blog/tags/isenkram/isenkram.rss

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   2 <rss version='2.0' xmlns:lj='http://www.livejournal.org/rss/lj/1.0/'>
   3         <channel>
   4                 <title>Petter Reinholdtsen - Entries tagged isenkram</title>
   5                 <description>Entries tagged isenkram</description>
   6                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/</link>
   7
   8
   9         <item>
  10                 <title>Welcome to the world, Isenkram!</title>
  11                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Welcome_to_the_world__Isenkram_.html</link>
  12                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Welcome_to_the_world__Isenkram_.html</guid>
  13                 <pubDate>Tue, 22 Jan 2013 22:00:00 +0100</pubDate>
  14                 <description>&lt;p&gt;Yesterday, I
  15 &lt;a href=&quot;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/First_prototype_ready_making_hardware_easier_to_use_in_Debian.html&quot;&gt;asked
  16 for testers&lt;/a&gt; for my prototype for making Debian better at handling
  17 pluggable hardware devices, which I
  18 &lt;a href=&quot;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lets_make_hardware_dongles_easier_to_use_in_Debian.html&quot;&gt;set
  19 out to create&lt;/a&gt; earlier this month.  Several valuable testers showed
  20 up, and caused me to really want to to open up the development to more
  21 people.  But before I did this, I want to come up with a sensible name
  22 for this project.  Today I finally decided on a new name, and I have
  23 renamed the project from hw-support-handler to this new name.  In the
  24 process, I moved the source to git and made it available as a
  25 &lt;a href=&quot;http://anonscm.debian.org/gitweb/?p=collab-maint/isenkram.git&quot;&gt;collab-maint&lt;/a&gt;
  26 repository in Debian.  The new name?  It is &lt;strong&gt;Isenkram&lt;/strong&gt;.
  27 To fetch and build the latest version of the source, use&lt;/p&gt;
  28
  29 &lt;pre&gt;
  30 git clone git://anonscm.debian.org/collab-maint/isenkram.git
  31 cd isenkram &amp;&amp; git-buildpackage
  32 &lt;/pre&gt;
  33
  34 &lt;p&gt;I have not yet adjusted all files to use the new name yet.  If you
  35 want to hack on the source or improve the package, please go ahead.
  36 But please talk to me first on IRC or via email before you do major
  37 changes, to make sure we do not step on each others toes. :)&lt;/p&gt;
  38
  39 &lt;p&gt;If you wonder what &#39;isenkram&#39; is, it is a Norwegian word for iron
  40 stuff, typically meaning tools, nails, screws, etc.  Typical hardware
  41 stuff, in other words.  I&#39;ve been told it is the Norwegian variant of
  42 the German word eisenkram, for those that are familiar with that
  43 word.&lt;/p&gt;
  44 </description>
  45         </item>
  46
  47         <item>
  48                 <title>First prototype ready making hardware easier to use in Debian</title>
  49                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/First_prototype_ready_making_hardware_easier_to_use_in_Debian.html</link>
  50                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/First_prototype_ready_making_hardware_easier_to_use_in_Debian.html</guid>
  51                 <pubDate>Mon, 21 Jan 2013 12:00:00 +0100</pubDate>
  52                 <description>&lt;p&gt;Early this month I set out to try to
  53 &lt;a href=&quot;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lets_make_hardware_dongles_easier_to_use_in_Debian.html&quot;&gt;improve
  54 the Debian support for pluggable hardware devices&lt;/a&gt;.  Now my
  55 prototype is working, and it is ready for a larger audience.  To test
  56 it, fetch the
  57 &lt;a href=&quot;http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/&quot;&gt;source
  58 from the Debian Edu subversion repository&lt;/a&gt;, build and install the
  59 package.  You might have to log out and in again activate the
  60 autostart script.&lt;/p&gt;
  61
  62 &lt;p&gt;The design is simple:&lt;/p&gt;
  63
  64 &lt;ul&gt;
  65
  66 &lt;li&gt;Add desktop entry in /usr/share/autostart/ causing a program
  67 hw-support-handlerd to start when the user log in.&lt;/li&gt;
  68
  69 &lt;li&gt;This program listen for kernel events about new hardware (directly
  70 from the kernel like udev does), not using HAL dbus events as I
  71 initially did.&lt;/li&gt;
  72
  73 &lt;li&gt;When new hardware is inserted, look up the hardware modalias in
  74 the APT database, a database
  75 &lt;a href=&quot;http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/modaliases?view=markup&quot;&gt;available
  76 via HTTP&lt;/a&gt; and a database available as part of the package.&lt;/li&gt;
  77
  78 &lt;li&gt;If a package is mapped to the hardware in question, the package
  79 isn&#39;t installed yet and this is the first time the hardware was
  80 plugged in, show a desktop notification suggesting to install the
  81 package or packages.&lt;/li&gt;
  82
  83 &lt;li&gt;If the user click on the &#39;install package now&#39; button, ask
  84 aptdaemon via the PackageKit API to install the requrired package.&lt;/li&gt;
  85
  86 &lt;li&gt;aptdaemon ask for root password or sudo password, and install the
  87 package while showing progress information in a window.&lt;/li&gt;
  88
  89 &lt;/ul&gt;
  90
  91 &lt;p&gt;I still need to come up with a better name for the system.  Here
  92 are some screen shots showing the prototype in action.  First the
  93 notification, then the password request, and finally the request to
  94 approve all the dependencies.  Sorry for the Norwegian Bokmål GUI.&lt;/p&gt;
  95
  96 &lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-01-21-hw-support-1-notification.png&quot;&gt;
  97 &lt;br&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-01-21-hw-support-2-password.png&quot;&gt;
  98 &lt;br&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-01-21-hw-support-3-dependencies.png&quot;&gt;
  99 &lt;br&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-01-21-hw-support-4-installing.png&quot;&gt;
 100 &lt;br&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-01-21-hw-support-5-installing-details.png&quot; width=&quot;70%&quot;&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
 101
 102 &lt;p&gt;The prototype still need to be improved with longer timeouts, but
 103 is already useful.  The database of hardware to package mappings also
 104 need more work.  It is currently compatible with the Ubuntu way of
 105 storing such information in the package control file, but could be
 106 changed to use other formats instead or in addition to the current
 107 method.  I&#39;ve dropped the use of discover for this mapping, as the
 108 modalias approach is more flexible and easier to use on Linux as long
 109 as the Linux kernel expose its modalias strings directly.&lt;/p&gt;
 110
 111 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Update 2013-01-21 16:50&lt;/strong&gt;: Due to popular demand,
 112 here is the command required to check out and build the source: Use
 113 &#39;&lt;tt&gt;svn checkout
 114 svn://svn.debian.org/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/; cd
 115 hw-support-handler; debuild&lt;/tt&gt;&#39;.  If you lack debuild, install the
 116 devscripts package.&lt;/p&gt;
 117
 118 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Update 2013-01-23 12:00&lt;/strong&gt;: The project is now
 119 renamed to Isenkram and the source moved from the Debian Edu
 120 subversion repository to a Debian collab-maint git repository.  See
 121 &lt;a href=&quot;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Welcome_to_the_world__Isenkram_.html&quot;&gt;build
 122 instructions&lt;/a&gt; for details.&lt;/p&gt;
 123 </description>
 124         </item>
 125
 126         <item>
 127                 <title>Using modalias info to find packages handling my hardware</title>
 128                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Using_modalias_info_to_find_packages_handling_my_hardware.html</link>
 129                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Using_modalias_info_to_find_packages_handling_my_hardware.html</guid>
 130                 <pubDate>Tue, 15 Jan 2013 08:00:00 +0100</pubDate>
 131                 <description>&lt;p&gt;Yesterday, I wrote about the
 132 &lt;a href=&quot;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Modalias_strings___a_practical_way_to_map__stuff__to_hardware.html&quot;&gt;modalias
 133 values provided by the Linux kernel&lt;/a&gt; following my hope for
 134 &lt;a href=&quot;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lets_make_hardware_dongles_easier_to_use_in_Debian.html&quot;&gt;better
 135 dongle support in Debian&lt;/a&gt;.  Using this knowledge, I have tested how
 136 modalias values attached to package names can be used to map packages
 137 to hardware.  This allow the system to look up and suggest relevant
 138 packages when I plug in some new hardware into my machine, and replace
 139 discover and discover-data as the database used to map hardware to
 140 packages.&lt;/p&gt;
 141
 142 &lt;p&gt;I create a modaliases file with entries like the following,
 143 containing package name, kernel module name (if relevant, otherwise
 144 the package name) and globs matching the relevant hardware
 145 modalias.&lt;/p&gt;
 146
 147 &lt;p&gt;&lt;blockquote&gt;
 148 Package: package-name
 149 &lt;br&gt;Modaliases: module(modaliasglob, modaliasglob, modaliasglob)&lt;/p&gt;
 150 &lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
 151
 152 &lt;p&gt;It is fairly trivial to write code to find the relevant packages
 153 for a given modalias value using this file.&lt;/p&gt;
 154
 155 &lt;p&gt;An entry like this would suggest the video and picture application
 156 cheese for many USB web cameras (interface bus class 0E01):&lt;/p&gt;
 157
 158 &lt;p&gt;&lt;blockquote&gt;
 159 Package: cheese
 160 &lt;br&gt;Modaliases: cheese(usb:v*p*d*dc*dsc*dp*ic0Eisc01ip*)&lt;/p&gt;
 161 &lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
 162
 163 &lt;p&gt;An entry like this would suggest the pcmciautils package when a
 164 CardBus bridge (bus class 0607) PCI device is present:&lt;/p&gt;
 165
 166 &lt;p&gt;&lt;blockquote&gt;
 167 Package: pcmciautils
 168 &lt;br&gt;Modaliases: pcmciautils(pci:v*d*sv*sd*bc06sc07i*)
 169 &lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
 170
 171 &lt;p&gt;An entry like this would suggest the package colorhug-client when
 172 plugging in a ColorHug with USB IDs 04D8:F8DA:&lt;/p&gt;
 173
 174 &lt;p&gt;&lt;blockquote&gt;
 175 Package: colorhug-client
 176 &lt;br&gt;Modaliases: colorhug-client(usb:v04D8pF8DAd*)&lt;/p&gt;
 177 &lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
 178
 179 &lt;p&gt;I believe the format is compatible with the format of the Packages
 180 file in the Debian archive.  Ubuntu already uses their Packages file
 181 to store their mappings from packages to hardware.&lt;/p&gt;
 182
 183 &lt;p&gt;By adding a XB-Modaliases: header in debian/control, any .deb can
 184 announce the hardware it support in a way my prototype understand.
 185 This allow those publishing packages in an APT source outside the
 186 Debian archive as well as those backporting packages to make sure the
 187 hardware mapping are included in the package meta information.  I&#39;ve
 188 tested such header in the pymissile package, and its modalias mapping
 189 is working as it should with my prototype.  It even made it to Ubuntu
 190 Raring.&lt;/p&gt;
 191
 192 &lt;p&gt;To test if it was possible to look up supported hardware using only
 193 the shell tools available in the Debian installer, I wrote a shell
 194 implementation of the lookup code.  The idea is to create files for
 195 each modalias and let the shell do the matching.  Please check out and
 196 try the
 197 &lt;a href=&quot;http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/hw-support-lookup?view=co&quot;&gt;hw-support-lookup&lt;/a&gt;
 198 shell script.  It run without any extra dependencies and fetch the
 199 hardware mappings from the Debian archive and the subversion
 200 repository where I currently work on my prototype.&lt;/p&gt;
 201
 202 &lt;p&gt;When I use it on a machine with a yubikey inserted, it suggest to
 203 install yubikey-personalization:&lt;/p&gt;
 204
 205 &lt;p&gt;&lt;blockquote&gt;
 206 % ./hw-support-lookup
 207 &lt;br&gt;yubikey-personalization
 208 &lt;br&gt;%
 209 &lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
 210
 211 &lt;p&gt;When I run it on my Thinkpad X40 with a PCMCIA/CardBus slot, it
 212 propose to install the pcmciautils package:&lt;/p&gt;
 213
 214 &lt;p&gt;&lt;blockquote&gt;
 215 % ./hw-support-lookup
 216 &lt;br&gt;pcmciautils
 217 &lt;br&gt;%
 218 &lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
 219
 220 &lt;p&gt;If you know of any hardware-package mapping that should be added to
 221 &lt;a href=&quot;http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/modaliases?view=co&quot;&gt;my
 222 database&lt;/a&gt;, please tell me about it.&lt;/p&gt;
 223
 224 &lt;p&gt;It could be possible to generate several of the mappings between
 225 packages and hardware.  One source would be to look at packages with
 226 kernel modules, ie packages with *.ko files in /lib/modules/, and
 227 extract their modalias information.  Another would be to look at
 228 packages with udev rules, ie packages with files in
 229 /lib/udev/rules.d/, and extract their vendor/model information to
 230 generate a modalias matching rule.  I have not tested any of these to
 231 see if it work.&lt;/p&gt;
 232
 233 &lt;p&gt;If you want to help implementing a system to let us propose what
 234 packages to install when new hardware is plugged into a Debian
 235 machine, please send me an email or talk to me on
 236 &lt;a href=&quot;irc://irc.debian.org/%23debian-devel&quot;&gt;#debian-devel&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
 237 </description>
 238         </item>
 239
 240         <item>
 241                 <title>Modalias strings - a practical way to map &quot;stuff&quot; to hardware</title>
 242                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Modalias_strings___a_practical_way_to_map__stuff__to_hardware.html</link>
 243                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Modalias_strings___a_practical_way_to_map__stuff__to_hardware.html</guid>
 244                 <pubDate>Mon, 14 Jan 2013 11:20:00 +0100</pubDate>
 245                 <description>&lt;p&gt;While looking into how to look up Debian packages based on hardware
 246 information, to find the packages that support a given piece of
 247 hardware, I refreshed my memory regarding modalias values, and decided
 248 to document the details.  Here are my findings so far, also available
 249 in
 250 &lt;a href=&quot;http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/&quot;&gt;the
 251 Debian Edu subversion repository&lt;/a&gt;:
 252
 253 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Modalias decoded&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
 254
 255 &lt;p&gt;This document try to explain what the different types of modalias
 256 values stands for.  It is in part based on information from
 257 &amp;lt;URL: &lt;a href=&quot;https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Modalias&quot;&gt;https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Modalias&lt;/a&gt; &amp;gt;,
 258 &amp;lt;URL: &lt;a href=&quot;http://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/26132/how-to-assign-usb-driver-to-device&quot;&gt;http://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/26132/how-to-assign-usb-driver-to-device&lt;/a&gt; &amp;gt;,
 259 &amp;lt;URL: &lt;a href=&quot;http://code.metager.de/source/history/linux/stable/scripts/mod/file2alias.c&quot;&gt;http://code.metager.de/source/history/linux/stable/scripts/mod/file2alias.c&lt;/a&gt; &amp;gt; and
 260 &amp;lt;URL: &lt;a href=&quot;http://cvs.savannah.gnu.org/viewvc/dmidecode/dmidecode.c?root=dmidecode&amp;view=markup&quot;&gt;http://cvs.savannah.gnu.org/viewvc/dmidecode/dmidecode.c?root=dmidecode&amp;view=markup&lt;/a&gt; &amp;gt;.
 261
 262 &lt;p&gt;The modalias entries for a given Linux machine can be found using
 263 this shell script:&lt;/p&gt;
 264
 265 &lt;pre&gt;
 266 find /sys -name modalias -print0 | xargs -0 cat | sort -u
 267 &lt;/pre&gt;
 268
 269 &lt;p&gt;The supported modalias globs for a given kernel module can be found
 270 using modinfo:&lt;/p&gt;
 271
 272 &lt;pre&gt;
 273 % /sbin/modinfo psmouse | grep alias:
 274 alias:          serio:ty05pr*id*ex*
 275 alias:          serio:ty01pr*id*ex*
 276 %
 277 &lt;/pre&gt;
 278
 279 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;PCI subtype&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
 280
 281 &lt;p&gt;A typical PCI entry can look like this.  This is an Intel Host
 282 Bridge memory controller:&lt;/p&gt;
 283
 284 &lt;p&gt;&lt;blockquote&gt;
 285 pci:v00008086d00002770sv00001028sd000001ADbc06sc00i00
 286 &lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
 287
 288 &lt;p&gt;This represent these values:&lt;/p&gt;
 289
 290 &lt;pre&gt;
 291  v   00008086  (vendor)
 292  d   00002770  (device)
 293  sv  00001028  (subvendor)
 294  sd  000001AD  (subdevice)
 295  bc  06        (bus class)
 296  sc  00        (bus subclass)
 297  i   00        (interface)
 298 &lt;/pre&gt;
 299
 300 &lt;p&gt;The vendor/device values are the same values outputted from &#39;lspci
 301 -n&#39; as 8086:2770.  The bus class/subclass is also shown by lspci as
 302 0600.  The 0600 class is a host bridge.  Other useful bus values are
 303 0300 (VGA compatible card) and 0200 (Ethernet controller).&lt;/p&gt;
 304
 305 &lt;p&gt;Not sure how to figure out the interface value, nor what it
 306 means.&lt;/p&gt;
 307
 308 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;USB subtype&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
 309
 310 &lt;p&gt;Some typical USB entries can look like this.  This is an internal
 311 USB hub in a laptop:&lt;/p&gt;
 312
 313 &lt;p&gt;&lt;blockquote&gt;
 314 usb:v1D6Bp0001d0206dc09dsc00dp00ic09isc00ip00
 315 &lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
 316
 317 &lt;p&gt;Here is the values included in this alias:&lt;/p&gt;
 318
 319 &lt;pre&gt;
 320  v    1D6B  (device vendor)
 321  p    0001  (device product)
 322  d    0206  (bcddevice)
 323  dc     09  (device class)
 324  dsc    00  (device subclass)
 325  dp     00  (device protocol)
 326  ic     09  (interface class)
 327  isc    00  (interface subclass)
 328  ip     00  (interface protocol)
 329 &lt;/pre&gt;
 330
 331 &lt;p&gt;The 0900 device class/subclass means hub.  Some times the relevant
 332 class is in the interface class section.  For a simple USB web camera,
 333 these alias entries show up:&lt;/p&gt;
 334
 335 &lt;p&gt;&lt;blockquote&gt;
 336 usb:v0AC8p3420d5000dcEFdsc02dp01ic01isc01ip00
 337 &lt;br&gt;usb:v0AC8p3420d5000dcEFdsc02dp01ic01isc02ip00
 338 &lt;br&gt;usb:v0AC8p3420d5000dcEFdsc02dp01ic0Eisc01ip00
 339 &lt;br&gt;usb:v0AC8p3420d5000dcEFdsc02dp01ic0Eisc02ip00
 340 &lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
 341
 342 &lt;p&gt;Interface class 0E01 is video control, 0E02 is video streaming (aka
 343 camera), 0101 is audio control device and 0102 is audio streaming (aka
 344 microphone).  Thus this is a camera with microphone included.&lt;/p&gt;
 345
 346 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;ACPI subtype&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
 347
 348 &lt;p&gt;The ACPI type is used for several non-PCI/USB stuff.  This is an IR
 349 receiver in a Thinkpad X40:&lt;/p&gt;
 350
 351 &lt;p&gt;&lt;blockquote&gt;
 352 acpi:IBM0071:PNP0511:
 353 &lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
 354
 355 &lt;p&gt;The values between the colons are IDs.&lt;/p&gt;
 356
 357 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;DMI subtype&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
 358
 359 &lt;p&gt;The DMI table contain lots of information about the computer case
 360 and model.  This is an entry for a IBM Thinkpad X40, fetched from
 361 /sys/devices/virtual/dmi/id/modalias:&lt;/p&gt;
 362
 363 &lt;p&gt;&lt;blockquote&gt;
 364 dmi:bvnIBM:bvr1UETB6WW(1.66):bd06/15/2005:svnIBM:pn2371H4G:pvrThinkPadX40:rvnIBM:rn2371H4G:rvrNotAvailable:cvnIBM:ct10:cvrNotAvailable:
 365 &lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
 366
 367 &lt;p&gt;The values present are&lt;/p&gt;
 368
 369 &lt;pre&gt;
 370  bvn  IBM            (BIOS vendor)
 371  bvr  1UETB6WW(1.66) (BIOS version)
 372  bd   06/15/2005     (BIOS date)
 373  svn  IBM            (system vendor)
 374  pn   2371H4G        (product name)
 375  pvr  ThinkPadX40    (product version)
 376  rvn  IBM            (board vendor)
 377  rn   2371H4G        (board name)
 378  rvr  NotAvailable   (board version)
 379  cvn  IBM            (chassis vendor)
 380  ct   10             (chassis type)
 381  cvr  NotAvailable   (chassis version)
 382 &lt;/pre&gt;
 383
 384 &lt;p&gt;The chassis type 10 is Notebook.  Other interesting values can be
 385 found in the dmidecode source:&lt;/p&gt;
 386
 387 &lt;pre&gt;
 388   3 Desktop
 389   4 Low Profile Desktop
 390   5 Pizza Box
 391   6 Mini Tower
 392   7 Tower
 393   8 Portable
 394   9 Laptop
 395  10 Notebook
 396  11 Hand Held
 397  12 Docking Station
 398  13 All In One
 399  14 Sub Notebook
 400  15 Space-saving
 401  16 Lunch Box
 402  17 Main Server Chassis
 403  18 Expansion Chassis
 404  19 Sub Chassis
 405  20 Bus Expansion Chassis
 406  21 Peripheral Chassis
 407  22 RAID Chassis
 408  23 Rack Mount Chassis
 409  24 Sealed-case PC
 410  25 Multi-system
 411  26 CompactPCI
 412  27 AdvancedTCA
 413  28 Blade
 414  29 Blade Enclosing
 415 &lt;/pre&gt;
 416
 417 &lt;p&gt;The chassis type values are not always accurately set in the DMI
 418 table.  For example my home server is a tower, but the DMI modalias
 419 claim it is a desktop.&lt;/p&gt;
 420
 421 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;SerIO subtype&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
 422
 423 &lt;p&gt;This type is used for PS/2 mouse plugs.  One example is from my
 424 test machine:&lt;/p&gt;
 425
 426 &lt;p&gt;&lt;blockquote&gt;
 427 serio:ty01pr00id00ex00
 428 &lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
 429
 430 &lt;p&gt;The values present are&lt;/p&gt;
 431
 432 &lt;pre&gt;
 433   ty  01  (type)
 434   pr  00  (prototype)
 435   id  00  (id)
 436   ex  00  (extra)
 437 &lt;/pre&gt;
 438
 439 &lt;p&gt;This type is supported by the psmouse driver.  I am not sure what
 440 the valid values are.&lt;/p&gt;
 441
 442 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Other subtypes&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
 443
 444 &lt;p&gt;There are heaps of other modalias subtypes according to
 445 file2alias.c.  There is the rest of the list from that source: amba,
 446 ap, bcma, ccw, css, eisa, hid, i2c, ieee1394, input, ipack, isapnp,
 447 mdio, of, parisc, pcmcia, platform, scsi, sdio, spi, ssb, vio, virtio,
 448 vmbus, x86cpu and zorro.  I did not spend time documenting all of
 449 these, as they do not seem relevant for my intended use with mapping
 450 hardware to packages when new stuff is inserted during run time.&lt;/p&gt;
 451
 452 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Looking up kernel modules using modalias values&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
 453
 454 &lt;p&gt;To check which kernel modules provide support for a given modalias,
 455 one can use the following shell script:&lt;/p&gt;
 456
 457 &lt;pre&gt;
 458   for id in $(find /sys -name modalias -print0 | xargs -0 cat | sort -u); do \
 459     echo &quot;$id&quot; ; \
 460     /sbin/modprobe --show-depends &quot;$id&quot;|sed &#39;s/^/  /&#39; ; \
 461   done
 462 &lt;/pre&gt;
 463
 464 &lt;p&gt;The output can look like this (only the first few entries as the
 465 list is very long on my test machine):&lt;/p&gt;
 466
 467 &lt;pre&gt;
 468   acpi:ACPI0003:
 469     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/drivers/acpi/ac.ko
 470   acpi:device:
 471   FATAL: Module acpi:device: not found.
 472   acpi:IBM0068:
 473     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/drivers/char/nvram.ko
 474     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/drivers/leds/led-class.ko
 475     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/net/rfkill/rfkill.ko
 476     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/drivers/platform/x86/thinkpad_acpi.ko
 477   acpi:IBM0071:PNP0511:
 478     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/lib/crc-ccitt.ko
 479     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/net/irda/irda.ko
 480     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/drivers/net/irda/nsc-ircc.ko
 481   [...]
 482 &lt;/pre&gt;
 483
 484 &lt;p&gt;If you want to help implementing a system to let us propose what
 485 packages to install when new hardware is plugged into a Debian
 486 machine, please send me an email or talk to me on
 487 &lt;a href=&quot;irc://irc.debian.org/%23debian-devel&quot;&gt;#debian-devel&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
 488
 489 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Update 2013-01-15:&lt;/strong&gt; Rewrite &quot;cat $(find ...)&quot; to
 490 &quot;find ... -print0 | xargs -0 cat&quot; to make sure it handle directories
 491 in /sys/ with space in them.&lt;/p&gt;
 492 </description>
 493         </item>
 494
 495         <item>
 496                 <title>Lets make hardware dongles easier to use in Debian</title>
 497                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lets_make_hardware_dongles_easier_to_use_in_Debian.html</link>
 498                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lets_make_hardware_dongles_easier_to_use_in_Debian.html</guid>
 499                 <pubDate>Wed, 9 Jan 2013 15:40:00 +0100</pubDate>
 500                 <description>&lt;p&gt;One thing that annoys me with Debian and Linux distributions in
 501 general, is that there is a great package management system with the
 502 ability to automatically install software packages by downloading them
 503 from the distribution mirrors, but no way to get it to automatically
 504 install the packages I need to use the hardware I plug into my
 505 machine.  Even if the package to use it is easily available from the
 506 Linux distribution.  When I plug in a LEGO Mindstorms NXT, it could
 507 suggest to automatically install the python-nxt, nbc and t2n packages
 508 I need to talk to it.  When I plug in a Yubikey, it could propose the
 509 yubikey-personalization package.  The information required to do this
 510 is available, but no-one have pulled all the pieces together.&lt;/p&gt;
 511
 512 &lt;p&gt;Some years ago, I proposed to
 513 &lt;a href=&quot;http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2010/05/msg01206.html&quot;&gt;use
 514 the discover subsystem to implement this&lt;/a&gt;.  The idea is fairly
 515 simple:
 516
 517 &lt;ul&gt;
 518
 519 &lt;li&gt;Add a desktop entry in /usr/share/autostart/ pointing to a program
 520   starting when a user log in.&lt;/li&gt;
 521
 522 &lt;li&gt;Set this program up to listen for kernel events emitted when new
 523   hardware is inserted into the computer.&lt;/li&gt;
 524
 525 &lt;li&gt;When new hardware is inserted, look up the hardware ID in a
 526   database mapping to packages, and take note of any non-installed
 527   packages.&lt;/li&gt;
 528
 529 &lt;li&gt;Show a message to the user proposing to install the discovered
 530   package, and make it easy to install it.&lt;/li&gt;
 531
 532 &lt;/ul&gt;
 533
 534 &lt;p&gt;I am not sure what the best way to implement this is, but my
 535 initial idea was to use dbus events to discover new hardware, the
 536 discover database to find packages and
 537 &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.packagekit.org/&quot;&gt;PackageKit&lt;/a&gt; to install
 538 packages.&lt;/p&gt;
 539
 540 &lt;p&gt;Yesterday, I found time to try to implement this idea, and the
 541 draft package is now checked into
 542 &lt;a href=&quot;http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/&quot;&gt;the
 543 Debian Edu subversion repository&lt;/a&gt;.  In the process, I updated the
 544 &lt;a href=&quot;http://packages.qa.debian.org/d/discover-data.html&quot;&gt;discover-data&lt;/a&gt;
 545 package to map the USB ids of LEGO Mindstorms and Yubikey devices to
 546 the relevant packages in Debian, and uploaded a new version
 547 2.2013.01.09 to unstable.  I also discovered that the current
 548 &lt;a href=&quot;http://packages.qa.debian.org/d/discover.html&quot;&gt;discover&lt;/a&gt;
 549 package in Debian no longer discovered any USB devices, because
 550 /proc/bus/usb/devices is no longer present.  I ported it to use
 551 libusb as a fall back option to get it working.  The fixed package
 552 version 2.1.2-6 is now in experimental (didn&#39;t upload it to unstable
 553 because of the freeze).&lt;/p&gt;
 554
 555 &lt;p&gt;With this prototype in place, I can insert my Yubikey, and get this
 556 desktop notification to show up (only once, the first time it is
 557 inserted):&lt;/p&gt;
 558
 559 &lt;p align=&quot;center&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-01-09-hw-autoinstall.png&quot;&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
 560
 561 &lt;p&gt;For this prototype to be really useful, some way to automatically
 562 install the proposed packages by pressing the &quot;Please install
 563 program(s)&quot; button should to be implemented.&lt;/p&gt;
 564
 565 &lt;p&gt;If this idea seem useful to you, and you want to help make it
 566 happen, please help me update the discover-data database with mappings
 567 from hardware to Debian packages.  Check if &#39;discover-pkginstall -l&#39;
 568 list the package you would like to have installed when a given
 569 hardware device is inserted into your computer, and report bugs using
 570 reportbug if it isn&#39;t.  Or, if you know of a better way to provide
 571 such mapping, please let me know.&lt;/p&gt;
 572
 573 &lt;p&gt;This prototype need more work, and there are several questions that
 574 should be considered before it is ready for production use.  Is dbus
 575 the correct way to detect new hardware?  At the moment I look for HAL
 576 dbus events on the system bus, because that is the events I could see
 577 on my Debian Squeeze KDE desktop.  Are there better events to use?
 578 How should the user be notified?  Is the desktop notification
 579 mechanism the best option, or should the background daemon raise a
 580 popup instead?  How should packages be installed?  When should they
 581 not be installed?&lt;/p&gt;
 582
 583 &lt;p&gt;If you want to help getting such feature implemented in Debian,
 584 please send me an email. :)&lt;/p&gt;
 585 </description>
 586         </item>
 587
 588         </channel>
 589 </rss>