1 <?xml version=
"1.0" encoding=
"utf-8"?>
2 <rss version='
2.0' xmlns:lj='http://www.livejournal.org/rss/lj/
1.0/' xmlns:
atom=
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4 <title>Petter Reinholdtsen
</title>
5 <description></description>
6 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/
</link>
7 <atom:link href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/index.rss" rel=
"self" type=
"application/rss+xml" />
10 <title>First prototype ready making hardware easier to use in Debian
</title>
11 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/First_prototype_ready_making_hardware_easier_to_use_in_Debian.html
</link>
12 <guid isPermaLink=
"true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/First_prototype_ready_making_hardware_easier_to_use_in_Debian.html
</guid>
13 <pubDate>Mon,
21 Jan
2013 12:
00:
00 +
0100</pubDate>
14 <description><p
>Early this month I set out to try to
15 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lets_make_hardware_dongles_easier_to_use_in_Debian.html
">improve
16 the Debian support for pluggable hardware devices
</a
>. Now my
17 prototype is working, and it is ready for a larger audience. To test
19 <a href=
"http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/
">source
20 from the Debian Edu subversion repository
</a
>, build and install the
21 package. You might have to log out and in again activate the
22 autostart script.
</p
>
24 <p
>The design is simple:
</p
>
28 <li
>Add desktop entry in /usr/share/autostart/ causing a program
29 hw-support-handlerd to start when the user log in.
</li
>
31 <li
>This program listen for kernel events about new hardware (directly
32 from the kernel like udev does), not using HAL dbus events as I
33 initially did.
</li
>
35 <li
>When new hardware is inserted, look up the hardware modalias in
36 the APT database, a database
37 <a href=
"http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/modaliases?view=markup
">available
38 via HTTP
</a
> and a database available as part of the package.
</li
>
40 <li
>If a package is mapped to the hardware in question, the package
41 isn
't installed yet and this is the first time the hardware was
42 plugged in, show a desktop notification suggesting to install the
43 package or packages.
</li
>
45 <li
>If the user click on the
'install package now
' button, ask
46 aptdaemon via the PackageKit API to install the requrired package.
</li
>
48 <li
>aptdaemon ask for root password or sudo password, and install the
49 package while showing progress information in a window.
</li
>
53 <p
>I still need to come up with a better name for the system. Here
54 are some screen shots showing the prototype in action. First the
55 notification, then the password request, and finally the request to
56 approve all the dependencies. Sorry for the Norwegian Bokmål GUI.
</p
>
58 <p
><img src=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/
2013-
01-
21-hw-support-
1-notification.png
">
59 <br
><img src=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/
2013-
01-
21-hw-support-
2-password.png
">
60 <br
><img src=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/
2013-
01-
21-hw-support-
3-dependencies.png
">
61 <br
><img src=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/
2013-
01-
21-hw-support-
4-installing.png
">
62 <br
><img src=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/
2013-
01-
21-hw-support-
5-installing-details.png
" width=
"70%
"></p
>
64 <p
>The prototype still need to be improved with longer timeouts, but
65 is already useful. The database of hardware to package mappings also
66 need more work. It is currently compatible with the Ubuntu way of
67 storing such information in the package control file, but could be
68 changed to use other formats instead or in addition to the current
69 method. I
've dropped the use of discover for this mapping, as the
70 modalias approach is more flexible and easier to use on Linux as long
71 as the Linux kernel expose its modalias strings directly.
</p
>
73 <p
><strong
>Update
2013-
01-
21 16:
50</strong
>: Due to popular demand,
74 here is the command required to check out and build the source: Use
75 '<tt
>svn checkout
76 svn://svn.debian.org/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/; cd
77 hw-support-handler; debuild
</tt
>'. If you lack debuild, install the
78 devscripts package.
</p
>
83 <title>Thank you Thinkpad X41, for your long and trustworthy service
</title>
84 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Thank_you_Thinkpad_X41__for_your_long_and_trustworthy_service.html
</link>
85 <guid isPermaLink=
"true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Thank_you_Thinkpad_X41__for_your_long_and_trustworthy_service.html
</guid>
86 <pubDate>Sat,
19 Jan
2013 09:
20:
00 +
0100</pubDate>
87 <description><p
>This Christmas my trusty old laptop died. It died quietly and
88 suddenly in bed. With a quiet whimper, it went completely quiet and
89 black. The power button was no longer able to turn it on. It was a
90 IBM Thinkpad X41, and the best laptop I ever had. Better than both
91 Thinkpads X30, X31, X40, X60, X61 and X61S. Far better than the
92 Compaq I had before that. Now I need to find a replacement. To keep
93 going during Christmas, I moved the one year old SSD disk to my old
94 X40 where it fitted (only one I had left that could use it), but it is
95 not a durable solution.
97 <p
>My laptop needs are fairly modest. This is my wishlist from when I
98 got a new one more than
10 years ago. It still holds true.:)
</p
>
102 <li
>Lightweight (around
1 kg) and small volume (preferably smaller
104 <li
>Robust, it will be in my backpack every day.
</li
>
105 <li
>Three button mouse and a mouse pin instead of touch pad.
</li
>
106 <li
>Long battery life time. Preferable a week.
</li
>
107 <li
>Internal WIFI network card.
</li
>
108 <li
>Internal Twisted Pair network card.
</li
>
109 <li
>Some USB slots (
2-
3 is plenty)
</li
>
110 <li
>Good keyboard - similar to the Thinkpad.
</li
>
111 <li
>Video resolution at least
1024x768, with size around
12" (A4 paper
113 <li
>Hardware supported by Debian Stable, ie the default kernel and
114 X.org packages.
</li
>
115 <li
>Quiet, preferably fan free (or at least not using the fan most of
120 <p
>You will notice that there are no RAM and CPU requirements in the
121 list. The reason is simply that the specifications on laptops the
122 last
10-
15 years have been sufficient for my needs, and I have to look
123 at other features to choose my laptop. But are there still made as
124 robust laptops as my X41? The Thinkpad X60/X61 proved to be less
125 robust, and Thinkpads seem to be heading in the wrong direction since
126 Lenovo took over. But I
've been told that X220 and X1 Carbon might
127 still be useful.
</p
>
129 <p
>Perhaps I should rethink my needs, and look for a pad with an
130 external keyboard? I
'll have to check the
131 <a href=
"http://www.linux-laptop.net/
">Linux Laptops site
</a
> for
132 well-supported laptops, or perhaps just buy one preinstalled from one
133 of the vendors listed on the
<a href=
"http://linuxpreloaded.com/
">Linux
134 Pre-loaded site
</a
>.
</p
>
139 <title>How to find a browser plugin supporting a given MIME type
</title>
140 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_find_a_browser_plugin_supporting_a_given_MIME_type.html
</link>
141 <guid isPermaLink=
"true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_find_a_browser_plugin_supporting_a_given_MIME_type.html
</guid>
142 <pubDate>Fri,
18 Jan
2013 10:
40:
00 +
0100</pubDate>
143 <description><p
>Some times I try to figure out which Iceweasel browser plugin to
144 install to get support for a given MIME type. Thanks to
145 <a href=
"https://wiki.ubuntu.com/MozillaTeam/Plugins
">specifications
146 done by Ubuntu
</a
> and Mozilla, it is possible to do this in Debian.
147 Unfortunately, not very many packages provide the needed meta
148 information, Anyway, here is a small script to look up all browser
149 plugin packages announcing ther MIME support using this specification:
</p
>
155 def pkgs_handling_mimetype(mimetype):
160 version = pkg.candidate
162 version = pkg.installed
165 record = version.record
166 if not record.has_key(
'Npp-MimeType
'):
168 mime_types = record[
'Npp-MimeType
'].split(
',
')
170 t = t.rstrip().strip()
172 thepkgs.append(pkg.name)
174 mimetype =
"audio/ogg
"
175 if
1 < len(sys.argv):
176 mimetype = sys.argv[
1]
177 print
"Browser plugin packages supporting %s:
" % mimetype
178 for pkg in pkgs_handling_mimetype(mimetype):
179 print
" %s
" %pkg
182 <p
>It can be used like this to look up a given MIME type:
</p
>
185 % ./apt-find-browserplug-for-mimetype
186 Browser plugin packages supporting audio/ogg:
188 % ./apt-find-browserplug-for-mimetype application/x-shockwave-flash
189 Browser plugin packages supporting application/x-shockwave-flash:
194 <p
>In Ubuntu this mechanism is combined with support in the browser
195 itself to query for plugins and propose to install the needed
196 packages. It would be great if Debian supported such feature too. Is
197 anyone working on adding it?
</p
>
199 <p
><strong
>Update
2013-
01-
18 14:
20</strong
>: The Debian BTS
200 request for icweasel support for this feature is
201 <a href=
"http://bugs.debian.org/
484010">#
484010</a
> from
2008 (and
202 <a href=
"http://bugs.debian.org/
698426">#
698426</a
> from today). Lack
203 of manpower and wish for a different design is the reason thus feature
204 is not yet in iceweasel from Debian.
</p
>
209 <title>What is the most supported MIME type in Debian?
</title>
210 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/What_is_the_most_supported_MIME_type_in_Debian_.html
</link>
211 <guid isPermaLink=
"true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/What_is_the_most_supported_MIME_type_in_Debian_.html
</guid>
212 <pubDate>Wed,
16 Jan
2013 10:
10:
00 +
0100</pubDate>
213 <description><p
>The
<a href=
"http://wiki.debian.org/AppStreamDebianProposal
">DEP-
11
214 proposal to add AppStream information to the Debian archive
</a
>, is a
215 proposal to make it possible for a Desktop application to propose to
216 the user some package to install to gain support for a given MIME
217 type, font, library etc. that is currently missing. With such
218 mechanism in place, it would be possible for the desktop to
219 automatically propose and install leocad if some LDraw file is
220 downloaded by the browser.
</p
>
222 <p
>To get some idea about the current content of the archive, I decided
223 to write a simple program to extract all .desktop files from the
224 Debian archive and look up the claimed MIME support there. The result
226 <a href=
"http://ftp.skolelinux.org/pub/AppStreamTest
">Skolelinux FTP
227 site
</a
>. Using the collected information, it become possible to
228 answer the question in the title. Here are the
20 most supported MIME
229 types in Debian stable (Squeeze), testing (Wheezy) and unstable (Sid).
230 The complete list is available from the link above.
</p
>
232 <p
><strong
>Debian Stable:
</strong
></p
>
236 ----- -----------------------
259 <p
><strong
>Debian Testing:
</strong
></p
>
263 ----- -----------------------
286 <p
><strong
>Debian Unstable:
</strong
></p
>
290 ----- -----------------------
313 <p
>I am told that PackageKit can provide an API to access the kind of
314 information mentioned in DEP-
11. I have not yet had time to look at
315 it, but hope the PackageKit people in Debian are on top of these
318 <p
><strong
>Update
2013-
01-
16 13:
35</strong
>: Updated numbers after
319 discovering a typo in my script.
</p
>
324 <title>Using modalias info to find packages handling my hardware
</title>
325 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Using_modalias_info_to_find_packages_handling_my_hardware.html
</link>
326 <guid isPermaLink=
"true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Using_modalias_info_to_find_packages_handling_my_hardware.html
</guid>
327 <pubDate>Tue,
15 Jan
2013 08:
00:
00 +
0100</pubDate>
328 <description><p
>Yesterday, I wrote about the
329 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Modalias_strings___a_practical_way_to_map__stuff__to_hardware.html
">modalias
330 values provided by the Linux kernel
</a
> following my hope for
331 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lets_make_hardware_dongles_easier_to_use_in_Debian.html
">better
332 dongle support in Debian
</a
>. Using this knowledge, I have tested how
333 modalias values attached to package names can be used to map packages
334 to hardware. This allow the system to look up and suggest relevant
335 packages when I plug in some new hardware into my machine, and replace
336 discover and discover-data as the database used to map hardware to
339 <p
>I create a modaliases file with entries like the following,
340 containing package name, kernel module name (if relevant, otherwise
341 the package name) and globs matching the relevant hardware
344 <p
><blockquote
>
345 Package: package-name
346 <br
>Modaliases: module(modaliasglob, modaliasglob, modaliasglob)
</p
>
347 </blockquote
></p
>
349 <p
>It is fairly trivial to write code to find the relevant packages
350 for a given modalias value using this file.
</p
>
352 <p
>An entry like this would suggest the video and picture application
353 cheese for many USB web cameras (interface bus class
0E01):
</p
>
355 <p
><blockquote
>
357 <br
>Modaliases: cheese(usb:v*p*d*dc*dsc*dp*ic0Eisc01ip*)
</p
>
358 </blockquote
></p
>
360 <p
>An entry like this would suggest the pcmciautils package when a
361 CardBus bridge (bus class
0607) PCI device is present:
</p
>
363 <p
><blockquote
>
365 <br
>Modaliases: pcmciautils(pci:v*d*sv*sd*bc06sc07i*)
366 </blockquote
></p
>
368 <p
>An entry like this would suggest the package colorhug-client when
369 plugging in a ColorHug with USB IDs
04D8:F8DA:
</p
>
371 <p
><blockquote
>
372 Package: colorhug-client
373 <br
>Modaliases: colorhug-client(usb:v04D8pF8DAd*)
</p
>
374 </blockquote
></p
>
376 <p
>I believe the format is compatible with the format of the Packages
377 file in the Debian archive. Ubuntu already uses their Packages file
378 to store their mappings from packages to hardware.
</p
>
380 <p
>By adding a XB-Modaliases: header in debian/control, any .deb can
381 announce the hardware it support in a way my prototype understand.
382 This allow those publishing packages in an APT source outside the
383 Debian archive as well as those backporting packages to make sure the
384 hardware mapping are included in the package meta information. I
've
385 tested such header in the pymissile package, and its modalias mapping
386 is working as it should with my prototype. It even made it to Ubuntu
389 <p
>To test if it was possible to look up supported hardware using only
390 the shell tools available in the Debian installer, I wrote a shell
391 implementation of the lookup code. The idea is to create files for
392 each modalias and let the shell do the matching. Please check out and
394 <a href=
"http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/hw-support-lookup?view=co
">hw-support-lookup
</a
>
395 shell script. It run without any extra dependencies and fetch the
396 hardware mappings from the Debian archive and the subversion
397 repository where I currently work on my prototype.
</p
>
399 <p
>When I use it on a machine with a yubikey inserted, it suggest to
400 install yubikey-personalization:
</p
>
402 <p
><blockquote
>
403 % ./hw-support-lookup
404 <br
>yubikey-personalization
406 </blockquote
></p
>
408 <p
>When I run it on my Thinkpad X40 with a PCMCIA/CardBus slot, it
409 propose to install the pcmciautils package:
</p
>
411 <p
><blockquote
>
412 % ./hw-support-lookup
413 <br
>pcmciautils
415 </blockquote
></p
>
417 <p
>If you know of any hardware-package mapping that should be added to
418 <a href=
"http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/modaliases?view=co
">my
419 database
</a
>, please tell me about it.
</p
>
421 <p
>It could be possible to generate several of the mappings between
422 packages and hardware. One source would be to look at packages with
423 kernel modules, ie packages with *.ko files in /lib/modules/, and
424 extract their modalias information. Another would be to look at
425 packages with udev rules, ie packages with files in
426 /lib/udev/rules.d/, and extract their vendor/model information to
427 generate a modalias matching rule. I have not tested any of these to
428 see if it work.
</p
>
430 <p
>If you want to help implementing a system to let us propose what
431 packages to install when new hardware is plugged into a Debian
432 machine, please send me an email or talk to me on
433 <a href=
"irc://irc.debian.org/%
23debian-devel
">#debian-devel
</a
>.
</p
>
438 <title>Modalias strings - a practical way to map
"stuff
" to hardware
</title>
439 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Modalias_strings___a_practical_way_to_map__stuff__to_hardware.html
</link>
440 <guid isPermaLink=
"true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Modalias_strings___a_practical_way_to_map__stuff__to_hardware.html
</guid>
441 <pubDate>Mon,
14 Jan
2013 11:
20:
00 +
0100</pubDate>
442 <description><p
>While looking into how to look up Debian packages based on hardware
443 information, to find the packages that support a given piece of
444 hardware, I refreshed my memory regarding modalias values, and decided
445 to document the details. Here are my findings so far, also available
447 <a href=
"http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/
">the
448 Debian Edu subversion repository
</a
>:
450 <p
><strong
>Modalias decoded
</strong
></p
>
452 <p
>This document try to explain what the different types of modalias
453 values stands for. It is in part based on information from
454 &lt;URL:
<a href=
"https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Modalias
">https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Modalias
</a
> &gt;,
455 &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;,
456 &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
457 &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;.
459 <p
>The modalias entries for a given Linux machine can be found using
460 this shell script:
</p
>
463 find /sys -name modalias -print0 | xargs -
0 cat | sort -u
466 <p
>The supported modalias globs for a given kernel module can be found
467 using modinfo:
</p
>
470 % /sbin/modinfo psmouse | grep alias:
471 alias: serio:ty05pr*id*ex*
472 alias: serio:ty01pr*id*ex*
476 <p
><strong
>PCI subtype
</strong
></p
>
478 <p
>A typical PCI entry can look like this. This is an Intel Host
479 Bridge memory controller:
</p
>
481 <p
><blockquote
>
482 pci:v00008086d00002770sv00001028sd000001ADbc06sc00i00
483 </blockquote
></p
>
485 <p
>This represent these values:
</p
>
490 sv
00001028 (subvendor)
491 sd
000001AD (subdevice)
497 <p
>The vendor/device values are the same values outputted from
'lspci
498 -n
' as
8086:
2770. The bus class/subclass is also shown by lspci as
499 0600. The
0600 class is a host bridge. Other useful bus values are
500 0300 (VGA compatible card) and
0200 (Ethernet controller).
</p
>
502 <p
>Not sure how to figure out the interface value, nor what it
505 <p
><strong
>USB subtype
</strong
></p
>
507 <p
>Some typical USB entries can look like this. This is an internal
508 USB hub in a laptop:
</p
>
510 <p
><blockquote
>
511 usb:v1D6Bp0001d0206dc09dsc00dp00ic09isc00ip00
512 </blockquote
></p
>
514 <p
>Here is the values included in this alias:
</p
>
517 v
1D6B (device vendor)
518 p
0001 (device product)
521 dsc
00 (device subclass)
522 dp
00 (device protocol)
523 ic
09 (interface class)
524 isc
00 (interface subclass)
525 ip
00 (interface protocol)
528 <p
>The
0900 device class/subclass means hub. Some times the relevant
529 class is in the interface class section. For a simple USB web camera,
530 these alias entries show up:
</p
>
532 <p
><blockquote
>
533 usb:v0AC8p3420d5000dcEFdsc02dp01ic01isc01ip00
534 <br
>usb:v0AC8p3420d5000dcEFdsc02dp01ic01isc02ip00
535 <br
>usb:v0AC8p3420d5000dcEFdsc02dp01ic0Eisc01ip00
536 <br
>usb:v0AC8p3420d5000dcEFdsc02dp01ic0Eisc02ip00
537 </blockquote
></p
>
539 <p
>Interface class
0E01 is video control,
0E02 is video streaming (aka
540 camera),
0101 is audio control device and
0102 is audio streaming (aka
541 microphone). Thus this is a camera with microphone included.
</p
>
543 <p
><strong
>ACPI subtype
</strong
></p
>
545 <p
>The ACPI type is used for several non-PCI/USB stuff. This is an IR
546 receiver in a Thinkpad X40:
</p
>
548 <p
><blockquote
>
549 acpi:IBM0071:PNP0511:
550 </blockquote
></p
>
552 <p
>The values between the colons are IDs.
</p
>
554 <p
><strong
>DMI subtype
</strong
></p
>
556 <p
>The DMI table contain lots of information about the computer case
557 and model. This is an entry for a IBM Thinkpad X40, fetched from
558 /sys/devices/virtual/dmi/id/modalias:
</p
>
560 <p
><blockquote
>
561 dmi:bvnIBM:bvr1UETB6WW(
1.66):bd06/
15/
2005:svnIBM:pn2371H4G:pvrThinkPadX40:rvnIBM:rn2371H4G:rvrNotAvailable:cvnIBM:ct10:cvrNotAvailable:
562 </blockquote
></p
>
564 <p
>The values present are
</p
>
567 bvn IBM (BIOS vendor)
568 bvr
1UETB
6WW(
1.66) (BIOS version)
569 bd
06/
15/
2005 (BIOS date)
570 svn IBM (system vendor)
571 pn
2371H4G (product name)
572 pvr ThinkPadX40 (product version)
573 rvn IBM (board vendor)
574 rn
2371H4G (board name)
575 rvr NotAvailable (board version)
576 cvn IBM (chassis vendor)
578 cvr NotAvailable (chassis version)
581 <p
>The chassis type
10 is Notebook. Other interesting values can be
582 found in the dmidecode source:
</p
>
586 4 Low Profile Desktop
599 17 Main Server Chassis
602 20 Bus Expansion Chassis
603 21 Peripheral Chassis
605 23 Rack Mount Chassis
614 <p
>The chassis type values are not always accurately set in the DMI
615 table. For example my home server is a tower, but the DMI modalias
616 claim it is a desktop.
</p
>
618 <p
><strong
>SerIO subtype
</strong
></p
>
620 <p
>This type is used for PS/
2 mouse plugs. One example is from my
621 test machine:
</p
>
623 <p
><blockquote
>
624 serio:ty01pr00id00ex00
625 </blockquote
></p
>
627 <p
>The values present are
</p
>
636 <p
>This type is supported by the psmouse driver. I am not sure what
637 the valid values are.
</p
>
639 <p
><strong
>Other subtypes
</strong
></p
>
641 <p
>There are heaps of other modalias subtypes according to
642 file2alias.c. There is the rest of the list from that source: amba,
643 ap, bcma, ccw, css, eisa, hid, i2c, ieee1394, input, ipack, isapnp,
644 mdio, of, parisc, pcmcia, platform, scsi, sdio, spi, ssb, vio, virtio,
645 vmbus, x86cpu and zorro. I did not spend time documenting all of
646 these, as they do not seem relevant for my intended use with mapping
647 hardware to packages when new stuff is inserted during run time.
</p
>
649 <p
><strong
>Looking up kernel modules using modalias values
</strong
></p
>
651 <p
>To check which kernel modules provide support for a given modalias,
652 one can use the following shell script:
</p
>
655 for id in $(find /sys -name modalias -print0 | xargs -
0 cat | sort -u); do \
656 echo
"$id
" ; \
657 /sbin/modprobe --show-depends
"$id
"|sed
's/^/ /
' ; \
661 <p
>The output can look like this (only the first few entries as the
662 list is very long on my test machine):
</p
>
666 insmod /lib/modules/
2.6.32-
5-
686/kernel/drivers/acpi/ac.ko
668 FATAL: Module acpi:device: not found.
670 insmod /lib/modules/
2.6.32-
5-
686/kernel/drivers/char/nvram.ko
671 insmod /lib/modules/
2.6.32-
5-
686/kernel/drivers/leds/led-class.ko
672 insmod /lib/modules/
2.6.32-
5-
686/kernel/net/rfkill/rfkill.ko
673 insmod /lib/modules/
2.6.32-
5-
686/kernel/drivers/platform/x86/thinkpad_acpi.ko
674 acpi:IBM0071:PNP0511:
675 insmod /lib/modules/
2.6.32-
5-
686/kernel/lib/crc-ccitt.ko
676 insmod /lib/modules/
2.6.32-
5-
686/kernel/net/irda/irda.ko
677 insmod /lib/modules/
2.6.32-
5-
686/kernel/drivers/net/irda/nsc-ircc.ko
681 <p
>If you want to help implementing a system to let us propose what
682 packages to install when new hardware is plugged into a Debian
683 machine, please send me an email or talk to me on
684 <a href=
"irc://irc.debian.org/%
23debian-devel
">#debian-devel
</a
>.
</p
>
686 <p
><strong
>Update
2013-
01-
15:
</strong
> Rewrite
"cat $(find ...)
" to
687 "find ... -print0 | xargs -
0 cat
" to make sure it handle directories
688 in /sys/ with space in them.
</p
>
693 <title>Moved the pymissile Debian packaging to collab-maint
</title>
694 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Moved_the_pymissile_Debian_packaging_to_collab_maint.html
</link>
695 <guid isPermaLink=
"true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Moved_the_pymissile_Debian_packaging_to_collab_maint.html
</guid>
696 <pubDate>Thu,
10 Jan
2013 20:
40:
00 +
0100</pubDate>
697 <description><p
>As part of my investigation on how to improve the support in Debian
698 for hardware dongles, I dug up my old Mark and Spencer USB Rocket
699 Launcher and updated the Debian package
700 <a href=
"http://packages.qa.debian.org/pymissile
">pymissile
</a
> to make
701 sure udev will fix the device permissions when it is plugged in. I
702 also added a
"Modaliases
" header to test it in the Debian archive and
703 hopefully make the package be proposed by jockey in Ubuntu when a user
704 plug in his rocket launcher. In the process I moved the source to a
705 git repository under collab-maint, to make it easier for any DD to
706 contribute.
<a href=
"http://code.google.com/p/pymissile/
">Upstream
</a
>
707 is not very active, but the software still work for me even after five
708 years of relative silence. The new git repository is not listed in
709 the uploaded package yet, because I want to test the other changes a
710 bit more before I upload the new version. If you want to check out
711 the new version with a .desktop file included, visit the
712 <a href=
"http://anonscm.debian.org/gitweb/?p=collab-maint/pymissile.git
">gitweb
713 view
</a
> or use
"<tt
>git clone
714 git://anonscm.debian.org/collab-maint/pymissile.git
</tt
>".
</p
>
719 <title>Lets make hardware dongles easier to use in Debian
</title>
720 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lets_make_hardware_dongles_easier_to_use_in_Debian.html
</link>
721 <guid isPermaLink=
"true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lets_make_hardware_dongles_easier_to_use_in_Debian.html
</guid>
722 <pubDate>Wed,
9 Jan
2013 15:
40:
00 +
0100</pubDate>
723 <description><p
>One thing that annoys me with Debian and Linux distributions in
724 general, is that there is a great package management system with the
725 ability to automatically install software packages by downloading them
726 from the distribution mirrors, but no way to get it to automatically
727 install the packages I need to use the hardware I plug into my
728 machine. Even if the package to use it is easily available from the
729 Linux distribution. When I plug in a LEGO Mindstorms NXT, it could
730 suggest to automatically install the python-nxt, nbc and t2n packages
731 I need to talk to it. When I plug in a Yubikey, it could propose the
732 yubikey-personalization package. The information required to do this
733 is available, but no-one have pulled all the pieces together.
</p
>
735 <p
>Some years ago, I proposed to
736 <a href=
"http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/
2010/
05/msg01206.html
">use
737 the discover subsystem to implement this
</a
>. The idea is fairly
742 <li
>Add a desktop entry in /usr/share/autostart/ pointing to a program
743 starting when a user log in.
</li
>
745 <li
>Set this program up to listen for kernel events emitted when new
746 hardware is inserted into the computer.
</li
>
748 <li
>When new hardware is inserted, look up the hardware ID in a
749 database mapping to packages, and take note of any non-installed
752 <li
>Show a message to the user proposing to install the discovered
753 package, and make it easy to install it.
</li
>
757 <p
>I am not sure what the best way to implement this is, but my
758 initial idea was to use dbus events to discover new hardware, the
759 discover database to find packages and
760 <a href=
"http://www.packagekit.org/
">PackageKit
</a
> to install
763 <p
>Yesterday, I found time to try to implement this idea, and the
764 draft package is now checked into
765 <a href=
"http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/
">the
766 Debian Edu subversion repository
</a
>. In the process, I updated the
767 <a href=
"http://packages.qa.debian.org/d/discover-data.html
">discover-data
</a
>
768 package to map the USB ids of LEGO Mindstorms and Yubikey devices to
769 the relevant packages in Debian, and uploaded a new version
770 2.2013.01.09 to unstable. I also discovered that the current
771 <a href=
"http://packages.qa.debian.org/d/discover.html
">discover
</a
>
772 package in Debian no longer discovered any USB devices, because
773 /proc/bus/usb/devices is no longer present. I ported it to use
774 libusb as a fall back option to get it working. The fixed package
775 version
2.1.2-
6 is now in experimental (didn
't upload it to unstable
776 because of the freeze).
</p
>
778 <p
>With this prototype in place, I can insert my Yubikey, and get this
779 desktop notification to show up (only once, the first time it is
782 <p align=
"center
"><img src=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/
2013-
01-
09-hw-autoinstall.png
"></p
>
784 <p
>For this prototype to be really useful, some way to automatically
785 install the proposed packages by pressing the
"Please install
786 program(s)
" button should to be implemented.
</p
>
788 <p
>If this idea seem useful to you, and you want to help make it
789 happen, please help me update the discover-data database with mappings
790 from hardware to Debian packages. Check if
'discover-pkginstall -l
'
791 list the package you would like to have installed when a given
792 hardware device is inserted into your computer, and report bugs using
793 reportbug if it isn
't. Or, if you know of a better way to provide
794 such mapping, please let me know.
</p
>
796 <p
>This prototype need more work, and there are several questions that
797 should be considered before it is ready for production use. Is dbus
798 the correct way to detect new hardware? At the moment I look for HAL
799 dbus events on the system bus, because that is the events I could see
800 on my Debian Squeeze KDE desktop. Are there better events to use?
801 How should the user be notified? Is the desktop notification
802 mechanism the best option, or should the background daemon raise a
803 popup instead? How should packages be installed? When should they
804 not be installed?
</p
>
806 <p
>If you want to help getting such feature implemented in Debian,
807 please send me an email. :)
</p
>
812 <title>New IRC channel for LEGO designers using Debian
</title>
813 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/New_IRC_channel_for_LEGO_designers_using_Debian.html
</link>
814 <guid isPermaLink=
"true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/New_IRC_channel_for_LEGO_designers_using_Debian.html
</guid>
815 <pubDate>Wed,
2 Jan
2013 15:
40:
00 +
0100</pubDate>
816 <description><p
>During Christmas, I have worked a bit on the Debian support for
817 <a href=
"http://mindstorms.lego.com/en-us/Default.aspx
">LEGO Mindstorm
818 NXT
</a
>. My son and I have played a bit with my NXT set, and I
819 discovered I had to build all the tools myself because none were
820 already in Debian Squeeze. If Debian support for LEGO is something
821 you care about, please join me on the IRC channel
822 <a href=
"irc://irc.debian.org/%
23debian-lego
">#debian-lego
</a
> (server
823 irc.debian.org). There is a lot that could be done to improve the
824 Debian support for LEGO designers. For example both CAD software
825 and Mindstorm compilers are missing. :)
</p
>
827 <p
>Update
2012-
01-
03: A
828 <a href=
"http://wiki.debian.org/LegoDesigners
">project page
</a
>
829 including links to Lego related packages is now available.
</p
>
834 <title>Lenker for
2013-
01-
01</title>
835 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lenker_for_2013_01_01.html
</link>
836 <guid isPermaLink=
"true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lenker_for_2013_01_01.html
</guid>
837 <pubDate>Tue,
1 Jan
2013 09:
20:
00 +
0100</pubDate>
838 <description><p
>Her er noen lenker til tekster jeg har satt pris på å lese den
839 siste måneden.
</p
>
844 <a href=
"http://www.idg.no/computerworld/article262047.ece
">Myter og
845 FUD om fri programvare
</a
> av min venn Christer Gundersen som
846 kommenterer noen av de påstandene som er spredt via Computerworld
847 Norge de siste månedene.
</li
>
849 <li
>BankID er et opplegg der utsteder (dvs. banken eller dens
850 leverandør) sitter på alt som trengs for å bruke BankID, men har
851 lovet å ikke bruke den unntatt på oppdrag fra deg. Det er greit nok
852 for banktjenester, der banken allerede har full kontroll over
853 resultatet, men problematisk når det gjelder tilgang til
854 helseopplysninger og avtaleinngåelse med andre enn banken. Jeg
855 håper protestene brer om seg.
859 <li
>2012-
12-
11 <a href=
"http://www.aftenposten.no/meninger/debatt/BankID-blottlegger-helseopplysninger-
7067148.html
">BankID
860 blottlegger helseopplysninger
</a
></li
>
862 <li
>2012-
12-
07 <a href=
"http://www.nrk.no/nyheter/norge/
1.9695027">-
863 Helseopplysningene ikke sikre med Bank-ID
</a
></li
>
866 <a href=
"https://www.bankid.no/Presse-og-nyheter/Nyhetsarkiv/
2012/Papeker-alvorlige-men-kjente-utfordringer/
">Påpeker
867 alvorlige, men kjente utfordringer
</a
> er den offisielle
868 holdningen til de som lager BankID.
</li
>
871 <a href=
"http://www.tnp.no/norway/panorama/
3419-ntnu-researcher-warns-against-security-of-bank-id-password
">NTNU
872 Researcher Warns against Security of Bank ID Password
</a
>
876 <li
>2012-
12-
11 <a href=
"http://www.aftenposten.no/nyheter/iriks/Norske-elever-er-darligst-i-Europa-pa-algebra-
7066752.html
">Norske elever er dårligst i Europa på algebra
</a
>
879 <a href=
"http://www.aftenposten.no/meninger/debatt/Realfagsdodaren-
7067173.html
">Realfagsdødaren
</a
>
882 <a href=
"http://www.bt.no/nyheter/innenriks/
112/--Forventningene-er-for-hoye-
2816450.html
">-
883 Noen må bli skuffet
</a
> - Politiet i Bergen forteller hvor lavt de
884 prioriterer hverdagskriminalitet.
</li
>
887 <a href=
"http://e24.no/jobb/kripos-ansatt-doemt-for-snoking-for-venn/
20208585">
888 Kripos-ansatt dømt for snoking for venn
</A
> - viser hvor svak
889 reaksjonen blir når politiet misbruker innsamlet informasjon. En
890 forvarsel på konsekvensene av nasjonal brev- og besøkskontroll -
891 ofte kalt Datalagringsdirektivet.
</li
>
894 <a href=
"http://www.dagbladet.no/
2012/
12/
14/kultur/debatt/kronikk/jul/ensomhet/
24838541/
">Å
895 smøre en forskjell
</a
> - om ensomhet og jul.
</li
>
898 <a href=
"http://www.aftenposten.no/meninger/kronikker/n-krise-av-gangen_-takk-
7072452.html
">Én
899 krise av gangen, takk!
</a
>
903 <a href=
"http://www.aftenposten.no/meninger/NAV-Et-mangehodet-monster--
7072165.html
">NAV:
904 Et mangehodet monster
</a
></li
>
907 <a href=
"http://www.dagbladet.no/
2011/
01/
12/kultur/debatt/kronikk/personvern/
15027203/
">Pasienter
908 uten vern
</a
> - forteller litt om hvordan Norsk Pasientregister og
909 andre helseregister raderer bort pasienters privatsfære.
</li
>
913 <a href=
"http://www.aftenposten.no/meninger/debatt/Hvorfor-er-barnefamilier-fattige-
7073951.html
">Hvorfor
914 er barnefamilier fattige?
</a
></li
>
917 <a href=
"http://www.aftenposten.no/meninger/spaltister/Den-skjulte-minoriteten--konservative-kristne-i-Norge-
7075518.html
">Den
918 skjulte minoriteten – konservative kristne i Norge
</a
> - kronikk av
919 Bjørn Stærk fra aftenposten
</li
>
922 <a href=
"http://deltemeninger.no/-/bulletin/show/
303429_folkebiblioteket-
2-
0?ref=checkpoint
">Folkebiblioteket
923 2.0</a
> - Min venn Sturle om opphavsrett og Internett, i debatt med
924 Olav Torvund.
</li
>
928 <p
>Og et godt nytt år til dere alle!
</p
>