HAL as an Xorg config store, or not (was: Re: [Linuxwacom-devel] [Linuxwacom-discuss] RFC: allowing linuxwacom X driver to be loaded without configuration)

[Daniel Stone]

Hi,

On Thu, Nov 13, 2008 at 01:45:03PM +0100, Danny Kukawka wrote:
> Second: it's IMO the wrong way to use HAL as a config store for X at all. Yes, 
> there are ppl. saying: "Also other tools can use this information." but in 
> fact there are no other tools, except X, which need them. X should do this 
> task on it's own (maybe by using HAL or another tool to get some information 
> about a device to identify it).

As I've told you before, I agree with you that using HAL as a random and
arbitrary config store is wrong.  Most of it belongs in the kernel or
user-level configuration.  I'm not happy about the patch to add
arbitrary option passthrough to HAL/Xorg: I think it's generally the
wrong approach.

The information which I advocated storing was generally along the lines
of 'you can't really use this device without this information': things
like touchpad limits for Synaptics devices and so on, which can't be in
the kernel, but are required for the device to actually function in the
slightest.

As for the input.xkb.* stuff, see cxkb in particular.  It's somewhat
dormant waiting for the XKB codebase to be less crap (a work in progress
between myself and Peter Hutterer, the fruits of which are starting to
be merged), but most of the distro maintainers I've spoken to agree that
it's the way forward.

With that being said, is there still anything, other than the
DeviceKit[0] stuff, that you have issues with?

I know I'll be sending this mail again in another three or four months,
but luckily this is on a list where I don't post often, so it should be
easy to find and just link to.

Cheers,
Daniel

[0]: I'll believe it when I see it.
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