Griffin Powermate evdev setup

[Peter Hutterer]

On Mon, Apr 27, 2009 at 12:09:17AM +0100, Phil Endecott wrote:
> Dear Experts,
> 
> I have a Griffin Powermate; it's a USB "knob" that you can use for 
> scrolling etc.  This morning the computer that it was attached to 
> died.  I'm now having trouble getting to work with the substitute machine.
> 
> It looks like I have the kernel stuff working OK:
> 
> # od -x /dev/input/by-id/usb-Griffin_Technology__Inc._Griffin_PowerMate-event-misc
> 0000000 e5f3 49f4 6a00 000c 0002 0007 ffff ffff
> 0000020 e5f3 49f4 6a1d 000c 0000 0000 0000 0000
> 0000040 e5f3 49f4 dae9 000e 0002 0007 ffff ffff
> 0000060 e5f3 49f4 dafa 000e 0000 0000 0000 0000
> 0000100 e5f3 49f4 3897 000f 0002 0007 ffff ffff
> 0000120 e5f3 49f4 38aa 000f 0000 0000 0000 0000
> 0000140 e5f4 49f4 34e8 0000 0002 0007 ffff ffff
> 0000160 e5f4 49f4 34f6 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000
> 
> I've extracted this from the backup of the dead machine's /etc/X11/xorg.conf:
> 
> Section "InputDevice"
> 	Identifier	"Griffin Powermate"
> 	Driver		"evdev"
> 	#Option		"Device"		"/dev/input/by-id/usb-Griffin_Technology__Inc._Griffin_PowerMate-event-misc"

You need to specify the Device now.

> 	Option		"Name"			"Griffin PowerMate"
This option isn't supported anymore

> 	Option		"SendCoreEvents"	"true"
this is the default now anyway.
> 	Option		"DIALRelativeAxisButtons" "4 5"
This option isn't supported anymore.
> EndSection

> 
> Note the use of Option Name and the commented-out Option Device; I 
> recall that it took me a while to get that stuff right.  I believe that 
> was working with the Debian package xserver-xorg-input-evdev 1.1.2-1.
> 
> On the substitute machine I have xserver-xorg-input-evdev 1:2.0.8-1.  
> "man evdev" does not mention "Option Name" and I have the impression 
> that it has gone; when I use that config fragment as-is I get an error 
> in the log saying that I haven't specified a device [sorry, I can't get 
> the exact message now without restarting X].  If I use the Option 
> Device line (or Option Path) I instead get this:
> 
> (**) Griffin Powermate: always reports core events
> (**) Griffin Powermate: Device: "/dev/input/by-id/usb-Griffin_Technology__Inc._Griffin_PowerMate-event-misc"
> (WW) Griffin Powermate: Don't know how to use device
> (II) UnloadModule: "evdev"
> (EE) PreInit returned NULL for "Griffin Powermate"
> 
> So, what does "Don't know how to use device" mean?

As Dan said, the device doesn't advertise a known combination of axes +
buttons. Please run http://people.freedesktop.org/~whot/evtest.c against the
device file and attach the output to a bug on bugs.freedesktop.org.

Cheers,
  Peter