Re: Suppressing softrepeat

["Dmitry Torokhov" <dmitry.torokhov@gmail.com>]

On 2/22/06, Vojtech Pavlik <vojtech@suse.cz> wrote:
> On Wed, Feb 22, 2006 at 12:00:47PM -0800, Pete Zaitcev wrote:
> > On Tue, 21 Feb 2006 22:08:00 +0100, Vojtech Pavlik <vojtech@suse.cz> wrote:
> >
> > > A much simpler workaround for the DRAC3 is to set the softrepeat delay
> > > to at least 750ms, using kbdrate(8), which will call the proper console
> > > ioctl, resulting in updating the softrepeat parameters.
> > >
> > > I prefer workarounds for problematic hardware done outside the kernel,
> > > if possible.
> >
> > I agree with the sentiment when posed in the abstract way, but let me
> > tell you why this case is different.
> >
> > Firstly, there's nothing "problematic" about this. It's just how it is.
> > The only problematic thing here is our code. Currently, the situation is
> > assymetric. It is possible to force softrepeat on, but not possible to
> > force softrepeat off. Isn't it broken?
> >
> > Secondly, 750ms may be not enough. Stuart is being shy here and posting
> > explanations to Bugzilla for some reason.
> >
> > Lastly, it's such a PITA to add these things into the userland, that
> > it's completely impractical. Console is needed the most when things go
> > wrong. In such case, that echo(1) may not be reached before the single
> > user shell. And stuffing it into the initrd is for Linux weenies only,
> > unless automated by mkinitrd.
> >
> > I think you're being unreasonable here. I am not asking for NFS root
> > or IP autoconfiguration and sort of complicated process which ought to
> > be done in userland indeed.
>
> I'm definitely not intending to be unreasonable, and I understand your
> need to have the keyboard working all the way from the grub/lilo prompt.
>
> I just don't like adding more module options to one that already has so
> many it's hard to understand what they're used for.
>
> How about simply this patch instead?
>
> Setting autorepeat will not be possible on 'dumb' keyboards anymore by
> default, but since these usually are special forms of hardware anyway,
> like the DRAC3, this shouldn't be an issue for most users. Using
> 'softrepeat' on these keyboards will restore the behavior for users that
> need it.
>

I am not keen on changing the default behaviour... How many dumb
keybaords are out there? I'd rather turn atkbd.softrepeat into a
3-state switch...

--
Dmitry