driver/xf86-input-vmmouse : cannot create regular file `/lib/udev/rules.d/69-xorg-vmmouse.rules': Permission denied

[Dennis Clarke]

> > 
> > I am trying to do this compile as anyone would do any other software 
> package
> > which would generally have an install stage that comes after the 
> compile and 
> > test phases.  So the safe bet is to set CONFFLAGS with something 
> like 
> > this : --with-udev-rules-dir=/opt/xorg/udev
> > 
> > Did that and the compile now proceeds but there will need to be some 
> funky 
> > install done later to copy those bits in /opt/xorg/udev over to the 
> /etc dir.
> 
> there is no good answer to this. we can make the driver compile and install
> so it works out of the box _or_ we can make the driver compile as user,
> without installing udev files. We can't get both, permissions get in 
> the way here.

I am thinking that maybe there is a "install.sh" stage that can be written after
the whole compile is done as a user. I see "X" as one of those essentials in
the niX world and it is worth while to flail into this and see what I get. I know
that I can bootstrap latest GCC without issue and after checking into the
Linux From Scratch project repeatedly over the past decade it may be 
possible one day to have a distro that bootstraps from a USB key, pulls
down a pile of sources and then bootstraps GCC, then bootstraps a generic
kernel and finally userspace with X.  Probably a silly dream but I nearly 
have GCC build with a script that wget's tarballs and just "does stuff". 

Anyways, without going way to far OT I just hit a snag : 

> > configure: error: Package requirements (mtdev) were not met:
> > No package 'mtdev' found

 root at aster:~# aptitude search mtdev 

nothing found ... I need to figure out what mtdev is, what X wants and 
then get it sorted out.  :-\

> it's quite hard documenting some of those "secrets". e.g. the udev dir
> variable I literally only found in the configure.ac file after reading 
> your
> email. it's documented (./configure --help shows it), but that 
> requires that
> one knows what udev rules are, etc. So the tricky bit here is where to
> start and when to stop documenting?

Never hold back from writing 100 line comments in the source !  :-)

I don't know.  I knew that X was the real Mt. Everest to climb and since
no one seems to just jump in and try it out from sources, I would, you
know, get oxygen gear and give it a go.  

> 
> we don't have a useful list of dependencies because it's a moving target,
> and it depends on the module set you're building.

Well I was following a blog that claims I get everything from soup to nuts
with this approach.  Seemed like a good way to climb the mountain.

> You can use your distro to install the build-deps for you though. The
> sledgehammer approach on Fedora is yum-builddep "xorg-x11-*"

Hrmmmm I guess I could try that on Debian and see what I see.  Normally I
run a RHEL workstation and Solaris servers but for this purpose I setup a 
bare bones Debian with no X and not much else. 

This is progressing well, I just need to go figure out what mtdev is?!?!

Dennis