New HAL and Xorg

blueflame · Posted: Tue Jul 29, 2008 1:08 am Post subject: New HAL and Xorg

I just updated to the latest stable release of HAL. It talks about an FDI file and that I should remove the Input section from my xorg.conf file. Is this right? I don't want to bork my X without some reassurance.

Thanks.

aronparsons · Posted: Tue Jul 29, 2008 3:49 am Post subject:

Try renaming your xorg.conf and see how it handles the autodetection. The only things in my xorg.conf now are related to the NVIDIA binary driver. I didn't have to put anything into the HAL FDI file, although my inputs are basic (keyboard with multimedia keys and a mouse with a few side buttons). All of my buttons are recognized with no additional configuration. If something breaks, you can always put your xorg.conf back in place. Those sections are deprecated yet, and at the rate of Xorg releases, won't be for some time.

pappy_mcfae · Posted: Tue Jul 29, 2008 7:49 am Post subject:

As long as hal provides expected operation, don't worry about any strange messages.

Blessed be!
Pappy
_________________
This space left intentionally blank, except for these ASCII symbols.

Voltago · Posted: Tue Jul 29, 2008 8:22 am Post subject:

HAL takes over keyboard configuration... see this thread:
https://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-t-666275.html

blueflame · Posted: Tue Jul 29, 2008 8:49 am Post subject:

This is scary shit! I'm comfortable with X because it basically works and has done so for me in Linux for years. On the other hand HAL is not something I know much about and I'm not feeling too comfortable giving it control of my keyboard and mouse.

Are there any write-up's on the changes? Will X still keep control of my keyboard and mouse or does HAL take exclusive control? Does this affect agetty that handles the virtual console terminals? Will Ctl-Alt-Bksp still kill X? What is HAL doing exactly?

So many questions ... :wink:

VoidMage · Watchman Joined: 14 Oct 2006 Posts: 6196

hal works here as an in-memory config file.
One of it's helper apps sets up the keyboard,
according to the settings passed to hal.

knob-creek · n00b Joined: 28 Jul 2008 Posts: 22 Location: Germany

The current stable xorg-server (1.3) does not yet have a hal USE-flag, so i suspect, it still requires a regular xorg.conf.

albright · Posted: Tue Jul 29, 2008 12:02 pm Post subject:

I "upgraded" to the new hal and it was hell.

After installing hal Xorg started throwing messages
like:

Voltago · Posted: Tue Jul 29, 2008 1:19 pm Post subject:

You can always do

VoidMage · Watchman Joined: 14 Oct 2006 Posts: 6196

Won't work in the long run. At least git of xorg-server suggests that.
@albright: while a silly pun comes to mind,
what you described is completly unrelated to hal.
a keysym has to be listed in /usr/share/X11/XKeysymDB to be recognized as one.

For the mouse problem, see if adding
'Option "AllowEmptyInput"' in 'Section "ServerLayout"' helps.
xbindkeys probably doesn't play well with evdev or you're trying
to set it up with incompatible rules (for evdev driver, rules must be evdev too).
But those xkb errors (not the warning) suggest that there's something wrong with one of the related
packages (maybe xkeyboard-config ?).

blueflame

albright · Posted: Fri Aug 01, 2008 1:38 pm Post subject:

VoidMage · Watchman Joined: 14 Oct 2006 Posts: 6196

See, if setting keyboard model to 'evdev managed'
in kde applet helps (that's additionally, not either/or).

One more thing, do you run hal/dbus as system services or rely on session manager ?

pigeon768 · l33t Joined: 02 Jan 2006 Posts: 683

hal's configuration directory is /etc/hal/* if you want to override its defaults, although honestly I have no idea how any of it works. Instead of tooling around with xorg.conf I guess we tool around with /etc/hal/* now I guess - and that's fine with me. I'm sick of twiddling with ZAxisMapping etc. to get my mouse buttons to work, or restarting X whenever I plug a USB mouse into my laptop.

There's info on fixing/modifying keymaps on http://people.freedesktop.org/~hughsient/quirk/quirk-keymap-index.html

anz · Apprentice Joined: 05 Feb 2003 Posts: 279 Location: Vienna

Dear pigeon768,
thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you
for the link!!!!
(I have just gambled around with hal (/etc/hal/fdi/preprobe/) to get a huawei E160 (similar to E220, a umts usb stick, on tuxonice-2.6.24) (50%) working - now I will play with xorg and hal and the trackpoint again ... did i write it: thank you)
_________________
Greetings from Vienna

g0rg0n · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 18 Feb 2006 Posts: 83

i've commented all the input thingys in the xorg.conf

and everything seems to be ok except synaptics =/
_________________
nicewarm.coffee

albright · Posted: Sun Aug 03, 2008 12:17 pm Post subject:

VoidMage · Watchman Joined: 14 Oct 2006 Posts: 6196

albright · Posted: Sun Aug 03, 2008 2:47 pm Post subject:

OK, I found where you set the keyboard to evdev-managed ...
(in kde control center).

But my **main problem** was I needed to emerge the
unstable xf86-input-evdev driver (that is, (~)2.0.2)).
Should have known that ... :oops:

Now, with the proper (at least working) /etc/hal/fdi/policy
files and reconfiguring .xbindkeysrc, everything seems to
be working. One curiosity - I have to wait about 5
seconds before running xmodmap when kde starts - I
guess kde is setting its own keyboard layout when it
starts.

I can plug/unplug usb mouse without
crashing X, synaptics pad works perfectly (have to leave
that input section in xorg.conf, remove keyboard and
external mouse sections).

Also, hibernating and sleep both appear to work.

Still getting keyboard errors when using KDM however.
But they seem to have no effect on anything.

Thanks for all the help -- it made a difference.
_________________
.... there is nothing - absolutely nothing - half so much worth
doing as simply messing about with Linux ...
(apologies to Kenneth Graeme)