- <div class="entry">
- <div class="title"><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Appstream_just_learned_how_to_map_hardware_to_packages_too_.html">Appstream just learned how to map hardware to packages too!</a></div>
- <div class="date">23rd December 2016</div>
- <div class="body"><p>I received a very nice Christmas present today. As my regular
-readers probably know, I have been working on the
-<a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/isenkram">the Isenkram
-system</a> for many years. The goal of the Isenkram system is to make
-it easier for users to figure out what to install to get a given piece
-of hardware to work in Debian, and a key part of this system is a way
-to map hardware to packages. Isenkram have its own mapping database,
-and also uses data provided by each package using the AppStream
-metadata format. And today,
-<a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/appstream">AppStream</a> in
-Debian learned to look up hardware the same way Isenkram is doing it,
-ie using fnmatch():</p>
-
-<p><pre>
-% appstreamcli what-provides modalias \
- usb:v1130p0202d0100dc00dsc00dp00ic03isc00ip00in00
-Identifier: pymissile [generic]
-Name: pymissile
-Summary: Control original Striker USB Missile Launcher
-Package: pymissile
-% appstreamcli what-provides modalias usb:v0694p0002d0000
-Identifier: libnxt [generic]
-Name: libnxt
-Summary: utility library for talking to the LEGO Mindstorms NXT brick
-Package: libnxt
----
-Identifier: t2n [generic]
-Name: t2n
-Summary: Simple command-line tool for Lego NXT
-Package: t2n
----
-Identifier: python-nxt [generic]
-Name: python-nxt
-Summary: Python driver/interface/wrapper for the Lego Mindstorms NXT robot
-Package: python-nxt
----
-Identifier: nbc [generic]
-Name: nbc
-Summary: C compiler for LEGO Mindstorms NXT bricks
-Package: nbc
-%
-</pre></p>
-
-<p>A similar query can be done using the combined AppStream and
-Isenkram databases using the isenkram-lookup tool:</p>
-
-<p><pre>
-% isenkram-lookup usb:v1130p0202d0100dc00dsc00dp00ic03isc00ip00in00
-pymissile
-% isenkram-lookup usb:v0694p0002d0000
-libnxt
-nbc
-python-nxt
-t2n
-%
-</pre></p>
-
-<p>You can find modalias values relevant for your machine using
-<tt>cat $(find /sys/devices/ -name modalias)</tt>.
-
-<p>If you want to make this system a success and help Debian users
-make the most of the hardware they have, please
-help<a href="https://wiki.debian.org/AppStream/Guidelines">add
-AppStream metadata for your package following the guidelines</a>
-documented in the wiki. So far only 11 packages provide such
-information, among the several hundred hardware specific packages in
-Debian. The Isenkram database on the other hand contain 101 packages,
-mostly related to USB dongles. Most of the packages with hardware
-mapping in AppStream are LEGO Mindstorms related, because I have, as
-part of my involvement in
-<a href="https://wiki.debian.org/LegoDesigners">the Debian LEGO
-team</a> given priority to making sure LEGO users get proposed the
-complete set of packages in Debian for that particular hardware. The
-team also got a nice Christmas present today. The
-<a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/nxt-firmware">nxt-firmware
-package</a> made it into Debian. With this package in place, it is
-now possible to use the LEGO Mindstorms NXT unit with only free
-software, as the nxt-firmware package contain the source and firmware
-binaries for the NXT brick.</p>
-
-<p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
-activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
-<b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b&label=PetterReinholdtsenBlog">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
-</div>
- <div class="tags">
-
-
- Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram">isenkram</a>.
-
-
- </div>
- </div>
- <div class="padding"></div>
-
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