blog/data/2016-12-20-isenkram.txt

   1 Title: Isenkram updated with a lot more hardware-package mappings
   2 Tags: english, debian, isenkram
   3 Date: 2016-12-20 11:55
   4
   5 <p><a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/isenkram">The Isenkram
   6 system</a> I wrote two years ago to make it easier in Debian to find
   7 and install packages to get your hardware dongles to work, is still
   8 going strong.  It is a system to look up the hardware present on or
   9 connected to the current system, and map the hardware to Debian
  10 packages.  It can either be done using the tools in isenkram-cli or
  11 using the user space daemon in the isenkram package.  The latter will
  12 notify you, when inserting new hardware, about what packages to
  13 install to get the dongle working.  It will even provide a button to
  14 click on to ask packagekit to install the packages.</p>
  15
  16 <p>Here is an command line example from my Thinkpad laptop:</p>
  17
  18 <p><pre>
  19 % isenkram-lookup
  20 bluez
  21 cheese
  22 ethtool
  23 fprintd
  24 fprintd-demo
  25 gkrellm-thinkbat
  26 hdapsd
  27 libpam-fprintd
  28 pidgin-blinklight
  29 thinkfan
  30 tlp
  31 tp-smapi-dkms
  32 tp-smapi-source
  33 tpb
  34 %
  35 </pre></p>
  36
  37 <p>It can also list the firware package providing firmware requested
  38 by the load kernel modules, which in my case is an empty list because
  39 I have all the firmware my machine need:
  40
  41 <p><pre>
  42 % /usr/sbin/isenkram-autoinstall-firmware -l
  43 info: did not find any firmware files requested by loaded kernel modules.  exiting
  44 %
  45 </pre></p>
  46
  47 <p>The last few days I had a look at several of the around 250
  48 packages in Debian with udev rules.  These seem like good candidates
  49 to install when a given hardware dongle is inserted, and I found
  50 several that should be proposed by isenkram.  I have not had time to
  51 check all of them, but am happy to report that now there are 97
  52 packages packages mapped to hardware by Isenkram.  11 of these
  53 packages provide hardware mapping using AppStream, while the rest are
  54 listed in the modaliases file provided in isenkram.</p>
  55
  56 <p>These are the packages with hardware mappings at the moment.  The
  57 <strong>marked packages</strong> are also announcing their hardware
  58 support using AppStream, for everyone to use:</p>
  59
  60 <p>air-quality-sensor, alsa-firmware-loaders, argyll,
  61 <strong>array-info</strong>, avarice, avrdude, b43-fwcutter,
  62 bit-babbler, bluez, bluez-firmware, <strong>brltty</strong>,
  63 <strong>broadcom-sta-dkms</strong>, calibre, cgminer, cheese, colord,
  64 <strong>colorhug-client</strong>, dahdi-firmware-nonfree, dahdi-linux,
  65 dfu-util, dolphin-emu, ekeyd, ethtool, firmware-ipw2x00, fprintd,
  66 fprintd-demo, <strong>galileo</strong>, gkrellm-thinkbat, gphoto2,
  67 gpsbabel, gpsbabel-gui, gpsman, gpstrans, gqrx-sdr, gr-fcdproplus,
  68 gr-osmosdr, gtkpod, hackrf, hdapsd, hdmi2usb-udev, hpijs-ppds, hplip,
  69 ipw3945-source, ipw3945d, kde-config-tablet, kinect-audio-setup,
  70 <strong>libnxt</strong>, libpam-fprintd, <strong>lomoco</strong>,
  71 madwimax, minidisc-utils, mkgmap, msi-keyboard, mtkbabel,
  72 <strong>nbc</strong>, <strong>nqc</strong>, nut-hal-drivers, ola,
  73 open-vm-toolbox, open-vm-tools, openambit, pcgminer, pcmciautils,
  74 pcscd, pidgin-blinklight, printer-driver-splix,
  75 <strong>pymissile</strong>, python-nxt, qlandkartegt,
  76 qlandkartegt-garmin, rosegarden, rt2x00-source, sispmctl,
  77 soapysdr-module-hackrf, solaar, squeak-plugins-scratch, sunxi-tools,
  78 <strong>t2n</strong>, thinkfan, thinkfinger-tools, tlp, tp-smapi-dkms,
  79 tp-smapi-source, tpb, tucnak, uhd-host, usbmuxd, viking,
  80 virtualbox-ose-guest-x11, w1retap, xawtv, xserver-xorg-input-vmmouse,
  81 xserver-xorg-input-wacom, xserver-xorg-video-qxl,
  82 xserver-xorg-video-vmware, yubikey-personalization and
  83 zd1211-firmware</p>
  84
  85 <p>If you know of other packages, please let me know with a wishlist
  86 bug report against the isenkram-cli package, and ask the package
  87 maintainer to
  88 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/AppStream/Guidelines">add AppStream
  89 metadata according to the guidelines</a> to provide the information
  90 for everyone.  In time, I hope to get rid of the isenkram specific
  91 hardware mapping and depend exclusively on AppStream.</p>
  92
  93 <p>Note, the AppStream metadata for broadcom-sta-dkms is matching too
  94 much hardware, and suggest that the package with with any ethernet
  95 card.  See <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/838735">bug #838735</a> for
  96 the details.  I hope the maintainer find time to address it soon.  In
  97 the mean time I provide an override in isenkram.</p>