blog/index.rss

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   3         <channel>
   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" />
   8
   9         <item>
  10                 <title>Bitcoin GUI now available from Debian/unstable (and Ubuntu/raring)</title>
  11                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Bitcoin_GUI_now_available_from_Debian_unstable__and_Ubuntu_raring_.html</link>
  12                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Bitcoin_GUI_now_available_from_Debian_unstable__and_Ubuntu_raring_.html</guid>
  13                 <pubDate>Sat, 2 Feb 2013 09:00:00 +0100</pubDate>
  14                 <description>&lt;p&gt;My
  15 &lt;a href=&quot;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_backport_bitcoin_qt_version_0_7_2_2_to_Debian_Squeeze.html&quot;&gt;last
  16 bitcoin related blog post&lt;/a&gt; mentioned that the new
  17 &lt;a href=&quot;http://packages.qa.debian.org/bitcoin&quot;&gt;bitcoin package&lt;/a&gt; for
  18 Debian was waiting in NEW.  It was accepted by the Debian ftp-masters
  19 2013-01-19, and have been available in unstable since then.  It was
  20 automatically copied to Ubuntu, and is available in their Raring
  21 version too.&lt;/p&gt;
  22
  23 &lt;p&gt;But there is a strange problem with the build that block this new
  24 version from being available on the i386 and kfreebsd-i386
  25 architectures.  For some strange reason, the autobuilders in Debian
  26 for these architectures fail to run the test suite on these
  27 architectures (&lt;a href=&quot;http://bugs.debian.org/672524&quot;&gt;BTS #672524&lt;/a&gt;).
  28 We are so far unable to reproduce it when building it manually, and
  29 no-one have been able to propose a fix.  If you got an idea what is
  30 failing, please let us know via the BTS.&lt;/p&gt;
  31
  32 &lt;p&gt;One feature that is annoying me with of the bitcoin client, because
  33 I often run low on disk space, is the fact that the client will exit
  34 if it run short on space (&lt;a href=&quot;http://bugs.debian.org/696715&quot;&gt;BTS
  35 #696715&lt;/a&gt;).  So make sure you have enough disk space when you run
  36 it. :)&lt;/p&gt;
  37
  38 &lt;p&gt;As usual, if you use bitcoin and want to show your support of my
  39 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
  40 &lt;b&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b&amp;label=PetterReinholdtsenBlog&quot;&gt;15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/b&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
  41 </description>
  42         </item>
  43
  44         <item>
  45                 <title>Welcome to the world, Isenkram!</title>
  46                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Welcome_to_the_world__Isenkram_.html</link>
  47                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Welcome_to_the_world__Isenkram_.html</guid>
  48                 <pubDate>Tue, 22 Jan 2013 22:00:00 +0100</pubDate>
  49                 <description>&lt;p&gt;Yesterday, I
  50 &lt;a href=&quot;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/First_prototype_ready_making_hardware_easier_to_use_in_Debian.html&quot;&gt;asked
  51 for testers&lt;/a&gt; for my prototype for making Debian better at handling
  52 pluggable hardware devices, which I
  53 &lt;a href=&quot;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lets_make_hardware_dongles_easier_to_use_in_Debian.html&quot;&gt;set
  54 out to create&lt;/a&gt; earlier this month.  Several valuable testers showed
  55 up, and caused me to really want to to open up the development to more
  56 people.  But before I did this, I want to come up with a sensible name
  57 for this project.  Today I finally decided on a new name, and I have
  58 renamed the project from hw-support-handler to this new name.  In the
  59 process, I moved the source to git and made it available as a
  60 &lt;a href=&quot;http://anonscm.debian.org/gitweb/?p=collab-maint/isenkram.git&quot;&gt;collab-maint&lt;/a&gt;
  61 repository in Debian.  The new name?  It is &lt;strong&gt;Isenkram&lt;/strong&gt;.
  62 To fetch and build the latest version of the source, use&lt;/p&gt;
  63
  64 &lt;pre&gt;
  65 git clone http://anonscm.debian.org/git/collab-maint/isenkram.git
  66 cd isenkram &amp;&amp; git-buildpackage -us -uc
  67 &lt;/pre&gt;
  68
  69 &lt;p&gt;I have not yet adjusted all files to use the new name yet.  If you
  70 want to hack on the source or improve the package, please go ahead.
  71 But please talk to me first on IRC or via email before you do major
  72 changes, to make sure we do not step on each others toes. :)&lt;/p&gt;
  73
  74 &lt;p&gt;If you wonder what &#39;isenkram&#39; is, it is a Norwegian word for iron
  75 stuff, typically meaning tools, nails, screws, etc.  Typical hardware
  76 stuff, in other words.  I&#39;ve been told it is the Norwegian variant of
  77 the German word eisenkram, for those that are familiar with that
  78 word.&lt;/p&gt;
  79
  80 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Update 2013-01-26&lt;/strong&gt;: Added -us -us to build
  81 instructions, to avoid confusing people with an error from the signing
  82 process.&lt;/p&gt;
  83
  84 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Update 2013-01-27&lt;/strong&gt;: Switch to HTTP URL for the git
  85 clone argument to avoid the need for authentication.&lt;/p&gt;
  86 </description>
  87         </item>
  88
  89         <item>
  90                 <title>First prototype ready making hardware easier to use in Debian</title>
  91                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/First_prototype_ready_making_hardware_easier_to_use_in_Debian.html</link>
  92                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/First_prototype_ready_making_hardware_easier_to_use_in_Debian.html</guid>
  93                 <pubDate>Mon, 21 Jan 2013 12:00:00 +0100</pubDate>
  94                 <description>&lt;p&gt;Early this month I set out to try to
  95 &lt;a href=&quot;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lets_make_hardware_dongles_easier_to_use_in_Debian.html&quot;&gt;improve
  96 the Debian support for pluggable hardware devices&lt;/a&gt;.  Now my
  97 prototype is working, and it is ready for a larger audience.  To test
  98 it, fetch the
  99 &lt;a href=&quot;http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/&quot;&gt;source
 100 from the Debian Edu subversion repository&lt;/a&gt;, build and install the
 101 package.  You might have to log out and in again activate the
 102 autostart script.&lt;/p&gt;
 103
 104 &lt;p&gt;The design is simple:&lt;/p&gt;
 105
 106 &lt;ul&gt;
 107
 108 &lt;li&gt;Add desktop entry in /usr/share/autostart/ causing a program
 109 hw-support-handlerd to start when the user log in.&lt;/li&gt;
 110
 111 &lt;li&gt;This program listen for kernel events about new hardware (directly
 112 from the kernel like udev does), not using HAL dbus events as I
 113 initially did.&lt;/li&gt;
 114
 115 &lt;li&gt;When new hardware is inserted, look up the hardware modalias in
 116 the APT database, a database
 117 &lt;a href=&quot;http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/modaliases?view=markup&quot;&gt;available
 118 via HTTP&lt;/a&gt; and a database available as part of the package.&lt;/li&gt;
 119
 120 &lt;li&gt;If a package is mapped to the hardware in question, the package
 121 isn&#39;t installed yet and this is the first time the hardware was
 122 plugged in, show a desktop notification suggesting to install the
 123 package or packages.&lt;/li&gt;
 124
 125 &lt;li&gt;If the user click on the &#39;install package now&#39; button, ask
 126 aptdaemon via the PackageKit API to install the requrired package.&lt;/li&gt;
 127
 128 &lt;li&gt;aptdaemon ask for root password or sudo password, and install the
 129 package while showing progress information in a window.&lt;/li&gt;
 130
 131 &lt;/ul&gt;
 132
 133 &lt;p&gt;I still need to come up with a better name for the system.  Here
 134 are some screen shots showing the prototype in action.  First the
 135 notification, then the password request, and finally the request to
 136 approve all the dependencies.  Sorry for the Norwegian Bokmål GUI.&lt;/p&gt;
 137
 138 &lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-01-21-hw-support-1-notification.png&quot;&gt;
 139 &lt;br&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-01-21-hw-support-2-password.png&quot;&gt;
 140 &lt;br&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-01-21-hw-support-3-dependencies.png&quot;&gt;
 141 &lt;br&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-01-21-hw-support-4-installing.png&quot;&gt;
 142 &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;
 143
 144 &lt;p&gt;The prototype still need to be improved with longer timeouts, but
 145 is already useful.  The database of hardware to package mappings also
 146 need more work.  It is currently compatible with the Ubuntu way of
 147 storing such information in the package control file, but could be
 148 changed to use other formats instead or in addition to the current
 149 method.  I&#39;ve dropped the use of discover for this mapping, as the
 150 modalias approach is more flexible and easier to use on Linux as long
 151 as the Linux kernel expose its modalias strings directly.&lt;/p&gt;
 152
 153 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Update 2013-01-21 16:50&lt;/strong&gt;: Due to popular demand,
 154 here is the command required to check out and build the source: Use
 155 &#39;&lt;tt&gt;svn checkout
 156 svn://svn.debian.org/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/; cd
 157 hw-support-handler; debuild&lt;/tt&gt;&#39;.  If you lack debuild, install the
 158 devscripts package.&lt;/p&gt;
 159
 160 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Update 2013-01-23 12:00&lt;/strong&gt;: The project is now
 161 renamed to Isenkram and the source moved from the Debian Edu
 162 subversion repository to a Debian collab-maint git repository.  See
 163 &lt;a href=&quot;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Welcome_to_the_world__Isenkram_.html&quot;&gt;build
 164 instructions&lt;/a&gt; for details.&lt;/p&gt;
 165 </description>
 166         </item>
 167
 168         <item>
 169                 <title>Thank you Thinkpad X41, for your long and trustworthy service</title>
 170                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Thank_you_Thinkpad_X41__for_your_long_and_trustworthy_service.html</link>
 171                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Thank_you_Thinkpad_X41__for_your_long_and_trustworthy_service.html</guid>
 172                 <pubDate>Sat, 19 Jan 2013 09:20:00 +0100</pubDate>
 173                 <description>&lt;p&gt;This Christmas my trusty old laptop died.  It died quietly and
 174 suddenly in bed.  With a quiet whimper, it went completely quiet and
 175 black.  The power button was no longer able to turn it on.  It was a
 176 IBM Thinkpad X41, and the best laptop I ever had.  Better than both
 177 Thinkpads X30, X31, X40, X60, X61 and X61S.  Far better than the
 178 Compaq I had before that.  Now I need to find a replacement.  To keep
 179 going during Christmas, I moved the one year old SSD disk to my old
 180 X40 where it fitted (only one I had left that could use it), but it is
 181 not a durable solution.
 182
 183 &lt;p&gt;My laptop needs are fairly modest.  This is my wishlist from when I
 184 got a new one more than 10 years ago.  It still holds true.:)&lt;/p&gt;
 185
 186 &lt;ul&gt;
 187
 188 &lt;li&gt;Lightweight (around 1 kg) and small volume (preferably smaller
 189   than A4).&lt;/li&gt;
 190 &lt;li&gt;Robust, it will be in my backpack every day.&lt;/li&gt;
 191 &lt;li&gt;Three button mouse and a mouse pin instead of touch pad.&lt;/li&gt;
 192 &lt;li&gt;Long battery life time.  Preferable a week.&lt;/li&gt;
 193 &lt;li&gt;Internal WIFI network card.&lt;/li&gt;
 194 &lt;li&gt;Internal Twisted Pair network card.&lt;/li&gt;
 195 &lt;li&gt;Some USB slots (2-3 is plenty)&lt;/li&gt;
 196 &lt;li&gt;Good keyboard - similar to the Thinkpad.&lt;/li&gt;
 197 &lt;li&gt;Video resolution at least 1024x768, with size around 12&quot; (A4 paper
 198 size).&lt;/li&gt;
 199 &lt;li&gt;Hardware supported by Debian Stable, ie the default kernel and
 200   X.org packages.&lt;/li&gt;
 201 &lt;li&gt;Quiet, preferably fan free (or at least not using the fan most of
 202   the time).
 203
 204 &lt;/ul&gt;
 205
 206 &lt;p&gt;You will notice that there are no RAM and CPU requirements in the
 207 list.  The reason is simply that the specifications on laptops the
 208 last 10-15 years have been sufficient for my needs, and I have to look
 209 at other features to choose my laptop.  But are there still made as
 210 robust laptops as my X41?  The Thinkpad X60/X61 proved to be less
 211 robust, and Thinkpads seem to be heading in the wrong direction since
 212 Lenovo took over.  But I&#39;ve been told that X220 and X1 Carbon might
 213 still be useful.&lt;/p&gt;
 214
 215 &lt;p&gt;Perhaps I should rethink my needs, and look for a pad with an
 216 external keyboard?  I&#39;ll have to check the
 217 &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.linux-laptop.net/&quot;&gt;Linux Laptops site&lt;/a&gt; for
 218 well-supported laptops, or perhaps just buy one preinstalled from one
 219 of the vendors listed on the &lt;a href=&quot;http://linuxpreloaded.com/&quot;&gt;Linux
 220 Pre-loaded site&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
 221 </description>
 222         </item>
 223
 224         <item>
 225                 <title>How to find a browser plugin supporting a given MIME type</title>
 226                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_find_a_browser_plugin_supporting_a_given_MIME_type.html</link>
 227                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_find_a_browser_plugin_supporting_a_given_MIME_type.html</guid>
 228                 <pubDate>Fri, 18 Jan 2013 10:40:00 +0100</pubDate>
 229                 <description>&lt;p&gt;Some times I try to figure out which Iceweasel browser plugin to
 230 install to get support for a given MIME type.  Thanks to
 231 &lt;a href=&quot;https://wiki.ubuntu.com/MozillaTeam/Plugins&quot;&gt;specifications
 232 done by Ubuntu&lt;/a&gt; and Mozilla, it is possible to do this in Debian.
 233 Unfortunately, not very many packages provide the needed meta
 234 information, Anyway, here is a small script to look up all browser
 235 plugin packages announcing ther MIME support using this specification:&lt;/p&gt;
 236
 237 &lt;pre&gt;
 238 #!/usr/bin/python
 239 import sys
 240 import apt
 241 def pkgs_handling_mimetype(mimetype):
 242     cache = apt.Cache()
 243     cache.open(None)
 244     thepkgs = []
 245     for pkg in cache:
 246         version = pkg.candidate
 247         if version is None:
 248             version = pkg.installed
 249         if version is None:
 250             continue
 251         record = version.record
 252         if not record.has_key(&#39;Npp-MimeType&#39;):
 253             continue
 254         mime_types = record[&#39;Npp-MimeType&#39;].split(&#39;,&#39;)
 255         for t in mime_types:
 256             t = t.rstrip().strip()
 257             if t == mimetype:
 258                 thepkgs.append(pkg.name)
 259     return thepkgs
 260 mimetype = &quot;audio/ogg&quot;
 261 if 1 &lt; len(sys.argv):
 262     mimetype = sys.argv[1]
 263 print &quot;Browser plugin packages supporting %s:&quot; % mimetype
 264 for pkg in pkgs_handling_mimetype(mimetype):
 265     print &quot;  %s&quot; %pkg
 266 &lt;/pre&gt;
 267
 268 &lt;p&gt;It can be used like this to look up a given MIME type:&lt;/p&gt;
 269
 270 &lt;pre&gt;
 271 % ./apt-find-browserplug-for-mimetype
 272 Browser plugin packages supporting audio/ogg:
 273   gecko-mediaplayer
 274 % ./apt-find-browserplug-for-mimetype application/x-shockwave-flash
 275 Browser plugin packages supporting application/x-shockwave-flash:
 276   browser-plugin-gnash
 277 %
 278 &lt;/pre&gt;
 279
 280 &lt;p&gt;In Ubuntu this mechanism is combined with support in the browser
 281 itself to query for plugins and propose to install the needed
 282 packages.  It would be great if Debian supported such feature too.  Is
 283 anyone working on adding it?&lt;/p&gt;
 284
 285 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Update 2013-01-18 14:20&lt;/strong&gt;: The Debian BTS
 286 request for icweasel support for this feature is
 287 &lt;a href=&quot;http://bugs.debian.org/484010&quot;&gt;#484010&lt;/a&gt; from 2008 (and
 288 &lt;a href=&quot;http://bugs.debian.org/698426&quot;&gt;#698426&lt;/a&gt; from today).  Lack
 289 of manpower and wish for a different design is the reason thus feature
 290 is not yet in iceweasel from Debian.&lt;/p&gt;
 291 </description>
 292         </item>
 293
 294         <item>
 295                 <title>What is the most supported MIME type in Debian?</title>
 296                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/What_is_the_most_supported_MIME_type_in_Debian_.html</link>
 297                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/What_is_the_most_supported_MIME_type_in_Debian_.html</guid>
 298                 <pubDate>Wed, 16 Jan 2013 10:10:00 +0100</pubDate>
 299                 <description>&lt;p&gt;The &lt;a href=&quot;http://wiki.debian.org/AppStreamDebianProposal&quot;&gt;DEP-11
 300 proposal to add AppStream information to the Debian archive&lt;/a&gt;, is a
 301 proposal to make it possible for a Desktop application to propose to
 302 the user some package to install to gain support for a given MIME
 303 type, font, library etc. that is currently missing.  With such
 304 mechanism in place, it would be possible for the desktop to
 305 automatically propose and install leocad if some LDraw file is
 306 downloaded by the browser.&lt;/p&gt;
 307
 308 &lt;p&gt;To get some idea about the current content of the archive, I decided
 309 to write a simple program to extract all .desktop files from the
 310 Debian archive and look up the claimed MIME support there.  The result
 311 can be found on the
 312 &lt;a href=&quot;http://ftp.skolelinux.org/pub/AppStreamTest&quot;&gt;Skolelinux FTP
 313 site&lt;/a&gt;.  Using the collected information, it become possible to
 314 answer the question in the title.  Here are the 20 most supported MIME
 315 types in Debian stable (Squeeze), testing (Wheezy) and unstable (Sid).
 316 The complete list is available from the link above.&lt;/p&gt;
 317
 318 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Debian Stable:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
 319
 320 &lt;pre&gt;
 321   count MIME type
 322   ----- -----------------------
 323      32 text/plain
 324      30 audio/mpeg
 325      29 image/png
 326      28 image/jpeg
 327      27 application/ogg
 328      26 audio/x-mp3
 329      25 image/tiff
 330      25 image/gif
 331      22 image/bmp
 332      22 audio/x-wav
 333      20 audio/x-flac
 334      19 audio/x-mpegurl
 335      18 video/x-ms-asf
 336      18 audio/x-musepack
 337      18 audio/x-mpeg
 338      18 application/x-ogg
 339      17 video/mpeg
 340      17 audio/x-scpls
 341      17 audio/ogg
 342      16 video/x-ms-wmv
 343 &lt;/pre&gt;
 344
 345 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Debian Testing:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
 346
 347 &lt;pre&gt;
 348   count MIME type
 349   ----- -----------------------
 350      33 text/plain
 351      32 image/png
 352      32 image/jpeg
 353      29 audio/mpeg
 354      27 image/gif
 355      26 image/tiff
 356      26 application/ogg
 357      25 audio/x-mp3
 358      22 image/bmp
 359      21 audio/x-wav
 360      19 audio/x-mpegurl
 361      19 audio/x-mpeg
 362      18 video/mpeg
 363      18 audio/x-scpls
 364      18 audio/x-flac
 365      18 application/x-ogg
 366      17 video/x-ms-asf
 367      17 text/html
 368      17 audio/x-musepack
 369      16 image/x-xbitmap
 370 &lt;/pre&gt;
 371
 372 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Debian Unstable:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
 373
 374 &lt;pre&gt;
 375   count MIME type
 376   ----- -----------------------
 377      31 text/plain
 378      31 image/png
 379      31 image/jpeg
 380      29 audio/mpeg
 381      28 application/ogg
 382      27 image/gif
 383      26 image/tiff
 384      26 audio/x-mp3
 385      23 audio/x-wav
 386      22 image/bmp
 387      21 audio/x-flac
 388      20 audio/x-mpegurl
 389      19 audio/x-mpeg
 390      18 video/x-ms-asf
 391      18 video/mpeg
 392      18 audio/x-scpls
 393      18 application/x-ogg
 394      17 audio/x-musepack
 395      16 video/x-ms-wmv
 396      16 video/x-msvideo
 397 &lt;/pre&gt;
 398
 399 &lt;p&gt;I am told that PackageKit can provide an API to access the kind of
 400 information mentioned in DEP-11.  I have not yet had time to look at
 401 it, but hope the PackageKit people in Debian are on top of these
 402 issues.&lt;/p&gt;
 403
 404 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Update 2013-01-16 13:35&lt;/strong&gt;: Updated numbers after
 405 discovering a typo in my script.&lt;/p&gt;
 406 </description>
 407         </item>
 408
 409         <item>
 410                 <title>Using modalias info to find packages handling my hardware</title>
 411                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Using_modalias_info_to_find_packages_handling_my_hardware.html</link>
 412                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Using_modalias_info_to_find_packages_handling_my_hardware.html</guid>
 413                 <pubDate>Tue, 15 Jan 2013 08:00:00 +0100</pubDate>
 414                 <description>&lt;p&gt;Yesterday, I wrote about the
 415 &lt;a href=&quot;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Modalias_strings___a_practical_way_to_map__stuff__to_hardware.html&quot;&gt;modalias
 416 values provided by the Linux kernel&lt;/a&gt; following my hope for
 417 &lt;a href=&quot;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lets_make_hardware_dongles_easier_to_use_in_Debian.html&quot;&gt;better
 418 dongle support in Debian&lt;/a&gt;.  Using this knowledge, I have tested how
 419 modalias values attached to package names can be used to map packages
 420 to hardware.  This allow the system to look up and suggest relevant
 421 packages when I plug in some new hardware into my machine, and replace
 422 discover and discover-data as the database used to map hardware to
 423 packages.&lt;/p&gt;
 424
 425 &lt;p&gt;I create a modaliases file with entries like the following,
 426 containing package name, kernel module name (if relevant, otherwise
 427 the package name) and globs matching the relevant hardware
 428 modalias.&lt;/p&gt;
 429
 430 &lt;p&gt;&lt;blockquote&gt;
 431 Package: package-name
 432 &lt;br&gt;Modaliases: module(modaliasglob, modaliasglob, modaliasglob)&lt;/p&gt;
 433 &lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
 434
 435 &lt;p&gt;It is fairly trivial to write code to find the relevant packages
 436 for a given modalias value using this file.&lt;/p&gt;
 437
 438 &lt;p&gt;An entry like this would suggest the video and picture application
 439 cheese for many USB web cameras (interface bus class 0E01):&lt;/p&gt;
 440
 441 &lt;p&gt;&lt;blockquote&gt;
 442 Package: cheese
 443 &lt;br&gt;Modaliases: cheese(usb:v*p*d*dc*dsc*dp*ic0Eisc01ip*)&lt;/p&gt;
 444 &lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
 445
 446 &lt;p&gt;An entry like this would suggest the pcmciautils package when a
 447 CardBus bridge (bus class 0607) PCI device is present:&lt;/p&gt;
 448
 449 &lt;p&gt;&lt;blockquote&gt;
 450 Package: pcmciautils
 451 &lt;br&gt;Modaliases: pcmciautils(pci:v*d*sv*sd*bc06sc07i*)
 452 &lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
 453
 454 &lt;p&gt;An entry like this would suggest the package colorhug-client when
 455 plugging in a ColorHug with USB IDs 04D8:F8DA:&lt;/p&gt;
 456
 457 &lt;p&gt;&lt;blockquote&gt;
 458 Package: colorhug-client
 459 &lt;br&gt;Modaliases: colorhug-client(usb:v04D8pF8DAd*)&lt;/p&gt;
 460 &lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
 461
 462 &lt;p&gt;I believe the format is compatible with the format of the Packages
 463 file in the Debian archive.  Ubuntu already uses their Packages file
 464 to store their mappings from packages to hardware.&lt;/p&gt;
 465
 466 &lt;p&gt;By adding a XB-Modaliases: header in debian/control, any .deb can
 467 announce the hardware it support in a way my prototype understand.
 468 This allow those publishing packages in an APT source outside the
 469 Debian archive as well as those backporting packages to make sure the
 470 hardware mapping are included in the package meta information.  I&#39;ve
 471 tested such header in the pymissile package, and its modalias mapping
 472 is working as it should with my prototype.  It even made it to Ubuntu
 473 Raring.&lt;/p&gt;
 474
 475 &lt;p&gt;To test if it was possible to look up supported hardware using only
 476 the shell tools available in the Debian installer, I wrote a shell
 477 implementation of the lookup code.  The idea is to create files for
 478 each modalias and let the shell do the matching.  Please check out and
 479 try the
 480 &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;
 481 shell script.  It run without any extra dependencies and fetch the
 482 hardware mappings from the Debian archive and the subversion
 483 repository where I currently work on my prototype.&lt;/p&gt;
 484
 485 &lt;p&gt;When I use it on a machine with a yubikey inserted, it suggest to
 486 install yubikey-personalization:&lt;/p&gt;
 487
 488 &lt;p&gt;&lt;blockquote&gt;
 489 % ./hw-support-lookup
 490 &lt;br&gt;yubikey-personalization
 491 &lt;br&gt;%
 492 &lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
 493
 494 &lt;p&gt;When I run it on my Thinkpad X40 with a PCMCIA/CardBus slot, it
 495 propose to install the pcmciautils package:&lt;/p&gt;
 496
 497 &lt;p&gt;&lt;blockquote&gt;
 498 % ./hw-support-lookup
 499 &lt;br&gt;pcmciautils
 500 &lt;br&gt;%
 501 &lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
 502
 503 &lt;p&gt;If you know of any hardware-package mapping that should be added to
 504 &lt;a href=&quot;http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/modaliases?view=co&quot;&gt;my
 505 database&lt;/a&gt;, please tell me about it.&lt;/p&gt;
 506
 507 &lt;p&gt;It could be possible to generate several of the mappings between
 508 packages and hardware.  One source would be to look at packages with
 509 kernel modules, ie packages with *.ko files in /lib/modules/, and
 510 extract their modalias information.  Another would be to look at
 511 packages with udev rules, ie packages with files in
 512 /lib/udev/rules.d/, and extract their vendor/model information to
 513 generate a modalias matching rule.  I have not tested any of these to
 514 see if it work.&lt;/p&gt;
 515
 516 &lt;p&gt;If you want to help implementing a system to let us propose what
 517 packages to install when new hardware is plugged into a Debian
 518 machine, please send me an email or talk to me on
 519 &lt;a href=&quot;irc://irc.debian.org/%23debian-devel&quot;&gt;#debian-devel&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
 520 </description>
 521         </item>
 522
 523         <item>
 524                 <title>Modalias strings - a practical way to map &quot;stuff&quot; to hardware</title>
 525                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Modalias_strings___a_practical_way_to_map__stuff__to_hardware.html</link>
 526                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Modalias_strings___a_practical_way_to_map__stuff__to_hardware.html</guid>
 527                 <pubDate>Mon, 14 Jan 2013 11:20:00 +0100</pubDate>
 528                 <description>&lt;p&gt;While looking into how to look up Debian packages based on hardware
 529 information, to find the packages that support a given piece of
 530 hardware, I refreshed my memory regarding modalias values, and decided
 531 to document the details.  Here are my findings so far, also available
 532 in
 533 &lt;a href=&quot;http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/&quot;&gt;the
 534 Debian Edu subversion repository&lt;/a&gt;:
 535
 536 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Modalias decoded&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
 537
 538 &lt;p&gt;This document try to explain what the different types of modalias
 539 values stands for.  It is in part based on information from
 540 &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;,
 541 &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;,
 542 &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
 543 &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;.
 544
 545 &lt;p&gt;The modalias entries for a given Linux machine can be found using
 546 this shell script:&lt;/p&gt;
 547
 548 &lt;pre&gt;
 549 find /sys -name modalias -print0 | xargs -0 cat | sort -u
 550 &lt;/pre&gt;
 551
 552 &lt;p&gt;The supported modalias globs for a given kernel module can be found
 553 using modinfo:&lt;/p&gt;
 554
 555 &lt;pre&gt;
 556 % /sbin/modinfo psmouse | grep alias:
 557 alias:          serio:ty05pr*id*ex*
 558 alias:          serio:ty01pr*id*ex*
 559 %
 560 &lt;/pre&gt;
 561
 562 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;PCI subtype&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
 563
 564 &lt;p&gt;A typical PCI entry can look like this.  This is an Intel Host
 565 Bridge memory controller:&lt;/p&gt;
 566
 567 &lt;p&gt;&lt;blockquote&gt;
 568 pci:v00008086d00002770sv00001028sd000001ADbc06sc00i00
 569 &lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
 570
 571 &lt;p&gt;This represent these values:&lt;/p&gt;
 572
 573 &lt;pre&gt;
 574  v   00008086  (vendor)
 575  d   00002770  (device)
 576  sv  00001028  (subvendor)
 577  sd  000001AD  (subdevice)
 578  bc  06        (bus class)
 579  sc  00        (bus subclass)
 580  i   00        (interface)
 581 &lt;/pre&gt;
 582
 583 &lt;p&gt;The vendor/device values are the same values outputted from &#39;lspci
 584 -n&#39; as 8086:2770.  The bus class/subclass is also shown by lspci as
 585 0600.  The 0600 class is a host bridge.  Other useful bus values are
 586 0300 (VGA compatible card) and 0200 (Ethernet controller).&lt;/p&gt;
 587
 588 &lt;p&gt;Not sure how to figure out the interface value, nor what it
 589 means.&lt;/p&gt;
 590
 591 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;USB subtype&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
 592
 593 &lt;p&gt;Some typical USB entries can look like this.  This is an internal
 594 USB hub in a laptop:&lt;/p&gt;
 595
 596 &lt;p&gt;&lt;blockquote&gt;
 597 usb:v1D6Bp0001d0206dc09dsc00dp00ic09isc00ip00
 598 &lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
 599
 600 &lt;p&gt;Here is the values included in this alias:&lt;/p&gt;
 601
 602 &lt;pre&gt;
 603  v    1D6B  (device vendor)
 604  p    0001  (device product)
 605  d    0206  (bcddevice)
 606  dc     09  (device class)
 607  dsc    00  (device subclass)
 608  dp     00  (device protocol)
 609  ic     09  (interface class)
 610  isc    00  (interface subclass)
 611  ip     00  (interface protocol)
 612 &lt;/pre&gt;
 613
 614 &lt;p&gt;The 0900 device class/subclass means hub.  Some times the relevant
 615 class is in the interface class section.  For a simple USB web camera,
 616 these alias entries show up:&lt;/p&gt;
 617
 618 &lt;p&gt;&lt;blockquote&gt;
 619 usb:v0AC8p3420d5000dcEFdsc02dp01ic01isc01ip00
 620 &lt;br&gt;usb:v0AC8p3420d5000dcEFdsc02dp01ic01isc02ip00
 621 &lt;br&gt;usb:v0AC8p3420d5000dcEFdsc02dp01ic0Eisc01ip00
 622 &lt;br&gt;usb:v0AC8p3420d5000dcEFdsc02dp01ic0Eisc02ip00
 623 &lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
 624
 625 &lt;p&gt;Interface class 0E01 is video control, 0E02 is video streaming (aka
 626 camera), 0101 is audio control device and 0102 is audio streaming (aka
 627 microphone).  Thus this is a camera with microphone included.&lt;/p&gt;
 628
 629 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;ACPI subtype&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
 630
 631 &lt;p&gt;The ACPI type is used for several non-PCI/USB stuff.  This is an IR
 632 receiver in a Thinkpad X40:&lt;/p&gt;
 633
 634 &lt;p&gt;&lt;blockquote&gt;
 635 acpi:IBM0071:PNP0511:
 636 &lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
 637
 638 &lt;p&gt;The values between the colons are IDs.&lt;/p&gt;
 639
 640 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;DMI subtype&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
 641
 642 &lt;p&gt;The DMI table contain lots of information about the computer case
 643 and model.  This is an entry for a IBM Thinkpad X40, fetched from
 644 /sys/devices/virtual/dmi/id/modalias:&lt;/p&gt;
 645
 646 &lt;p&gt;&lt;blockquote&gt;
 647 dmi:bvnIBM:bvr1UETB6WW(1.66):bd06/15/2005:svnIBM:pn2371H4G:pvrThinkPadX40:rvnIBM:rn2371H4G:rvrNotAvailable:cvnIBM:ct10:cvrNotAvailable:
 648 &lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
 649
 650 &lt;p&gt;The values present are&lt;/p&gt;
 651
 652 &lt;pre&gt;
 653  bvn  IBM            (BIOS vendor)
 654  bvr  1UETB6WW(1.66) (BIOS version)
 655  bd   06/15/2005     (BIOS date)
 656  svn  IBM            (system vendor)
 657  pn   2371H4G        (product name)
 658  pvr  ThinkPadX40    (product version)
 659  rvn  IBM            (board vendor)
 660  rn   2371H4G        (board name)
 661  rvr  NotAvailable   (board version)
 662  cvn  IBM            (chassis vendor)
 663  ct   10             (chassis type)
 664  cvr  NotAvailable   (chassis version)
 665 &lt;/pre&gt;
 666
 667 &lt;p&gt;The chassis type 10 is Notebook.  Other interesting values can be
 668 found in the dmidecode source:&lt;/p&gt;
 669
 670 &lt;pre&gt;
 671   3 Desktop
 672   4 Low Profile Desktop
 673   5 Pizza Box
 674   6 Mini Tower
 675   7 Tower
 676   8 Portable
 677   9 Laptop
 678  10 Notebook
 679  11 Hand Held
 680  12 Docking Station
 681  13 All In One
 682  14 Sub Notebook
 683  15 Space-saving
 684  16 Lunch Box
 685  17 Main Server Chassis
 686  18 Expansion Chassis
 687  19 Sub Chassis
 688  20 Bus Expansion Chassis
 689  21 Peripheral Chassis
 690  22 RAID Chassis
 691  23 Rack Mount Chassis
 692  24 Sealed-case PC
 693  25 Multi-system
 694  26 CompactPCI
 695  27 AdvancedTCA
 696  28 Blade
 697  29 Blade Enclosing
 698 &lt;/pre&gt;
 699
 700 &lt;p&gt;The chassis type values are not always accurately set in the DMI
 701 table.  For example my home server is a tower, but the DMI modalias
 702 claim it is a desktop.&lt;/p&gt;
 703
 704 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;SerIO subtype&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
 705
 706 &lt;p&gt;This type is used for PS/2 mouse plugs.  One example is from my
 707 test machine:&lt;/p&gt;
 708
 709 &lt;p&gt;&lt;blockquote&gt;
 710 serio:ty01pr00id00ex00
 711 &lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
 712
 713 &lt;p&gt;The values present are&lt;/p&gt;
 714
 715 &lt;pre&gt;
 716   ty  01  (type)
 717   pr  00  (prototype)
 718   id  00  (id)
 719   ex  00  (extra)
 720 &lt;/pre&gt;
 721
 722 &lt;p&gt;This type is supported by the psmouse driver.  I am not sure what
 723 the valid values are.&lt;/p&gt;
 724
 725 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Other subtypes&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
 726
 727 &lt;p&gt;There are heaps of other modalias subtypes according to
 728 file2alias.c.  There is the rest of the list from that source: amba,
 729 ap, bcma, ccw, css, eisa, hid, i2c, ieee1394, input, ipack, isapnp,
 730 mdio, of, parisc, pcmcia, platform, scsi, sdio, spi, ssb, vio, virtio,
 731 vmbus, x86cpu and zorro.  I did not spend time documenting all of
 732 these, as they do not seem relevant for my intended use with mapping
 733 hardware to packages when new stuff is inserted during run time.&lt;/p&gt;
 734
 735 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Looking up kernel modules using modalias values&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
 736
 737 &lt;p&gt;To check which kernel modules provide support for a given modalias,
 738 one can use the following shell script:&lt;/p&gt;
 739
 740 &lt;pre&gt;
 741   for id in $(find /sys -name modalias -print0 | xargs -0 cat | sort -u); do \
 742     echo &quot;$id&quot; ; \
 743     /sbin/modprobe --show-depends &quot;$id&quot;|sed &#39;s/^/  /&#39; ; \
 744   done
 745 &lt;/pre&gt;
 746
 747 &lt;p&gt;The output can look like this (only the first few entries as the
 748 list is very long on my test machine):&lt;/p&gt;
 749
 750 &lt;pre&gt;
 751   acpi:ACPI0003:
 752     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/drivers/acpi/ac.ko
 753   acpi:device:
 754   FATAL: Module acpi:device: not found.
 755   acpi:IBM0068:
 756     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/drivers/char/nvram.ko
 757     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/drivers/leds/led-class.ko
 758     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/net/rfkill/rfkill.ko
 759     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/drivers/platform/x86/thinkpad_acpi.ko
 760   acpi:IBM0071:PNP0511:
 761     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/lib/crc-ccitt.ko
 762     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/net/irda/irda.ko
 763     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/drivers/net/irda/nsc-ircc.ko
 764   [...]
 765 &lt;/pre&gt;
 766
 767 &lt;p&gt;If you want to help implementing a system to let us propose what
 768 packages to install when new hardware is plugged into a Debian
 769 machine, please send me an email or talk to me on
 770 &lt;a href=&quot;irc://irc.debian.org/%23debian-devel&quot;&gt;#debian-devel&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
 771
 772 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Update 2013-01-15:&lt;/strong&gt; Rewrite &quot;cat $(find ...)&quot; to
 773 &quot;find ... -print0 | xargs -0 cat&quot; to make sure it handle directories
 774 in /sys/ with space in them.&lt;/p&gt;
 775 </description>
 776         </item>
 777
 778         <item>
 779                 <title>Moved the pymissile Debian packaging to collab-maint</title>
 780                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Moved_the_pymissile_Debian_packaging_to_collab_maint.html</link>
 781                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Moved_the_pymissile_Debian_packaging_to_collab_maint.html</guid>
 782                 <pubDate>Thu, 10 Jan 2013 20:40:00 +0100</pubDate>
 783                 <description>&lt;p&gt;As part of my investigation on how to improve the support in Debian
 784 for hardware dongles, I dug up my old Mark and Spencer USB Rocket
 785 Launcher and updated the Debian package
 786 &lt;a href=&quot;http://packages.qa.debian.org/pymissile&quot;&gt;pymissile&lt;/a&gt; to make
 787 sure udev will fix the device permissions when it is plugged in.  I
 788 also added a &quot;Modaliases&quot; header to test it in the Debian archive and
 789 hopefully make the package be proposed by jockey in Ubuntu when a user
 790 plug in his rocket launcher.  In the process I moved the source to a
 791 git repository under collab-maint, to make it easier for any DD to
 792 contribute.  &lt;a href=&quot;http://code.google.com/p/pymissile/&quot;&gt;Upstream&lt;/a&gt;
 793 is not very active, but the software still work for me even after five
 794 years of relative silence.  The new git repository is not listed in
 795 the uploaded package yet, because I want to test the other changes a
 796 bit more before I upload the new version.  If you want to check out
 797 the new version with a .desktop file included, visit the
 798 &lt;a href=&quot;http://anonscm.debian.org/gitweb/?p=collab-maint/pymissile.git&quot;&gt;gitweb
 799 view&lt;/a&gt; or use &quot;&lt;tt&gt;git clone
 800 git://anonscm.debian.org/collab-maint/pymissile.git&lt;/tt&gt;&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;
 801 </description>
 802         </item>
 803
 804         <item>
 805                 <title>Lets make hardware dongles easier to use in Debian</title>
 806                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lets_make_hardware_dongles_easier_to_use_in_Debian.html</link>
 807                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lets_make_hardware_dongles_easier_to_use_in_Debian.html</guid>
 808                 <pubDate>Wed, 9 Jan 2013 15:40:00 +0100</pubDate>
 809                 <description>&lt;p&gt;One thing that annoys me with Debian and Linux distributions in
 810 general, is that there is a great package management system with the
 811 ability to automatically install software packages by downloading them
 812 from the distribution mirrors, but no way to get it to automatically
 813 install the packages I need to use the hardware I plug into my
 814 machine.  Even if the package to use it is easily available from the
 815 Linux distribution.  When I plug in a LEGO Mindstorms NXT, it could
 816 suggest to automatically install the python-nxt, nbc and t2n packages
 817 I need to talk to it.  When I plug in a Yubikey, it could propose the
 818 yubikey-personalization package.  The information required to do this
 819 is available, but no-one have pulled all the pieces together.&lt;/p&gt;
 820
 821 &lt;p&gt;Some years ago, I proposed to
 822 &lt;a href=&quot;http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2010/05/msg01206.html&quot;&gt;use
 823 the discover subsystem to implement this&lt;/a&gt;.  The idea is fairly
 824 simple:
 825
 826 &lt;ul&gt;
 827
 828 &lt;li&gt;Add a desktop entry in /usr/share/autostart/ pointing to a program
 829   starting when a user log in.&lt;/li&gt;
 830
 831 &lt;li&gt;Set this program up to listen for kernel events emitted when new
 832   hardware is inserted into the computer.&lt;/li&gt;
 833
 834 &lt;li&gt;When new hardware is inserted, look up the hardware ID in a
 835   database mapping to packages, and take note of any non-installed
 836   packages.&lt;/li&gt;
 837
 838 &lt;li&gt;Show a message to the user proposing to install the discovered
 839   package, and make it easy to install it.&lt;/li&gt;
 840
 841 &lt;/ul&gt;
 842
 843 &lt;p&gt;I am not sure what the best way to implement this is, but my
 844 initial idea was to use dbus events to discover new hardware, the
 845 discover database to find packages and
 846 &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.packagekit.org/&quot;&gt;PackageKit&lt;/a&gt; to install
 847 packages.&lt;/p&gt;
 848
 849 &lt;p&gt;Yesterday, I found time to try to implement this idea, and the
 850 draft package is now checked into
 851 &lt;a href=&quot;http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/&quot;&gt;the
 852 Debian Edu subversion repository&lt;/a&gt;.  In the process, I updated the
 853 &lt;a href=&quot;http://packages.qa.debian.org/d/discover-data.html&quot;&gt;discover-data&lt;/a&gt;
 854 package to map the USB ids of LEGO Mindstorms and Yubikey devices to
 855 the relevant packages in Debian, and uploaded a new version
 856 2.2013.01.09 to unstable.  I also discovered that the current
 857 &lt;a href=&quot;http://packages.qa.debian.org/d/discover.html&quot;&gt;discover&lt;/a&gt;
 858 package in Debian no longer discovered any USB devices, because
 859 /proc/bus/usb/devices is no longer present.  I ported it to use
 860 libusb as a fall back option to get it working.  The fixed package
 861 version 2.1.2-6 is now in experimental (didn&#39;t upload it to unstable
 862 because of the freeze).&lt;/p&gt;
 863
 864 &lt;p&gt;With this prototype in place, I can insert my Yubikey, and get this
 865 desktop notification to show up (only once, the first time it is
 866 inserted):&lt;/p&gt;
 867
 868 &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;
 869
 870 &lt;p&gt;For this prototype to be really useful, some way to automatically
 871 install the proposed packages by pressing the &quot;Please install
 872 program(s)&quot; button should to be implemented.&lt;/p&gt;
 873
 874 &lt;p&gt;If this idea seem useful to you, and you want to help make it
 875 happen, please help me update the discover-data database with mappings
 876 from hardware to Debian packages.  Check if &#39;discover-pkginstall -l&#39;
 877 list the package you would like to have installed when a given
 878 hardware device is inserted into your computer, and report bugs using
 879 reportbug if it isn&#39;t.  Or, if you know of a better way to provide
 880 such mapping, please let me know.&lt;/p&gt;
 881
 882 &lt;p&gt;This prototype need more work, and there are several questions that
 883 should be considered before it is ready for production use.  Is dbus
 884 the correct way to detect new hardware?  At the moment I look for HAL
 885 dbus events on the system bus, because that is the events I could see
 886 on my Debian Squeeze KDE desktop.  Are there better events to use?
 887 How should the user be notified?  Is the desktop notification
 888 mechanism the best option, or should the background daemon raise a
 889 popup instead?  How should packages be installed?  When should they
 890 not be installed?&lt;/p&gt;
 891
 892 &lt;p&gt;If you want to help getting such feature implemented in Debian,
 893 please send me an email. :)&lt;/p&gt;
 894 </description>
 895         </item>
 896
 897         </channel>
 898 </rss>