TUXEDO‘s little helper – TUXEDO Tomte

The term Tomte is Swedish and means something like goblin or leprechaun, and this describes our own little helper software quite well. In different messages, we already talked about Tomte, but we're going to explain in more detail what our digital goblin is all about.
 

Good to know: Privacy is not violated and no data is sent to TUXEDO

The most important information first: The privacy of our users is respected and no data will be sent to TUXEDO! TUXEDO Tomte changes as little as possible in the system and only as much as needed for correct functioning. The user settings are not overwritten.
 

In a nutshell: TUXEDO Tomte is a driver configuration service

TUXEDO Tomte is a configuration service that automatically recognizes the customer's device and checks for missing drivers or required packages, relieving users of tedious troubleshooting and problem solving. The small program inserts appropriate solutions, for example entries in Grub or other configurations like switching to the TUXEDO mirrors. In this step, the repositories are removed from the sources list - the rest of the system remains untouched. This is necessary so that a kernel approved by TUXEDO can be installed as well as suitable drivers.
 

How does TUXEDO Tomte work in detail?

When the system is started, TUXEDO Tomte automaticaly checks if drivers or necessary packages are missing. For this, Tomte compares a list of about 1,000 repositories. The program detects whether the system needs to be adjusted or not. This way, Tomte takes a lot of work off the users' shoulders, because necessary adjustments are carried out independently. After the work is done, Tomte is getting closed.

With TUXEDO Tomte you can control exactly how the solutions are installed. When they are no longer needed, Tomte removes them automatically. Users do not have to do anything - just wait and enjoy a functioning device.
 

The most important commands for TUXEDO Tomte at a glance

Output of tuxedo-tomte can be called as follows:

tuxedo-tomte [COMMAND]   list - List all installable modules with detailed status  
description MODULE - Shows the module description  
configure MODULE ...|all - Configure an unconfigured module  
reconfigure MODULE...|all - Reconfigure a configured module  
block MODULE … - Block a module  
unblock MODULE … - Unblock a module  
help - Prints this message

For example, per:

sudo tuxedo-tomte listthe necessary and applied drivers and modules for the respective device are displayed. In addition, information on "kernel", "tuxedo-repos" or "tuxedo-mirrors" is listed.

If the kernel suggested by TUXEDO should not be installed, this can be prevented with the following command:

sudo tuxedo-tomte block kernelThe command stops the installation of the kernel tested and released by the TUXEDO devs.

If package updates from Ubuntu are to be preferred over the ones from the TUXEDO package sources, this can be done via:

sudo tuxedo-tomte block tuxedo-mirrorsWith further updates,  the original repositories will be used instead of the ones from TUXEDO. Caution is advised here, because there can be unforeseen updates, which may possibly lead to problems.

To reactivate these modules, you simply have to use the parameter "unblock" instead of "block":

sudo tuxedo-tomte unblock kernel
sudo tuxedo-tomte unblock tuxedo-mirrorsAfter that, use the following command to reconfigure:

sudo tuxedo-tomte reconfigure all

Further Information

Currently, TUXEDO_OS, Ubuntu 20.04 and 22.04 (and directly based like Kubuntu, Xubuntu, Ubuntu Mate) are supported. TUXEDO Tomte can be downloaded from:

• Ubuntu: https://deb.tuxedocomputers.com/ubuntu/pool/main/t/tuxedo-tomte/

sudo apt install /home/YOUR_USERNAME/Downloads/tuxedo-tomte_*.deb

More information from a technical point of view is provided in the configuration file under:

/etc/tomte/tomte.cfgThe log file resides at:

/var/log/tomte/tomte.log