blog/tags/isenkram/index.html

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