linuxconsole-dev

X compiled for evdev?

[Brad M. <bmi...@tu...>]

I see a note in linux/Documentation/input/input.txt about using X with 
the current input stuff for getting multihead. Has anyone built X with 
evdev support or is it standard via XFConfig manipulation?

either way I'd like to document this.

what about order detection? if two usb keyboards are attached, aren't 
they essentially randomly ordered? a long time ago i wrote an app for 
sorting this out via "press the 1 key" and "press the 2 key" etc on each 
head. do we have to do something like that?

=================================
3.2.4 evdev.o
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    evdev is the generic input event interface. It passes the events
generated in the kernel straight to the program, with timestamps. The
API is still evolving, but should be useable now. It's described in
section 5.

    This should be the way for GPM and X to get keyboard and mouse mouse
events. It allows for multihead in X without any specific multihead
kernel support. The event codes are the same on all architectures and
are hardware independent.
==================================

brad

Re: X compiled for evdev?

[James S. <jsi...@tr...>]

> I see a note in linux/Documentation/input/input.txt about using X with
> the current input stuff for getting multihead. Has anyone built X with
> evdev support or is it standard via XFConfig manipulation?
>
> either way I'd like to document this.

Jim Getty was working on supporting evdev in X windows but I haven't heard
how far he has gotten.

> what about order detection? if two usb keyboards are attached, aren't
> they essentially randomly ordered? a long time ago i wrote an app for
> sorting this out via "press the 1 key" and "press the 2 key" etc on each
> head. do we have to do something like that?

That would require a huge reconstruction of the X server. The core code
assumes one keyboard.

Re: X compiled for evdev?

[<Jim...@hp...>]

> Sender: lin...@li...
> From: James Simmons <jsi...@tr...>
> Date: Fri, 31 May 2002 14:25:06 -0700 (PDT)
> To: Brad Midgley <bmi...@tu...>
> Cc: lin...@li...
> Subject: Re: X compiled for evdev?
> -----
> > I see a note in linux/Documentation/input/input.txt about using X with
> > the current input stuff for getting multihead. Has anyone built X with
> > evdev support or is it standard via XFConfig manipulation?
> >
> > either way I'd like to document this.
> 
> Jim Getty was working on supporting evdev in X windows but I haven't heard
> how far he has gotten.

I haven't gotten anywhere yet: been distracted on other things. I hope
to get back to it this summer,  unless someone beats me to the punch.

> 
> > what about order detection? if two usb keyboards are attached, aren't
> > they essentially randomly ordered? a long time ago i wrote an app for
> > sorting this out via "press the 1 key" and "press the 2 key" etc on each
> > head. do we have to do something like that?
> 
> That would require a huge reconstruction of the X server. The core code
> assumes one keyboard.
> 
You can have multiple keyboards:
	o either they get merged and look like one keyboard
	o or, if you use the X Input extension, it appears as another input
device.

There is a built in presumption about there being one primary keyboard
and pointing device; some of these will eventually have to get revisited
in an extension to deal with situations like display walls being used
by multiple people simultaneously.
			- Jim


--
Jim Gettys
Cambridge Research Laboratory
HP Labs, Hewlett-Packard Company
Jim...@hp...