Fedora 8 internet keys support detailed plan + patches

[Nicolas Mailhot]

Le Ven 22 juin 2007 00:16, Goede, J.W.R. de a écrit :

> In the case of userspace
> using evdev then there is nothing to emulate though, as the
> kernel then directly exports all features of the hardware
> as it sees them.

You still need to fix the quirks of keyboards that do not follow the
microsoft spec

> Or are you talking about emulating a microsoft multimedia
> keys having ps/2 keyboard, in that case I gully agree, and
> so thus upstream as that is what they are already doing.

I'm talking about emulating a microsoft multimedia keys having usb
keyboard as presented by the kernel, as the kernel handling of
microsoft P2/2 keyboards is not 100% correct.

> There is no such thing as a target keyboard.

Target physical device is always nice as it helps to check
assumptions. I wouldn't assume the ms spec is complete or 100%
correct. MS keyboards are the closest thing we have to reference
hardware.

> Fedora currently is using the Xorg keyboard driver, not
> evdev. Since AFAIK there are no plans to change that for
> F-8 and I want to see this fixed before F-8, I don't think
> that switching to evdev is a good idea, too much work, too
> much chances for regressions, little short term gain.

Upstream (and let be honest, a huge part of input upstream is at Suse)
has been focusing its efforts on evdev. I don't think it's wise to
pour efforts somewhere else. You've been plainly told evdev is were
linux input is going. Did you even try evdev in rawhide? Just
switching to evdev fixed 3/4 of my extended keys.

Also evdev is pretty much a requirement for a lot of usb keyboards,
were extended keys hang from several usb devices and kbd only looks at
the first device.

> Yes, no matter how e get X to send the correct X-keysyms
> for internet keys, we still need to fix the apps. So lets
> take a minimal effort approach to getting X to send the
> correct jeysyms and then focus on fixing the apps.

Right now the old way of sending X-keysyms is so full of quirks and
warts  I really don't hink minimal effort would be to try to fix it.

> if the user wants to binf this keysym to something
> other then search, thats fine, just like the user can make
> the 'a' key always launch an xterm when pressed. IOW, what
> does this have todo with anything?

If user = technical person that's true
If user = someone who expects to find a remapping app like the ones
provided with every single extended input devices under windows that's
wrong.

The closest we have is the GNOME keybinding app which
1. only handles GNOME-wide keybindings
2. only handles one accel per action (ie selecting a new accel kills
the old one)


-- 
Nicolas Mailhot