After upgrading to portage 2.1.1_pre5 any subsequent emerge command gives a number of "Invalid '-' operator in non-incremental variable 'INPUT_DEVICES': '-evdev'" warnings (one for each 'turn' of the spinner and a good few before or after each ebuild operation from the looks of it). This behaviour is not present with 2.1.1_pre4-r4. It does appear to still 'take' the variable as it didn't try to build evdev driver, but obviously makes the output pretty unreadable. In case it's related in any way, I'm running ~amd64 with 2006.0 profile. Happy to provide other info or test as required.
Technically, that operator is only valid in incremental variables, which INPUT_DEVICES currently is not. There's been talk of adding a new incremental config variable so that new (such as INPUT_DEVICES) incrementals can be added via the profiles. Anyway, you can and -input_devices_evdev to USE and that should give you the desired behavior for now.
The clean way to disable evdev is to put INPUT_DEVICES="keyboard mouse" in /etc/make.conf, this is exactly the behaviour that was originally intended when a default INPUT_DEVICES was added to the profiles (assuming the mailing list message was not misleading), and this is the behaviour that portage had when and before INPUT_DEVICES was added to the profiles. Please, just keep this method instead of making some of the USE_EXPAND variables incremental while keeping others non-incremental. (Making all incremental breaks stuff, as you already know.)
hmm well it does seem to function still as an incremental variable, I assumed it was... Agree entirely with the 'clean way', but since evdev was added to /usr/portage/profiles/default-linux/make.defaults that doesn't give the desired/expected effect. Any idea why evdev needs to be in there, is it intended to be the new 'default'?
(In reply to comment #3) > hmm well it does seem to function still as an incremental variable, I assumed > it was... It doesn't. Just try INPUT_DEVICES="-evdev" emerge -pv xorg-server: you'll notice the other defaults "keyboard mouse" are also disabled. Then try INPUT_DEVICES="keyboard mouse" emerge -pv xorg-server: evdev is disabled, keyboard and mouse are not. (This is with -r5.) > Agree entirely with the 'clean way', but since evdev was added to > /usr/portage/profiles/default-linux/make.defaults that doesn't give the > desired/expected effect. How does it behave for you, specifically, then? Here's what I get: it's enabled by default, and if you set INPUT_DEVICES manually, it's only enabled if you explicitly put it in your list. > Any idea why evdev needs to be in there, is it > intended to be the new 'default'? Yeah, it's meant to be enabled by default. (As for why, ask the X guys if you're interested :) )
Ok so I've shot myself in the foot and look an idiot after testing ;) I've had INPUT_DEVICES="mouse keyboard" for as long as it's been used & am sure I added -evdev when it wanted to pull in evdev during an 'emerge -auvDN world'. Any chance it was 'accidentally' incremental at some point or am I going crazy? Either way sorry for the pseudo-bug!
(In reply to comment #5) > Any chance it was 'accidentally' incremental at some point or am I going > crazy? Only in portage-2.1.1_pre4-r3 and that behavior was incorrect. Only variables that are explicitly incremental should behave as such.
(In reply to comment #1) > Technically, that operator is only valid in incremental variables, which > INPUT_DEVICES currently is not. So, this bug itself is invalid.
