Linux Desktop Hacks

Perfect USB Devices with Project Utopia #93

Chapter 11, Hardware

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281

HACK

such as gnome-sudo to run with root privileges. On a GNOME desktop, you

can configure a launcher icon to run the previous script:

foo@bar:~$ gnome-sudo /usr/local/bin/bluetooth_call.sh

—Jon Masters

HACK

#93

Perfect USB Devices with Project Utopia Hack #93

Kick your desktop into the Plug and Play world with your USB devices.

Few would argue that USB has not had a tremendous impact on the com-

puter world. Everything from sound cards to network cards to lamps and

beyond is available with a USB connector hanging off the side.

Linux support for devices has traditionally been a slightly crufty area.

Devices that are plugged in usually require several manual steps before the

OS recognizes them, and they are accessible to the user. But in the last two

years the ease of hardware handling has improved dramatically. One of the

major projects to work on this problem is Project Utopia. This collection of

developers has worked to create a software stack that enables you to plug a

device into your USB port and have it just work. This stack includes the fol-

lowing tools:

udev

This tool replaces the kernel-managed /dev with an equivalent user-

space that makes it easier for devices to be handled.

dbus

This allows programs to communicate with each other and respond to

specific events.

Hardware Abstraction Layer (HAL)

This component ties together