diff --git a/board-mappings.ini b/board-mappings.ini
index 2555ad7..97aea77 100644
--- a/board-mappings.ini
+++ b/board-mappings.ini
@@ -17,18 +17,14 @@
 # - boardname.contains -- searches for substring in boardname
 #   NOTE: only use boardname if none of the other options match
 #         use the boardname command to set/check the current value
-# - systeminfo.equals -- compares the model returned by QSystemInfo
-#                        with the value provided
-#   NOTE: systeminfo matching is currently disabled, as this would
-#         pull in the whole X11 stack, and on Mer/Nemo does cpuinfo
-#         matching only anyway, which ssu can do better already.
+# - hwrelease.device -- Compares MER_HA_DEVICE in /etc/hw-release
 # - cpuinfo.contains -- searches /proc/cpuinfo for a string
 # - uname-release.contains -- searches the kernels release string for
 #         a string (uname -r)
 # - arch.equals -- compares with zyppers arch (like i586)
 #
 # Resolve order is:
-#  file.exists -> systeminfo.equals -> cpuinfo.contains
+#  file.exists -> cpuinfo.contains -> hwrelease.device
 #   -> uname-release.contains -> arch.equals
 #
 # The found model (after resolving variants) will be used as category. The
@@ -85,13 +81,15 @@
 [file.exists]
 SDK=/mer-sdk-chroot
 
-[systeminfo.equals]
-
 [cpuinfo.contains]
 N900=Nokia RX-51 board
 N950=Nokia RM-680 board
 N9=Nokia RM-696 board
 
+[hwrelease.device]
+mako=mako
+grouper=grouper
+
 [arch.equals]
 generic-x86=i586
 
diff --git a/libssu/ssudeviceinfo.cpp b/libssu/ssudeviceinfo.cpp
index 4cf8544..0cfed02 100644
--- a/libssu/ssudeviceinfo.cpp
+++ b/libssu/ssudeviceinfo.cpp
@@ -201,29 +201,6 @@ QString SsuDeviceInfo::deviceModel(){
   }
   if (!cachedModel.isEmpty()) return cachedModel;
 
-  // check if the QSystemInfo model is useful
-  //QSystemDeviceInfo devInfo;
-  // TODO Current Mer SystemDeviceInfo only returns cpuinfo stuff,
-  //      which is what we can do with cpuinfo matching in a more
-  //      flexible way, so there's not really any need to pull in the
-  //      whole X11 stack just for this. Can be enabled once systeminfo
-  //      is less insane
-  /*
-  QSystemDeviceInfoLinuxCommonPrivate devInfo;
-  QString model = devInfo.model();
-  boardMappings->beginGroup("systeminfo.equals");
-  keys = boardMappings->allKeys();
-  foreach (const QString &key, keys){
-    QString value = boardMappings->value(key).toString();
-    if (model == value){
-      cachedModel = key;
-      break;
-    }
-  }
-  boardMappings->endGroup();
-  if (!cachedModel.isEmpty()) return cachedModel;
-  */
-
   // check if the device can be identified by a string in /proc/cpuinfo
   procCpuinfo.setFileName(Sandbox::map("/proc/cpuinfo"));
   procCpuinfo.open(QIODevice::ReadOnly | QIODevice::Text);
@@ -244,6 +221,23 @@ QString SsuDeviceInfo::deviceModel(){
   }
   if (!cachedModel.isEmpty()) return cachedModel;
 
+  // mer-hybris adaptations: /etc/hw-release MER_HA_DEVICE variable
+  QString hwReleaseDevice = hwRelease()["MER_HA_DEVICE"];
+  if (!hwReleaseDevice.isEmpty()) {
+    boardMappings->beginGroup("hwrelease.device");
+    keys = boardMappings->allKeys();
+
+    foreach (const QString &key, keys) {
+      QString value = boardMappings->value(key).toString();
+      if (hwReleaseDevice == value) {
+        cachedModel = key;
+        break;
+      }
+    }
+    boardMappings->endGroup();
+  }
+  if (!cachedModel.isEmpty()) return cachedModel;
+
   // check if the device can be identified by the kernel version string
   struct utsname buf;
   if (!uname(&buf)){
@@ -451,3 +445,74 @@ QVariant SsuDeviceInfo::value(const QString &key, const QVariant &value){
 
   return value;
 }
+
+QMap<QString, QString> SsuDeviceInfo::hwRelease()
+{
+  QMap<QString, QString> result;
+
+  // Specification of the format, encoding is similar to /etc/os-release
+  // http://www.freedesktop.org/software/systemd/man/os-release.html
+
+  QFile hwRelease("/etc/hw-release");
+  if (hwRelease.open(QIODevice::ReadOnly | QIODevice::Text)) {
+    QTextStream in(&hwRelease);
+
+    // "All strings should be in UTF-8 format, and non-printable characters
+    // should not be used."
+    in.setCodec("UTF-8");
+
+    while (!in.atEnd()) {
+      QString line = in.readLine();
+
+      // "Lines beginning with "#" shall be ignored as comments."
+      if (line.startsWith('#')) {
+        continue;
+      }
+
+      QString key = line.section('=', 0, 0);
+      QString value = line.section('=', 1);
+
+      // Remove trailing whitespace in value
+      value = value.trimmed();
+
+      // POSIX.1-2001 says uppercase, digits and underscores.
+      //
+      // Bash uses "[a-zA-Z_]+[a-zA-Z0-9_]*", so we'll use that too,
+      // as we can safely assume that "shell-compatible variable
+      // assignments" means it should be compatible with bash.
+      //
+      // see http://stackoverflow.com/a/2821183
+      // and http://stackoverflow.com/a/2821201
+      if (!QRegExp("[a-zA-Z_]+[a-zA-Z0-9_]*").exactMatch(key)) {
+        qWarning("Invalid key in input line: '%s'", qPrintable(line));
+        continue;
+      }
+
+      // "Variable assignment values should be enclosed in double or
+      // single quotes if they include spaces, semicolons or other
+      // special characters outside of A-Z, a-z, 0-9."
+      if (((value.at(0) == '\'') || (value.at(0) == '"'))) {
+        if (value.at(0) != value.at(value.size() - 1)) {
+          qWarning("Quoting error in input line: '%s'", qPrintable(line));
+          continue;
+        }
+
+        // Remove the quotes
+        value = value.mid(1, value.size() - 2);
+      }
+
+      // "If double or single quotes or backslashes are to be used within
+      // variable assignments, they should be escaped with backslashes,
+      // following shell style."
+      value = value.replace("\\\"", "\"");
+      value = value.replace("\\'", "'");
+      value = value.replace("\\\\", "\\");
+
+      result[key] = value;
+    }
+
+    hwRelease.close();
+  }
+
+  return result;
+}
diff --git a/libssu/ssudeviceinfo.h b/libssu/ssudeviceinfo.h
index 5b08cf8..b50fdbe 100644
--- a/libssu/ssudeviceinfo.h
+++ b/libssu/ssudeviceinfo.h
@@ -112,5 +112,10 @@ class SsuDeviceInfo: public QObject {
     QString cachedFamily, cachedModel, cachedVariant;
 
     void clearCache();
+
+    /**
+     * Return a map of key, value pairs parsed from /etc/hw-release
+     */
+    QMap<QString, QString> hwRelease();
 };
 #endif
diff --git a/tests/ut_deviceinfo/testdata/board-mappings.ini b/tests/ut_deviceinfo/testdata/board-mappings.ini
index 4648fce..e651055 100644
--- a/tests/ut_deviceinfo/testdata/board-mappings.ini
+++ b/tests/ut_deviceinfo/testdata/board-mappings.ini
@@ -1,8 +1,6 @@
 [file.exists]
 SDK=/mer-sdk-chroot
 
-[systeminfo.equals]
-
 [cpuinfo.contains]
 N900=Nokia RX-51 board
 N950=Nokia RM-680 board
diff --git a/tests/ut_rndssucli/testdata/board-mappings.ini b/tests/ut_rndssucli/testdata/board-mappings.ini
index 49c0e66..6dad6b5 100644
--- a/tests/ut_rndssucli/testdata/board-mappings.ini
+++ b/tests/ut_rndssucli/testdata/board-mappings.ini
@@ -1,8 +1,6 @@
 [file.exists]
 SDK=/mer-sdk-chroot
 
-[systeminfo.equals]
-
 [cpuinfo.contains]
 N900=Nokia RX-51 board
 N950=Nokia RM-680 board
diff --git a/tests/ut_ssuurlresolver/testdata/board-mappings.ini b/tests/ut_ssuurlresolver/testdata/board-mappings.ini
index 49c0e66..6dad6b5 100644
--- a/tests/ut_ssuurlresolver/testdata/board-mappings.ini
+++ b/tests/ut_ssuurlresolver/testdata/board-mappings.ini
@@ -1,8 +1,6 @@
 [file.exists]
 SDK=/mer-sdk-chroot
 
-[systeminfo.equals]
-
 [cpuinfo.contains]
 N900=Nokia RX-51 board
 N950=Nokia RM-680 board
diff --git a/tests/ut_urlresolver/testdata/board-mappings.ini b/tests/ut_urlresolver/testdata/board-mappings.ini
index 49c0e66..6dad6b5 100644
--- a/tests/ut_urlresolver/testdata/board-mappings.ini
+++ b/tests/ut_urlresolver/testdata/board-mappings.ini
@@ -1,8 +1,6 @@
 [file.exists]
 SDK=/mer-sdk-chroot
 
-[systeminfo.equals]
-
 [cpuinfo.contains]
 N900=Nokia RX-51 board
 N950=Nokia RM-680 board