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  13  <h1>
  14      <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/">Petter Reinholdtsen</a>
  15
  16  </h1>
  17
  18 </div>
  19
  20
  21     <h3>Entries tagged "isenkram".</h3>
  22
  23     <div class="entry">
  24       <div class="title">
  25         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Isenkram_0_2_finally_in_the_Debian_archive.html">Isenkram 0.2 finally in the Debian archive</a>
  26       </div>
  27       <div class="date">
  28          3rd April 2013
  29       </div>
  30       <div class="body">
  31         <p>Today the <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/isenkram">Isenkram
  32 package</a> finally made it into the archive, after lingering in NEW
  33 for many months.  I uploaded it to the Debian experimental suite
  34 2013-01-27, and today it was accepted into the archive.</p>
  35
  36 <p>Isenkram is a system for suggesting to users what packages to
  37 install to work with a pluggable hardware device.  The suggestion pop
  38 up when the device is plugged in.  For example if a Lego Mindstorm NXT
  39 is inserted, it will suggest to install the program needed to program
  40 the NXT controller.  Give it a go, and report bugs and suggestions to
  41 BTS. :)</p>
  42
  43       </div>
  44       <div class="tags">
  45
  46
  47         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>.
  48
  49
  50       </div>
  51     </div>
  52     <div class="padding"></div>
  53
  54     <div class="entry">
  55       <div class="title">
  56         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Welcome_to_the_world__Isenkram_.html">Welcome to the world, Isenkram!</a>
  57       </div>
  58       <div class="date">
  59         22nd January 2013
  60       </div>
  61       <div class="body">
  62         <p>Yesterday, I
  63 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/First_prototype_ready_making_hardware_easier_to_use_in_Debian.html">asked
  64 for testers</a> for my prototype for making Debian better at handling
  65 pluggable hardware devices, which I
  66 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lets_make_hardware_dongles_easier_to_use_in_Debian.html">set
  67 out to create</a> earlier this month.  Several valuable testers showed
  68 up, and caused me to really want to to open up the development to more
  69 people.  But before I did this, I want to come up with a sensible name
  70 for this project.  Today I finally decided on a new name, and I have
  71 renamed the project from hw-support-handler to this new name.  In the
  72 process, I moved the source to git and made it available as a
  73 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/gitweb/?p=collab-maint/isenkram.git">collab-maint</a>
  74 repository in Debian.  The new name?  It is <strong>Isenkram</strong>.
  75 To fetch and build the latest version of the source, use</p>
  76
  77 <pre>
  78 git clone http://anonscm.debian.org/git/collab-maint/isenkram.git
  79 cd isenkram && git-buildpackage -us -uc
  80 </pre>
  81
  82 <p>I have not yet adjusted all files to use the new name yet.  If you
  83 want to hack on the source or improve the package, please go ahead.
  84 But please talk to me first on IRC or via email before you do major
  85 changes, to make sure we do not step on each others toes. :)</p>
  86
  87 <p>If you wonder what 'isenkram' is, it is a Norwegian word for iron
  88 stuff, typically meaning tools, nails, screws, etc.  Typical hardware
  89 stuff, in other words.  I've been told it is the Norwegian variant of
  90 the German word eisenkram, for those that are familiar with that
  91 word.</p>
  92
  93 <p><strong>Update 2013-01-26</strong>: Added -us -us to build
  94 instructions, to avoid confusing people with an error from the signing
  95 process.</p>
  96
  97 <p><strong>Update 2013-01-27</strong>: Switch to HTTP URL for the git
  98 clone argument to avoid the need for authentication.</p>
  99
 100       </div>
 101       <div class="tags">
 102
 103
 104         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>.
 105
 106
 107       </div>
 108     </div>
 109     <div class="padding"></div>
 110
 111     <div class="entry">
 112       <div class="title">
 113         <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>
 114       </div>
 115       <div class="date">
 116         21st January 2013
 117       </div>
 118       <div class="body">
 119         <p>Early this month I set out to try to
 120 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lets_make_hardware_dongles_easier_to_use_in_Debian.html">improve
 121 the Debian support for pluggable hardware devices</a>.  Now my
 122 prototype is working, and it is ready for a larger audience.  To test
 123 it, fetch the
 124 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/">source
 125 from the Debian Edu subversion repository</a>, build and install the
 126 package.  You might have to log out and in again activate the
 127 autostart script.</p>
 128
 129 <p>The design is simple:</p>
 130
 131 <ul>
 132
 133 <li>Add desktop entry in /usr/share/autostart/ causing a program
 134 hw-support-handlerd to start when the user log in.</li>
 135
 136 <li>This program listen for kernel events about new hardware (directly
 137 from the kernel like udev does), not using HAL dbus events as I
 138 initially did.</li>
 139
 140 <li>When new hardware is inserted, look up the hardware modalias in
 141 the APT database, a database
 142 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/modaliases?view=markup">available
 143 via HTTP</a> and a database available as part of the package.</li>
 144
 145 <li>If a package is mapped to the hardware in question, the package
 146 isn't installed yet and this is the first time the hardware was
 147 plugged in, show a desktop notification suggesting to install the
 148 package or packages.</li>
 149
 150 <li>If the user click on the 'install package now' button, ask
 151 aptdaemon via the PackageKit API to install the requrired package.</li>
 152
 153 <li>aptdaemon ask for root password or sudo password, and install the
 154 package while showing progress information in a window.</li>
 155
 156 </ul>
 157
 158 <p>I still need to come up with a better name for the system.  Here
 159 are some screen shots showing the prototype in action.  First the
 160 notification, then the password request, and finally the request to
 161 approve all the dependencies.  Sorry for the Norwegian Bokmål GUI.</p>
 162
 163 <p><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-01-21-hw-support-1-notification.png">
 164 <br><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-01-21-hw-support-2-password.png">
 165 <br><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-01-21-hw-support-3-dependencies.png">
 166 <br><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-01-21-hw-support-4-installing.png">
 167 <br><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-01-21-hw-support-5-installing-details.png" width="70%"></p>
 168
 169 <p>The prototype still need to be improved with longer timeouts, but
 170 is already useful.  The database of hardware to package mappings also
 171 need more work.  It is currently compatible with the Ubuntu way of
 172 storing such information in the package control file, but could be
 173 changed to use other formats instead or in addition to the current
 174 method.  I've dropped the use of discover for this mapping, as the
 175 modalias approach is more flexible and easier to use on Linux as long
 176 as the Linux kernel expose its modalias strings directly.</p>
 177
 178 <p><strong>Update 2013-01-21 16:50</strong>: Due to popular demand,
 179 here is the command required to check out and build the source: Use
 180 '<tt>svn checkout
 181 svn://svn.debian.org/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/; cd
 182 hw-support-handler; debuild</tt>'.  If you lack debuild, install the
 183 devscripts package.</p>
 184
 185 <p><strong>Update 2013-01-23 12:00</strong>: The project is now
 186 renamed to Isenkram and the source moved from the Debian Edu
 187 subversion repository to a Debian collab-maint git repository.  See
 188 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Welcome_to_the_world__Isenkram_.html">build
 189 instructions</a> for details.</p>
 190
 191       </div>
 192       <div class="tags">
 193
 194
 195         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>.
 196
 197
 198       </div>
 199     </div>
 200     <div class="padding"></div>
 201
 202     <div class="entry">
 203       <div class="title">
 204         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Using_modalias_info_to_find_packages_handling_my_hardware.html">Using modalias info to find packages handling my hardware</a>
 205       </div>
 206       <div class="date">
 207         15th January 2013
 208       </div>
 209       <div class="body">
 210         <p>Yesterday, I wrote about the
 211 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Modalias_strings___a_practical_way_to_map__stuff__to_hardware.html">modalias
 212 values provided by the Linux kernel</a> following my hope for
 213 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lets_make_hardware_dongles_easier_to_use_in_Debian.html">better
 214 dongle support in Debian</a>.  Using this knowledge, I have tested how
 215 modalias values attached to package names can be used to map packages
 216 to hardware.  This allow the system to look up and suggest relevant
 217 packages when I plug in some new hardware into my machine, and replace
 218 discover and discover-data as the database used to map hardware to
 219 packages.</p>
 220
 221 <p>I create a modaliases file with entries like the following,
 222 containing package name, kernel module name (if relevant, otherwise
 223 the package name) and globs matching the relevant hardware
 224 modalias.</p>
 225
 226 <p><blockquote>
 227 Package: package-name
 228 <br>Modaliases: module(modaliasglob, modaliasglob, modaliasglob)</p>
 229 </blockquote></p>
 230
 231 <p>It is fairly trivial to write code to find the relevant packages
 232 for a given modalias value using this file.</p>
 233
 234 <p>An entry like this would suggest the video and picture application
 235 cheese for many USB web cameras (interface bus class 0E01):</p>
 236
 237 <p><blockquote>
 238 Package: cheese
 239 <br>Modaliases: cheese(usb:v*p*d*dc*dsc*dp*ic0Eisc01ip*)</p>
 240 </blockquote></p>
 241
 242 <p>An entry like this would suggest the pcmciautils package when a
 243 CardBus bridge (bus class 0607) PCI device is present:</p>
 244
 245 <p><blockquote>
 246 Package: pcmciautils
 247 <br>Modaliases: pcmciautils(pci:v*d*sv*sd*bc06sc07i*)
 248 </blockquote></p>
 249
 250 <p>An entry like this would suggest the package colorhug-client when
 251 plugging in a ColorHug with USB IDs 04D8:F8DA:</p>
 252
 253 <p><blockquote>
 254 Package: colorhug-client
 255 <br>Modaliases: colorhug-client(usb:v04D8pF8DAd*)</p>
 256 </blockquote></p>
 257
 258 <p>I believe the format is compatible with the format of the Packages
 259 file in the Debian archive.  Ubuntu already uses their Packages file
 260 to store their mappings from packages to hardware.</p>
 261
 262 <p>By adding a XB-Modaliases: header in debian/control, any .deb can
 263 announce the hardware it support in a way my prototype understand.
 264 This allow those publishing packages in an APT source outside the
 265 Debian archive as well as those backporting packages to make sure the
 266 hardware mapping are included in the package meta information.  I've
 267 tested such header in the pymissile package, and its modalias mapping
 268 is working as it should with my prototype.  It even made it to Ubuntu
 269 Raring.</p>
 270
 271 <p>To test if it was possible to look up supported hardware using only
 272 the shell tools available in the Debian installer, I wrote a shell
 273 implementation of the lookup code.  The idea is to create files for
 274 each modalias and let the shell do the matching.  Please check out and
 275 try the
 276 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/hw-support-lookup?view=co">hw-support-lookup</a>
 277 shell script.  It run without any extra dependencies and fetch the
 278 hardware mappings from the Debian archive and the subversion
 279 repository where I currently work on my prototype.</p>
 280
 281 <p>When I use it on a machine with a yubikey inserted, it suggest to
 282 install yubikey-personalization:</p>
 283
 284 <p><blockquote>
 285 % ./hw-support-lookup
 286 <br>yubikey-personalization
 287 <br>%
 288 </blockquote></p>
 289
 290 <p>When I run it on my Thinkpad X40 with a PCMCIA/CardBus slot, it
 291 propose to install the pcmciautils package:</p>
 292
 293 <p><blockquote>
 294 % ./hw-support-lookup
 295 <br>pcmciautils
 296 <br>%
 297 </blockquote></p>
 298
 299 <p>If you know of any hardware-package mapping that should be added to
 300 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/modaliases?view=co">my
 301 database</a>, please tell me about it.</p>
 302
 303 <p>It could be possible to generate several of the mappings between
 304 packages and hardware.  One source would be to look at packages with
 305 kernel modules, ie packages with *.ko files in /lib/modules/, and
 306 extract their modalias information.  Another would be to look at
 307 packages with udev rules, ie packages with files in
 308 /lib/udev/rules.d/, and extract their vendor/model information to
 309 generate a modalias matching rule.  I have not tested any of these to
 310 see if it work.</p>
 311
 312 <p>If you want to help implementing a system to let us propose what
 313 packages to install when new hardware is plugged into a Debian
 314 machine, please send me an email or talk to me on
 315 <a href="irc://irc.debian.org/%23debian-devel">#debian-devel</a>.</p>
 316
 317       </div>
 318       <div class="tags">
 319
 320
 321         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>.
 322
 323
 324       </div>
 325     </div>
 326     <div class="padding"></div>
 327
 328     <div class="entry">
 329       <div class="title">
 330         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Modalias_strings___a_practical_way_to_map__stuff__to_hardware.html">Modalias strings - a practical way to map "stuff" to hardware</a>
 331       </div>
 332       <div class="date">
 333         14th January 2013
 334       </div>
 335       <div class="body">
 336         <p>While looking into how to look up Debian packages based on hardware
 337 information, to find the packages that support a given piece of
 338 hardware, I refreshed my memory regarding modalias values, and decided
 339 to document the details.  Here are my findings so far, also available
 340 in
 341 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/">the
 342 Debian Edu subversion repository</a>:
 343
 344 <p><strong>Modalias decoded</strong></p>
 345
 346 <p>This document try to explain what the different types of modalias
 347 values stands for.  It is in part based on information from
 348 &lt;URL: <a href="https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Modalias">https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Modalias</a> &gt;,
 349 &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;,
 350 &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
 351 &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;.
 352
 353 <p>The modalias entries for a given Linux machine can be found using
 354 this shell script:</p>
 355
 356 <pre>
 357 find /sys -name modalias -print0 | xargs -0 cat | sort -u
 358 </pre>
 359
 360 <p>The supported modalias globs for a given kernel module can be found
 361 using modinfo:</p>
 362
 363 <pre>
 364 % /sbin/modinfo psmouse | grep alias:
 365 alias:          serio:ty05pr*id*ex*
 366 alias:          serio:ty01pr*id*ex*
 367 %
 368 </pre>
 369
 370 <p><strong>PCI subtype</strong></p>
 371
 372 <p>A typical PCI entry can look like this.  This is an Intel Host
 373 Bridge memory controller:</p>
 374
 375 <p><blockquote>
 376 pci:v00008086d00002770sv00001028sd000001ADbc06sc00i00
 377 </blockquote></p>
 378
 379 <p>This represent these values:</p>
 380
 381 <pre>
 382  v   00008086  (vendor)
 383  d   00002770  (device)
 384  sv  00001028  (subvendor)
 385  sd  000001AD  (subdevice)
 386  bc  06        (bus class)
 387  sc  00        (bus subclass)
 388  i   00        (interface)
 389 </pre>
 390
 391 <p>The vendor/device values are the same values outputted from 'lspci
 392 -n' as 8086:2770.  The bus class/subclass is also shown by lspci as
 393 0600.  The 0600 class is a host bridge.  Other useful bus values are
 394 0300 (VGA compatible card) and 0200 (Ethernet controller).</p>
 395
 396 <p>Not sure how to figure out the interface value, nor what it
 397 means.</p>
 398
 399 <p><strong>USB subtype</strong></p>
 400
 401 <p>Some typical USB entries can look like this.  This is an internal
 402 USB hub in a laptop:</p>
 403
 404 <p><blockquote>
 405 usb:v1D6Bp0001d0206dc09dsc00dp00ic09isc00ip00
 406 </blockquote></p>
 407
 408 <p>Here is the values included in this alias:</p>
 409
 410 <pre>
 411  v    1D6B  (device vendor)
 412  p    0001  (device product)
 413  d    0206  (bcddevice)
 414  dc     09  (device class)
 415  dsc    00  (device subclass)
 416  dp     00  (device protocol)
 417  ic     09  (interface class)
 418  isc    00  (interface subclass)
 419  ip     00  (interface protocol)
 420 </pre>
 421
 422 <p>The 0900 device class/subclass means hub.  Some times the relevant
 423 class is in the interface class section.  For a simple USB web camera,
 424 these alias entries show up:</p>
 425
 426 <p><blockquote>
 427 usb:v0AC8p3420d5000dcEFdsc02dp01ic01isc01ip00
 428 <br>usb:v0AC8p3420d5000dcEFdsc02dp01ic01isc02ip00
 429 <br>usb:v0AC8p3420d5000dcEFdsc02dp01ic0Eisc01ip00
 430 <br>usb:v0AC8p3420d5000dcEFdsc02dp01ic0Eisc02ip00
 431 </blockquote></p>
 432
 433 <p>Interface class 0E01 is video control, 0E02 is video streaming (aka
 434 camera), 0101 is audio control device and 0102 is audio streaming (aka
 435 microphone).  Thus this is a camera with microphone included.</p>
 436
 437 <p><strong>ACPI subtype</strong></p>
 438
 439 <p>The ACPI type is used for several non-PCI/USB stuff.  This is an IR
 440 receiver in a Thinkpad X40:</p>
 441
 442 <p><blockquote>
 443 acpi:IBM0071:PNP0511:
 444 </blockquote></p>
 445
 446 <p>The values between the colons are IDs.</p>
 447
 448 <p><strong>DMI subtype</strong></p>
 449
 450 <p>The DMI table contain lots of information about the computer case
 451 and model.  This is an entry for a IBM Thinkpad X40, fetched from
 452 /sys/devices/virtual/dmi/id/modalias:</p>
 453
 454 <p><blockquote>
 455 dmi:bvnIBM:bvr1UETB6WW(1.66):bd06/15/2005:svnIBM:pn2371H4G:pvrThinkPadX40:rvnIBM:rn2371H4G:rvrNotAvailable:cvnIBM:ct10:cvrNotAvailable:
 456 </blockquote></p>
 457
 458 <p>The values present are</p>
 459
 460 <pre>
 461  bvn  IBM            (BIOS vendor)
 462  bvr  1UETB6WW(1.66) (BIOS version)
 463  bd   06/15/2005     (BIOS date)
 464  svn  IBM            (system vendor)
 465  pn   2371H4G        (product name)
 466  pvr  ThinkPadX40    (product version)
 467  rvn  IBM            (board vendor)
 468  rn   2371H4G        (board name)
 469  rvr  NotAvailable   (board version)
 470  cvn  IBM            (chassis vendor)
 471  ct   10             (chassis type)
 472  cvr  NotAvailable   (chassis version)
 473 </pre>
 474
 475 <p>The chassis type 10 is Notebook.  Other interesting values can be
 476 found in the dmidecode source:</p>
 477
 478 <pre>
 479   3 Desktop
 480   4 Low Profile Desktop
 481   5 Pizza Box
 482   6 Mini Tower
 483   7 Tower
 484   8 Portable
 485   9 Laptop
 486  10 Notebook
 487  11 Hand Held
 488  12 Docking Station
 489  13 All In One
 490  14 Sub Notebook
 491  15 Space-saving
 492  16 Lunch Box
 493  17 Main Server Chassis
 494  18 Expansion Chassis
 495  19 Sub Chassis
 496  20 Bus Expansion Chassis
 497  21 Peripheral Chassis
 498  22 RAID Chassis
 499  23 Rack Mount Chassis
 500  24 Sealed-case PC
 501  25 Multi-system
 502  26 CompactPCI
 503  27 AdvancedTCA
 504  28 Blade
 505  29 Blade Enclosing
 506 </pre>
 507
 508 <p>The chassis type values are not always accurately set in the DMI
 509 table.  For example my home server is a tower, but the DMI modalias
 510 claim it is a desktop.</p>
 511
 512 <p><strong>SerIO subtype</strong></p>
 513
 514 <p>This type is used for PS/2 mouse plugs.  One example is from my
 515 test machine:</p>
 516
 517 <p><blockquote>
 518 serio:ty01pr00id00ex00
 519 </blockquote></p>
 520
 521 <p>The values present are</p>
 522
 523 <pre>
 524   ty  01  (type)
 525   pr  00  (prototype)
 526   id  00  (id)
 527   ex  00  (extra)
 528 </pre>
 529
 530 <p>This type is supported by the psmouse driver.  I am not sure what
 531 the valid values are.</p>
 532
 533 <p><strong>Other subtypes</strong></p>
 534
 535 <p>There are heaps of other modalias subtypes according to
 536 file2alias.c.  There is the rest of the list from that source: amba,
 537 ap, bcma, ccw, css, eisa, hid, i2c, ieee1394, input, ipack, isapnp,
 538 mdio, of, parisc, pcmcia, platform, scsi, sdio, spi, ssb, vio, virtio,
 539 vmbus, x86cpu and zorro.  I did not spend time documenting all of
 540 these, as they do not seem relevant for my intended use with mapping
 541 hardware to packages when new stuff is inserted during run time.</p>
 542
 543 <p><strong>Looking up kernel modules using modalias values</strong></p>
 544
 545 <p>To check which kernel modules provide support for a given modalias,
 546 one can use the following shell script:</p>
 547
 548 <pre>
 549   for id in $(find /sys -name modalias -print0 | xargs -0 cat | sort -u); do \
 550     echo "$id" ; \
 551     /sbin/modprobe --show-depends "$id"|sed 's/^/  /' ; \
 552   done
 553 </pre>
 554
 555 <p>The output can look like this (only the first few entries as the
 556 list is very long on my test machine):</p>
 557
 558 <pre>
 559   acpi:ACPI0003:
 560     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/drivers/acpi/ac.ko
 561   acpi:device:
 562   FATAL: Module acpi:device: not found.
 563   acpi:IBM0068:
 564     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/drivers/char/nvram.ko
 565     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/drivers/leds/led-class.ko
 566     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/net/rfkill/rfkill.ko
 567     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/drivers/platform/x86/thinkpad_acpi.ko
 568   acpi:IBM0071:PNP0511:
 569     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/lib/crc-ccitt.ko
 570     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/net/irda/irda.ko
 571     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/drivers/net/irda/nsc-ircc.ko
 572   [...]
 573 </pre>
 574
 575 <p>If you want to help implementing a system to let us propose what
 576 packages to install when new hardware is plugged into a Debian
 577 machine, please send me an email or talk to me on
 578 <a href="irc://irc.debian.org/%23debian-devel">#debian-devel</a>.</p>
 579
 580 <p><strong>Update 2013-01-15:</strong> Rewrite "cat $(find ...)" to
 581 "find ... -print0 | xargs -0 cat" to make sure it handle directories
 582 in /sys/ with space in them.</p>
 583
 584       </div>
 585       <div class="tags">
 586
 587
 588         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>.
 589
 590
 591       </div>
 592     </div>
 593     <div class="padding"></div>
 594
 595     <div class="entry">
 596       <div class="title">
 597         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lets_make_hardware_dongles_easier_to_use_in_Debian.html">Lets make hardware dongles easier to use in Debian</a>
 598       </div>
 599       <div class="date">
 600          9th January 2013
 601       </div>
 602       <div class="body">
 603         <p>One thing that annoys me with Debian and Linux distributions in
 604 general, is that there is a great package management system with the
 605 ability to automatically install software packages by downloading them
 606 from the distribution mirrors, but no way to get it to automatically
 607 install the packages I need to use the hardware I plug into my
 608 machine.  Even if the package to use it is easily available from the
 609 Linux distribution.  When I plug in a LEGO Mindstorms NXT, it could
 610 suggest to automatically install the python-nxt, nbc and t2n packages
 611 I need to talk to it.  When I plug in a Yubikey, it could propose the
 612 yubikey-personalization package.  The information required to do this
 613 is available, but no-one have pulled all the pieces together.</p>
 614
 615 <p>Some years ago, I proposed to
 616 <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2010/05/msg01206.html">use
 617 the discover subsystem to implement this</a>.  The idea is fairly
 618 simple:
 619
 620 <ul>
 621
 622 <li>Add a desktop entry in /usr/share/autostart/ pointing to a program
 623   starting when a user log in.</li>
 624
 625 <li>Set this program up to listen for kernel events emitted when new
 626   hardware is inserted into the computer.</li>
 627
 628 <li>When new hardware is inserted, look up the hardware ID in a
 629   database mapping to packages, and take note of any non-installed
 630   packages.</li>
 631
 632 <li>Show a message to the user proposing to install the discovered
 633   package, and make it easy to install it.</li>
 634
 635 </ul>
 636
 637 <p>I am not sure what the best way to implement this is, but my
 638 initial idea was to use dbus events to discover new hardware, the
 639 discover database to find packages and
 640 <a href="http://www.packagekit.org/">PackageKit</a> to install
 641 packages.</p>
 642
 643 <p>Yesterday, I found time to try to implement this idea, and the
 644 draft package is now checked into
 645 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/">the
 646 Debian Edu subversion repository</a>.  In the process, I updated the
 647 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/d/discover-data.html">discover-data</a>
 648 package to map the USB ids of LEGO Mindstorms and Yubikey devices to
 649 the relevant packages in Debian, and uploaded a new version
 650 2.2013.01.09 to unstable.  I also discovered that the current
 651 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/d/discover.html">discover</a>
 652 package in Debian no longer discovered any USB devices, because
 653 /proc/bus/usb/devices is no longer present.  I ported it to use
 654 libusb as a fall back option to get it working.  The fixed package
 655 version 2.1.2-6 is now in experimental (didn't upload it to unstable
 656 because of the freeze).</p>
 657
 658 <p>With this prototype in place, I can insert my Yubikey, and get this
 659 desktop notification to show up (only once, the first time it is
 660 inserted):</p>
 661
 662 <p align="center"><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-01-09-hw-autoinstall.png"></p>
 663
 664 <p>For this prototype to be really useful, some way to automatically
 665 install the proposed packages by pressing the "Please install
 666 program(s)" button should to be implemented.</p>
 667
 668 <p>If this idea seem useful to you, and you want to help make it
 669 happen, please help me update the discover-data database with mappings
 670 from hardware to Debian packages.  Check if 'discover-pkginstall -l'
 671 list the package you would like to have installed when a given
 672 hardware device is inserted into your computer, and report bugs using
 673 reportbug if it isn't.  Or, if you know of a better way to provide
 674 such mapping, please let me know.</p>
 675
 676 <p>This prototype need more work, and there are several questions that
 677 should be considered before it is ready for production use.  Is dbus
 678 the correct way to detect new hardware?  At the moment I look for HAL
 679 dbus events on the system bus, because that is the events I could see
 680 on my Debian Squeeze KDE desktop.  Are there better events to use?
 681 How should the user be notified?  Is the desktop notification
 682 mechanism the best option, or should the background daemon raise a
 683 popup instead?  How should packages be installed?  When should they
 684 not be installed?</p>
 685
 686 <p>If you want to help getting such feature implemented in Debian,
 687 please send me an email. :)</p>
 688
 689       </div>
 690       <div class="tags">
 691
 692
 693         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>.
 694
 695
 696       </div>
 697     </div>
 698     <div class="padding"></div>
 699
 700     <p style="text-align: right;"><a href="isenkram.rss"><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/xml.gif" alt="RSS Feed" width="36" height="14" /></a></p>
 701     <div id="sidebar">
 702
 703
 704
 705 <h2>Archive</h2>
 706 <ul>
 707
 708 <li>2013
 709 <ul>
 710
 711 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/01/">January (11)</a></li>
 712
 713 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/02/">February (9)</a></li>
 714
 715 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/03/">March (9)</a></li>
 716
 717 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/04/">April (5)</a></li>
 718
 719 </ul></li>
 720
 721 <li>2012
 722 <ul>
 723
 724 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/01/">January (7)</a></li>
 725
 726 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/02/">February (10)</a></li>
 727
 728 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/03/">March (17)</a></li>
 729
 730 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/04/">April (12)</a></li>
 731
 732 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/05/">May (12)</a></li>
 733
 734 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/06/">June (20)</a></li>
 735
 736 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/07/">July (17)</a></li>
 737
 738 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/08/">August (6)</a></li>
 739
 740 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/09/">September (9)</a></li>
 741
 742 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/10/">October (17)</a></li>
 743
 744 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/11/">November (10)</a></li>
 745
 746 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/12/">December (7)</a></li>
 747
 748 </ul></li>
 749
 750 <li>2011
 751 <ul>
 752
 753 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/01/">January (16)</a></li>
 754
 755 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/02/">February (6)</a></li>
 756
 757 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/03/">March (6)</a></li>
 758
 759 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/04/">April (7)</a></li>
 760
 761 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/05/">May (3)</a></li>
 762
 763 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/06/">June (2)</a></li>
 764
 765 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/07/">July (7)</a></li>
 766
 767 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/08/">August (6)</a></li>
 768
 769 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/09/">September (4)</a></li>
 770
 771 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/10/">October (2)</a></li>
 772
 773 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/11/">November (3)</a></li>
 774
 775 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/12/">December (1)</a></li>
 776
 777 </ul></li>
 778
 779 <li>2010
 780 <ul>
 781
 782 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/01/">January (2)</a></li>
 783
 784 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/02/">February (1)</a></li>
 785
 786 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/03/">March (3)</a></li>
 787
 788 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/04/">April (3)</a></li>
 789
 790 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/05/">May (9)</a></li>
 791
 792 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/06/">June (14)</a></li>
 793
 794 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/07/">July (12)</a></li>
 795
 796 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/08/">August (13)</a></li>
 797
 798 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/09/">September (7)</a></li>
 799
 800 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/10/">October (9)</a></li>
 801
 802 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/11/">November (13)</a></li>
 803
 804 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/12/">December (12)</a></li>
 805
 806 </ul></li>
 807
 808 <li>2009
 809 <ul>
 810
 811 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/01/">January (8)</a></li>
 812
 813 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/02/">February (8)</a></li>
 814
 815 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/03/">March (12)</a></li>
 816
 817 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/04/">April (10)</a></li>
 818
 819 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/05/">May (9)</a></li>
 820
 821 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/06/">June (3)</a></li>
 822
 823 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/07/">July (4)</a></li>
 824
 825 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/08/">August (3)</a></li>
 826
 827 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/09/">September (1)</a></li>
 828
 829 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/10/">October (2)</a></li>
 830
 831 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/11/">November (3)</a></li>
 832
 833 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/12/">December (3)</a></li>
 834
 835 </ul></li>
 836
 837 <li>2008
 838 <ul>
 839
 840 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2008/11/">November (5)</a></li>
 841
 842 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2008/12/">December (7)</a></li>
 843
 844 </ul></li>
 845
 846 </ul>
 847
 848
 849
 850 <h2>Tags</h2>
 851 <ul>
 852
 853  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/3d-printer">3d-printer (13)</a></li>
 854
 855  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/amiga">amiga (1)</a></li>
 856
 857  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/aros">aros (1)</a></li>
 858
 859  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bankid">bankid (4)</a></li>
 860
 861  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bitcoin">bitcoin (7)</a></li>
 862
 863  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bootsystem">bootsystem (12)</a></li>
 864
 865  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bsa">bsa (2)</a></li>
 866
 867  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian (71)</a></li>
 868
 869  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu (122)</a></li>
 870
 871  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/digistan">digistan (10)</a></li>
 872
 873  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/docbook">docbook (9)</a></li>
 874
 875  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/drivstoffpriser">drivstoffpriser (4)</a></li>
 876
 877  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english (187)</a></li>
 878
 879  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/fiksgatami">fiksgatami (21)</a></li>
 880
 881  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/fildeling">fildeling (12)</a></li>
 882
 883  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freeculture">freeculture (11)</a></li>
 884
 885  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/frikanalen">frikanalen (11)</a></li>
 886
 887  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/intervju">intervju (33)</a></li>
 888
 889  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram">isenkram (6)</a></li>
 890
 891  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/kart">kart (18)</a></li>
 892
 893  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ldap">ldap (8)</a></li>
 894
 895  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/lenker">lenker (6)</a></li>
 896
 897  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ltsp">ltsp (1)</a></li>
 898
 899  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/multimedia">multimedia (25)</a></li>
 900
 901  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/norsk">norsk (230)</a></li>
 902
 903  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug (151)</a></li>
 904
 905  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/offentlig innsyn">offentlig innsyn (7)</a></li>
 906
 907  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/open311">open311 (2)</a></li>
 908
 909  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/opphavsrett">opphavsrett (44)</a></li>
 910
 911  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/personvern">personvern (65)</a></li>
 912
 913  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/raid">raid (1)</a></li>
 914
 915  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/reprap">reprap (11)</a></li>
 916
 917  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/rfid">rfid (2)</a></li>
 918
 919  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/robot">robot (6)</a></li>
 920
 921  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/rss">rss (1)</a></li>
 922
 923  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ruter">ruter (4)</a></li>
 924
 925  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/scraperwiki">scraperwiki (2)</a></li>
 926
 927  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet (29)</a></li>
 928
 929  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sitesummary">sitesummary (4)</a></li>
 930
 931  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/skepsis">skepsis (4)</a></li>
 932
 933  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/standard">standard (42)</a></li>
 934
 935  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/stavekontroll">stavekontroll (3)</a></li>
 936
 937  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/stortinget">stortinget (7)</a></li>
 938
 939  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance (15)</a></li>
 940
 941  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sysadmin">sysadmin (1)</a></li>
 942
 943  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/valg">valg (7)</a></li>
 944
 945  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/video">video (38)</a></li>
 946
 947  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/vitenskap">vitenskap (4)</a></li>
 948
 949  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/web">web (26)</a></li>
 950
 951 </ul>
 952
 953
 954     </div>
 955     <p style="text-align: right">
 956  Created by <a href="http://steve.org.uk/Software/chronicle">Chronicle v4.6</a>
 957 </p>
 958
 959   </body>
 960 </html>