switch xorg.conf from evdev to kbd?

[Colin Guthrie]

'Twas brillig, and Denis Haskin at 24/10/09 15:18 did gyre and gimble:
> Can someone advise how to xorg.conf keyboard device from evdev to the 
> old 'kbd' (e.g. what's the whole xorg.conf stanza I have to put in)?  I 
> confess I'm not *completely* sure which version of X I'm on--"Xorg 
> -version" below says 1.6.0, but that doesn't seem right (this is on 
> Ubuntu, and yes I've also asked this on the Ubuntu mailing list/forum).

You've asked on an Ubuntu list and no-one there says, "Yeah 1.6.0 sounds 
about right."? That is indeed the version the *xserver* you are running 
and I'm surprised no one else was able to confirm that.

The term X on it's own may mean the whole collection of X stuff (e.g. 
libx11, xterm etc etc.) not just the xserver. This is bundled together 
and given it's own collective version number, which is where your 
confusion has probably come in.

> I've had progressively more and more problems with my Dell Studio 15 
> keyboard; both the repeating-characters bug (which is known as 
> outstanding) but also now I get extremely frequent dropped keystrokes.

Repeated keystroke bug? Can you post a link to the FDO bug number for 
reference?

I'd imagine repeated keystrokes are related to a manually configured 
system + HAL autoconfiguration.

> Some googling has led me to think there may be issues with the new evdev 
> xorg device, so I'd like to try the old 'kbd' configuration and see if 
> that makes any difference.

/me quickly checks man xorg.conf

  Option "AllowEmptyInput" "boolean"
         If  enabled,  don't add the standard keyboard and mouse drivers,
         if there are no input devices in the config  file.   Enabled  by
         default if AutoAddDevices and AutoEnableDevices is enabled, oth‐
         erwise disabled.  If AllowEmptyInput is on,  devices  using  the
         kbd, mouse or vmmouse driver are ignored.

  Option "AutoAddDevices" "boolean"
         If  this  option is disabled, then no devices will be added from
         HAL events.  Enabled by default.

  Option "AutoEnableDevices" "boolean"
         If this option is disabled, then the devices will be added  (and
         the  DevicePresenceNotify  event  sent),  but  not enabled, thus
         leaving policy up to the client.  Enabled by default.


So right at the top of your xorg.conf, just put:


  Option "AutoAddDevices" "false"

in the flags section and you should be set to define the devices 
manually. I'm sure someone will pipe up if I've not got the whole story.

Col.

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Colin Guthrie
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http://colin.guthr.ie/

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