Re: [gentoo-user] no keyboard no mouse

[Alan Mackenzie]

Hi, Alan.

On Fri, Jun 24, 2011 at 04:57:05PM +0200, Alan McKinnon wrote:

> > Hmm.  Recompiling the same source code produces a different binary?

> Not quite:

> Rebuilding the same sources against different headers produces a
> different binary.

> > Presumably, it uses C macros in a .h file which is part of xorg.  Or
> > something like that.

> > So evdev depends on xorg.  Isn't there a way of expressing this in
> > evdev's ebuild?  Something like the DEPEND variable?

> It's already there, but doesn't help as the update trigger never
> happens.

> Actually, you have the depend the wrong way round - evdev depends on
> xorg-server; to have the driver and for it to be useful, the xorg-
> server must be present, otherwise there is nothing for the drivers to
> build against.

> You want to force a rebuild that is the opposite of the DEPEND, but
> portage does not support that (it's a circular dependency). It will
> also not rebuild the driver as part of a regular update as there is not
> a new version of the driver, hence according to normal portage logic
> there is no need to do so.

> Make sense?

I think so - I've always had problems understanding dependencies.  What I
want is one of these "nice to have"s which would take an inordinate
amount of work, if it's even possible.

In the meantime, I'll carry on not starting Gnome at boot-up.  Despite
the existence of gentoo=nox, I feel safer starting it manually.  It's a
strange, depressing feeling when the only input device which works is the
reset button - thank goodness that isn't handled by evdev.  ;-)

> --
> alan dot mckinnon at gmail dot com

-- 
Alan Mackenzie (Nuremberg, Germany).