blog/archive/2013/01/01.rss

   1 <?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?>
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   3         <channel>
   4                 <title>Petter Reinholdtsen - Entries from January 2013</title>
   5                 <description>Entries from January 2013</description>
   6                 <link>http://www.hungry.com/~pere/blog/</link>
   7
   8
   9         <item>
  10                 <title>Welcome to the world, Isenkram!</title>
  11                 <link>http://www.hungry.com/~pere/blog/Welcome_to_the_world__Isenkram_.html</link>
  12                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.hungry.com/~pere/blog/Welcome_to_the_world__Isenkram_.html</guid>
  13                 <pubDate>Tue, 22 Jan 2013 22:00:00 +0100</pubDate>
  14                 <description>&lt;p&gt;Yesterday, I
  15 &lt;a href=&quot;https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/First_prototype_ready_making_hardware_easier_to_use_in_Debian.html&quot;&gt;asked
  16 for testers&lt;/a&gt; for my prototype for making Debian better at handling
  17 pluggable hardware devices, which I
  18 &lt;a href=&quot;https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lets_make_hardware_dongles_easier_to_use_in_Debian.html&quot;&gt;set
  19 out to create&lt;/a&gt; earlier this month.  Several valuable testers showed
  20 up, and caused me to really want to to open up the development to more
  21 people.  But before I did this, I want to come up with a sensible name
  22 for this project.  Today I finally decided on a new name, and I have
  23 renamed the project from hw-support-handler to this new name.  In the
  24 process, I moved the source to git and made it available as a
  25 &lt;a href=&quot;http://anonscm.debian.org/gitweb/?p=collab-maint/isenkram.git&quot;&gt;collab-maint&lt;/a&gt;
  26 repository in Debian.  The new name?  It is &lt;strong&gt;Isenkram&lt;/strong&gt;.
  27 To fetch and build the latest version of the source, use&lt;/p&gt;
  28
  29 &lt;pre&gt;
  30 git clone http://anonscm.debian.org/git/collab-maint/isenkram.git
  31 cd isenkram &amp;&amp; git-buildpackage -us -uc
  32 &lt;/pre&gt;
  33
  34 &lt;p&gt;I have not yet adjusted all files to use the new name yet.  If you
  35 want to hack on the source or improve the package, please go ahead.
  36 But please talk to me first on IRC or via email before you do major
  37 changes, to make sure we do not step on each others toes. :)&lt;/p&gt;
  38
  39 &lt;p&gt;If you wonder what &#39;isenkram&#39; is, it is a Norwegian word for iron
  40 stuff, typically meaning tools, nails, screws, etc.  Typical hardware
  41 stuff, in other words.  I&#39;ve been told it is the Norwegian variant of
  42 the German word eisenkram, for those that are familiar with that
  43 word.&lt;/p&gt;
  44
  45 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Update 2013-01-26&lt;/strong&gt;: Added -us -us to build
  46 instructions, to avoid confusing people with an error from the signing
  47 process.&lt;/p&gt;
  48
  49 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Update 2013-01-27&lt;/strong&gt;: Switch to HTTP URL for the git
  50 clone argument to avoid the need for authentication.&lt;/p&gt;
  51 </description>
  52         </item>
  53
  54         <item>
  55                 <title>First prototype ready making hardware easier to use in Debian</title>
  56                 <link>http://www.hungry.com/~pere/blog/First_prototype_ready_making_hardware_easier_to_use_in_Debian.html</link>
  57                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.hungry.com/~pere/blog/First_prototype_ready_making_hardware_easier_to_use_in_Debian.html</guid>
  58                 <pubDate>Mon, 21 Jan 2013 12:00:00 +0100</pubDate>
  59                 <description>&lt;p&gt;Early this month I set out to try to
  60 &lt;a href=&quot;https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lets_make_hardware_dongles_easier_to_use_in_Debian.html&quot;&gt;improve
  61 the Debian support for pluggable hardware devices&lt;/a&gt;.  Now my
  62 prototype is working, and it is ready for a larger audience.  To test
  63 it, fetch the
  64 &lt;a href=&quot;http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/&quot;&gt;source
  65 from the Debian Edu subversion repository&lt;/a&gt;, build and install the
  66 package.  You might have to log out and in again activate the
  67 autostart script.&lt;/p&gt;
  68
  69 &lt;p&gt;The design is simple:&lt;/p&gt;
  70
  71 &lt;ul&gt;
  72
  73 &lt;li&gt;Add desktop entry in /usr/share/autostart/ causing a program
  74 hw-support-handlerd to start when the user log in.&lt;/li&gt;
  75
  76 &lt;li&gt;This program listen for kernel events about new hardware (directly
  77 from the kernel like udev does), not using HAL dbus events as I
  78 initially did.&lt;/li&gt;
  79
  80 &lt;li&gt;When new hardware is inserted, look up the hardware modalias in
  81 the APT database, a database
  82 &lt;a href=&quot;http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/modaliases?view=markup&quot;&gt;available
  83 via HTTP&lt;/a&gt; and a database available as part of the package.&lt;/li&gt;
  84
  85 &lt;li&gt;If a package is mapped to the hardware in question, the package
  86 isn&#39;t installed yet and this is the first time the hardware was
  87 plugged in, show a desktop notification suggesting to install the
  88 package or packages.&lt;/li&gt;
  89
  90 &lt;li&gt;If the user click on the &#39;install package now&#39; button, ask
  91 aptdaemon via the PackageKit API to install the requrired package.&lt;/li&gt;
  92
  93 &lt;li&gt;aptdaemon ask for root password or sudo password, and install the
  94 package while showing progress information in a window.&lt;/li&gt;
  95
  96 &lt;/ul&gt;
  97
  98 &lt;p&gt;I still need to come up with a better name for the system.  Here
  99 are some screen shots showing the prototype in action.  First the
 100 notification, then the password request, and finally the request to
 101 approve all the dependencies.  Sorry for the Norwegian Bokmål GUI.&lt;/p&gt;
 102
 103 &lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-01-21-hw-support-1-notification.png&quot;&gt;
 104 &lt;br&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-01-21-hw-support-2-password.png&quot;&gt;
 105 &lt;br&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-01-21-hw-support-3-dependencies.png&quot;&gt;
 106 &lt;br&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-01-21-hw-support-4-installing.png&quot;&gt;
 107 &lt;br&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-01-21-hw-support-5-installing-details.png&quot; width=&quot;70%&quot;&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
 108
 109 &lt;p&gt;The prototype still need to be improved with longer timeouts, but
 110 is already useful.  The database of hardware to package mappings also
 111 need more work.  It is currently compatible with the Ubuntu way of
 112 storing such information in the package control file, but could be
 113 changed to use other formats instead or in addition to the current
 114 method.  I&#39;ve dropped the use of discover for this mapping, as the
 115 modalias approach is more flexible and easier to use on Linux as long
 116 as the Linux kernel expose its modalias strings directly.&lt;/p&gt;
 117
 118 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Update 2013-01-21 16:50&lt;/strong&gt;: Due to popular demand,
 119 here is the command required to check out and build the source: Use
 120 &#39;&lt;tt&gt;svn checkout
 121 svn://svn.debian.org/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/; cd
 122 hw-support-handler; debuild&lt;/tt&gt;&#39;.  If you lack debuild, install the
 123 devscripts package.&lt;/p&gt;
 124
 125 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Update 2013-01-23 12:00&lt;/strong&gt;: The project is now
 126 renamed to Isenkram and the source moved from the Debian Edu
 127 subversion repository to a Debian collab-maint git repository.  See
 128 &lt;a href=&quot;https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Welcome_to_the_world__Isenkram_.html&quot;&gt;build
 129 instructions&lt;/a&gt; for details.&lt;/p&gt;
 130 </description>
 131         </item>
 132
 133         <item>
 134                 <title>Thank you Thinkpad X41, for your long and trustworthy service</title>
 135                 <link>http://www.hungry.com/~pere/blog/Thank_you_Thinkpad_X41__for_your_long_and_trustworthy_service.html</link>
 136                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.hungry.com/~pere/blog/Thank_you_Thinkpad_X41__for_your_long_and_trustworthy_service.html</guid>
 137                 <pubDate>Sat, 19 Jan 2013 09:20:00 +0100</pubDate>
 138                 <description>&lt;p&gt;This Christmas my trusty old laptop died.  It died quietly and
 139 suddenly in bed.  With a quiet whimper, it went completely quiet and
 140 black.  The power button was no longer able to turn it on.  It was a
 141 IBM Thinkpad X41, and the best laptop I ever had.  Better than both
 142 Thinkpads X30, X31, X40, X60, X61 and X61S.  Far better than the
 143 Compaq I had before that.  Now I need to find a replacement.  To keep
 144 going during Christmas, I moved the one year old SSD disk to my old
 145 X40 where it fitted (only one I had left that could use it), but it is
 146 not a durable solution.
 147
 148 &lt;p&gt;My laptop needs are fairly modest.  This is my wishlist from when I
 149 got a new one more than 10 years ago.  It still holds true.:)&lt;/p&gt;
 150
 151 &lt;ul&gt;
 152
 153 &lt;li&gt;Lightweight (around 1 kg) and small volume (preferably smaller
 154   than A4).&lt;/li&gt;
 155 &lt;li&gt;Robust, it will be in my backpack every day.&lt;/li&gt;
 156 &lt;li&gt;Three button mouse and a mouse pin instead of touch pad.&lt;/li&gt;
 157 &lt;li&gt;Long battery life time.  Preferable a week.&lt;/li&gt;
 158 &lt;li&gt;Internal WIFI network card.&lt;/li&gt;
 159 &lt;li&gt;Internal Twisted Pair network card.&lt;/li&gt;
 160 &lt;li&gt;Some USB slots (2-3 is plenty)&lt;/li&gt;
 161 &lt;li&gt;Good keyboard - similar to the Thinkpad.&lt;/li&gt;
 162 &lt;li&gt;Video resolution at least 1024x768, with size around 12&quot; (A4 paper
 163 size).&lt;/li&gt;
 164 &lt;li&gt;Hardware supported by Debian Stable, ie the default kernel and
 165   X.org packages.&lt;/li&gt;
 166 &lt;li&gt;Quiet, preferably fan free (or at least not using the fan most of
 167   the time).
 168
 169 &lt;/ul&gt;
 170
 171 &lt;p&gt;You will notice that there are no RAM and CPU requirements in the
 172 list.  The reason is simply that the specifications on laptops the
 173 last 10-15 years have been sufficient for my needs, and I have to look
 174 at other features to choose my laptop.  But are there still made as
 175 robust laptops as my X41?  The Thinkpad X60/X61 proved to be less
 176 robust, and Thinkpads seem to be heading in the wrong direction since
 177 Lenovo took over.  But I&#39;ve been told that X220 and X1 Carbon might
 178 still be useful.&lt;/p&gt;
 179
 180 &lt;p&gt;Perhaps I should rethink my needs, and look for a pad with an
 181 external keyboard?  I&#39;ll have to check the
 182 &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.linux-laptop.net/&quot;&gt;Linux Laptops site&lt;/a&gt; for
 183 well-supported laptops, or perhaps just buy one preinstalled from one
 184 of the vendors listed on the &lt;a href=&quot;http://linuxpreloaded.com/&quot;&gt;Linux
 185 Pre-loaded site&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
 186 </description>
 187         </item>
 188
 189         <item>
 190                 <title>How to find a browser plugin supporting a given MIME type</title>
 191                 <link>http://www.hungry.com/~pere/blog/How_to_find_a_browser_plugin_supporting_a_given_MIME_type.html</link>
 192                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.hungry.com/~pere/blog/How_to_find_a_browser_plugin_supporting_a_given_MIME_type.html</guid>
 193                 <pubDate>Fri, 18 Jan 2013 10:40:00 +0100</pubDate>
 194                 <description>&lt;p&gt;Some times I try to figure out which Iceweasel browser plugin to
 195 install to get support for a given MIME type.  Thanks to
 196 &lt;a href=&quot;https://wiki.ubuntu.com/MozillaTeam/Plugins&quot;&gt;specifications
 197 done by Ubuntu&lt;/a&gt; and Mozilla, it is possible to do this in Debian.
 198 Unfortunately, not very many packages provide the needed meta
 199 information, Anyway, here is a small script to look up all browser
 200 plugin packages announcing ther MIME support using this specification:&lt;/p&gt;
 201
 202 &lt;pre&gt;
 203 #!/usr/bin/python
 204 import sys
 205 import apt
 206 def pkgs_handling_mimetype(mimetype):
 207     cache = apt.Cache()
 208     cache.open(None)
 209     thepkgs = []
 210     for pkg in cache:
 211         version = pkg.candidate
 212         if version is None:
 213             version = pkg.installed
 214         if version is None:
 215             continue
 216         record = version.record
 217         if not record.has_key(&#39;Npp-MimeType&#39;):
 218             continue
 219         mime_types = record[&#39;Npp-MimeType&#39;].split(&#39;,&#39;)
 220         for t in mime_types:
 221             t = t.rstrip().strip()
 222             if t == mimetype:
 223                 thepkgs.append(pkg.name)
 224     return thepkgs
 225 mimetype = &quot;audio/ogg&quot;
 226 if 1 &lt; len(sys.argv):
 227     mimetype = sys.argv[1]
 228 print &quot;Browser plugin packages supporting %s:&quot; % mimetype
 229 for pkg in pkgs_handling_mimetype(mimetype):
 230     print &quot;  %s&quot; %pkg
 231 &lt;/pre&gt;
 232
 233 &lt;p&gt;It can be used like this to look up a given MIME type:&lt;/p&gt;
 234
 235 &lt;pre&gt;
 236 % ./apt-find-browserplug-for-mimetype
 237 Browser plugin packages supporting audio/ogg:
 238   gecko-mediaplayer
 239 % ./apt-find-browserplug-for-mimetype application/x-shockwave-flash
 240 Browser plugin packages supporting application/x-shockwave-flash:
 241   browser-plugin-gnash
 242 %
 243 &lt;/pre&gt;
 244
 245 &lt;p&gt;In Ubuntu this mechanism is combined with support in the browser
 246 itself to query for plugins and propose to install the needed
 247 packages.  It would be great if Debian supported such feature too.  Is
 248 anyone working on adding it?&lt;/p&gt;
 249
 250 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Update 2013-01-18 14:20&lt;/strong&gt;: The Debian BTS
 251 request for icweasel support for this feature is
 252 &lt;a href=&quot;http://bugs.debian.org/484010&quot;&gt;#484010&lt;/a&gt; from 2008 (and
 253 &lt;a href=&quot;http://bugs.debian.org/698426&quot;&gt;#698426&lt;/a&gt; from today).  Lack
 254 of manpower and wish for a different design is the reason thus feature
 255 is not yet in iceweasel from Debian.&lt;/p&gt;
 256 </description>
 257         </item>
 258
 259         <item>
 260                 <title>What is the most supported MIME type in Debian?</title>
 261                 <link>http://www.hungry.com/~pere/blog/What_is_the_most_supported_MIME_type_in_Debian_.html</link>
 262                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.hungry.com/~pere/blog/What_is_the_most_supported_MIME_type_in_Debian_.html</guid>
 263                 <pubDate>Wed, 16 Jan 2013 10:10:00 +0100</pubDate>
 264                 <description>&lt;p&gt;The &lt;a href=&quot;http://wiki.debian.org/AppStreamDebianProposal&quot;&gt;DEP-11
 265 proposal to add AppStream information to the Debian archive&lt;/a&gt;, is a
 266 proposal to make it possible for a Desktop application to propose to
 267 the user some package to install to gain support for a given MIME
 268 type, font, library etc. that is currently missing.  With such
 269 mechanism in place, it would be possible for the desktop to
 270 automatically propose and install leocad if some LDraw file is
 271 downloaded by the browser.&lt;/p&gt;
 272
 273 &lt;p&gt;To get some idea about the current content of the archive, I decided
 274 to write a simple program to extract all .desktop files from the
 275 Debian archive and look up the claimed MIME support there.  The result
 276 can be found on the
 277 &lt;a href=&quot;http://ftp.skolelinux.org/pub/AppStreamTest&quot;&gt;Skolelinux FTP
 278 site&lt;/a&gt;.  Using the collected information, it become possible to
 279 answer the question in the title.  Here are the 20 most supported MIME
 280 types in Debian stable (Squeeze), testing (Wheezy) and unstable (Sid).
 281 The complete list is available from the link above.&lt;/p&gt;
 282
 283 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Debian Stable:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
 284
 285 &lt;pre&gt;
 286   count MIME type
 287   ----- -----------------------
 288      32 text/plain
 289      30 audio/mpeg
 290      29 image/png
 291      28 image/jpeg
 292      27 application/ogg
 293      26 audio/x-mp3
 294      25 image/tiff
 295      25 image/gif
 296      22 image/bmp
 297      22 audio/x-wav
 298      20 audio/x-flac
 299      19 audio/x-mpegurl
 300      18 video/x-ms-asf
 301      18 audio/x-musepack
 302      18 audio/x-mpeg
 303      18 application/x-ogg
 304      17 video/mpeg
 305      17 audio/x-scpls
 306      17 audio/ogg
 307      16 video/x-ms-wmv
 308 &lt;/pre&gt;
 309
 310 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Debian Testing:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
 311
 312 &lt;pre&gt;
 313   count MIME type
 314   ----- -----------------------
 315      33 text/plain
 316      32 image/png
 317      32 image/jpeg
 318      29 audio/mpeg
 319      27 image/gif
 320      26 image/tiff
 321      26 application/ogg
 322      25 audio/x-mp3
 323      22 image/bmp
 324      21 audio/x-wav
 325      19 audio/x-mpegurl
 326      19 audio/x-mpeg
 327      18 video/mpeg
 328      18 audio/x-scpls
 329      18 audio/x-flac
 330      18 application/x-ogg
 331      17 video/x-ms-asf
 332      17 text/html
 333      17 audio/x-musepack
 334      16 image/x-xbitmap
 335 &lt;/pre&gt;
 336
 337 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Debian Unstable:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
 338
 339 &lt;pre&gt;
 340   count MIME type
 341   ----- -----------------------
 342      31 text/plain
 343      31 image/png
 344      31 image/jpeg
 345      29 audio/mpeg
 346      28 application/ogg
 347      27 image/gif
 348      26 image/tiff
 349      26 audio/x-mp3
 350      23 audio/x-wav
 351      22 image/bmp
 352      21 audio/x-flac
 353      20 audio/x-mpegurl
 354      19 audio/x-mpeg
 355      18 video/x-ms-asf
 356      18 video/mpeg
 357      18 audio/x-scpls
 358      18 application/x-ogg
 359      17 audio/x-musepack
 360      16 video/x-ms-wmv
 361      16 video/x-msvideo
 362 &lt;/pre&gt;
 363
 364 &lt;p&gt;I am told that PackageKit can provide an API to access the kind of
 365 information mentioned in DEP-11.  I have not yet had time to look at
 366 it, but hope the PackageKit people in Debian are on top of these
 367 issues.&lt;/p&gt;
 368
 369 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Update 2013-01-16 13:35&lt;/strong&gt;: Updated numbers after
 370 discovering a typo in my script.&lt;/p&gt;
 371 </description>
 372         </item>
 373
 374         <item>
 375                 <title>Using modalias info to find packages handling my hardware</title>
 376                 <link>http://www.hungry.com/~pere/blog/Using_modalias_info_to_find_packages_handling_my_hardware.html</link>
 377                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.hungry.com/~pere/blog/Using_modalias_info_to_find_packages_handling_my_hardware.html</guid>
 378                 <pubDate>Tue, 15 Jan 2013 08:00:00 +0100</pubDate>
 379                 <description>&lt;p&gt;Yesterday, I wrote about the
 380 &lt;a href=&quot;https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Modalias_strings___a_practical_way_to_map__stuff__to_hardware.html&quot;&gt;modalias
 381 values provided by the Linux kernel&lt;/a&gt; following my hope for
 382 &lt;a href=&quot;https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lets_make_hardware_dongles_easier_to_use_in_Debian.html&quot;&gt;better
 383 dongle support in Debian&lt;/a&gt;.  Using this knowledge, I have tested how
 384 modalias values attached to package names can be used to map packages
 385 to hardware.  This allow the system to look up and suggest relevant
 386 packages when I plug in some new hardware into my machine, and replace
 387 discover and discover-data as the database used to map hardware to
 388 packages.&lt;/p&gt;
 389
 390 &lt;p&gt;I create a modaliases file with entries like the following,
 391 containing package name, kernel module name (if relevant, otherwise
 392 the package name) and globs matching the relevant hardware
 393 modalias.&lt;/p&gt;
 394
 395 &lt;p&gt;&lt;blockquote&gt;
 396 Package: package-name
 397 &lt;br&gt;Modaliases: module(modaliasglob, modaliasglob, modaliasglob)&lt;/p&gt;
 398 &lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
 399
 400 &lt;p&gt;It is fairly trivial to write code to find the relevant packages
 401 for a given modalias value using this file.&lt;/p&gt;
 402
 403 &lt;p&gt;An entry like this would suggest the video and picture application
 404 cheese for many USB web cameras (interface bus class 0E01):&lt;/p&gt;
 405
 406 &lt;p&gt;&lt;blockquote&gt;
 407 Package: cheese
 408 &lt;br&gt;Modaliases: cheese(usb:v*p*d*dc*dsc*dp*ic0Eisc01ip*)&lt;/p&gt;
 409 &lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
 410
 411 &lt;p&gt;An entry like this would suggest the pcmciautils package when a
 412 CardBus bridge (bus class 0607) PCI device is present:&lt;/p&gt;
 413
 414 &lt;p&gt;&lt;blockquote&gt;
 415 Package: pcmciautils
 416 &lt;br&gt;Modaliases: pcmciautils(pci:v*d*sv*sd*bc06sc07i*)
 417 &lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
 418
 419 &lt;p&gt;An entry like this would suggest the package colorhug-client when
 420 plugging in a ColorHug with USB IDs 04D8:F8DA:&lt;/p&gt;
 421
 422 &lt;p&gt;&lt;blockquote&gt;
 423 Package: colorhug-client
 424 &lt;br&gt;Modaliases: colorhug-client(usb:v04D8pF8DAd*)&lt;/p&gt;
 425 &lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
 426
 427 &lt;p&gt;I believe the format is compatible with the format of the Packages
 428 file in the Debian archive.  Ubuntu already uses their Packages file
 429 to store their mappings from packages to hardware.&lt;/p&gt;
 430
 431 &lt;p&gt;By adding a XB-Modaliases: header in debian/control, any .deb can
 432 announce the hardware it support in a way my prototype understand.
 433 This allow those publishing packages in an APT source outside the
 434 Debian archive as well as those backporting packages to make sure the
 435 hardware mapping are included in the package meta information.  I&#39;ve
 436 tested such header in the pymissile package, and its modalias mapping
 437 is working as it should with my prototype.  It even made it to Ubuntu
 438 Raring.&lt;/p&gt;
 439
 440 &lt;p&gt;To test if it was possible to look up supported hardware using only
 441 the shell tools available in the Debian installer, I wrote a shell
 442 implementation of the lookup code.  The idea is to create files for
 443 each modalias and let the shell do the matching.  Please check out and
 444 try the
 445 &lt;a href=&quot;http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/hw-support-lookup?view=co&quot;&gt;hw-support-lookup&lt;/a&gt;
 446 shell script.  It run without any extra dependencies and fetch the
 447 hardware mappings from the Debian archive and the subversion
 448 repository where I currently work on my prototype.&lt;/p&gt;
 449
 450 &lt;p&gt;When I use it on a machine with a yubikey inserted, it suggest to
 451 install yubikey-personalization:&lt;/p&gt;
 452
 453 &lt;p&gt;&lt;blockquote&gt;
 454 % ./hw-support-lookup
 455 &lt;br&gt;yubikey-personalization
 456 &lt;br&gt;%
 457 &lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
 458
 459 &lt;p&gt;When I run it on my Thinkpad X40 with a PCMCIA/CardBus slot, it
 460 propose to install the pcmciautils package:&lt;/p&gt;
 461
 462 &lt;p&gt;&lt;blockquote&gt;
 463 % ./hw-support-lookup
 464 &lt;br&gt;pcmciautils
 465 &lt;br&gt;%
 466 &lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
 467
 468 &lt;p&gt;If you know of any hardware-package mapping that should be added to
 469 &lt;a href=&quot;http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/modaliases?view=co&quot;&gt;my
 470 database&lt;/a&gt;, please tell me about it.&lt;/p&gt;
 471
 472 &lt;p&gt;It could be possible to generate several of the mappings between
 473 packages and hardware.  One source would be to look at packages with
 474 kernel modules, ie packages with *.ko files in /lib/modules/, and
 475 extract their modalias information.  Another would be to look at
 476 packages with udev rules, ie packages with files in
 477 /lib/udev/rules.d/, and extract their vendor/model information to
 478 generate a modalias matching rule.  I have not tested any of these to
 479 see if it work.&lt;/p&gt;
 480
 481 &lt;p&gt;If you want to help implementing a system to let us propose what
 482 packages to install when new hardware is plugged into a Debian
 483 machine, please send me an email or talk to me on
 484 &lt;a href=&quot;irc://irc.debian.org/%23debian-devel&quot;&gt;#debian-devel&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
 485 </description>
 486         </item>
 487
 488         <item>
 489                 <title>Modalias strings - a practical way to map &quot;stuff&quot; to hardware</title>
 490                 <link>http://www.hungry.com/~pere/blog/Modalias_strings___a_practical_way_to_map__stuff__to_hardware.html</link>
 491                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.hungry.com/~pere/blog/Modalias_strings___a_practical_way_to_map__stuff__to_hardware.html</guid>
 492                 <pubDate>Mon, 14 Jan 2013 11:20:00 +0100</pubDate>
 493                 <description>&lt;p&gt;While looking into how to look up Debian packages based on hardware
 494 information, to find the packages that support a given piece of
 495 hardware, I refreshed my memory regarding modalias values, and decided
 496 to document the details.  Here are my findings so far, also available
 497 in
 498 &lt;a href=&quot;http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/&quot;&gt;the
 499 Debian Edu subversion repository&lt;/a&gt;:
 500
 501 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Modalias decoded&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
 502
 503 &lt;p&gt;This document try to explain what the different types of modalias
 504 values stands for.  It is in part based on information from
 505 &amp;lt;URL: &lt;a href=&quot;https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Modalias&quot;&gt;https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Modalias&lt;/a&gt; &amp;gt;,
 506 &amp;lt;URL: &lt;a href=&quot;http://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/26132/how-to-assign-usb-driver-to-device&quot;&gt;http://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/26132/how-to-assign-usb-driver-to-device&lt;/a&gt; &amp;gt;,
 507 &amp;lt;URL: &lt;a href=&quot;http://code.metager.de/source/history/linux/stable/scripts/mod/file2alias.c&quot;&gt;http://code.metager.de/source/history/linux/stable/scripts/mod/file2alias.c&lt;/a&gt; &amp;gt; and
 508 &amp;lt;URL: &lt;a href=&quot;http://cvs.savannah.gnu.org/viewvc/dmidecode/dmidecode.c?root=dmidecode&amp;view=markup&quot;&gt;http://cvs.savannah.gnu.org/viewvc/dmidecode/dmidecode.c?root=dmidecode&amp;view=markup&lt;/a&gt; &amp;gt;.
 509
 510 &lt;p&gt;The modalias entries for a given Linux machine can be found using
 511 this shell script:&lt;/p&gt;
 512
 513 &lt;pre&gt;
 514 find /sys -name modalias -print0 | xargs -0 cat | sort -u
 515 &lt;/pre&gt;
 516
 517 &lt;p&gt;The supported modalias globs for a given kernel module can be found
 518 using modinfo:&lt;/p&gt;
 519
 520 &lt;pre&gt;
 521 % /sbin/modinfo psmouse | grep alias:
 522 alias:          serio:ty05pr*id*ex*
 523 alias:          serio:ty01pr*id*ex*
 524 %
 525 &lt;/pre&gt;
 526
 527 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;PCI subtype&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
 528
 529 &lt;p&gt;A typical PCI entry can look like this.  This is an Intel Host
 530 Bridge memory controller:&lt;/p&gt;
 531
 532 &lt;p&gt;&lt;blockquote&gt;
 533 pci:v00008086d00002770sv00001028sd000001ADbc06sc00i00
 534 &lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
 535
 536 &lt;p&gt;This represent these values:&lt;/p&gt;
 537
 538 &lt;pre&gt;
 539  v   00008086  (vendor)
 540  d   00002770  (device)
 541  sv  00001028  (subvendor)
 542  sd  000001AD  (subdevice)
 543  bc  06        (bus class)
 544  sc  00        (bus subclass)
 545  i   00        (interface)
 546 &lt;/pre&gt;
 547
 548 &lt;p&gt;The vendor/device values are the same values outputted from &#39;lspci
 549 -n&#39; as 8086:2770.  The bus class/subclass is also shown by lspci as
 550 0600.  The 0600 class is a host bridge.  Other useful bus values are
 551 0300 (VGA compatible card) and 0200 (Ethernet controller).&lt;/p&gt;
 552
 553 &lt;p&gt;Not sure how to figure out the interface value, nor what it
 554 means.&lt;/p&gt;
 555
 556 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;USB subtype&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
 557
 558 &lt;p&gt;Some typical USB entries can look like this.  This is an internal
 559 USB hub in a laptop:&lt;/p&gt;
 560
 561 &lt;p&gt;&lt;blockquote&gt;
 562 usb:v1D6Bp0001d0206dc09dsc00dp00ic09isc00ip00
 563 &lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
 564
 565 &lt;p&gt;Here is the values included in this alias:&lt;/p&gt;
 566
 567 &lt;pre&gt;
 568  v    1D6B  (device vendor)
 569  p    0001  (device product)
 570  d    0206  (bcddevice)
 571  dc     09  (device class)
 572  dsc    00  (device subclass)
 573  dp     00  (device protocol)
 574  ic     09  (interface class)
 575  isc    00  (interface subclass)
 576  ip     00  (interface protocol)
 577 &lt;/pre&gt;
 578
 579 &lt;p&gt;The 0900 device class/subclass means hub.  Some times the relevant
 580 class is in the interface class section.  For a simple USB web camera,
 581 these alias entries show up:&lt;/p&gt;
 582
 583 &lt;p&gt;&lt;blockquote&gt;
 584 usb:v0AC8p3420d5000dcEFdsc02dp01ic01isc01ip00
 585 &lt;br&gt;usb:v0AC8p3420d5000dcEFdsc02dp01ic01isc02ip00
 586 &lt;br&gt;usb:v0AC8p3420d5000dcEFdsc02dp01ic0Eisc01ip00
 587 &lt;br&gt;usb:v0AC8p3420d5000dcEFdsc02dp01ic0Eisc02ip00
 588 &lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
 589
 590 &lt;p&gt;Interface class 0E01 is video control, 0E02 is video streaming (aka
 591 camera), 0101 is audio control device and 0102 is audio streaming (aka
 592 microphone).  Thus this is a camera with microphone included.&lt;/p&gt;
 593
 594 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;ACPI subtype&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
 595
 596 &lt;p&gt;The ACPI type is used for several non-PCI/USB stuff.  This is an IR
 597 receiver in a Thinkpad X40:&lt;/p&gt;
 598
 599 &lt;p&gt;&lt;blockquote&gt;
 600 acpi:IBM0071:PNP0511:
 601 &lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
 602
 603 &lt;p&gt;The values between the colons are IDs.&lt;/p&gt;
 604
 605 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;DMI subtype&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
 606
 607 &lt;p&gt;The DMI table contain lots of information about the computer case
 608 and model.  This is an entry for a IBM Thinkpad X40, fetched from
 609 /sys/devices/virtual/dmi/id/modalias:&lt;/p&gt;
 610
 611 &lt;p&gt;&lt;blockquote&gt;
 612 dmi:bvnIBM:bvr1UETB6WW(1.66):bd06/15/2005:svnIBM:pn2371H4G:pvrThinkPadX40:rvnIBM:rn2371H4G:rvrNotAvailable:cvnIBM:ct10:cvrNotAvailable:
 613 &lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
 614
 615 &lt;p&gt;The values present are&lt;/p&gt;
 616
 617 &lt;pre&gt;
 618  bvn  IBM            (BIOS vendor)
 619  bvr  1UETB6WW(1.66) (BIOS version)
 620  bd   06/15/2005     (BIOS date)
 621  svn  IBM            (system vendor)
 622  pn   2371H4G        (product name)
 623  pvr  ThinkPadX40    (product version)
 624  rvn  IBM            (board vendor)
 625  rn   2371H4G        (board name)
 626  rvr  NotAvailable   (board version)
 627  cvn  IBM            (chassis vendor)
 628  ct   10             (chassis type)
 629  cvr  NotAvailable   (chassis version)
 630 &lt;/pre&gt;
 631
 632 &lt;p&gt;The chassis type 10 is Notebook.  Other interesting values can be
 633 found in the dmidecode source:&lt;/p&gt;
 634
 635 &lt;pre&gt;
 636   3 Desktop
 637   4 Low Profile Desktop
 638   5 Pizza Box
 639   6 Mini Tower
 640   7 Tower
 641   8 Portable
 642   9 Laptop
 643  10 Notebook
 644  11 Hand Held
 645  12 Docking Station
 646  13 All In One
 647  14 Sub Notebook
 648  15 Space-saving
 649  16 Lunch Box
 650  17 Main Server Chassis
 651  18 Expansion Chassis
 652  19 Sub Chassis
 653  20 Bus Expansion Chassis
 654  21 Peripheral Chassis
 655  22 RAID Chassis
 656  23 Rack Mount Chassis
 657  24 Sealed-case PC
 658  25 Multi-system
 659  26 CompactPCI
 660  27 AdvancedTCA
 661  28 Blade
 662  29 Blade Enclosing
 663 &lt;/pre&gt;
 664
 665 &lt;p&gt;The chassis type values are not always accurately set in the DMI
 666 table.  For example my home server is a tower, but the DMI modalias
 667 claim it is a desktop.&lt;/p&gt;
 668
 669 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;SerIO subtype&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
 670
 671 &lt;p&gt;This type is used for PS/2 mouse plugs.  One example is from my
 672 test machine:&lt;/p&gt;
 673
 674 &lt;p&gt;&lt;blockquote&gt;
 675 serio:ty01pr00id00ex00
 676 &lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
 677
 678 &lt;p&gt;The values present are&lt;/p&gt;
 679
 680 &lt;pre&gt;
 681   ty  01  (type)
 682   pr  00  (prototype)
 683   id  00  (id)
 684   ex  00  (extra)
 685 &lt;/pre&gt;
 686
 687 &lt;p&gt;This type is supported by the psmouse driver.  I am not sure what
 688 the valid values are.&lt;/p&gt;
 689
 690 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Other subtypes&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
 691
 692 &lt;p&gt;There are heaps of other modalias subtypes according to
 693 file2alias.c.  There is the rest of the list from that source: amba,
 694 ap, bcma, ccw, css, eisa, hid, i2c, ieee1394, input, ipack, isapnp,
 695 mdio, of, parisc, pcmcia, platform, scsi, sdio, spi, ssb, vio, virtio,
 696 vmbus, x86cpu and zorro.  I did not spend time documenting all of
 697 these, as they do not seem relevant for my intended use with mapping
 698 hardware to packages when new stuff is inserted during run time.&lt;/p&gt;
 699
 700 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Looking up kernel modules using modalias values&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
 701
 702 &lt;p&gt;To check which kernel modules provide support for a given modalias,
 703 one can use the following shell script:&lt;/p&gt;
 704
 705 &lt;pre&gt;
 706   for id in $(find /sys -name modalias -print0 | xargs -0 cat | sort -u); do \
 707     echo &quot;$id&quot; ; \
 708     /sbin/modprobe --show-depends &quot;$id&quot;|sed &#39;s/^/  /&#39; ; \
 709   done
 710 &lt;/pre&gt;
 711
 712 &lt;p&gt;The output can look like this (only the first few entries as the
 713 list is very long on my test machine):&lt;/p&gt;
 714
 715 &lt;pre&gt;
 716   acpi:ACPI0003:
 717     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/drivers/acpi/ac.ko
 718   acpi:device:
 719   FATAL: Module acpi:device: not found.
 720   acpi:IBM0068:
 721     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/drivers/char/nvram.ko
 722     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/drivers/leds/led-class.ko
 723     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/net/rfkill/rfkill.ko
 724     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/drivers/platform/x86/thinkpad_acpi.ko
 725   acpi:IBM0071:PNP0511:
 726     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/lib/crc-ccitt.ko
 727     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/net/irda/irda.ko
 728     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/drivers/net/irda/nsc-ircc.ko
 729   [...]
 730 &lt;/pre&gt;
 731
 732 &lt;p&gt;If you want to help implementing a system to let us propose what
 733 packages to install when new hardware is plugged into a Debian
 734 machine, please send me an email or talk to me on
 735 &lt;a href=&quot;irc://irc.debian.org/%23debian-devel&quot;&gt;#debian-devel&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
 736
 737 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Update 2013-01-15:&lt;/strong&gt; Rewrite &quot;cat $(find ...)&quot; to
 738 &quot;find ... -print0 | xargs -0 cat&quot; to make sure it handle directories
 739 in /sys/ with space in them.&lt;/p&gt;
 740 </description>
 741         </item>
 742
 743         <item>
 744                 <title>Moved the pymissile Debian packaging to collab-maint</title>
 745                 <link>http://www.hungry.com/~pere/blog/Moved_the_pymissile_Debian_packaging_to_collab_maint.html</link>
 746                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.hungry.com/~pere/blog/Moved_the_pymissile_Debian_packaging_to_collab_maint.html</guid>
 747                 <pubDate>Thu, 10 Jan 2013 20:40:00 +0100</pubDate>
 748                 <description>&lt;p&gt;As part of my investigation on how to improve the support in Debian
 749 for hardware dongles, I dug up my old Mark and Spencer USB Rocket
 750 Launcher and updated the Debian package
 751 &lt;a href=&quot;http://packages.qa.debian.org/pymissile&quot;&gt;pymissile&lt;/a&gt; to make
 752 sure udev will fix the device permissions when it is plugged in.  I
 753 also added a &quot;Modaliases&quot; header to test it in the Debian archive and
 754 hopefully make the package be proposed by jockey in Ubuntu when a user
 755 plug in his rocket launcher.  In the process I moved the source to a
 756 git repository under collab-maint, to make it easier for any DD to
 757 contribute.  &lt;a href=&quot;http://code.google.com/p/pymissile/&quot;&gt;Upstream&lt;/a&gt;
 758 is not very active, but the software still work for me even after five
 759 years of relative silence.  The new git repository is not listed in
 760 the uploaded package yet, because I want to test the other changes a
 761 bit more before I upload the new version.  If you want to check out
 762 the new version with a .desktop file included, visit the
 763 &lt;a href=&quot;http://anonscm.debian.org/gitweb/?p=collab-maint/pymissile.git&quot;&gt;gitweb
 764 view&lt;/a&gt; or use &quot;&lt;tt&gt;git clone
 765 git://anonscm.debian.org/collab-maint/pymissile.git&lt;/tt&gt;&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;
 766 </description>
 767         </item>
 768
 769         <item>
 770                 <title>Lets make hardware dongles easier to use in Debian</title>
 771                 <link>http://www.hungry.com/~pere/blog/Lets_make_hardware_dongles_easier_to_use_in_Debian.html</link>
 772                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.hungry.com/~pere/blog/Lets_make_hardware_dongles_easier_to_use_in_Debian.html</guid>
 773                 <pubDate>Wed, 9 Jan 2013 15:40:00 +0100</pubDate>
 774                 <description>&lt;p&gt;One thing that annoys me with Debian and Linux distributions in
 775 general, is that there is a great package management system with the
 776 ability to automatically install software packages by downloading them
 777 from the distribution mirrors, but no way to get it to automatically
 778 install the packages I need to use the hardware I plug into my
 779 machine.  Even if the package to use it is easily available from the
 780 Linux distribution.  When I plug in a LEGO Mindstorms NXT, it could
 781 suggest to automatically install the python-nxt, nbc and t2n packages
 782 I need to talk to it.  When I plug in a Yubikey, it could propose the
 783 yubikey-personalization package.  The information required to do this
 784 is available, but no-one have pulled all the pieces together.&lt;/p&gt;
 785
 786 &lt;p&gt;Some years ago, I proposed to
 787 &lt;a href=&quot;http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2010/05/msg01206.html&quot;&gt;use
 788 the discover subsystem to implement this&lt;/a&gt;.  The idea is fairly
 789 simple:
 790
 791 &lt;ul&gt;
 792
 793 &lt;li&gt;Add a desktop entry in /usr/share/autostart/ pointing to a program
 794   starting when a user log in.&lt;/li&gt;
 795
 796 &lt;li&gt;Set this program up to listen for kernel events emitted when new
 797   hardware is inserted into the computer.&lt;/li&gt;
 798
 799 &lt;li&gt;When new hardware is inserted, look up the hardware ID in a
 800   database mapping to packages, and take note of any non-installed
 801   packages.&lt;/li&gt;
 802
 803 &lt;li&gt;Show a message to the user proposing to install the discovered
 804   package, and make it easy to install it.&lt;/li&gt;
 805
 806 &lt;/ul&gt;
 807
 808 &lt;p&gt;I am not sure what the best way to implement this is, but my
 809 initial idea was to use dbus events to discover new hardware, the
 810 discover database to find packages and
 811 &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.packagekit.org/&quot;&gt;PackageKit&lt;/a&gt; to install
 812 packages.&lt;/p&gt;
 813
 814 &lt;p&gt;Yesterday, I found time to try to implement this idea, and the
 815 draft package is now checked into
 816 &lt;a href=&quot;http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/&quot;&gt;the
 817 Debian Edu subversion repository&lt;/a&gt;.  In the process, I updated the
 818 &lt;a href=&quot;http://packages.qa.debian.org/d/discover-data.html&quot;&gt;discover-data&lt;/a&gt;
 819 package to map the USB ids of LEGO Mindstorms and Yubikey devices to
 820 the relevant packages in Debian, and uploaded a new version
 821 2.2013.01.09 to unstable.  I also discovered that the current
 822 &lt;a href=&quot;http://packages.qa.debian.org/d/discover.html&quot;&gt;discover&lt;/a&gt;
 823 package in Debian no longer discovered any USB devices, because
 824 /proc/bus/usb/devices is no longer present.  I ported it to use
 825 libusb as a fall back option to get it working.  The fixed package
 826 version 2.1.2-6 is now in experimental (didn&#39;t upload it to unstable
 827 because of the freeze).&lt;/p&gt;
 828
 829 &lt;p&gt;With this prototype in place, I can insert my Yubikey, and get this
 830 desktop notification to show up (only once, the first time it is
 831 inserted):&lt;/p&gt;
 832
 833 &lt;p align=&quot;center&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-01-09-hw-autoinstall.png&quot;&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
 834
 835 &lt;p&gt;For this prototype to be really useful, some way to automatically
 836 install the proposed packages by pressing the &quot;Please install
 837 program(s)&quot; button should to be implemented.&lt;/p&gt;
 838
 839 &lt;p&gt;If this idea seem useful to you, and you want to help make it
 840 happen, please help me update the discover-data database with mappings
 841 from hardware to Debian packages.  Check if &#39;discover-pkginstall -l&#39;
 842 list the package you would like to have installed when a given
 843 hardware device is inserted into your computer, and report bugs using
 844 reportbug if it isn&#39;t.  Or, if you know of a better way to provide
 845 such mapping, please let me know.&lt;/p&gt;
 846
 847 &lt;p&gt;This prototype need more work, and there are several questions that
 848 should be considered before it is ready for production use.  Is dbus
 849 the correct way to detect new hardware?  At the moment I look for HAL
 850 dbus events on the system bus, because that is the events I could see
 851 on my Debian Squeeze KDE desktop.  Are there better events to use?
 852 How should the user be notified?  Is the desktop notification
 853 mechanism the best option, or should the background daemon raise a
 854 popup instead?  How should packages be installed?  When should they
 855 not be installed?&lt;/p&gt;
 856
 857 &lt;p&gt;If you want to help getting such feature implemented in Debian,
 858 please send me an email. :)&lt;/p&gt;
 859 </description>
 860         </item>
 861
 862         <item>
 863                 <title>New IRC channel for LEGO designers using Debian</title>
 864                 <link>http://www.hungry.com/~pere/blog/New_IRC_channel_for_LEGO_designers_using_Debian.html</link>
 865                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.hungry.com/~pere/blog/New_IRC_channel_for_LEGO_designers_using_Debian.html</guid>
 866                 <pubDate>Wed, 2 Jan 2013 15:40:00 +0100</pubDate>
 867                 <description>&lt;p&gt;During Christmas, I have worked a bit on the Debian support for
 868 &lt;a href=&quot;http://mindstorms.lego.com/en-us/Default.aspx&quot;&gt;LEGO Mindstorm
 869 NXT&lt;/a&gt;.  My son and I have played a bit with my NXT set, and I
 870 discovered I had to build all the tools myself because none were
 871 already in Debian Squeeze.  If Debian support for LEGO is something
 872 you care about, please join me on the IRC channel
 873 &lt;a href=&quot;irc://irc.debian.org/%23debian-lego&quot;&gt;#debian-lego&lt;/a&gt; (server
 874 irc.debian.org).  There is a lot that could be done to improve the
 875 Debian support for LEGO designers.  For example both CAD software
 876 and Mindstorm compilers are missing. :)&lt;/p&gt;
 877
 878 &lt;p&gt;Update 2012-01-03: A
 879 &lt;a href=&quot;http://wiki.debian.org/LegoDesigners&quot;&gt;project page&lt;/a&gt;
 880 including links to Lego related packages is now available.&lt;/p&gt;
 881 </description>
 882         </item>
 883
 884         <item>
 885                 <title>Lenker for 2013-01-01</title>
 886                 <link>http://www.hungry.com/~pere/blog/Lenker_for_2013_01_01.html</link>
 887                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.hungry.com/~pere/blog/Lenker_for_2013_01_01.html</guid>
 888                 <pubDate>Tue, 1 Jan 2013 09:20:00 +0100</pubDate>
 889                 <description>&lt;p&gt;Her er noen lenker til tekster jeg har satt pris på å lese den
 890 siste måneden.&lt;/p&gt;
 891
 892 &lt;ul&gt;
 893
 894 &lt;li&gt;2012-12-07
 895   &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.idg.no/computerworld/article262047.ece&quot;&gt;Myter og
 896   FUD om fri programvare&lt;/a&gt; av min venn Christer Gundersen som
 897   kommenterer noen av de påstandene som er spredt via Computerworld
 898   Norge de siste månedene.&lt;/li&gt;
 899
 900 &lt;li&gt;BankID er et opplegg der utsteder (dvs. banken eller dens
 901   leverandør) sitter på alt som trengs for å bruke BankID, men har
 902   lovet å ikke bruke den unntatt på oppdrag fra deg.  Det er greit nok
 903   for banktjenester, der banken allerede har full kontroll over
 904   resultatet, men problematisk når det gjelder tilgang til
 905   helseopplysninger og avtaleinngåelse med andre enn banken.  Jeg
 906   håper protestene brer om seg.
 907
 908   &lt;ul&gt;
 909
 910   &lt;li&gt;2012-12-11 &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.aftenposten.no/meninger/debatt/BankID-blottlegger-helseopplysninger-7067148.html&quot;&gt;BankID
 911     blottlegger helseopplysninger&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
 912
 913   &lt;li&gt;2012-12-07 &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.nrk.no/nyheter/norge/1.9695027&quot;&gt;-
 914     Helseopplysningene ikke sikre med Bank-ID&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
 915
 916   &lt;li&gt;2012-12-07
 917     &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.bankid.no/Presse-og-nyheter/Nyhetsarkiv/2012/Papeker-alvorlige-men-kjente-utfordringer/&quot;&gt;Påpeker
 918     alvorlige, men kjente utfordringer&lt;/a&gt; er den offisielle
 919     holdningen til de som lager BankID.&lt;/li&gt;
 920
 921   &lt;li&gt;2012-12-08
 922     &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.tnp.no/norway/panorama/3419-ntnu-researcher-warns-against-security-of-bank-id-password&quot;&gt;NTNU
 923       Researcher Warns against Security of Bank ID Password&lt;/a&gt;
 924
 925   &lt;/ul&gt;
 926
 927 &lt;li&gt;2012-12-11 &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.aftenposten.no/nyheter/iriks/Norske-elever-er-darligst-i-Europa-pa-algebra-7066752.html&quot;&gt;Norske elever er dårligst i Europa på algebra&lt;/a&gt;
 928
 929 &lt;li&gt;2012-12-11
 930   &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.aftenposten.no/meninger/debatt/Realfagsdodaren-7067173.html&quot;&gt;Realfagsdødaren&lt;/a&gt;
 931
 932 &lt;li&gt;2012-12-21
 933   &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bt.no/nyheter/innenriks/112/--Forventningene-er-for-hoye-2816450.html&quot;&gt;-
 934   Noen må bli skuffet&lt;/a&gt; - Politiet i Bergen forteller hvor lavt de
 935   prioriterer hverdagskriminalitet.&lt;/li&gt;
 936
 937 &lt;li&gt;2012-05-03
 938   &lt;a href=&quot;http://e24.no/jobb/kripos-ansatt-doemt-for-snoking-for-venn/20208585&quot;&gt;
 939   Kripos-ansatt dømt for snoking for venn&lt;/A&gt; - viser hvor svak
 940   reaksjonen blir når politiet misbruker innsamlet informasjon.  En
 941   forvarsel på konsekvensene av nasjonal brev- og besøkskontroll -
 942   ofte kalt Datalagringsdirektivet.&lt;/li&gt;
 943
 944 &lt;li&gt;2012-12-14
 945   &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.dagbladet.no/2012/12/14/kultur/debatt/kronikk/jul/ensomhet/24838541/&quot;&gt;Å
 946   smøre en forskjell&lt;/a&gt; - om ensomhet og jul.&lt;/li&gt;
 947
 948 &lt;li&gt;2012-12-18
 949   &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.aftenposten.no/meninger/kronikker/n-krise-av-gangen_-takk-7072452.html&quot;&gt;Én
 950   krise av gangen, takk!&lt;/a&gt;
 951
 952
 953 &lt;li&gt;2012-12-17
 954   &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.aftenposten.no/meninger/NAV-Et-mangehodet-monster--7072165.html&quot;&gt;NAV:
 955   Et mangehodet monster&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
 956
 957 &lt;li&gt;2011-01-12
 958   &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.dagbladet.no/2011/01/12/kultur/debatt/kronikk/personvern/15027203/&quot;&gt;Pasienter
 959   uten vern&lt;/a&gt; - forteller litt om hvordan Norsk Pasientregister og
 960   andre helseregister raderer bort pasienters privatsfære.&lt;/li&gt;
 961
 962
 963 &lt;li&gt;2012-12-19
 964   &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.aftenposten.no/meninger/debatt/Hvorfor-er-barnefamilier-fattige-7073951.html&quot;&gt;Hvorfor
 965   er barnefamilier fattige?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
 966
 967 &lt;li&gt;2012-12-25
 968   &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.aftenposten.no/meninger/spaltister/Den-skjulte-minoriteten--konservative-kristne-i-Norge-7075518.html&quot;&gt;Den
 969   skjulte minoriteten – konservative kristne i Norge&lt;/a&gt; - kronikk av
 970   Bjørn Stærk fra aftenposten&lt;/li&gt;
 971
 972 &lt;li&gt;2009-05-04
 973   &lt;a href=&quot;http://deltemeninger.no/-/bulletin/show/303429_folkebiblioteket-2-0?ref=checkpoint&quot;&gt;Folkebiblioteket
 974   2.0&lt;/a&gt; - Min venn Sturle om opphavsrett og Internett, i debatt med
 975   Olav Torvund.&lt;/li&gt;
 976
 977 &lt;/ul&gt;
 978
 979 &lt;p&gt;Og et godt nytt år til dere alle!&lt;/p&gt;
 980 </description>
 981         </item>
 982
 983         </channel>
 984 </rss>