<link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/</link>
<atom:link href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/index.rss" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml" />
+ <item>
+ <title>Frikanalen - Complete TV station organised using the web</title>
+ <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Frikanalen___Complete_TV_station_organised_using_the_web.html</link>
+ <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Frikanalen___Complete_TV_station_organised_using_the_web.html</guid>
+ <pubDate>Sun, 3 Mar 2013 07:15:00 +0100</pubDate>
+ <description><p>Do you want to set up your own TV station, schedule videos and
+broadcast them on the air? Using free software? With video on demand
+support using
+<a href="http://www.digistan.org/open-standard:definition">free and
+open standards</a>? Included a web based video stream as well? And
+administrate it all in your web browser from anywhere in the world? A
+few years now the Norwegian public access TV-channel
+<a href="http://www.frikanalen.no/">Frikanalen</a> have been building a
+system to do just this. The source code for the solution is licensed
+using the GNU LGPL, and
+<a href="http://github.com/Frikanalen">available from github</a>.</p>
+
+<p>The idea is simple. You upload a video file over the web, and
+attach meta information to the file. You select a time slot in the
+program schedule, and when the time come it is played on the air and
+in the web stream. It is also made available in a video on demand
+solution for anyone to see it also outside its scheduled time. All
+you need to run a TV station - using your web browser.</p>
+
+<p>There are several parts to this web based solution. I'll mention
+the three most important ones. The first part is the database of
+videos and the schedule. This is written in Django and include a REST
+API. The current database is SQLite, but the plan is to migrate it to
+PostgreSQL. At the moment this system can be tested on
+<a href="http://beta.frikanalen.tv/">beta.frikanalen.tv</a>. The
+second part is the video playout, taking the schedule information from
+the database and providing a video stream to broadcast. This is done
+using <a href="http://www.casparcg.com/">CasparCG from SVT</a> and
+<a href="http://www.mltframework.org/">Media Lovin' Toolkit</a>. Video
+signal distribution is handled using
+<a href="http://www.ob-encoder.com/">Open Broadcast Encoder</a>. The
+third part is the converter, handling the transformation of uploaded
+video files to a format useful for broadcasting, streaming and video
+on demand. It is still very much work in progress, so it is not yet
+decided what it will end up using. Note that the source of the latter
+two parts are not yet pushed to github. The lead author want to clean
+them up a bit more first.</p>
+
+<p>The development is coordinated on the
+<a href="irc://irc.freenode.net/%23frikanalen">#frikanalen IRC
+channel</a> (irc.freenode.net), and discussed on
+<a href="http://lists.nuug.no/mailman/listinfo/frikanalen">the
+frikanalen mailing list</a>. The lead developer is Benjamin Bruheim
+(phed on IRC). Anyone is welcome to participate in the
+development.</p>
+</description>
+ </item>
+
+ <item>
+ <title>Dr. Richard Stallman, founder of Free Software Foundation, give a talk in Oslo March 1st 2013</title>
+ <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Dr__Richard_Stallman__founder_of_Free_Software_Foundation__give_a_talk_in_Oslo_March_1st_2013.html</link>
+ <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Dr__Richard_Stallman__founder_of_Free_Software_Foundation__give_a_talk_in_Oslo_March_1st_2013.html</guid>
+ <pubDate>Wed, 27 Feb 2013 20:20:00 +0100</pubDate>
+ <description><p>Dr. <a href="http://www.stallman.org/">Richard Stallman</a>,
+founder of <a href="http://www.fsf.org/">Free Software Foundation</a>,
+is giving <a href="http://www.nuug.no/aktiviteter/20130301-rms/">a
+talk in Oslo March 1st 2013 17:00 to 19:00</a>. The event is public
+and organised by <a href="">Norwegian Unix Users Group (NUUG)</a>
+(where I am the chair of the board) and
+<a href="http://www.friprog.no/">The Norwegian Open Source Competence
+Center</a>. The title of the talk is «The Free Software Movement and
+GNU», with this description:
+
+<p><blockquote>
+The Free Software Movement campaigns for computer users' freedom to
+cooperate and control their own computing. The Free Software Movement
+developed the GNU operating system, typically used together with the
+kernel Linux, specifically to make these freedoms possible.
+</blockquote></p>
+
+<p>The meeting is open for everyone. Due to space limitations, the
+doors opens for NUUG members at 16:15, and everyone else at 16:45. I
+am really curious how many will show up. See
+<a href="http://www.nuug.no/aktiviteter/20130301-rms/">the event
+page</a> for the location details.</p>
+</description>
+ </item>
+
+ <item>
+ <title>Skolelinux-intervju: Helge Tore Høyland</title>
+ <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Skolelinux_intervju__Helge_Tore_H_yland.html</link>
+ <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Skolelinux_intervju__Helge_Tore_H_yland.html</guid>
+ <pubDate>Fri, 22 Feb 2013 08:10:00 +0100</pubDate>
+ <description><p>Etter en lang pause og travle uker har jeg endelig klart å få
+samlet et nytt intervju med en av folkene i
+<a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Skolelinux</a>-miljøet.
+Denne gang er det Helge Tore Høyland, en mangeårig bidragsyter på
+epostlistene og ellers i prosjektet.</p>
+
+<p><strong>Hvem er du, og hva driver du med til daglig?</strong></p>
+
+<p>Eg er IT-konsulent/teknikker hjå eit firma i Steinkjer med navn
+<a href="http://unoit.no/">Uno IT</a>. Uno IT er eit lite firma som
+drifter nettverk og maskiner for små og mellomstore firma
+Steinkjer-området. Per dags dato er me 2 ansatte. Min faglege bakgrunn
+er Fagbrev som it-teknikker, samt nokre fag innen nettverk- og
+server-drift frå HiST og NTNU. Dagleg arbeid består i oppsett av nye
+maskiner og hjelp til sluttbrukere, samt oppsett og vedlikehold av eit
+vidt spekter av fagsystemer ute hjå kunder. Erfaring med Skolelinux
+har eg hatt i forbindelse med drifting av
+<a href="http://www.bjorkly.no/">Bjørkly skule</a>, ein privat
+grunnskule i Namsos-området. I dag har skulen 65 elever, 15 lærere, 1
+hovedserver og ca 60 klienter som kjører halvtjukt. Eg har bygd og
+driftet systemet sidan summaren 2006.</p>
+
+<p><strong>Hvordan kom du i kontakt med Skolelinux-prosjektet?</strong></p>
+
+<p>Eg kom i kontakt med Skolelinux-prosjektet via ein artikkel i eit
+fagblad, som eg ikkje lenger hugsar namnet på. I og med at eg allereie
+hadde pusla med nettverk for ein annan skule, fatta eg straks
+interesse for prosjektet.</p>
+
+<p><strong>Hva er fordelene med Skolelinux slik du ser det?</strong></p>
+
+<p>Fordelane med Skolelinux er sentralisert administrasjon og svært
+mange gode verktøy «ut av boksen». Veldig kjekt å kunne drifte 60
+klientar med berre å «bry» seg med ein server. Levetid for systemets
+hardware er og ein veldig fin effekt. I tillegg kjem fordelar som økt
+sikkerhet og mindre lisenskostnader. Etter min erfaring er det og
+mykje mindre driftskostnader med eit slikt system enn konkurrerande
+system, pga enkelhet med sentralisert administrasjon. På grunn av at
+Skolelinux er basert på Debian er det òg svært stabilt.</p>
+
+<p><strong>Hva er ulempene med Skolelinux slik du ser det?</strong></p>
+
+<p>Ulemper er mangel på vilje til å følge standarer ute i markedet,
+som fører til mangel på støtte til nokre mykje brukte ting. Flash og
+Java er typiske eksempel. Sidan Debian satsar på stabilitet framfor å
+ha nyeste pakke av eit program, kan ein i nokre tilfeller kome borti
+at program vert «for gamle». Det er spesielt nettlesaren som er
+utsett. Mangel på vilje til å utvikle pedagogisk programvare, i Noreg,
+for «alle» platformer fører òg til noko hovudbry.</p>
+
+<p><strong>Hvilken fri programvare bruker du til daglig?</strong></p>
+
+<p>Til dagleg bruker eg svært mange forskjellige «fri programvare»
+program. Firefox, Thunderbird, Freecommander, ImgBurn, Clonezilla,
+OCS inventory, Icinga, Skolelinux, SystemRescueCD og mykje meir.</p>
+
+<p><strong>Hvilken strategi tror du er den rette å bruke for å få
+skoler til å ta i bruk fri programvare?</strong></p>
+
+<p>Strategisk må ein fokusere på at sluttbruker eigentleg ikkje er så
+fokusert på at det er fri programvare men at det skal «berre fungere».
+Gjer det enkelt å bruker og ikkje minst å administrere. For Skolelinux
+sin del må ein få eit betre fokus på overganger. Utbytting av servere
+må gå meir automatisk, import og eksport av brukerbase og maskinbase
+med meir må kunne gå enkelt og oppgradering til neste versjon må bli
+mykje meir automatisk og gjennomtesta. Ein må unngå at ein må sette
+opp frå start når ein byter ut ein server eller oppgraderer til neste
+versjon. For å få Skolelinux til å bli eit betre alternativ for skular
+må ein ha fokus på nettlesaren. Denne må bli «up to date» og støtte
+dei protokollar og tillegg som vert brukt av forlag med meir. Etter
+kvart som meir og meir blir flytta ut i «skya» vert dette viktigare og
+viktigare. Ein kunne ynskje og jobbe for at forlag med fleire tar i
+bruk opne standarer, men inntil det skjer, må systemet kunne brukast
+mot desse fagsystema.</p>
+
+<p>For meg har prosjektet med Skolelinux vore ein svært artig og
+lærerik prosess. Miljøet rundt er ikkje enormt stort, dog stort nok,
+men det er svært hjelpevillig og engasjert.</p>
+</description>
+ </item>
+
+ <item>
+ <title>Frikart - Free Garmin maps for European countries based on OpenStreetmap</title>
+ <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Frikart___Free_Garmin_maps_for_European_countries_based_on_OpenStreetmap.html</link>
+ <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Frikart___Free_Garmin_maps_for_European_countries_based_on_OpenStreetmap.html</guid>
+ <pubDate>Fri, 15 Feb 2013 09:30:00 +0100</pubDate>
+ <description><p>If you, like me, want an updated a map for your Garmin GPS, there is
+now a great source of free maps available from
+<a href="http://www.frikart.no/garmin/index.html">Frikart</a>. To
+download a map, just click on the country you are interested in, and
+download the map type you want. There are 8 different maps available,
+using different colours and data selection. Pick one of Roadmap, Topo
+Summer, Topo Winter, Roadmap II, Topo Summer II, Topo Winter II,
+"Trails - overlay map" and "Cross country - overlay map" (see the web
+page for descriptions).</p>
+
+<p>The maps are updated weekly, so if you find something wrong in the
+map you can just edit the
+<a href="http://www.openstreetmap.org/">OpenStreetmap</a> map source
+(anyone can contribute) and fetch a fixed map a week later. :)</p>
+</description>
+ </item>
+
+ <item>
+ <title>"Electronic" paper invoices - using vCard in a QR code</title>
+ <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/_Electronic__paper_invoices___using_vCard_in_a_QR_code.html</link>
+ <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/_Electronic__paper_invoices___using_vCard_in_a_QR_code.html</guid>
+ <pubDate>Tue, 12 Feb 2013 10:30:00 +0100</pubDate>
+ <description><p>Here in Norway, electronic invoices are spreading, and the
+<a href="http://www.anskaffelser.no/e-handel/faktura">solution promoted
+by the Norwegian government</a> require that invoices are sent through
+one of the approved facilitators, and it is not possible to send
+electronic invoices without an agreement with one of these
+facilitators. This seem like a needless limitation to be able to
+transfer invoice information between buyers and sellers. My preferred
+solution would be to just transfer the invoice information directly
+between seller and buyer, for example using SMTP, or some HTTP based
+protocol like REST or SOAP. But this might also be overkill, as the
+"electronic" information can be transferred using paper invoices too,
+using a simple bar code. My bar code encoding of choice would be QR
+codes, as this encoding can be read by any smart phone out there. The
+content of the code could be anything, but I would go with
+<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VCard">the vCard format</a>, as
+it too is supported by a lot of computer equipment these days.</p>
+
+<p>The vCard format support extentions, and the invoice specific
+information can be included using such extentions. For example an
+invoice from SLX Debian Labs (picked because we
+<a href="http://www.linuxiskolen.no/slxdebianlabs/donations.html">ask
+for donations to the Debian Edu project</a> and thus have bank account
+information publicly available) for NOK 1000.00 could have these extra
+fields:</p>
+
+<p><pre>
+X-INVOICE-NUMBER:1
+X-INVOICE-AMOUNT:NOK1000.00
+X-INVOICE-KID:123412341234
+X-INVOICE-MSG:Donation to Debian Edu
+X-BANK-ACCOUNT-NUMBER:16040884339
+X-BANK-IBAN-NUMBER:NO8516040884339
+X-BANK-SWIFT-NUMBER:DNBANOKKXXX
+</pre></p>
+
+<p>The X-BANK-ACCOUNT-NUMBER field was proposed in a stackoverflow
+answer regarding
+<a href="http://stackoverflow.com/questions/10045664/storing-bank-account-in-vcard-file">how
+to put bank account information into a vCard</a>. For payments in
+Norway, either X-INVOICE-KID (payment ID) or X-INVOICE-MSG could be
+used to pass on information to the seller when paying the invoice.</p>
+
+<p>The complete vCard could look like this:</p>
+
+<p><pre>
+BEGIN:VCARD
+VERSION:2.1
+ORG:SLX Debian Labs Foundation
+ADR;WORK:;;Gunnar Schjelderups vei 29D;OSLO;;0485;Norway
+URL;WORK:http://www.linuxiskolen.no/slxdebianlabs/
+EMAIL;PREF;INTERNET:sdl-styret@rt.nuug.no
+REV:20130212T095000Z
+X-INVOICE-NUMBER:1
+X-INVOICE-AMOUNT:NOK1000.00
+X-INVOICE-MSG:Donation to Debian Edu
+X-BANK-ACCOUNT-NUMBER:16040884339
+X-BANK-IBAN-NUMBER:NO8516040884339
+X-BANK-SWIFT-NUMBER:DNBANOKKXXX
+END:VCARD
+</pre></p>
+
+<p>The resulting QR code created using
+<a href="http://fukuchi.org/works/qrencode/">qrencode</a> would look
+like this, and should be readable (and thus checkable) by any smart
+phone, or for example the <a href="http://zbar.sourceforge.net/">zbar
+bar code reader</a> and feed right into the approval and accounting
+system.</p>
+
+<p><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-02-12-qr-invoice.png"></p>
+
+<p>The extension fields will most likely not show up in any normal
+vCard reader, so those parts would have to go directly into a system
+handling invoices. I am a bit unsure how vCards without name parts
+are handled, but a simple test indicate that this work just fine.</p>
+
+<p><strong>Update 2013-02-12 11:30</strong>: Added KID to the proposal
+based on feedback from Sturle Sunde.</p>
+</description>
+ </item>
+
+ <item>
+ <title>Litt statistikk over offentlige anbud annonsert via Doffin siden 2008</title>
+ <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Litt_statistikk_over_offentlige_anbud_annonsert_via_Doffin_siden_2008.html</link>
+ <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Litt_statistikk_over_offentlige_anbud_annonsert_via_Doffin_siden_2008.html</guid>
+ <pubDate>Mon, 11 Feb 2013 14:40:00 +0100</pubDate>
+ <description><p>For et halvt år siden
+<a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/SQL_database_med_anbud_publisert_p__Doffin.html">satte
+jeg opp et system for å lage en database</a> med informasjon om
+offentlige anbud fra <a href="http://www.doffin.no/">Doffin</a> ved
+<a href="https://scraperwiki.com/scrapers/norwegian-doffin/">hjelp av
+Scraperwiki</a>. Nå er databasen så vidt jeg kan se komplett, med
+data helt tilbake til 2008. Her er litt statistikk over
+<a href="https://api.scraperwiki.com/api/1.0/datastore/sqlite?format=htmltable&name=norwegian-doffin&query=select%20strftime(%22%25Y-%25m%22%2C%20publishdate)%20as%20publishmonth%2C%20count(*)%20from%20%60swdata%60%20group%20by%20publishmonth%20order%20by%20publishmonth%20desc">antall
+anbud publisert hver måned</a>:</p>
+
+<p><table border="1">
+<tr> <th>Publiseringsmåned</th> <th>Antall</th> </tr>
+<tr> <td>2013-01</td> <td>1015</td> </tr>
+<tr> <td>2012-12</td> <td>756</td> </tr>
+<tr> <td>2012-11</td> <td>979</td> </tr>
+<tr> <td>2012-10</td> <td>1093</td> </tr>
+<tr> <td>2012-09</td> <td>1023</td> </tr>
+<tr> <td>2012-08</td> <td>951</td> </tr>
+<tr> <td>2012-07</td> <td>1103</td> </tr>
+<tr> <td>2012-06</td> <td>1334</td> </tr>
+<tr> <td>2012-05</td> <td>1435</td> </tr>
+<tr> <td>2012-04</td> <td>1169</td> </tr>
+<tr> <td>2012-03</td> <td>1573</td> </tr>
+<tr> <td>2012-02</td> <td>1335</td> </tr>
+<tr> <td>2012-01</td> <td>1147</td> </tr>
+<tr> <td>2011-12</td> <td>1045</td> </tr>
+<tr> <td>2011-11</td> <td>1114</td> </tr>
+<tr> <td>2011-10</td> <td>1230</td> </tr>
+<tr> <td>2011-09</td> <td>1165</td> </tr>
+<tr> <td>2011-08</td> <td>966</td> </tr>
+<tr> <td>2011-07</td> <td>1148</td> </tr>
+<tr> <td>2011-06</td> <td>1410</td> </tr>
+<tr> <td>2011-05</td> <td>1536</td> </tr>
+<tr> <td>2011-04</td> <td>1350</td> </tr>
+<tr> <td>2011-03</td> <td>1574</td> </tr>
+<tr> <td>2011-02</td> <td>1370</td> </tr>
+<tr> <td>2011-01</td> <td>1049</td> </tr>
+<tr> <td>2010-12</td> <td>992</td> </tr>
+<tr> <td>2010-11</td> <td>1089</td> </tr>
+<tr> <td>2010-10</td> <td>1110</td> </tr>
+<tr> <td>2010-09</td> <td>1132</td> </tr>
+<tr> <td>2010-08</td> <td>883</td> </tr>
+<tr> <td>2010-07</td> <td>1126</td> </tr>
+<tr> <td>2010-06</td> <td>1440</td> </tr>
+<tr> <td>2010-05</td> <td>1236</td> </tr>
+<tr> <td>2010-04</td> <td>1249</td> </tr>
+<tr> <td>2010-03</td> <td>1556</td> </tr>
+<tr> <td>2010-02</td> <td>1256</td> </tr>
+<tr> <td>2010-01</td> <td>1140</td> </tr>
+<tr> <td>2009-12</td> <td>1013</td> </tr>
+<tr> <td>2009-11</td> <td>1220</td> </tr>
+<tr> <td>2009-10</td> <td>1320</td> </tr>
+<tr> <td>2009-09</td> <td>1294</td> </tr>
+<tr> <td>2009-08</td> <td>953</td> </tr>
+<tr> <td>2009-07</td> <td>1162</td> </tr>
+<tr> <td>2009-06</td> <td>1605</td> </tr>
+<tr> <td>2009-05</td> <td>1568</td> </tr>
+<tr> <td>2009-04</td> <td>1522</td> </tr>
+<tr> <td>2009-03</td> <td>1599</td> </tr>
+<tr> <td>2009-02</td> <td>1376</td> </tr>
+<tr> <td>2009-01</td> <td>1080</td> </tr>
+<tr> <td>2008-12</td> <td>1028</td> </tr>
+<tr> <td>2008-11</td> <td>949</td> </tr>
+<tr> <td>2008-10</td> <td>1047</td> </tr>
+<tr> <td>2008-09</td> <td>965</td> </tr>
+<tr> <td>2008-08</td> <td>725</td> </tr>
+<tr> <td>2008-07</td> <td>1015</td> </tr>
+<tr> <td>2008-06</td> <td>1304</td> </tr>
+<tr> <td>2008-05</td> <td>323</td> </tr>
+</table></p>
+
+<p>Her er tilsvarende
+<a href="https://api.scraperwiki.com/api/1.0/datastore/sqlite?format=htmltable&name=norwegian-doffin&query=select%20strftime(%22%25Y%22%2C%20publishdate)%20as%20publishyear%2C%20count(*)%20from%20%60swdata%60%20group%20by%20publishyear%20order%20by%20publishyear%20desc">tall
+per år</a>, som viser en liten nedgang i antall anbud:</p>
+
+<table border="1">
+<tr> <th>Publiseringsår</th> <th>Antall</th> </tr>
+<tr> <td>2012</td> <td>13898</td> </tr>
+<tr> <td>2011</td> <td>14957</td> </tr>
+<tr> <td>2010</td> <td>14209</td> </tr>
+<tr> <td>2009</td> <td>15712</td> </tr>
+<tr> <td>2008</td> <td>7356</td> </tr>
+</table></p>
+
+<p>Jeg droppet den ufullstendige måneden og året fra tabellen. Se
+lenken for oppdaterte tall.</p>
+</description>
+ </item>
+
+ <item>
+ <title>Sleep until morning - home automation for the kids</title>
+ <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Sleep_until_morning___home_automation_for_the_kids.html</link>
+ <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Sleep_until_morning___home_automation_for_the_kids.html</guid>
+ <pubDate>Sun, 10 Feb 2013 12:50:00 +0100</pubDate>
+ <description><p><img align="left" style="margin-right:25px;" src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-02-10-morning-light.jpeg"></p>
+
+<p>With kids in the house, one challenge is getting them to sleep
+during the night and wake up when it is morning. I mean, when I
+believe it is morning, and not two hours earlier. In our household we
+have decided that 07:00 is the turning point, but getting the kids to
+sleep until 07:00 is a small challenge every day. They have adapted
+quite well, and rarely wake up at 05:00 any more, but some times wake
+up at times like 05:50, 06:15, 06:30 or 06:45, and it is hard to put
+the awake one to bed again without disturbing and waking the rest.
+And I understand perfectly well that they fail to sleep until 07:00
+some times, as there is no way for them to know if it is before or
+after the magic moment without coming and asking us parents.</p>
+
+<p>But yesterday I came up with a method to solve this problem. It
+involve home automation. A few years ago I bought a
+<a href="http://www.telldus.se/products/tellstick">Tellstick</a> and RF
+switches at the local <a href="http://www.clasohlson.com/">Clas
+Ohlson</a> shop, allowing me to control lights and other electrical
+gadgets using my Linux server. When I moved from the old flat to a
+small house, I put away all this equipment as most of the lighting in
+the house was not using wall sockets and thus not easy to connect to
+the gadgets I had. But recently I bought a
+<a href="http://www.telldus.se/products/tellstick_net">Tellstick
+Net</a> to be able to read sensor input as well as control power
+sockets. I want to control ovens in the basement to avoid the pipes
+to freeze, and monitor the humidity to detect flooding. The default
+setup for Tellstick Net is to be controlled by the vendor web service,
+which to me is a security problem, but it is also possible to build
+ones own
+<a href="http://developer.telldus.com/blog/2012/03/02/help-us-develop-local-access-using-tellstick-net-build-your-own-firmware">firmware
+with local access</A> instead of being controlled by a Swedish
+company, thanks to the release of the GPL licensed firmware source
+code. I plan to get that running before I let it control anything
+important. But while working on this, one idea to make it easier for
+the kids came to me yesterday. We can set up a night light controlled
+by the computer, and turn it automatically on at 07:00. The kids can
+then check the light in the morning to know if they are supposed to
+get up or not. They joined me in setting everything up, and I
+repeated the concept several times before bed times to make sure they
+remembered to check the light before getting up in the morning.</p>
+
+<p>We tested it this morning, and all the kids stayed in bed until
+after 07:00, and every one of them commented on the fact that the
+"morning light" was turned on and signalled that the morning had
+arrived. So this look like a success, and I am excited to see how
+this develops the next few days. :) I really hope this can allow us
+all to sleep a bit longer in the morning.</p>
+
+<p>A nice advantage of this setup is that we can remote control when
+to tell the kids to get up. We do not have to wait until 07:00, and
+can also delay it if we want to.</p>
+</description>
+ </item>
+
+ <item>
+ <title>Hva stemte hver stortingsrepresentant i voteringene om datalagringsdirektivet?</title>
+ <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Hva_stemte_hver_stortingsrepresentant_i_voteringene_om_datalagringsdirektivet_.html</link>
+ <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Hva_stemte_hver_stortingsrepresentant_i_voteringene_om_datalagringsdirektivet_.html</guid>
+ <pubDate>Sat, 9 Feb 2013 18:10:00 +0100</pubDate>
+ <description><p>Nytt stortingsvalg er på trappene, og folket får igjen mulighet til
+å påvirke sammensetningen i vår lovgivende forsamling. Da er det
+relevant å vite hvilke representanter og partier som har støttet
+innføringen av brev- og besøkskontroll av hele den norske
+befolkningen, det vil si datalagringsdirektivet.</p>
+
+<p>Hvis du vil vite hva hver enkelt stortingsrepresentant har stemt i
+stortingsvoteringene om datalagringsdirektivet, så har nettstedet til
+<a href="http://www.holderdeord.no/">Holder De Ord</a> den (så vidt jeg
+vet) eneste komplette oversikten på sin temaside om
+<a href="http://beta.holderdeord.no/issues/innfore-datalagringsdirektivet">innføringen
+av datalagringsdirektivet</a>. Den har detaljene fra de 11 relevante
+forslagene som har vært fremmet så lagt. De har vært votert over
+2011-04-04, 2011-04-11, 2012-06-11, 2012-10-05 og 2012-12-06.</p>
+
+<p>Hvis du lurer på hva som er problemet med datalagringsdirektivet,
+anbefaler jeg å lese <a href="http://www.uhuru.biz/?cat=84">artiklene
+fra Jon Wessel-Aas</a> om temaet, samt informasjon fra foreningen
+<a href="http://www.digitaltpersonvern.no/">Digitalt
+Personvern</a>.</p>
+</description>
+ </item>
+
<item>
<title>Økt overvåkning applauderes igjen av Arbeiderpartiet, Høyre og Fremskrittspartiet</title>
<link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/_kt_overv_kning_applauderes_igjen_av_Arbeiderpartiet__H_yre_og_Fremskrittspartiet.html</link>
stoppe loven ble
<a href="http://www.stortinget.no/no/Saker-og-publikasjoner/Saker/Sak/Voteringsoversikt/?p=53844&dnid=1">nedstemt
2012-12-06</a> (se også
-<a href="http://beta.holderdeord.no/votes/2715">oversikt fra Holder De
+<a href="http://beta.holderdeord.no/issues/innfore-datalagringsdirektivet">oversikt fra Holder De
Ord</a>).</p>
<p>Jan Bøhler i Arbeiderpartiet stemte for å innføre
fra Jon Wessel-Aas</a> om temaet, samt informasjon fra foreningen
<a href="http://www.digitaltpersonvern.no/">Digitalt
Personvern</a>.</p>
+
+<p><strong>Oppdatering 2013-03-09</strong>: Endret lenke til Holder De
+Ord, som har byttet mange lenker i forbindelse med import av
+voteringsdata for 2010-2011.</p>
</description>
</item>
</description>
</item>
- <item>
- <title>Welcome to the world, Isenkram!</title>
- <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Welcome_to_the_world__Isenkram_.html</link>
- <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/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="http://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="http://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://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/First_prototype_ready_making_hardware_easier_to_use_in_Debian.html</link>
- <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/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="http://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="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-01-21-hw-support-1-notification.png">
-<br><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-01-21-hw-support-2-password.png">
-<br><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-01-21-hw-support-3-dependencies.png">
-<br><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-01-21-hw-support-4-installing.png">
-<br><img src="http://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="http://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://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Thank_you_Thinkpad_X41__for_your_long_and_trustworthy_service.html</link>
- <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/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>
- <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
-<a href="https://wiki.ubuntu.com/MozillaTeam/Plugins">specifications
-done by Ubuntu</a> and Mozilla, it is possible to do this in Debian.
-Unfortunately, not very many packages provide the needed meta
-information, Anyway, here is a small script to look up all browser
-plugin packages announcing ther MIME support using this specification:</p>
-
-<pre>
-#!/usr/bin/python
-import sys
-import apt
-def pkgs_handling_mimetype(mimetype):
- cache = apt.Cache()
- cache.open(None)
- thepkgs = []
- for pkg in cache:
- version = pkg.candidate
- if version is None:
- version = pkg.installed
- if version is None:
- continue
- record = version.record
- if not record.has_key('Npp-MimeType'):
- continue
- mime_types = record['Npp-MimeType'].split(',')
- for t in mime_types:
- t = t.rstrip().strip()
- if t == mimetype:
- thepkgs.append(pkg.name)
- return thepkgs
-mimetype = "audio/ogg"
-if 1 < len(sys.argv):
- mimetype = sys.argv[1]
-print "Browser plugin packages supporting %s:" % mimetype
-for pkg in pkgs_handling_mimetype(mimetype):
- print " %s" %pkg
-</pre>
-
-<p>It can be used like this to look up a given MIME type:</p>
-
-<pre>
-% ./apt-find-browserplug-for-mimetype
-Browser plugin packages supporting audio/ogg:
- gecko-mediaplayer
-% ./apt-find-browserplug-for-mimetype application/x-shockwave-flash
-Browser plugin packages supporting application/x-shockwave-flash:
- browser-plugin-gnash
-%
-</pre>
-
-<p>In Ubuntu this mechanism is combined with support in the browser
-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>
- <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
-proposal to make it possible for a Desktop application to propose to
-the user some package to install to gain support for a given MIME
-type, font, library etc. that is currently missing. With such
-mechanism in place, it would be possible for the desktop to
-automatically propose and install leocad if some LDraw file is
-downloaded by the browser.</p>
-
-<p>To get some idea about the current content of the archive, I decided
-to write a simple program to extract all .desktop files from the
-Debian archive and look up the claimed MIME support there. The result
-can be found on the
-<a href="http://ftp.skolelinux.org/pub/AppStreamTest">Skolelinux FTP
-site</a>. Using the collected information, it become possible to
-answer the question in the title. Here are the 20 most supported MIME
-types in Debian stable (Squeeze), testing (Wheezy) and unstable (Sid).
-The complete list is available from the link above.</p>
-
-<p><strong>Debian Stable:</strong></p>
-
-<pre>
- count MIME type
- ----- -----------------------
- 32 text/plain
- 30 audio/mpeg
- 29 image/png
- 28 image/jpeg
- 27 application/ogg
- 26 audio/x-mp3
- 25 image/tiff
- 25 image/gif
- 22 image/bmp
- 22 audio/x-wav
- 20 audio/x-flac
- 19 audio/x-mpegurl
- 18 video/x-ms-asf
- 18 audio/x-musepack
- 18 audio/x-mpeg
- 18 application/x-ogg
- 17 video/mpeg
- 17 audio/x-scpls
- 17 audio/ogg
- 16 video/x-ms-wmv
-</pre>
-
-<p><strong>Debian Testing:</strong></p>
-
-<pre>
- count MIME type
- ----- -----------------------
- 33 text/plain
- 32 image/png
- 32 image/jpeg
- 29 audio/mpeg
- 27 image/gif
- 26 image/tiff
- 26 application/ogg
- 25 audio/x-mp3
- 22 image/bmp
- 21 audio/x-wav
- 19 audio/x-mpegurl
- 19 audio/x-mpeg
- 18 video/mpeg
- 18 audio/x-scpls
- 18 audio/x-flac
- 18 application/x-ogg
- 17 video/x-ms-asf
- 17 text/html
- 17 audio/x-musepack
- 16 image/x-xbitmap
-</pre>
-
-<p><strong>Debian Unstable:</strong></p>
-
-<pre>
- count MIME type
- ----- -----------------------
- 31 text/plain
- 31 image/png
- 31 image/jpeg
- 29 audio/mpeg
- 28 application/ogg
- 27 image/gif
- 26 image/tiff
- 26 audio/x-mp3
- 23 audio/x-wav
- 22 image/bmp
- 21 audio/x-flac
- 20 audio/x-mpegurl
- 19 audio/x-mpeg
- 18 video/x-ms-asf
- 18 video/mpeg
- 18 audio/x-scpls
- 18 application/x-ogg
- 17 audio/x-musepack
- 16 video/x-ms-wmv
- 16 video/x-msvideo
-</pre>
-
-<p>I am told that PackageKit can provide an API to access the kind of
-information mentioned in DEP-11. I have not yet had time to look at
-it, but hope the PackageKit people in Debian are on top of these
-issues.</p>
-
-<p><strong>Update 2013-01-16 13:35</strong>: Updated numbers after
-discovering a typo in my script.</p>
-</description>
- </item>
-
- <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>
- <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
-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
-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
-packages when I plug in some new hardware into my machine, and replace
-discover and discover-data as the database used to map hardware to
-packages.</p>
-
-<p>I create a modaliases file with entries like the following,
-containing package name, kernel module name (if relevant, otherwise
-the package name) and globs matching the relevant hardware
-modalias.</p>
-
-<p><blockquote>
-Package: package-name
-<br>Modaliases: module(modaliasglob, modaliasglob, modaliasglob)</p>
-</blockquote></p>
-
-<p>It is fairly trivial to write code to find the relevant packages
-for a given modalias value using this file.</p>
-
-<p>An entry like this would suggest the video and picture application
-cheese for many USB web cameras (interface bus class 0E01):</p>
-
-<p><blockquote>
-Package: cheese
-<br>Modaliases: cheese(usb:v*p*d*dc*dsc*dp*ic0Eisc01ip*)</p>
-</blockquote></p>
-
-<p>An entry like this would suggest the pcmciautils package when a
-CardBus bridge (bus class 0607) PCI device is present:</p>
-
-<p><blockquote>
-Package: pcmciautils
-<br>Modaliases: pcmciautils(pci:v*d*sv*sd*bc06sc07i*)
-</blockquote></p>
-
-<p>An entry like this would suggest the package colorhug-client when
-plugging in a ColorHug with USB IDs 04D8:F8DA:</p>
-
-<p><blockquote>
-Package: colorhug-client
-<br>Modaliases: colorhug-client(usb:v04D8pF8DAd*)</p>
-</blockquote></p>
-
-<p>I believe the format is compatible with the format of the Packages
-file in the Debian archive. Ubuntu already uses their Packages file
-to store their mappings from packages to hardware.</p>
-
-<p>By adding a XB-Modaliases: header in debian/control, any .deb can
-announce the hardware it support in a way my prototype understand.
-This allow those publishing packages in an APT source outside the
-Debian archive as well as those backporting packages to make sure the
-hardware mapping are included in the package meta information. I've
-tested such header in the pymissile package, and its modalias mapping
-is working as it should with my prototype. It even made it to Ubuntu
-Raring.</p>
-
-<p>To test if it was possible to look up supported hardware using only
-the shell tools available in the Debian installer, I wrote a shell
-implementation of the lookup code. The idea is to create files for
-each modalias and let the shell do the matching. Please check out and
-try the
-<a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/hw-support-lookup?view=co">hw-support-lookup</a>
-shell script. It run without any extra dependencies and fetch the
-hardware mappings from the Debian archive and the subversion
-repository where I currently work on my prototype.</p>
-
-<p>When I use it on a machine with a yubikey inserted, it suggest to
-install yubikey-personalization:</p>
-
-<p><blockquote>
-% ./hw-support-lookup
-<br>yubikey-personalization
-<br>%
-</blockquote></p>
-
-<p>When I run it on my Thinkpad X40 with a PCMCIA/CardBus slot, it
-propose to install the pcmciautils package:</p>
-
-<p><blockquote>
-% ./hw-support-lookup
-<br>pcmciautils
-<br>%
-</blockquote></p>
-
-<p>If you know of any hardware-package mapping that should be added to
-<a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/modaliases?view=co">my
-database</a>, please tell me about it.</p>
-
-<p>It could be possible to generate several of the mappings between
-packages and hardware. One source would be to look at packages with
-kernel modules, ie packages with *.ko files in /lib/modules/, and
-extract their modalias information. Another would be to look at
-packages with udev rules, ie packages with files in
-/lib/udev/rules.d/, and extract their vendor/model information to
-generate a modalias matching rule. I have not tested any of these to
-see if it work.</p>
-
-<p>If you want to help implementing a system to let us propose what
-packages to install when new hardware is plugged into a Debian
-machine, please send me an email or talk to me on
-<a href="irc://irc.debian.org/%23debian-devel">#debian-devel</a>.</p>
-</description>
- </item>
-
- <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>
- <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
-hardware, I refreshed my memory regarding modalias values, and decided
-to document the details. Here are my findings so far, also available
-in
-<a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/">the
-Debian Edu subversion repository</a>:
-
-<p><strong>Modalias decoded</strong></p>
-
-<p>This document try to explain what the different types of modalias
-values stands for. It is in part based on information from
-&lt;URL: <a href="https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Modalias">https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Modalias</a> &gt;,
-&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;,
-&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
-&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;.
-
-<p>The modalias entries for a given Linux machine can be found using
-this shell script:</p>
-
-<pre>
-find /sys -name modalias -print0 | xargs -0 cat | sort -u
-</pre>
-
-<p>The supported modalias globs for a given kernel module can be found
-using modinfo:</p>
-
-<pre>
-% /sbin/modinfo psmouse | grep alias:
-alias: serio:ty05pr*id*ex*
-alias: serio:ty01pr*id*ex*
-%
-</pre>
-
-<p><strong>PCI subtype</strong></p>
-
-<p>A typical PCI entry can look like this. This is an Intel Host
-Bridge memory controller:</p>
-
-<p><blockquote>
-pci:v00008086d00002770sv00001028sd000001ADbc06sc00i00
-</blockquote></p>
-
-<p>This represent these values:</p>
-
-<pre>
- v 00008086 (vendor)
- d 00002770 (device)
- sv 00001028 (subvendor)
- sd 000001AD (subdevice)
- bc 06 (bus class)
- sc 00 (bus subclass)
- i 00 (interface)
-</pre>
-
-<p>The vendor/device values are the same values outputted from 'lspci
--n' as 8086:2770. The bus class/subclass is also shown by lspci as
-0600. The 0600 class is a host bridge. Other useful bus values are
-0300 (VGA compatible card) and 0200 (Ethernet controller).</p>
-
-<p>Not sure how to figure out the interface value, nor what it
-means.</p>
-
-<p><strong>USB subtype</strong></p>
-
-<p>Some typical USB entries can look like this. This is an internal
-USB hub in a laptop:</p>
-
-<p><blockquote>
-usb:v1D6Bp0001d0206dc09dsc00dp00ic09isc00ip00
-</blockquote></p>
-
-<p>Here is the values included in this alias:</p>
-
-<pre>
- v 1D6B (device vendor)
- p 0001 (device product)
- d 0206 (bcddevice)
- dc 09 (device class)
- dsc 00 (device subclass)
- dp 00 (device protocol)
- ic 09 (interface class)
- isc 00 (interface subclass)
- ip 00 (interface protocol)
-</pre>
-
-<p>The 0900 device class/subclass means hub. Some times the relevant
-class is in the interface class section. For a simple USB web camera,
-these alias entries show up:</p>
-
-<p><blockquote>
-usb:v0AC8p3420d5000dcEFdsc02dp01ic01isc01ip00
-<br>usb:v0AC8p3420d5000dcEFdsc02dp01ic01isc02ip00
-<br>usb:v0AC8p3420d5000dcEFdsc02dp01ic0Eisc01ip00
-<br>usb:v0AC8p3420d5000dcEFdsc02dp01ic0Eisc02ip00
-</blockquote></p>
-
-<p>Interface class 0E01 is video control, 0E02 is video streaming (aka
-camera), 0101 is audio control device and 0102 is audio streaming (aka
-microphone). Thus this is a camera with microphone included.</p>
-
-<p><strong>ACPI subtype</strong></p>
-
-<p>The ACPI type is used for several non-PCI/USB stuff. This is an IR
-receiver in a Thinkpad X40:</p>
-
-<p><blockquote>
-acpi:IBM0071:PNP0511:
-</blockquote></p>
-
-<p>The values between the colons are IDs.</p>
-
-<p><strong>DMI subtype</strong></p>
-
-<p>The DMI table contain lots of information about the computer case
-and model. This is an entry for a IBM Thinkpad X40, fetched from
-/sys/devices/virtual/dmi/id/modalias:</p>
-
-<p><blockquote>
-dmi:bvnIBM:bvr1UETB6WW(1.66):bd06/15/2005:svnIBM:pn2371H4G:pvrThinkPadX40:rvnIBM:rn2371H4G:rvrNotAvailable:cvnIBM:ct10:cvrNotAvailable:
-</blockquote></p>
-
-<p>The values present are</p>
-
-<pre>
- bvn IBM (BIOS vendor)
- bvr 1UETB6WW(1.66) (BIOS version)
- bd 06/15/2005 (BIOS date)
- svn IBM (system vendor)
- pn 2371H4G (product name)
- pvr ThinkPadX40 (product version)
- rvn IBM (board vendor)
- rn 2371H4G (board name)
- rvr NotAvailable (board version)
- cvn IBM (chassis vendor)
- ct 10 (chassis type)
- cvr NotAvailable (chassis version)
-</pre>
-
-<p>The chassis type 10 is Notebook. Other interesting values can be
-found in the dmidecode source:</p>
-
-<pre>
- 3 Desktop
- 4 Low Profile Desktop
- 5 Pizza Box
- 6 Mini Tower
- 7 Tower
- 8 Portable
- 9 Laptop
- 10 Notebook
- 11 Hand Held
- 12 Docking Station
- 13 All In One
- 14 Sub Notebook
- 15 Space-saving
- 16 Lunch Box
- 17 Main Server Chassis
- 18 Expansion Chassis
- 19 Sub Chassis
- 20 Bus Expansion Chassis
- 21 Peripheral Chassis
- 22 RAID Chassis
- 23 Rack Mount Chassis
- 24 Sealed-case PC
- 25 Multi-system
- 26 CompactPCI
- 27 AdvancedTCA
- 28 Blade
- 29 Blade Enclosing
-</pre>
-
-<p>The chassis type values are not always accurately set in the DMI
-table. For example my home server is a tower, but the DMI modalias
-claim it is a desktop.</p>
-
-<p><strong>SerIO subtype</strong></p>
-
-<p>This type is used for PS/2 mouse plugs. One example is from my
-test machine:</p>
-
-<p><blockquote>
-serio:ty01pr00id00ex00
-</blockquote></p>
-
-<p>The values present are</p>
-
-<pre>
- ty 01 (type)
- pr 00 (prototype)
- id 00 (id)
- ex 00 (extra)
-</pre>
-
-<p>This type is supported by the psmouse driver. I am not sure what
-the valid values are.</p>
-
-<p><strong>Other subtypes</strong></p>
-
-<p>There are heaps of other modalias subtypes according to
-file2alias.c. There is the rest of the list from that source: amba,
-ap, bcma, ccw, css, eisa, hid, i2c, ieee1394, input, ipack, isapnp,
-mdio, of, parisc, pcmcia, platform, scsi, sdio, spi, ssb, vio, virtio,
-vmbus, x86cpu and zorro. I did not spend time documenting all of
-these, as they do not seem relevant for my intended use with mapping
-hardware to packages when new stuff is inserted during run time.</p>
-
-<p><strong>Looking up kernel modules using modalias values</strong></p>
-
-<p>To check which kernel modules provide support for a given modalias,
-one can use the following shell script:</p>
-
-<pre>
- for id in $(find /sys -name modalias -print0 | xargs -0 cat | sort -u); do \
- echo "$id" ; \
- /sbin/modprobe --show-depends "$id"|sed 's/^/ /' ; \
- done
-</pre>
-
-<p>The output can look like this (only the first few entries as the
-list is very long on my test machine):</p>
-
-<pre>
- acpi:ACPI0003:
- insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/drivers/acpi/ac.ko
- acpi:device:
- FATAL: Module acpi:device: not found.
- acpi:IBM0068:
- insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/drivers/char/nvram.ko
- insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/drivers/leds/led-class.ko
- insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/net/rfkill/rfkill.ko
- insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/drivers/platform/x86/thinkpad_acpi.ko
- acpi:IBM0071:PNP0511:
- insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/lib/crc-ccitt.ko
- insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/net/irda/irda.ko
- insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/drivers/net/irda/nsc-ircc.ko
- [...]
-</pre>
-
-<p>If you want to help implementing a system to let us propose what
-packages to install when new hardware is plugged into a Debian
-machine, please send me an email or talk to me on
-<a href="irc://irc.debian.org/%23debian-devel">#debian-devel</a>.</p>
-
-<p><strong>Update 2013-01-15:</strong> Rewrite "cat $(find ...)" to
-"find ... -print0 | xargs -0 cat" to make sure it handle directories
-in /sys/ with space in them.</p>
-</description>
- </item>
-
- <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>
- <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
-Launcher and updated the Debian package
-<a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/pymissile">pymissile</a> to make
-sure udev will fix the device permissions when it is plugged in. I
-also added a "Modaliases" header to test it in the Debian archive and
-hopefully make the package be proposed by jockey in Ubuntu when a user
-plug in his rocket launcher. In the process I moved the source to a
-git repository under collab-maint, to make it easier for any DD to
-contribute. <a href="http://code.google.com/p/pymissile/">Upstream</a>
-is not very active, but the software still work for me even after five
-years of relative silence. The new git repository is not listed in
-the uploaded package yet, because I want to test the other changes a
-bit more before I upload the new version. If you want to check out
-the new version with a .desktop file included, visit the
-<a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/gitweb/?p=collab-maint/pymissile.git">gitweb
-view</a> or use "<tt>git clone
-git://anonscm.debian.org/collab-maint/pymissile.git</tt>".</p>
-</description>
- </item>
-
</channel>
</rss>
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