blog/archive/2013/01/01.rss

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