<channel>
<title>Petter Reinholdtsen - Entries from January 2013</title>
<description>Entries from January 2013</description>
- <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/</link>
+ <link>http://www.hungry.com/~pere/blog/</link>
+ <item>
+ <title>Welcome to the world, Isenkram!</title>
+ <link>http://www.hungry.com/~pere/blog/Welcome_to_the_world__Isenkram_.html</link>
+ <guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.hungry.com/~pere/blog/Welcome_to_the_world__Isenkram_.html</guid>
+ <pubDate>Tue, 22 Jan 2013 22:00:00 +0100</pubDate>
+ <description><p>Yesterday, I
+<a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/First_prototype_ready_making_hardware_easier_to_use_in_Debian.html">asked
+for testers</a> for my prototype for making Debian better at handling
+pluggable hardware devices, which I
+<a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lets_make_hardware_dongles_easier_to_use_in_Debian.html">set
+out to create</a> earlier this month. Several valuable testers showed
+up, and caused me to really want to to open up the development to more
+people. But before I did this, I want to come up with a sensible name
+for this project. Today I finally decided on a new name, and I have
+renamed the project from hw-support-handler to this new name. In the
+process, I moved the source to git and made it available as a
+<a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/gitweb/?p=collab-maint/isenkram.git">collab-maint</a>
+repository in Debian. The new name? It is <strong>Isenkram</strong>.
+To fetch and build the latest version of the source, use</p>
+
+<pre>
+git clone http://anonscm.debian.org/git/collab-maint/isenkram.git
+cd isenkram && git-buildpackage -us -uc
+</pre>
+
+<p>I have not yet adjusted all files to use the new name yet. If you
+want to hack on the source or improve the package, please go ahead.
+But please talk to me first on IRC or via email before you do major
+changes, to make sure we do not step on each others toes. :)</p>
+
+<p>If you wonder what 'isenkram' is, it is a Norwegian word for iron
+stuff, typically meaning tools, nails, screws, etc. Typical hardware
+stuff, in other words. I've been told it is the Norwegian variant of
+the German word eisenkram, for those that are familiar with that
+word.</p>
+
+<p><strong>Update 2013-01-26</strong>: Added -us -us to build
+instructions, to avoid confusing people with an error from the signing
+process.</p>
+
+<p><strong>Update 2013-01-27</strong>: Switch to HTTP URL for the git
+clone argument to avoid the need for authentication.</p>
+</description>
+ </item>
+
+ <item>
+ <title>First prototype ready making hardware easier to use in Debian</title>
+ <link>http://www.hungry.com/~pere/blog/First_prototype_ready_making_hardware_easier_to_use_in_Debian.html</link>
+ <guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.hungry.com/~pere/blog/First_prototype_ready_making_hardware_easier_to_use_in_Debian.html</guid>
+ <pubDate>Mon, 21 Jan 2013 12:00:00 +0100</pubDate>
+ <description><p>Early this month I set out to try to
+<a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lets_make_hardware_dongles_easier_to_use_in_Debian.html">improve
+the Debian support for pluggable hardware devices</a>. Now my
+prototype is working, and it is ready for a larger audience. To test
+it, fetch the
+<a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/">source
+from the Debian Edu subversion repository</a>, build and install the
+package. You might have to log out and in again activate the
+autostart script.</p>
+
+<p>The design is simple:</p>
+
+<ul>
+
+<li>Add desktop entry in /usr/share/autostart/ causing a program
+hw-support-handlerd to start when the user log in.</li>
+
+<li>This program listen for kernel events about new hardware (directly
+from the kernel like udev does), not using HAL dbus events as I
+initially did.</li>
+
+<li>When new hardware is inserted, look up the hardware modalias in
+the APT database, a database
+<a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/modaliases?view=markup">available
+via HTTP</a> and a database available as part of the package.</li>
+
+<li>If a package is mapped to the hardware in question, the package
+isn't installed yet and this is the first time the hardware was
+plugged in, show a desktop notification suggesting to install the
+package or packages.</li>
+
+<li>If the user click on the 'install package now' button, ask
+aptdaemon via the PackageKit API to install the requrired package.</li>
+
+<li>aptdaemon ask for root password or sudo password, and install the
+package while showing progress information in a window.</li>
+
+</ul>
+
+<p>I still need to come up with a better name for the system. Here
+are some screen shots showing the prototype in action. First the
+notification, then the password request, and finally the request to
+approve all the dependencies. Sorry for the Norwegian Bokmål GUI.</p>
+
+<p><img src="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-01-21-hw-support-1-notification.png">
+<br><img src="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-01-21-hw-support-2-password.png">
+<br><img src="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-01-21-hw-support-3-dependencies.png">
+<br><img src="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-01-21-hw-support-4-installing.png">
+<br><img src="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-01-21-hw-support-5-installing-details.png" width="70%"></p>
+
+<p>The prototype still need to be improved with longer timeouts, but
+is already useful. The database of hardware to package mappings also
+need more work. It is currently compatible with the Ubuntu way of
+storing such information in the package control file, but could be
+changed to use other formats instead or in addition to the current
+method. I've dropped the use of discover for this mapping, as the
+modalias approach is more flexible and easier to use on Linux as long
+as the Linux kernel expose its modalias strings directly.</p>
+
+<p><strong>Update 2013-01-21 16:50</strong>: Due to popular demand,
+here is the command required to check out and build the source: Use
+'<tt>svn checkout
+svn://svn.debian.org/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/; cd
+hw-support-handler; debuild</tt>'. If you lack debuild, install the
+devscripts package.</p>
+
+<p><strong>Update 2013-01-23 12:00</strong>: The project is now
+renamed to Isenkram and the source moved from the Debian Edu
+subversion repository to a Debian collab-maint git repository. See
+<a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Welcome_to_the_world__Isenkram_.html">build
+instructions</a> for details.</p>
+</description>
+ </item>
+
+ <item>
+ <title>Thank you Thinkpad X41, for your long and trustworthy service</title>
+ <link>http://www.hungry.com/~pere/blog/Thank_you_Thinkpad_X41__for_your_long_and_trustworthy_service.html</link>
+ <guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.hungry.com/~pere/blog/Thank_you_Thinkpad_X41__for_your_long_and_trustworthy_service.html</guid>
+ <pubDate>Sat, 19 Jan 2013 09:20:00 +0100</pubDate>
+ <description><p>This Christmas my trusty old laptop died. It died quietly and
+suddenly in bed. With a quiet whimper, it went completely quiet and
+black. The power button was no longer able to turn it on. It was a
+IBM Thinkpad X41, and the best laptop I ever had. Better than both
+Thinkpads X30, X31, X40, X60, X61 and X61S. Far better than the
+Compaq I had before that. Now I need to find a replacement. To keep
+going during Christmas, I moved the one year old SSD disk to my old
+X40 where it fitted (only one I had left that could use it), but it is
+not a durable solution.
+
+<p>My laptop needs are fairly modest. This is my wishlist from when I
+got a new one more than 10 years ago. It still holds true.:)</p>
+
+<ul>
+
+<li>Lightweight (around 1 kg) and small volume (preferably smaller
+ than A4).</li>
+<li>Robust, it will be in my backpack every day.</li>
+<li>Three button mouse and a mouse pin instead of touch pad.</li>
+<li>Long battery life time. Preferable a week.</li>
+<li>Internal WIFI network card.</li>
+<li>Internal Twisted Pair network card.</li>
+<li>Some USB slots (2-3 is plenty)</li>
+<li>Good keyboard - similar to the Thinkpad.</li>
+<li>Video resolution at least 1024x768, with size around 12" (A4 paper
+size).</li>
+<li>Hardware supported by Debian Stable, ie the default kernel and
+ X.org packages.</li>
+<li>Quiet, preferably fan free (or at least not using the fan most of
+ the time).
+
+</ul>
+
+<p>You will notice that there are no RAM and CPU requirements in the
+list. The reason is simply that the specifications on laptops the
+last 10-15 years have been sufficient for my needs, and I have to look
+at other features to choose my laptop. But are there still made as
+robust laptops as my X41? The Thinkpad X60/X61 proved to be less
+robust, and Thinkpads seem to be heading in the wrong direction since
+Lenovo took over. But I've been told that X220 and X1 Carbon might
+still be useful.</p>
+
+<p>Perhaps I should rethink my needs, and look for a pad with an
+external keyboard? I'll have to check the
+<a href="http://www.linux-laptop.net/">Linux Laptops site</a> for
+well-supported laptops, or perhaps just buy one preinstalled from one
+of the vendors listed on the <a href="http://linuxpreloaded.com/">Linux
+Pre-loaded site</a>.</p>
+</description>
+ </item>
+
<item>
<title>How to find a browser plugin supporting a given MIME type</title>
- <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_find_a_browser_plugin_supporting_a_given_MIME_type.html</link>
- <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_find_a_browser_plugin_supporting_a_given_MIME_type.html</guid>
+ <link>http://www.hungry.com/~pere/blog/How_to_find_a_browser_plugin_supporting_a_given_MIME_type.html</link>
+ <guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.hungry.com/~pere/blog/How_to_find_a_browser_plugin_supporting_a_given_MIME_type.html</guid>
<pubDate>Fri, 18 Jan 2013 10:40:00 +0100</pubDate>
<description><p>Some times I try to figure out which Iceweasel browser plugin to
install to get support for a given MIME type. Thanks to
itself to query for plugins and propose to install the needed
packages. It would be great if Debian supported such feature too. Is
anyone working on adding it?</p>
+
+<p><strong>Update 2013-01-18 14:20</strong>: The Debian BTS
+request for icweasel support for this feature is
+<a href="http://bugs.debian.org/484010">#484010</a> from 2008 (and
+<a href="http://bugs.debian.org/698426">#698426</a> from today). Lack
+of manpower and wish for a different design is the reason thus feature
+is not yet in iceweasel from Debian.</p>
</description>
</item>
<item>
<title>What is the most supported MIME type in Debian?</title>
- <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/What_is_the_most_supported_MIME_type_in_Debian_.html</link>
- <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/What_is_the_most_supported_MIME_type_in_Debian_.html</guid>
+ <link>http://www.hungry.com/~pere/blog/What_is_the_most_supported_MIME_type_in_Debian_.html</link>
+ <guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.hungry.com/~pere/blog/What_is_the_most_supported_MIME_type_in_Debian_.html</guid>
<pubDate>Wed, 16 Jan 2013 10:10:00 +0100</pubDate>
<description><p>The <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/AppStreamDebianProposal">DEP-11
proposal to add AppStream information to the Debian archive</a>, is a
<item>
<title>Using modalias info to find packages handling my hardware</title>
- <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Using_modalias_info_to_find_packages_handling_my_hardware.html</link>
- <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Using_modalias_info_to_find_packages_handling_my_hardware.html</guid>
+ <link>http://www.hungry.com/~pere/blog/Using_modalias_info_to_find_packages_handling_my_hardware.html</link>
+ <guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.hungry.com/~pere/blog/Using_modalias_info_to_find_packages_handling_my_hardware.html</guid>
<pubDate>Tue, 15 Jan 2013 08:00:00 +0100</pubDate>
<description><p>Yesterday, I wrote about the
-<a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Modalias_strings___a_practical_way_to_map__stuff__to_hardware.html">modalias
+<a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Modalias_strings___a_practical_way_to_map__stuff__to_hardware.html">modalias
values provided by the Linux kernel</a> following my hope for
-<a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lets_make_hardware_dongles_easier_to_use_in_Debian.html">better
+<a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lets_make_hardware_dongles_easier_to_use_in_Debian.html">better
dongle support in Debian</a>. Using this knowledge, I have tested how
modalias values attached to package names can be used to map packages
to hardware. This allow the system to look up and suggest relevant
<item>
<title>Modalias strings - a practical way to map "stuff" to hardware</title>
- <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Modalias_strings___a_practical_way_to_map__stuff__to_hardware.html</link>
- <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Modalias_strings___a_practical_way_to_map__stuff__to_hardware.html</guid>
+ <link>http://www.hungry.com/~pere/blog/Modalias_strings___a_practical_way_to_map__stuff__to_hardware.html</link>
+ <guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.hungry.com/~pere/blog/Modalias_strings___a_practical_way_to_map__stuff__to_hardware.html</guid>
<pubDate>Mon, 14 Jan 2013 11:20:00 +0100</pubDate>
<description><p>While looking into how to look up Debian packages based on hardware
information, to find the packages that support a given piece of
<item>
<title>Moved the pymissile Debian packaging to collab-maint</title>
- <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Moved_the_pymissile_Debian_packaging_to_collab_maint.html</link>
- <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Moved_the_pymissile_Debian_packaging_to_collab_maint.html</guid>
+ <link>http://www.hungry.com/~pere/blog/Moved_the_pymissile_Debian_packaging_to_collab_maint.html</link>
+ <guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.hungry.com/~pere/blog/Moved_the_pymissile_Debian_packaging_to_collab_maint.html</guid>
<pubDate>Thu, 10 Jan 2013 20:40:00 +0100</pubDate>
<description><p>As part of my investigation on how to improve the support in Debian
for hardware dongles, I dug up my old Mark and Spencer USB Rocket
<item>
<title>Lets make hardware dongles easier to use in Debian</title>
- <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lets_make_hardware_dongles_easier_to_use_in_Debian.html</link>
- <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lets_make_hardware_dongles_easier_to_use_in_Debian.html</guid>
+ <link>http://www.hungry.com/~pere/blog/Lets_make_hardware_dongles_easier_to_use_in_Debian.html</link>
+ <guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.hungry.com/~pere/blog/Lets_make_hardware_dongles_easier_to_use_in_Debian.html</guid>
<pubDate>Wed, 9 Jan 2013 15:40:00 +0100</pubDate>
<description><p>One thing that annoys me with Debian and Linux distributions in
general, is that there is a great package management system with the
desktop notification to show up (only once, the first time it is
inserted):</p>
-<p align="center"><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-01-09-hw-autoinstall.png"></p>
+<p align="center"><img src="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-01-09-hw-autoinstall.png"></p>
<p>For this prototype to be really useful, some way to automatically
install the proposed packages by pressing the "Please install
<item>
<title>New IRC channel for LEGO designers using Debian</title>
- <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/New_IRC_channel_for_LEGO_designers_using_Debian.html</link>
- <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/New_IRC_channel_for_LEGO_designers_using_Debian.html</guid>
+ <link>http://www.hungry.com/~pere/blog/New_IRC_channel_for_LEGO_designers_using_Debian.html</link>
+ <guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.hungry.com/~pere/blog/New_IRC_channel_for_LEGO_designers_using_Debian.html</guid>
<pubDate>Wed, 2 Jan 2013 15:40:00 +0100</pubDate>
<description><p>During Christmas, I have worked a bit on the Debian support for
<a href="http://mindstorms.lego.com/en-us/Default.aspx">LEGO Mindstorm
<item>
<title>Lenker for 2013-01-01</title>
- <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lenker_for_2013_01_01.html</link>
- <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lenker_for_2013_01_01.html</guid>
+ <link>http://www.hungry.com/~pere/blog/Lenker_for_2013_01_01.html</link>
+ <guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.hungry.com/~pere/blog/Lenker_for_2013_01_01.html</guid>
<pubDate>Tue, 1 Jan 2013 09:20:00 +0100</pubDate>
<description><p>Her er noen lenker til tekster jeg har satt pris på å lese den
siste måneden.</p>
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