http://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/26132/how-to-assign-usb-driver-to-device</a> &gt;,
 316 &lt;URL: <a href="http://code.metager.de/source/history/linux/stable/scripts/mod/file2alias.c">http://code.metager.de/source/history/linux/stable/scripts/mod/file2alias.c</a> &gt; and
 317 &lt;URL: <a href="http://cvs.savannah.gnu.org/viewvc/dmidecode/dmidecode.c?root=dmidecode&view=markup">http://cvs.savannah.gnu.org/viewvc/dmidecode/dmidecode.c?root=dmidecode&view=markup</a> &gt;.
 318
 319 <p>The modalias entries for a given Linux machine can be found using
 320 this shell script:</p>
 321
 322 <pre>
 323 find /sys -name modalias -print0 | xargs -0 cat | sort -u
 324 </pre>
 325
 326 <p>The supported modalias globs for a given kernel module can be found
 327 using modinfo:</p>
 328
 329 <pre>
 330 % /sbin/modinfo psmouse | grep alias:
 331 alias:          serio:ty05pr*id*ex*
 332 alias:          serio:ty01pr*id*ex*
 333 %
 334 </pre>
 335
 336 <p><strong>PCI subtype</strong></p>
 337
 338 <p>A typical PCI entry can look like this.  This is an Intel Host
 339 Bridge memory controller:</p>
 340
 341 <p><blockquote>
 342 pci:v00008086d00002770sv00001028sd000001ADbc06sc00i00
 343 </blockquote></p>
 344
 345 <p>This represent these values:</p>
 346
 347 <pre>
 348  v   00008086  (vendor)
 349  d   00002770  (device)
 350  sv  00001028  (subvendor)
 351  sd  000001AD  (subdevice)
 352  bc  06        (bus class)
 353  sc  00        (bus subclass)
 354  i   00        (interface)
 355 </pre>
 356
 357 <p>The vendor/device values are the same values outputted from 'lspci
 358 -n' as 8086:2770.  The bus class/subclass is also shown by lspci as
 359 0600.  The 0600 class is a host bridge.  Other useful bus values are
 360 0300 (VGA compatible card) and 0200 (Ethernet controller).</p>
 361
 362 <p>Not sure how to figure out the interface value, nor what it
 363 means.</p>
 364
 365 <p><strong>USB subtype</strong></p>
 366
 367 <p>Some typical USB entries can look like this.  This is an internal
 368 USB hub in a laptop:</p>
 369
 370 <p><blockquote>
 371 usb:v1D6Bp0001d0206dc09dsc00dp00ic09isc00ip00
 372 </blockquote></p>
 373
 374 <p>Here is the values included in this alias:</p>
 375
 376 <pre>
 377  v    1D6B  (device vendor)
 378  p    0001  (device product)
 379  d    0206  (bcddevice)
 380  dc     09  (device class)
 381  dsc    00  (device subclass)
 382  dp     00  (device protocol)
 383  ic     09  (interface class)
 384  isc    00  (interface subclass)
 385  ip     00  (interface protocol)
 386 </pre>
 387
 388 <p>The 0900 device class/subclass means hub.  Some times the relevant
 389 class is in the interface class section.  For a simple USB web camera,
 390 these alias entries show up:</p>
 391
 392 <p><blockquote>
 393 usb:v0AC8p3420d5000dcEFdsc02dp01ic01isc01ip00
 394 <br>usb:v0AC8p3420d5000dcEFdsc02dp01ic01isc02ip00
 395 <br>usb:v0AC8p3420d5000dcEFdsc02dp01ic0Eisc01ip00
 396 <br>usb:v0AC8p3420d5000dcEFdsc02dp01ic0Eisc02ip00
 397 </blockquote></p>
 398
 399 <p>Interface class 0E01 is video control, 0E02 is video streaming (aka
 400 camera), 0101 is audio control device and 0102 is audio streaming (aka
 401 microphone).  Thus this is a camera with microphone included.</p>
 402
 403 <p><strong>ACPI subtype</strong></p>
 404
 405 <p>The ACPI type is used for several non-PCI/USB stuff.  This is an IR
 406 receiver in a Thinkpad X40:</p>
 407
 408 <p><blockquote>
 409 acpi:IBM0071:PNP0511:
 410 </blockquote></p>
 411
 412 <p>The values between the colons are IDs.</p>
 413
 414 <p><strong>DMI subtype</strong></p>
 415
 416 <p>The DMI table contain lots of information about the computer case
 417 and model.  This is an entry for a IBM Thinkpad X40, fetched from
 418 /sys/devices/virtual/dmi/id/modalias:</p>
 419
 420 <p><blockquote>
 421 dmi:bvnIBM:bvr1UETB6WW(1.66):bd06/15/2005:svnIBM:pn2371H4G:pvrThinkPadX40:rvnIBM:rn2371H4G:rvrNotAvailable:cvnIBM:ct10:cvrNotAvailable:
 422 </blockquote></p>
 423
 424 <p>The values present are</p>
 425
 426 <pre>
 427  bvn  IBM            (BIOS vendor)
 428  bvr  1UETB6WW(1.66) (BIOS version)
 429  bd   06/15/2005     (BIOS date)
 430  svn  IBM            (system vendor)
 431  pn   2371H4G        (product name)
 432  pvr  ThinkPadX40    (product version)
 433  rvn  IBM            (board vendor)
 434  rn   2371H4G        (board name)
 435  rvr  NotAvailable   (board version)
 436  cvn  IBM            (chassis vendor)
 437  ct   10             (chassis type)
 438  cvr  NotAvailable   (chassis version)
 439 </pre>
 440
 441 <p>The chassis type 10 is Notebook.  Other interesting values can be
 442 found in the dmidecode source:</p>
 443
 444 <pre>
 445   3 Desktop
 446   4 Low Profile Desktop
 447   5 Pizza Box
 448   6 Mini Tower
 449   7 Tower
 450   8 Portable
 451   9 Laptop
 452  10 Notebook
 453  11 Hand Held
 454  12 Docking Station
 455  13 All In One
 456  14 Sub Notebook
 457  15 Space-saving
 458  16 Lunch Box
 459  17 Main Server Chassis
 460  18 Expansion Chassis
 461  19 Sub Chassis
 462  20 Bus Expansion Chassis
 463  21 Peripheral Chassis
 464  22 RAID Chassis
 465  23 Rack Mount Chassis
 466  24 Sealed-case PC
 467  25 Multi-system
 468  26 CompactPCI
 469  27 AdvancedTCA
 470  28 Blade
 471  29 Blade Enclosing
 472 </pre>
 473
 474 <p>The chassis type values are not always accurately set in the DMI
 475 table.  For example my home server is a tower, but the DMI modalias
 476 claim it is a desktop.</p>
 477
 478 <p><strong>SerIO subtype</strong></p>
 479
 480 <p>This type is used for PS/2 mouse plugs.  One example is from my
 481 test machine:</p>
 482
 483 <p><blockquote>
 484 serio:ty01pr00id00ex00
 485 </blockquote></p>
 486
 487 <p>The values present are</p>
 488
 489 <pre>
 490   ty  01  (type)
 491   pr  00  (prototype)
 492   id  00  (id)
 493   ex  00  (extra)
 494 </pre>
 495
 496 <p>This type is supported by the psmouse driver.  I am not sure what
 497 the valid values are.</p>
 498
 499 <p><strong>Other subtypes</strong></p>
 500
 501 <p>There are heaps of other modalias subtypes according to
 502 file2alias.c.  There is the rest of the list from that source: amba,
 503 ap, bcma, ccw, css, eisa, hid, i2c, ieee1394, input, ipack, isapnp,
 504 mdio, of, parisc, pcmcia, platform, scsi, sdio, spi, ssb, vio, virtio,
 505 vmbus, x86cpu and zorro.  I did not spend time documenting all of
 506 these, as they do not seem relevant for my intended use with mapping
 507 hardware to packages when new stuff is inserted during run time.</p>
 508
 509 <p><strong>Looking up kernel modules using modalias values</strong></p>
 510
 511 <p>To check which kernel modules provide support for a given modalias,
 512 one can use the following shell script:</p>
 513
 514 <pre>
 515   for id in $(find /sys -name modalias -print0 | xargs -0 cat | sort -u); do \
 516     echo "$id" ; \
 517     /sbin/modprobe --show-depends "$id"|sed 's/^/  /' ; \
 518   done
 519 </pre>
 520
 521 <p>The output can look like this (only the first few entries as the
 522 list is very long on my test machine):</p>
 523
 524 <pre>
 525   acpi:ACPI0003:
 526     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/drivers/acpi/ac.ko
 527   acpi:device:
 528   FATAL: Module acpi:device: not found.
 529   acpi:IBM0068:
 530     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/drivers/char/nvram.ko
 531     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/drivers/leds/led-class.ko
 532     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/net/rfkill/rfkill.ko
 533     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/drivers/platform/x86/thinkpad_acpi.ko
 534   acpi:IBM0071:PNP0511:
 535     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/lib/crc-ccitt.ko
 536     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/net/irda/irda.ko
 537     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/drivers/net/irda/nsc-ircc.ko
 538   [...]
 539 </pre>
 540
 541 <p>If you want to help implementing a system to let us propose what
 542 packages to install when new hardware is plugged into a Debian
 543 machine, please send me an email or talk to me on
 544 <a href="irc://irc.debian.org/%23debian-devel">#debian-devel</a>.</p>
 545
 546 <p><strong>Update 2013-01-15:</strong> Rewrite "cat $(find ...)" to
 547 "find ... -print0 | xargs -0 cat" to make sure it handle directories
 548 in /sys/ with space in them.</p>
 549
 550       </div>
 551       <div class="tags">
 552
 553
 554         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram">isenkram</a>.
 555
 556
 557       </div>
 558     </div>
 559     <div class="padding"></div>
 560
 561     <div class="entry">
 562       <div class="title">
 563         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lets_make_hardware_dongles_easier_to_use_in_Debian.html">Lets make hardware dongles easier to use in Debian</a>
 564       </div>
 565       <div class="date">
 566          9th January 2013
 567       </div>
 568       <div class="body">
 569         <p>One thing that annoys me with Debian and Linux distributions in
 570 general, is that there is a great package management system with the
 571 ability to automatically install software packages by downloading them
 572 from the distribution mirrors, but no way to get it to automatically
 573 install the packages I need to use the hardware I plug into my
 574 machine.  Even if the package to use it is easily available from the
 575 Linux distribution.  When I plug in a LEGO Mindstorms NXT, it could
 576 suggest to automatically install the python-nxt, nbc and t2n packages
 577 I need to talk to it.  When I plug in a Yubikey, it could propose the
 578 yubikey-personalization package.  The information required to do this
 579 is available, but no-one have pulled all the pieces together.</p>
 580
 581 <p>Some years ago, I proposed to
 582 <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2010/05/msg01206.html">use
 583 the discover subsystem to implement this</a>.  The idea is fairly
 584 simple:
 585
 586 <ul>
 587
 588 <li>Add a desktop entry in /usr/share/autostart/ pointing to a program
 589   starting when a user log in.</li>
 590
 591 <li>Set this program up to listen for kernel events emitted when new
 592   hardware is inserted into the computer.</li>
 593
 594 <li>When new hardware is inserted, look up the hardware ID in a
 595   database mapping to packages, and take note of any non-installed
 596   packages.</li>
 597
 598 <li>Show a message to the user proposing to install the discovered
 599   package, and make it easy to install it.</li>
 600
 601 </ul>
 602
 603 <p>I am not sure what the best way to implement this is, but my
 604 initial idea was to use dbus events to discover new hardware, the
 605 discover database to find packages and
 606 <a href="http://www.packagekit.org/">PackageKit</a> to install
 607 packages.</p>
 608
 609 <p>Yesterday, I found time to try to implement this idea, and the
 610 draft package is now checked into
 611 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/">the
 612 Debian Edu subversion repository</a>.  In the process, I updated the
 613 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/d/discover-data.html">discover-data</a>
 614 package to map the USB ids of LEGO Mindstorms and Yubikey devices to
 615 the relevant packages in Debian, and uploaded a new version
 616 2.2013.01.09 to unstable.  I also discovered that the current
 617 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/d/discover.html">discover</a>
 618 package in Debian no longer discovered any USB devices, because
 619 /proc/bus/usb/devices is no longer present.  I ported it to use
 620 libusb as a fall back option to get it working.  The fixed package
 621 version 2.1.2-6 is now in experimental (didn't upload it to unstable
 622 because of the freeze).</p>
 623
 624 <p>With this prototype in place, I can insert my Yubikey, and get this
 625 desktop notification to show up (only once, the first time it is
 626 inserted):</p>
 627
 628 <p align="center"><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-01-09-hw-autoinstall.png"></p>
 629
 630 <p>For this prototype to be really useful, some way to automatically
 631 install the proposed packages by pressing the "Please install
 632 program(s)" button should to be implemented.</p>
 633
 634 <p>If this idea seem useful to you, and you want to help make it
 635 happen, please help me update the discover-data database with mappings
 636 from hardware to Debian packages.  Check if 'discover-pkginstall -l'
 637 list the package you would like to have installed when a given
 638 hardware device is inserted into your computer, and report bugs using
 639 reportbug if it isn't.  Or, if you know of a better way to provide
 640 such mapping, please let me know.</p>
 641
 642 <p>This prototype need more work, and there are several questions that
 643 should be considered before it is ready for production use.  Is dbus
 644 the correct way to detect new hardware?  At the moment I look for HAL
 645 dbus events on the system bus, because that is the events I could see
 646 on my Debian Squeeze KDE desktop.  Are there better events to use?
 647 How should the user be notified?  Is the desktop notification
 648 mechanism the best option, or should the background daemon raise a
 649 popup instead?  How should packages be installed?  When should they
 650 not be installed?</p>
 651
 652 <p>If you want to help getting such feature implemented in Debian,
 653 please send me an email. :)</p>
 654
 655       </div>
 656       <div class="tags">
 657
 658
 659         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram">isenkram</a>.
 660
 661
 662       </div>
 663     </div>
 664     <div class="padding"></div>
 665
 666     <p style="text-align: right;"><a href="isenkram.rss"><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/xml.gif" alt="RSS Feed" width="36" height="14" /></a></p>
 667     <div id="sidebar">
 668
 669
 670
 671 <h2>Archive</h2>
 672 <ul>
 673
 674 <li>2013
 675 <ul>
 676
 677 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/01/">January (11)</a></li>
 678
 679 </ul></li>
 680
 681 <li>2012
 682 <ul>
 683
 684 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/01/">January (7)</a></li>
 685
 686 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/02/">February (10)</a></li>
 687
 688 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/03/">March (17)</a></li>
 689
 690 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/04/">April (12)</a></li>
 691
 692 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/05/">May (12)</a></li>
 693
 694 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/06/">June (20)</a></li>
 695
 696 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/07/">July (17)</a></li>
 697
 698 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/08/">August (6)</a></li>
 699
 700 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/09/">September (9)</a></li>
 701
 702 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/10/">October (17)</a></li>
 703
 704 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/11/">November (10)</a></li>
 705
 706 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/12/">December (7)</a></li>
 707
 708 </ul></li>
 709
 710 <li>2011
 711 <ul>
 712
 713 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/01/">January (16)</a></li>
 714
 715 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/02/">February (6)</a></li>
 716
 717 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/03/">March (6)</a></li>
 718
 719 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/04/">April (7)</a></li>
 720
 721 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/05/">May (3)</a></li>
 722
 723 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/06/">June (2)</a></li>
 724
 725 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/07/">July (7)</a></li>
 726
 727 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/08/">August (6)</a></li>
 728
 729 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/09/">September (4)</a></li>
 730
 731 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/10/">October (2)</a></li>
 732
 733 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/11/">November (3)</a></li>
 734
 735 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/12/">December (1)</a></li>
 736
 737 </ul></li>
 738
 739 <li>2010
 740 <ul>
 741
 742 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/01/">January (2)</a></li>
 743
 744 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/02/">February (1)</a></li>
 745
 746 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/03/">March (3)</a></li>
 747
 748 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/04/">April (3)</a></li>
 749
 750 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/05/">May (9)</a></li>
 751
 752 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/06/">June (14)</a></li>
 753
 754 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/07/">July (12)</a></li>
 755
 756 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/08/">August (13)</a></li>
 757
 758 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/09/">September (7)</a></li>
 759
 760 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/10/">October (9)</a></li>
 761
 762 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/11/">November (13)</a></li>
 763
 764 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/12/">December (12)</a></li>
 765
 766 </ul></li>
 767
 768 <li>2009
 769 <ul>
 770
 771 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/01/">January (8)</a></li>
 772
 773 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/02/">February (8)</a></li>
 774
 775 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/03/">March (12)</a></li>
 776
 777 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/04/">April (10)</a></li>
 778
 779 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/05/">May (9)</a></li>
 780
 781 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/06/">June (3)</a></li>
 782
 783 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/07/">July (4)</a></li>
 784
 785 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/08/">August (3)</a></li>
 786
 787 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/09/">September (1)</a></li>
 788
 789 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/10/">October (2)</a></li>
 790
 791 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/11/">November (3)</a></li>
 792
 793 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/12/">December (3)</a></li>
 794
 795 </ul></li>
 796
 797 <li>2008
 798 <ul>
 799
 800 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2008/11/">November (5)</a></li>
 801
 802 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2008/12/">December (7)</a></li>
 803
 804 </ul></li>
 805
 806 </ul>
 807
 808
 809
 810 <h2>Tags</h2>
 811 <ul>
 812
 813  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/3d-printer">3d-printer (13)</a></li>
 814
 815  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/amiga">amiga (1)</a></li>
 816
 817  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/aros">aros (1)</a></li>
 818
 819  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bankid">bankid (4)</a></li>
 820
 821  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bitcoin">bitcoin (5)</a></li>
 822
 823  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bootsystem">bootsystem (12)</a></li>
 824
 825  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bsa">bsa (2)</a></li>
 826
 827  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian (69)</a></li>
 828
 829  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu (118)</a></li>
 830
 831  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/digistan">digistan (9)</a></li>
 832
 833  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/docbook">docbook (7)</a></li>
 834
 835  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/drivstoffpriser">drivstoffpriser (4)</a></li>
 836
 837  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english (175)</a></li>
 838
 839  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/fiksgatami">fiksgatami (21)</a></li>
 840
 841  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/fildeling">fildeling (12)</a></li>
 842
 843  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freeculture">freeculture (10)</a></li>
 844
 845  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/frikanalen">frikanalen (9)</a></li>
 846
 847  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/intervju">intervju (32)</a></li>
 848
 849  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram">isenkram (5)</a></li>
 850
 851  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/kart">kart (17)</a></li>
 852
 853  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ldap">ldap (8)</a></li>
 854
 855  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/lenker">lenker (6)</a></li>
 856
 857  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ltsp">ltsp (1)</a></li>
 858
 859  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/multimedia">multimedia (25)</a></li>
 860
 861  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/norsk">norsk (219)</a></li>
 862
 863  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug (148)</a></li>
 864
 865  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/offentlig innsyn">offentlig innsyn (6)</a></li>
 866
 867  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/open311">open311 (2)</a></li>
 868
 869  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/opphavsrett">opphavsrett (41)</a></li>
 870
 871  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/personvern">personvern (61)</a></li>
 872
 873  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/raid">raid (1)</a></li>
 874
 875  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/reprap">reprap (11)</a></li>
 876
 877  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/rfid">rfid (2)</a></li>
 878
 879  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/robot">robot (6)</a></li>
 880
 881  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/rss">rss (1)</a></li>
 882
 883  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ruter">ruter (4)</a></li>
 884
 885  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/scraperwiki">scraperwiki (2)</a></li>
 886
 887  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet (28)</a></li>
 888
 889  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sitesummary">sitesummary (4)</a></li>
 890
 891  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/skepsis">skepsis (4)</a></li>
 892
 893  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/standard">standard (39)</a></li>
 894
 895  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/stavekontroll">stavekontroll (3)</a></li>
 896
 897  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/stortinget">stortinget (5)</a></li>
 898
 899  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance (12)</a></li>
 900
 901  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sysadmin">sysadmin (1)</a></li>
 902
 903  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/valg">valg (7)</a></li>
 904
 905  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/video">video (35)</a></li>
 906
 907  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/vitenskap">vitenskap (4)</a></li>
 908
 909  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/web">web (26)</a></li>
 910
 911 </ul>
 912
 913
 914     </div>
 915     <p style="text-align: right">
 916  Created by <a href="http://steve.org.uk/Software/chronicle">Chronicle v4.4</a>
 917 </p>
 918
 919   </body>
 920 </html>