- <div class="entry">
- <div class="title"><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/First_prototype_ready_making_hardware_easier_to_use_in_Debian.html">First prototype ready making hardware easier to use in Debian</a></div>
- <div class="date">21st January 2013</div>
- <div class="body"><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>
-</div>
- <div class="tags">
-
-
- Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram">isenkram</a>.
-
-
- </div>
- </div>
- <div class="padding"></div>
-
- <div class="entry">
- <div class="title"><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Thank_you_Thinkpad_X41__for_your_long_and_trustworthy_service.html">Thank you Thinkpad X41, for your long and trustworthy service</a></div>
- <div class="date">19th January 2013</div>
- <div class="body"><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>
-</div>
- <div class="tags">
-
-
- Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
-
-
- </div>
- </div>
- <div class="padding"></div>
-
- <div class="entry">
- <div class="title"><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_find_a_browser_plugin_supporting_a_given_MIME_type.html">How to find a browser plugin supporting a given MIME type</a></div>
- <div class="date">18th January 2013</div>
- <div class="body"><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>
-</div>
- <div class="tags">
-
-
- Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
-
-
- </div>
- </div>
- <div class="padding"></div>
-