Xorg support to import options for non-Input sections?

[Dan Nicholson]

On Tue, May 12, 2009 at 10:23 AM, Kevin Stange <kevin at simguy.net> wrote:
> Dan Nicholson wrote:
>> On Tue, May 12, 2009 at 1:58 AM, Kevin Stange <kevin at simguy.net> wrote:
>>> I am trying to find out whether I can define options for non-input
>>> devices via HAL fdi files. Â My goal is to specify settings for sections
>>> like my video card, monitor or screen. Â I haven't been able to find
>>> anything that seems relevant anywhere and all examples I have found are
>>> exclusively related to keyboard or pointer settings.
>>>
>>> Is this possible (or planned)?
>>
>> No. Only the input devices pick up configuration through HAL, and I
>> think people would prefer if that went away some day.
>
> So you're saying this HAL method is widely (or narrowly, but by the
> right people) disliked?  Using Gentoo it seems to be encouraged, and
> I've seen indications other distros (like Ubuntu) have picked up the
> technique as well.
>
> The reason I kind of like this method is because I don't have to define
> the device in the xorg.conf, so if it's not present/detected I'm
> basically not telling xorg to expect it (or so it seems to me).  Does
> xorg keep track of relevant sections should the devices appear via HAL
> later to load in their options?

Right, those are the reasons the HAL fdi is being used now for
configuration and it's the way you should be doing it if you want
hotpluggable input devices. The reason it's disliked is because it's
an abuse of HAL's fdi system. No one has a plan for a better system
wide configuration as far as I know, though. I have an idea for
specifying an "InputClass" in xorg.conf, but it only exists in my
mind. :)

What is more being pushed for is that users just setup the input
devices in their session rather than relying on a system-wide
configuration. The input properties code supports this (try the xinput
app), but it's not widely used yet.

> I suppose the definitions are necessarily more important for input
> devices which get hotplugged a lot more than video cards.

The HAL hotplugging is only wired up for input devices. I think for
video cards (or more likely outputs like monitors and projectors), the
idea is to use drm to get notification from the kernel when hotplug
events occur, but I could be way off base there.

--
Dan