xorg.conf.d - InputClass feature request

[Dan Nicholson]

On Sat, Jan 2, 2010 at 3:03 AM, Alberto Milone
<alberto.milone at canonical.com> wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> I have noticed that "the ability to set the Xorg driver, or arbitrary driver
> options, directly through udev has been removed".
>
> This is a bit of a problem for me (and for Canonical's OEM team) as, after
> dropping hal, I was relying on udev to apply my quirks for touchpads.
>
> For example, here's an extract from a udev rule that we're using in Ubuntu:
> ATTR{[dmi/id]product_name}=="Inspiron 1011|Inspiron 1012", \
>  ENV{x11_options.JumpyCursorThreshold}="90", \
>  ENV{x11_options.AreaBottomEdge}="4100"
>
> ATTR{[dmi/id]product_name}=="HP MiniNote 1000", \
>  ENV{x11_options.JumpyCursorThreshold}="20"
>
> Touchpads don't expose enough information about themselves in the kernel (i.e.
> vendor, product and name are still too generic for quirks), therefore I use
> udev to get the system name from /sys/class/dmi/id/product_name and apply the
> quirks only for certain laptop/netbook models.
>
> Now that this feature is going away I would like to be able to do the same in
> the InputClass by adding an option such as "MatchDmiProductName" or whatever
> name you prefer.
>
> For example, the following configuration would be applied only on the Dell
> Mini 10v:
>
> Section "InputClass"
>        Identifier "synaptics"
>        MatchIsTouchpad "true"
>        MatchDmiProductName "Inspiron 1011"
>        Driver "synaptics"
>        Option "AreaBottomEdge" 4100
> EndSection
>
> Would you consider accepting a patch to implement this feature? If so, I would
> work on it.

I'm not really opposed to more matchers, but I'm a little wary of DMI
matching. The attributes that the InputClass are currently matching
are from an individual device and not the whole system. Not that big a
deal, but I'd like to hear Peter's input.

On the other hand, I'd really hope that these types of quirks would be
handled in the kernel. Looking at the option you've listed above, why
is the kernel exposing the whole touchpad area when there's a button
below part of it? Also, what's JumpyCursorThreshold? I don't recall
seeing that anywhere.

--
Dan