Re: [PATCH] to drivers/input/evdev.c to add mixer device "/dev/input/events"

[Jon Smirl <jonsmirl@gmail.com>]

On 8/15/05, Joe Peterson <joe@skyrush.com> wrote:
> So, overall, I agree that we should not invent hacks to make up for
> another software package's problems, but perhaps input devices,
> especially ones that sometimes are not there at boot or not there all
> the time, should be treated in a way that lets programs stay ignorant of
> the intermittent nature of the devices.  It does not sound right to push
> the handling of the intermittent nature to each user program.  If the
> kernel could handle that aspect, it would make all programs more stable.
> And most of those "plug and unplug" events, even if handled by X or
> other programs, would really be unnecessary in most cases.  In the case
> of a touchscreen, there is no need for X to know it switched off and
> back on again - it just needs to keep listening for touch events.  For X
> to be "hotplug aware" in this sense only adds complication, I would
> think.  At least if there were a mode in the device/hotplug/udev stuff
> to make a "permanent" device (from boot, and always), you could spare
> the program all of that.

Vojtech is right. The problem is in X and should not be fixed in the
kernel. You need to complain about this on the Xorg lists.

http://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/xorg

In your example you missed the case of someone having X running and
they plug in a new device that X has never seen before. The Linux
kernel has a hotplug system that tracks all of these plug in/out
events. The problem is that X is not using the hotplug system when it
should. X could even track your display being open/closed if it was
listening to the hotplug events.

The xorg evdev input driver is here:
http://cvs.freedesktop.org/xorg/driver/xf86-input-evdev/

-- 
Jon Smirl
jonsmirl@gmail.com