Linux Device Manager

A Windows Device Manager-like graphical tool for Linux. Provides a clean, category-based interface to view, inspect, and manage hardware devices via sysfs/udev.

Features

• Category tree — devices grouped by type: Multimedia, Network, Storage, USB, PCI, etc.
• Detail tabs — General info, Advanced details, Driver info, Kernel logs/events
• Device actions — Enable / Disable devices (via polkit-protected privileged helper)
• Status bar — Spinner and progress indicators for long-running operations
• GTK4 UI — Defined via Cambalache .ui file (no programmatic widget creation)

Architecture

Multi-module Maven project:

Module	Path	Description
core	core/	Device enumeration, categorization, detail providers, action service
gui-gtk	gui-gtk/	GTK4 UI (java-gi bindings)
gui-qt	gui-qt/	Qt UI — V2 (planned)

Device data is gathered from sysfs, udev, and system tools (lspci, lsusb, lshw, dmesg, modinfo, etc.). Embedded static binaries are preferred over OS dependencies.

Prerequisites

Tool	Version	Notes
JDK	25+	java-gi GTK binding targets OpenJDK 25
Maven	3.8+	Build and tests
dpkg-deb	—	Debian package assembly (Debian/Ubuntu only)

If the default java is older than 25, set JAVA_HOME before running Maven:

JAVA_HOME=/usr/lib/jvm/java-25-openjdk-amd64 mvn test

Build

# Compile and run tests
mvn test

# Compile only (skip tests)
mvn install -DskipTests

Package

Debian / Ubuntu (.deb)

The .deb bundles a trimmed JRE (via jlink), application JARs, a launcher script, a polkit-protected privileged helper, a .desktop entry, and an SVG icon.

# Build the .deb (default)
JAVA_HOME=/usr/lib/jvm/java-25-openjdk-amd64 packaging/build-deb.sh

# Or via Maven profile
JAVA_HOME=/usr/lib/jvm/java-25-openjdk-amd64 mvn package -Ppackage-deb -DskipTests

Output: packaging/dist/linux-device-manager_0.1.0-1_amd64.deb

Verify the .deb

packaging/verify-deb.sh

Install

sudo dpkg -i packaging/dist/linux-device-manager_0.1.0-1_amd64.deb

Installed layout:

Path	Content
/opt/linux-device-manager/runtime/	Trimmed JRE (jlink)
/opt/linux-device-manager/lib/	Application JARs + dependencies
/usr/bin/linux-device-manager	Launcher script
/usr/libexec/ldm-helper	Privileged device helper
/usr/share/polkit-1/actions/org.ldm.policy	Polkit policy
/usr/share/applications/linux-device-manager.desktop	Desktop entry
/usr/share/icons/hicolor/scalable/apps/linux-device-manager.svg	App icon

Uninstall

sudo dpkg -r linux-device-manager

AppImage

Deferred for V1 (GTK4 library bundling in AppImage is non-trivial).

Roadmap

• V1 — Complete functionality with GTK4 UI
• V2 — Qt UI with all V1 features

Development

linux-device-manager/
├── core/                   # Core device management library
├── gui-gtk/                # GTK4 UI (java-gi)
├── gui-qt/                 # Qt UI (planned)
├── helper/                 # Privileged helper script + polkit policy
├── packaging/              # .deb build scripts, desktop files, control files
└── docs/                   # Design specs and implementation plans