Re: [gentoo-user] xorg-server mouse and keyboard woes

[Helmut Jarausch]

On 10 Jul, Dale wrote:

> Same thing here.  I just tried again to get hal, evdev and all his
> "drive me crazy" friends to work, it doesn't.  It appears to me that hal
> will be disabled in package.use for xorg-server FOREVER.  I'm sick of
> messing with evdev.  I'm waiting on something better to come along.  I
> bet someone does come up with something better too.  This has been a
> PITA since it came out.

Yes, I did have some problems with xorg + hal. But now it's working even
better with hal than without (e.g. I had problems with using my mouse
and my Wacom tablet simultaneously).

Now I'm running xorg-server-1.6.2

The following steps seem to be essential:

emerge everything X-related with hal (I've put it into /etc/make.conf)

Let hald start at boot time (very important)
i.e.  rc-update add hald boot

Make a minimal xorg.conf (no drivers for any input device)
the first lines being

Section "ServerLayout"
	Identifier     "Default"
	Screen      0  "Screen 0" 0 0
#	Option         "AllowEmptyInput" "false"
        Option       "AIGLX" "on"
EndSection

Section "ServerFlags"
#	Option	"DontZap" "true"
	Option "AutoAddDevices" "on"
	Option "AutoEnableDevices" "on"
	Option "AllowEmptyInput" "on"
EndSection

Section "Extensions"
        Option "Composite" "On"
EndSection
.......

In /etc/make.conf  (here)
INPUT_DEVICES="keyboard mouse evdev wacom"

add the file /etc/hal/fdi/policy/x11-input.fdi

here:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?>
<deviceinfo version="0.2">
<device>
<match key="info.capabilities" contains="input.keyboard">
<append key="info.callouts.add" type="strlist">hal-setup-keymap</append>
 <merge key="input.x11_options.XkbModel" type="string">microsoft</merge>
 <merge key="input.x11_options.XkbRules" type="string">xorg</merge>
 <merge key="input.x11_options.XkbLayout" type="string">en_US</merge>
 <merge key="input.xkb.layout" type="string">en_US</merge>
 <merge key="input.xkb.model" type="string">microsoft</merge>
 <merge key="input.xkb.rules" type="string">xorg</merge>
</match>

<match key="info.capabilities" contains="input.mouse">
 <merge key="input.x11_driver" type="string">evdev</merge>
 <merge key="input.x11_options.WHEELRelativeAxisButtons" type="string">7 6</merge>
 <merge key="input.x11_options.HWHEELRelativeAxisButtons" type="string">5 4</merge>
 <merge key="input.x11_options.Buttons" type="int">8</merge>
 <merge key="input.x11_options.ZAxisMapping" type="string">4 5</merge>
 <merge key="input.x11_options.Sensitivity" type="int">30</merge>
 <merge key="input.x11_options.CorePointer" type="string">true</merge>
</match>

</device>
</deviceinfo>

Very import when upgrading to 1.6.*
re-emerge everything that is installed from x11-drivers/*

Now, you should have the best X11 ever (note, I'm using the
bleeding-edge stuff (unstable isn't the wright word)
i.e. I have
ACCEPT_KEYWORDS="~amd64"   (or ~x86 on a 32 bits machine)

Helmut.



-- 
Helmut Jarausch

Lehrstuhl fuer Numerische Mathematik
RWTH - Aachen University
D 52056 Aachen, Germany