1 <?xml version=
"1.0" encoding=
"ISO-8859-1"?>
2 <rss version='
2.0' xmlns:lj='http://www.livejournal.org/rss/lj/
1.0/'
>
4 <title>Petter Reinholdtsen - Entries from January
2025</title>
5 <description>Entries from January
2025</description>
6 <link>http://www.hungry.com/~pere/blog/
</link>
10 <title>Frokostseminar om Noark
5 i Oslo fredag
2025-
03-
14</title>
11 <link>http://www.hungry.com/~pere/blog/Frokostseminar_om_Noark_5_i_Oslo_fredag_2025_03_14.html
</link>
12 <guid isPermaLink=
"true">http://www.hungry.com/~pere/blog/Frokostseminar_om_Noark_5_i_Oslo_fredag_2025_03_14.html
</guid>
13 <pubDate>Fri,
31 Jan
2025 11:
00:
00 +
0100</pubDate>
14 <description><p
>Nikita-prosjektet, der jeg er involvert, inviterer i samarbeid med
15 forskningsgruppen METAINFO og foreningen NUUG, til et frokostseminar
16 om Noark
5 og Noark
5 Tjenestegrensesnitt fredag
2025-
03-
14. Fokus
17 denne gangen er på bevaring og kassasjon. Seminaret finner sted ved
18 OsloMet, Pilestredet
46. Vi håper å få til videostrømming via
19 Internett av presentasjoner og paneldiskusjon. Oppdatert program og
20 lenker til påmeldingsskjema finner en via
21 <a href=
"https://noark.codeberg.page/noark5-seminars/
2025-
03-
14-noark-workshop.html
">arrangementets infoside
</a
>. Arrangementet er gratis.
23 <p
>Som vanlig, hvis du bruker Bitcoin og ønsker å vise din støtte til
24 det jeg driver med, setter jeg pris på om du sender Bitcoin-donasjoner
26 <b
><a href=
"bitcoin:
15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b
">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b
</a
></b
>. Merk,
27 betaling med bitcoin er ikke anonymt. :)
</p
>
32 <title>121 packages in Debian mapped to hardware for automatic recommendation
</title>
33 <link>http://www.hungry.com/~pere/blog/
121_packages_in_Debian_mapped_to_hardware_for_automatic_recommendation.html
</link>
34 <guid isPermaLink=
"true">http://www.hungry.com/~pere/blog/
121_packages_in_Debian_mapped_to_hardware_for_automatic_recommendation.html
</guid>
35 <pubDate>Sun,
19 Jan
2025 12:
40:
00 +
0100</pubDate>
36 <description><p
>For some years now, I have been working on a automatic hardware
37 based package recommendation system for Debian and other Linux
38 distributions. The isenkram system I started on back in
2013 now
39 consist of two subsystems, one locating firmware files using the
40 information provided by apt-file, and one matching hardware to
41 packages using information provided by AppStream. The former is very
42 similar to the mechanism implemented in debian-installer to pick the
43 right firmware packages to install. This post is about the latter
44 system. Thanks to steady progress and good help from both other
45 Debian and upstream developers, I am happy to report that
46 <a href=
"https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/isenkram
">the Isenkram
47 system
</a
> now are able to recommend
121 packages using information
49 <a href=
"https://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Distributions/AppStream/
">AppStream
</a
>.
</p
>
51 <p
>The mapping is done using modalias information provided by the
52 kernel, the same information used by udev when creating device files,
53 and the kernel when deciding which kernel modules to load. To get all
54 the modalias identifiers relevant for your machine, you can run the
55 following command on the command line:
</p
>
58 find /sys/devices -name modalias -print0 | xargs -
0 sort -u
61 <p
>The modalias identifiers can look something like this:
</p
>
65 cpu:type:x86,ven0000fam0006mod003F:feature:,
0000,
0001,
0002,
0003,
0004,
0005,
0006,
0007,
0008,
0009,
000B,
000C,
000D,
000E,
000F,
0010,
0011,
0013,
0015,
0016,
0017,
0018,
0019,
001A,
001B,
001C,
001D,
001F,
002B,
0034,
003A,
003B,
003D,
0068,
006B,
006C,
006D,
006F,
0070,
0072,
0074,
0075,
0076,
0078,
0079,
007C,
0080,
0081,
0082,
0083,
0084,
0085,
0086,
0087,
0088,
0089,
008B,
008C,
008D,
008E,
008F,
0091,
0092,
0093,
0094,
0095,
0096,
0097,
0098,
0099,
009A,
009B,
009C,
009D,
009E,
00C0,
00C5,
00E1,
00E3,
00EB,
00ED,
00F0,
00F1,
00F3,
00F5,
00F6,
00F9,
00FA,
00FB,
00FD,
00FF,
0100,
0101,
0102,
0103,
0111,
0120,
0121,
0123,
0125,
0127,
0128,
0129,
012A,
012C,
012D,
0140,
0160,
0161,
0165,
016C,
017B,
01C0,
01C1,
01C2,
01C4,
01C5,
01C6,
01F9,
024A,
025A,
025B,
025C,
025F,
0282
66 dmi:bvnDellInc.:bvr2.18
.1:bd08/
14/
2023:br2.18:svnDellInc.:pnPowerEdgeR730:pvr:rvnDellInc.:rn0H21J3:rvrA09:cvnDellInc.:ct23:cvr:skuSKU=NotProvided
67 pci:v00008086d00008D3Bsv00001028sd00000600bc07sc80i00
70 usb:v413CpA001d0000dc09dsc00dp00ic09isc00ip00in00
73 <p
>The entries above are a selection of the complete set available on
74 a Dell PowerEdge R730 machine I have access to, to give an idea about
75 the various styles of hardware identifiers presented in the modalias
76 format. When looking up relevant packages in a Debian Testing
77 installation on the same R730, I get this list of packages
81 % sudo isenkram-lookup
83 firmware-nvidia-graphics
90 <p
>The list consist of firmware packages requested by kernel modules,
91 as well packages with program to get the status from the RAID
92 controller and to maintain the LAN console. When the edac-utils
93 package providing tools to check the ECC RAM status will enter testing
94 in a few days, it will also show up as a proposal from isenkram. In
95 addition, once the mfiutil package we uploaded in October get past the
96 NEW processing, it will also propose a tool to configure the RAID
99 <p
>Another example is the trusty old Lenovo Thinkpad X230, which have
100 hardware handled by several packages in the archive. This is running
101 on Debian Stable:
</p
>
110 firmware-misc-nonfree
124 <p
>Here there proposal consist of software to handle the camera,
125 bluetooth, network card, wifi card, GPU, fan, fingerprint reader and
126 acceleration sensor on the machine.
</p
>
128 <p
>Here is the complete set of packages currently providing hardware
129 mapping via AppStream in Debian Unstable: air-quality-sensor,
130 alsa-firmware-loaders, antpm, array-info, avarice, avrdude,
131 bmusb-v4l2proxy, brltty, calibre, colorhug-client, concordance-common,
132 consolekit, dahdi-firmware-nonfree, dahdi-linux, edac-utils,
133 eegdev-plugins-free, ekeyd, elogind, firmware-amd-graphics,
134 firmware-ath9k-htc, firmware-atheros, firmware-b43-installer,
135 firmware-b43legacy-installer, firmware-bnx2, firmware-bnx2x,
136 firmware-brcm80211, firmware-carl9170, firmware-cavium,
137 firmware-intel-graphics, firmware-intel-misc, firmware-ipw2x00,
138 firmware-ivtv, firmware-iwlwifi, firmware-libertas,
139 firmware-linux-free, firmware-mediatek, firmware-misc-nonfree,
140 firmware-myricom, firmware-netronome, firmware-netxen,
141 firmware-nvidia-graphics, firmware-qcom-soc, firmware-qlogic,
142 firmware-realtek, firmware-ti-connectivity, fpga-icestorm, g810-led,
143 galileo, garmin-forerunner-tools, gkrellm-thinkbat, goldencheetah,
144 gpsman, gpstrans, gqrx-sdr, i8kutils, imsprog, ledger-wallets-udev,
145 libairspy0, libam7xxx0.1, libbladerf2, libgphoto2-
6t64,
146 libhamlib-utils, libm2k0.9
.0, libmirisdr4, libnxt, libopenxr1-monado,
147 libosmosdr0, librem5-flash-image, librtlsdr0, libticables2-
8,
148 libx52pro0, libykpers-
1-
1, libyubikey-udev, limesuite,
149 linuxcnc-uspace, lomoco, madwimax, media-player-info, megactl, mixxx,
150 mkgmap, msi-keyboard, mu-editor, mustang-plug, nbc, nitrokey-app, nqc,
151 ola, openfpgaloader, openocd, openrazer-driver-dkms, pcmciautils,
152 pcscd, pidgin-blinklight, ponyprog, printer-driver-splix,
153 python-yubico-tools, python3-btchip, qlcplus, rosegarden, scdaemon,
154 sispmctl, solaar, spectools, sunxi-tools, t2n, thinkfan, tlp,
155 tp-smapi-dkms, trezor, tucnak, ubertooth, usbrelay, uuu, viking,
156 w1retap, wsl, xawtv, xinput-calibrator, xserver-xorg-input-wacom and
159 <p
>In addition to these, there are several
160 <a href=
"https://udd.debian.org/cgi-bin/bts-usertags.cgi?user=pere%
40hungry.com
&tag=appstream-modalias
">with
161 patches pending in the Debian bug tracking system
</a
>, and even more
162 where no-one wrote patches yet. Good candiates for the latter are
164 <a href=
"https://udd.debian.org/lintian-tag.cgi?tag=appstream-metadata-missing-modalias-provide
">with
165 udev rules but no AppStream hardware information
</a
>.
</p
>
167 <p
>The isenkram system consist of two packages, isenkram-cli with the
168 command line tools, and isenkram with a GUI background process. The
169 latter will listen for dbus events from udev emitted when new hardware
170 become available (like when inserting a USB dongle or discovering a
171 new bluetooth device), look up the modalias entry for this piece of
172 hardware in AppStream (and a hard coded list of mappings from isenkram
173 - currently working hard to move this list to AppStream), and pop up a
174 dialog proposing to install any not already installed packages
175 supporting this hardware. It work very well today when inserting the
176 LEGO Mindstorms RCX, NXT and EV3 controllers. :) If you want to make
177 sure more hardware related packages get recommended, please help out
178 fixing the remaining packages in Debian to provide AppStream metadata
179 with hardware mappings.
</p
>
181 <p
>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
182 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
183 <b
><a href=
"bitcoin:
15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b
">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b
</a
></b
>.
</p
>
188 <title>What is the most supported MIME type in Debian in
2025?
</title>
189 <link>http://www.hungry.com/~pere/blog/What_is_the_most_supported_MIME_type_in_Debian_in_2025_.html
</link>
190 <guid isPermaLink=
"true">http://www.hungry.com/~pere/blog/What_is_the_most_supported_MIME_type_in_Debian_in_2025_.html
</guid>
191 <pubDate>Sat,
18 Jan
2025 10:
30:
00 +
0100</pubDate>
192 <description><p
><a href=
"http://www.hungry.com/~pere/blog/What_is_the_most_supported_MIME_type_in_Debian_in_2018_.html
">Seven
</a
>
194 <a href=
"http://www.hungry.com/~pere/blog/What_is_the_most_supported_MIME_type_in_Debian_.html
">twelve
</a
>
195 years ago, I measured what the most supported MIME type in Debian
196 was
</a
>, first by analysing the desktop files in all packages in the
197 archive, then by analysing the DEP-
11 AppStream data set. I guess it
198 is time to repeat the measurement, only for unstable as last time:
</p
>
200 <p
><strong
>Debian Unstable:
</strong
></p
>
204 ----- -----------------------
216 36 audio/x-vorbis+ogg
227 <p
>The list was created like this using a sid chroot:
</p
>
230 cat /var/lib/apt/lists/*sid*_dep11_Components-amd64.yml.gz | \
231 zcat | awk
'/^ - \S+\/\S+$/ {print $
2 }
' | sort | \
232 uniq -c | sort -nr | head -
20
235 <p
>It is nice to see that the same number of packages now support PNG
236 and JPEG. Last time JPEG had more support than PNG. Most of the MIME
237 types are known to me, but the
'audio/x-scpls
' one I have no idea what
238 represent, except it being an audio format. To find the packages
239 claiming support for this format, the appstreamcli command from the
240 appstream package can be used:
243 % appstreamcli what-provides mediatype audio/x-scpls | grep Package: | sort -u
244 Package: alsaplayer-common
251 Package: cynthiune.app
256 Package: kylin-burner
258 Package: mediaconch-gui
259 Package: mediainfo-gui
271 Package: soundconverter
278 <p
>Look like several video and auto tools understand the format.
279 Similarly one can check out the number of packages supporting the STL
280 format commonly used for
3D printing:
</p
>
283 % appstreamcli what-provides mediatype model/stl | grep Package: | sort -u
286 Package: open3d-viewer
290 <p
>How strange the
291 <a href=
"https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/slic3r
">slic3r
</a
> and
292 <a href=
"https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/slic3r-prusa
">prusa-slicer
</a
>
293 packages do not support STL. Perhaps just missing package metadata?
294 Luckily the amount of package metadata in Debian is getting better,
295 and hopefully this way of locating relevant packages for any file
296 format will be the preferred one soon.
298 <p
>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
299 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
300 <b
><a href=
"bitcoin:
15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b
">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b
</a
></b
>.
</p
>
305 <title>The
2025 LinuxCNC Norwegian developer gathering
</title>
306 <link>http://www.hungry.com/~pere/blog/The_2025_LinuxCNC_Norwegian_developer_gathering.html
</link>
307 <guid isPermaLink=
"true">http://www.hungry.com/~pere/blog/The_2025_LinuxCNC_Norwegian_developer_gathering.html
</guid>
308 <pubDate>Sat,
11 Jan
2025 14:
30:
00 +
0100</pubDate>
309 <description><p
><a href=
"https://linuxcnc.org/
">The LinuxCNC project
</a
> is
310 trotting along. And I believe this great software system for
311 numerical control of machines such as milling machines, lathes, plasma
312 cutters, routers, cutting machines, robots and hexapods, would do even
313 better with more in-person developer gatherings, so we plan to
314 organise such gathering this summer too.
</p
>
316 <p
>This year we would like to invite to a small LinuxCNC and free
317 software fabrication workshop/gathering in Norway this summer for the
318 weekend starting July
4th
2025. New this year is the slightly larger
319 scope, and we invite people also outside the LinuxCNC community to
320 join. As earlier, we suggest to organize it as an
321 <a href=
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unconference
">unconference
</a
>,
322 where the participants create the program upon arrival.
</p
>
324 <p
>The location is a metal workshop
15 minutes drive away from to the
325 Gardermoen airport (OSL), where there is a lot of space and a hotel only
326 5 minutes away by car. We plan to fire up the barbeque in the evenings.
</p
>
328 <p
>Please let us know if you would like to join. We track the list of
329 participants on
<a href=
"https://pad.efn.no/p/linuxcnc-
2025-norway
">a
330 simple pad
</a
>, please add yourself there if you are interested in joining.
</p
>
332 <p
><a href=
"https://www.nuugfoundation.no/
">The NUUG Foundation
</a
> has on
333 our request offered to handle any money involved with this gathering,
334 in other words holding any sponsor funds and paying any bills.
335 NUUG Foundation is a spinnoff from the NUUG member organisation here
336 in Norway with long ties to the free software and open standards
337 communities.
</p
>
339 <p
>As usual we hope to find sponsors to pay for food, lodging and travel.
</p
>
341 <p
>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
342 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
343 <b
><a href=
"bitcoin:
15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b
">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b
</a
></b
>.
</p
>