Re: 9.1-RC3 feels okay :-)

On Thu, 8 Nov 2012, Ian Lepore wrote:

> On Thu, 2012-11-08 at 08:45 -0700, Warren Block wrote:
>> On Thu, 8 Nov 2012, CeDeROM wrote:
>>
>>> I have tested additional options in xorg runtime :-)
>>>
>>> With the patched xorg mouse driver 1.7.1 (or driver version >=1.7.2)
>>> situation is following:
>>>
>>> 1. With hald and dbus no xorg.conf file is needed. However it might bo
>>> option to pass some additional featutes parameters with xorg.conf.
>>> 2. With no hald and dbus mouse and keyboard does not work in xorg unless
>>> Option "AllowEmptyInput" "False" is added to  Section "ServerLayout" by
>>> hand in xorg.conf. Without this option input does not work even if
>>> xorg.conf defines it! AllowEmptyInput=False forces to detect input deviced
>>> by Xorg at startup.
>>
>> No.  AllowEmptyInput is wrong.  It was causing so many problems that it
>> has been removed from later xorg-server releases.
>
> This is disturbing news.  We build embedded systems at work that use X
> for presentation and have no input devices.  I understand that
> AllowEmptyInput is inappropriate to work around the problem we're
> discussing here, but that doesn't mean it's never needed.

The xorg folks should be able to suggest the right replacement.

>> Option "AutoAddDevices" "Off" is the one that means "dont' use Hal to
>> detect input devices".
>>
>>> Thank you for this hint! This could be added to the handbook :-)
>>> AllowEmptyInput=False should be a default for Xorg IMO we can report it to
>>> the Xorg project! :-)
>>
>> Really, the simplest solution is to build xorg-server with the HAL
>> option disabled.  I agree that this should be the default.
>
> So if you're using xorg-server that was built with hal included (maybe
> because you're more a package than a ports kind of person and have no
> control over the build), is AutoAddDevices still the right option to
> manipulate?  That is, will it disable the use of hal and fall back to
> honoring the xorg.conf input devices even if the server was built with
> hal support?

xorg-server with hal support and AutoAddDevices Off in xorg.conf should 
be equivalent to xorg-server built without hal support.

Put another way: if xorg-server is built without hal support, 
AutoAddDevices is irrelevant, it can't use hal for input device 
detection anyway.