/srv/irclogs.ubuntu.com/2008/09/29/#ubuntu-x.txt

solarionanyone know what the status is with elantech touchpads?05:32
wgrantsolarion: I believe it's waiting on kernel support - see bug #123775.07:11
ubottuLaunchpad bug 123775 in linux "Elantech touchpad is incorrectly recogonised as a "ImPS/2 Logitech Wheel Mouse"" [Unknown,Confirmed] https://launchpad.net/bugs/12377507:11
tjaaltonwgrant: I've uploaded inputproto and libxi to my ppa, xserver to follow. includes the API changes07:33
wgranttjaalton: SHall we get people for whom xinput is erroring for to test them?07:39
tjaaltonwgrant: no synaptics yet07:39
tjaaltonor xinput07:39
wgrantWell, I meant after that.07:39
tjaaltonyeah, sure07:39
tjaaltonI'll do those next07:40
wgrantGreat - once you've done those I'll do my bit.07:41
wgrantDo you know of any existing efforts to give g-c-c proper device-specific property support? I might consider working on that for Jaunty if nobody else can be bothered.07:49
tjaaltonyou'd have to ask gnome upstream about it.. or just declare that you're doing it :)07:53
tjaaltonxinput done07:59
tjaaltonNg: you had problems with the synaptics settings being lost after resume? could you check the logfile if there's something new08:18
tjaaltonafter it happens08:18
tjaaltonwgrant: synaptics updated & uploaded08:25
wgranttjaalton: Excellent, I'll grab it in 9 minutes when LP finishes with it, hopefully.08:32
tjaaltonwgrant: ok cool. I'll be around for ~2h before going to see WALL-E, so be quick to poke if there's something missing :)08:37
tjaaltonuh, synaptics failed to build08:37
wgrantUrgh.08:37
tjaalton../../src/synaptics.c:728: error: too many arguments to function 'XIRegisterPropertyHandler'08:37
tjaaltonbah08:38
seb128tjaalton: hey, do you know if anybody is working on fixing xvfb?08:38
tjaaltonseb128: hmm, no..08:39
tjaaltonwgrant: ok, see the bug08:39
tjaaltonwgrant: in a patch of mine08:39
wgranttjaalton: I don't see any patches of yours in the bug...08:42
tjaaltonwgrant: I mean, that build problem was due to a patch in the synaptics upload :)08:42
tjaaltonbuggy refresh08:43
wgrantOh, you mean "ok, I see the bug". Right.08:43
tjaaltonum, yes :)08:43
tjaaltonwgrant: heh, the failure was due to the xserver being too old.. so I need to bump the build-dep09:01
wgranttjaalton: Ah, you don't actually need to...09:02
wgrantYou probably just started the build before the new xserver was published (*/2))09:02
wgrantEr, */2009:02
tjaaltonwell, it depends on the properties API, so it should be bumped anyway09:04
wgrantTrue.09:04
Ngtjaalton: it wasn't synaptic settings as such, I disabled my touchpad in the BIOS. It's the xinput settings I'm running for scrollwheelemulation that's being lost across suspend/resume, presumably (as I think you suggested) because the device disappears and re-appears09:05
tjaaltonNg: yes, probably because of that09:08
tjaaltonso it'd need g-s-d support09:08
Ngyeah09:09
wgrantGeneric property support in g-s-d would be rather useful.09:11
Ngwhich reminds me, I need to scan my rough idea sketch about a capplet for that stuff to show to tseliot09:14
NgI reckon it's going to involve a bunch of nasty white/black listing because the xinput API seems to be awfully generic and unhelpful ;)09:15
wgrantAh, tseliot is looking at implementing it in capplets too?09:16
Nglike every mouse-ish device seems to report having 32 buttons :/09:16
Ngwgrant: he said he was interested, yeah09:17
NgI'm starting to lose my conviction that it's actually particularly necessary, unfortunately09:17
wgrantWhy?09:17
Ngwgrant: touchpads not withstanding (mine is disabled, so I've not seen what properties they expose yet), it just seems like the options aren't particularly useful in a general use case09:18
Ngthe only thing I can think might be handy would be a "help my scrollwheel isn't working, click here and then scroll up" to detect such things (since they're mapped as buttons and figuring out which buttons to put on the Z axis is non-obvious09:19
wgrantNg: Hmmm... Disabling, middle button emulation, speed...09:19
Ngdisabling yeah, but there are tricky aspects to that - I disabled my touchpad in the bios because if I disable it with the existing mouse capplet it also takes out the buttons on the trackpoint, leaving me with no mouse buttons at all09:19
wgrantErm.09:20
wgrantI doubt it.09:20
wgrantOr does the trackpoint share the device?09:20
NgI believe they are shared through the same device09:20
wgrantAh. Stupidity.09:20
NgI guess it's easy enough to stop people destroying their system with a "click here to confirm these settings otherwise they will revert in 30 seconds" thing, but still09:21
NgI'm pretty sure most people don't care about middle mouse buttons, and even fewer care about scrollwheel emulation (which is the only bit I particularly care about)09:21
wgrantWe could do that, or we could force people to have at least one checked.09:22
Ngyeah I think it should do that09:22
Ngand if you only have an external USB mouse enabled and unplug that, something else should become enabled09:22
Ngthe only question is what. I can give you the correct answer for my laptop, but possibly not for some random Toshiba laptop on the desk next to me09:22
wgrantNo, we alter the USB spec such that it has a hardware locking feature that doesn't let the device out when it's enabled. Much better solution.09:23
Nghaha :)09:23
Ngthe buttons/scrolling thing is particularly distressing though09:23
wgrantHm?09:24
Ngthese days mice come with umpteen buttons and scroll in multiple directions, but afaik there's no way to actually tell what they are09:24
Ngother than asking lots of questions09:24
wgrantIs there really no spec to report them?09:25
NgI could be wrong, but I don't think so. scroll events are just other buttons09:25
wgrantHow do Those Other OSes do it?09:25
Ngdrivers09:25
wgrantScroll events can also be special, can't they?09:25
wgrantDelta-based, or something like that..09:26
wgrantSo you have to install a custom driver?09:26
wgrantI can't say I've ever used a mouse with more than 5 buttons.09:26
wgrant(including scrollwheel)09:26
Nggenerally you get a CD with your mouse and that has the software that sits on top of windows' generic mouse drivers and has a configurator for "this button means launch windows explorer, that one means go back a page in IE, etc"09:27
wgrantAh. So there's no standard UI.09:27
wgrantWe must be able to do better than that.09:27
wgrantI'm quite surprised that there's no obvious way to ask the mouse what it does.09:28
NgI'm curious if there's a way to map back from the devices that X reports to their underlying HAL device09:29
Ngspecifically to get the USB ids if there are any09:29
Ngthat way there could at least be some kind of database of devices, or hooks for manufacturers to add their own09:29
wgrantI didn't see one. But it would certainly make sense...09:29
wgrantMaybe evdev could set a property.09:29
wgrantAs long as we can have immutable properties...09:30
Ngwith no disrespect to the authors of this API, it seems kinda like it's a "damn we need something because xorg.conf is going away", not "let's make a great way for people to configure their devices" :/09:30
wgrantWhat can you see as missing?09:31
Ngwell a link to the HAL device seems like a must09:31
wgrantOne would think so.09:32
NgI'd like to know if the devices do actually expose any real information about how many buttons they have,b because all of the ones I have just say 32 which is clearly nonsense, so that property should probably either return "Unknown" or not exist09:32
wgrantIndeed.09:32
Ngwith the disclaimer that I've been probing with xinput(1) more than with the raw API, I don't see a way to set per-device acceleration09:34
wgrantI haven't seen one... but that's not so much an issue with the API.09:35
Ng(which seems like it could be one of the main use cases for this for "ordinary" users (I'm thinking about where you have a touchpad and a usb mouse and high acceleration for the former makes no sense, but is entirely valid for the latter)09:35
Ngtrue, that's not an API design thing09:35
wgrantMy main complaint is that there's no way to transmit floats - but that's more just because an XAtom doesn't exist for such things.09:37
wgrantThat could be why there's no acceleration exposed.09:37
Ngcan't that be solved with some powers of ten and ints? ;)09:37
NgI think the two biggest user problems with input devices are "my scroll wheel(s) didn't Just Work" and "I want these extra buttons to do something useful". I don't know how to solve either of those things gracefully, but they should be solved. If that means g-s-t needs to listen for random button events and launch things, so be it09:38
wgrantI'd considered that... maybe some officially-sanctioned fixed-point representation.09:38
Nggnome already has a capplet which listens for random keyboard events to launch commands09:38
wgrantmetacity handles keyboard shortcuts, doesn't it?09:39
wgrantThose commands are fixed, though (something I disagree with).09:39
Nghrm, yes that was a poor descriptoin, there's a capplet to *configure* something to listen for those events09:39
NgI think there is value in having fixed ones, but there should be some generic ones too (which compiz supports, via command0-command10)09:40
Ngplay/pause ones certainly make sense, since those are actual hardware buttons on a lot of systems now09:40
Ngforward/back seems to be quite common on funkier mice09:40
Ngtseliot: aha, just the person. we were just talking about the horrifying scope of an input device configurator ;)09:40
wgranttseliot: I was going to implement one, but I hear you also had the idea.09:41
tseliotNg, wgrant: yep09:41
tseliotwgrant: what are you planning to do?09:41
tseliotor how are you planning to do it?09:42
wgranttseliot: Hack some more useful per-device XInput property support into at least gnome-mouse-properties and g-s-d. I'd thought a little about the UI, but not a whole lot further yet.09:43
wgrantTo what depth are you asking?09:44
tseliotwgrant: I was thinking about using fdi files for each device which the user wants to configure09:44
wgrantAh, to that depth. I see.09:44
wgrantI was thinking that g-s-d would do it.09:44
wgrantCan we reload fdi files on the fly?09:44
Nghttp://mairukipa.tenshu.net/xinput-capplet.pdf was the idea I had (apologies for the awful scan, and PDF format ;)09:45
wgrantAnd can't they not set XI properties, just normal xorg.conf ones?09:45
tseliothmm, I wouldn't know about using xorg.conf options in fdi files09:45
* tseliot has a look at Ng's link09:46
wgranttseliot: /usr/share/hal/fdi/policy/20thirdparty/11-x11-synaptics.fdi looks like it has normalish xorg.conf properties to me. Or is there a tag name that I'm missing?09:47
Ngtseliot: to recap a bit what was said above, basically while sketching that I kinda realised there's not very much useful stuff that can be set at the moment, and there are problems with some of the options (e.g. disable my touchpad and I'll lose the buttons on my trackpoint, so a "click here within 30 seconds to confirm your settings" option seems wise ;)09:47
tseliotwgrant: right, that's a good example09:48
tseliotNg: yes, it's what I was about to suggest09:48
Ng:)09:48
Ngone other thing... [09:38] < Ng> I think the two biggest user problems with input devices are "my scroll wheel(s) didn't Just Work" and "I want these extra  buttons to do something useful". I don't know how to solve either of those things gracefully, but they should be solved. If  that means g-s-t needs to listen for random button events and launch things, so be it09:49
tseliotalso we cannot predict how many options a device will have available09:49
Ngbut I didn't look at touchpads at all, that fdi file suggests they have lots of nice things to configure09:49
tseliottherefore we might want to use a treeview to contain all the options09:49
Nghmm09:50
Ngthat would be the easy option, certainly :)09:50
tseliotI was thinking about calling XInput from Python, unless we want to do the app all in C09:50
wgrantAren't the capplets entirely C?09:50
Ngwould a non-C capplet be accepted by gnome? I got the impression they don't like python09:50
tseliotI would like to make something which can be used separately from GNOME or KDE09:51
wgrantAs much as I love Python, it's perfectly doable (and acceptable upstream) in C.09:51
tseliotso that we don't have to rewrite the same thing for KDE09:51
tseliotit's just an idea09:51
tseliotI would like to use my X-Kit to parse and create fdi files09:52
tseliotbut X-Kit is written in Python09:52
tseliotor we can do it all in C09:52
wgrantIt seems a but odd to do that when we've just got nice shiny XInput property support.09:52
wgrant*a bit09:52
tseliotand then I will port it to KDE09:52
tseliotyes, I know09:52
tseliotare you guys going to the next UDS?09:53
* wgrant is hoping too... but doubts his application will be accepted.09:53
wgrants/too/to/09:53
NgI will be at UDS, but to work, so I can't really attend any sessions09:54
tseliotwell, I applied for sponsorship too, so maybe we can meet there and talk about this09:54
Ngso my discussions will be limited to lunchtimes and dinner/beer ain the evenings ;)09:54
NgI should be able to participate in fosscamp though, since our technical involvement with that is basically zero09:55
tseliotNg: who do you work for?09:55
wgrantSponsored people aren't at FOSScamp, are they?09:55
Ngtseliot: Canonical09:55
tseliotah, ok09:55
NgI'm a sysadmin, and some of us go to UDS to provide the SIP/icecast hookups :)09:55
Ngwgrant: dunno :/09:56
wgrantHow is the area that you use in the Google campus for VoIP? I forget - but most of the other venues are shocking.09:56
Ngwgrant: we're in a new area of google this time, so that's unknown at present09:57
Ngit's a really hard problem, unfortunately09:57
Ngwe have a polycom conference phone on each desk, with extension microphones on larger desks, but even then the acoustics of the rooms generally lend themselves very badly to a large group of people being recorded09:57
Ng(and really big desks work very badly, because you end up with three conversations at each end of the table, all of which are equal volume on the voip stream, making remote participation basically impossible :(09:58
wgrantThe icecasts are usable in most cases (except for some really bad situations, but they're fortunately rare), and VoIP works well between VoIP participants... but VoIP-to-room has only been usable in three or four sessions for me.09:59
Ngyeah, I think we're going to discourage the remote SIP participation and push icecast and a per-track IRC channel (either someone in the session will watch that, or it'll be projected on the wall, hardware willing)10:00
Ngthere may also be some other surprise experiments, hardware/google willing :)10:01
wgrantHeh.10:01
tseliotseb128: calling synaptic from the gnome-control-panel requires a text file containing something like "screen-resolution-extra\tinstall\n". Can I add the file to say, /usr/share/gnome-control-center/, or shall I make a temporary file (thus risking to overwrite an already existing temp file) and pass it to Synaptic?10:09
seb128tseliot: why does it need a text file?10:09
seb128tseliot: can't you use a *char which has the string?10:10
tseliotno, I can't pass it a string10:10
tseliotmvo knows why10:10
seb128we don't create temporary files for other softwares who call synaptic10:11
wgranttseliot: Erm, how would it overwrite an existing temp file?10:12
tseliotseb128: --set-selections-file is what allows you to pass a file to synaptic10:12
wgrantIf you're doing it that way, it is a security flaw and you're doing it wrong.10:12
mvoseb128: we do (unfortunately) because gksu does not let us use stdin in synaptic (it closes that fd), so t control it it needs a file10:13
tseliotwgrant: it can happen that a temp file with the same name exists. And I know that there is a right way to use temp files10:13
mvotseliot: check debian/patches/80_gst-packages-common.patch from the gnome-system-tools package10:14
tseliotmvo: ok, thanks10:14
mvotseliot: it has code that you can use (like create_temp_file that does the right thing etc)10:14
tseliotmvo: great, it's what I was looking for10:17
mvoexcellent!10:17
=== Ng_ is now known as Ng
l33hi13:44
l33https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/xserver-xorg-input-mutouch/+bug/27565013:44
ubottuLaunchpad bug 275650 in xserver-xorg-input-mutouch "mutouch driver in hardy is Y axis Inverted" [Undecided,New] 13:44
jcristautjaalton, bryce: i uploaded x-x-i-mutouch today, fixes lp bug 275650, fwiw17:26
ubottuLaunchpad bug 275650 in xserver-xorg-input-mutouch "mutouch driver in hardy is Y axis Inverted" [Undecided,New] https://launchpad.net/bugs/27565017:26
jcristauwell, should fix, anyway :)17:26
brycejcristau: ah excellent, I'll take a look17:26
brycejcristau: the package isn't at ftp://ftp.debian.org/debian/pool/main/x/xserver-xorg-input-mutouch/ yet; is there I place it's held I can grab it from?17:37
jcristauhttp://incoming.debian.org/17:38
brycethanks17:38
brycesync request filed - #27565018:11
solarionwgrant: there's apparently a driver in existance18:54
solarionwgrant: the last update (besides mine) on bug 123775 is saying Alpha5 is out and it might work now18:55
ubottuLaunchpad bug 123775 in linux "Elantech touchpad is incorrectly recogonised as a "ImPS/2 Logitech Wheel Mouse"" [Unknown,Confirmed] https://launchpad.net/bugs/12377518:55
solarionwhich it doesn't18:55
solarionI guess the question is, how can I move things along?'18:55
solarionthe tap-to-click behavior is driving me crazy18:55
brycehi tormod19:17
tormodhi bryce19:20
mnemowhat prefix should I use if I install the xorg intel driver on ubuntu?19:34
mnemojust doing plain "sudo make install" doesnt seem to work19:34
brycefrom debian/rules:  ../configure --prefix=/usr [...]19:37
mnemobryce: hmm, what is debian/rules used for exactly? is it a build script? i know how to find the file and I see the prefix in there but I wonder what that file is used for? is it available for all debian packages?19:41
bryceyes it is a build script for generating .deb files19:41
bryceeach debian package has a debian/rules file19:42
mnemooh excellent, this is very useful info for me19:42
mnemothanks bryce19:42
brycestandby, I can give you a link with more info19:42
brycemnemo: this seems to be a fairly friendly tutorial on building debian packages in ubuntu:  http://women.debian.org/wiki/English/BuildingTutorial19:44
brycea lot more info is available on this from https://wiki.ubuntu.com/PackagingGuide/ if you'd like to learn it in more depth19:47
mnemothanks19:51
mnemobryce: im reading the packaging howto now, and I got a question (if you got time)... why do people use "fakeroot"? i mean, why does a program required me to lie to it about being root when the operation actual can run successfully without root?20:02
bryceI don't know exactly, but all packaging systems I've used have required running as root20:03
mnemostrange, sounds like a bug to me :D i'll try to google for the answer later20:05
bryceperhaps non-root doesn't have sufficient access to the packaging system internals20:06
mnemobut fakeroot has?20:06
bryceactually, it is possible to build packages with non-root via debuild 20:06
bryce debuild -i -uc -us $pkg.dsc20:07
brycebut that may use fakeroot internally, not sure20:07
mnemowait, yeah maybe the same binary is used to read and write some package data and to write the package data root might be required and instead of elevating in the middle of the program they decided that the program always will require root20:07
tjaaltonbryce: apart from evdev, all the drivers include their own fdi file22:00
tjaaltonbryce: I'll reply to the wacom thread tomorrow :)22:00
brycetjaalton: ah ok22:00
tjaaltonthere seems to be some misinformation that needs to be corrected22:01
wgrantsolarion: The driver isn't in Linus' tree, so this isn't an X problem.23:04
wgrantIt's not in Linus' kernel, so it's not in our kernel by default, so it's a kernel problem.23:04
pwnguinwhich wacom thread?23:08

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