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Bug 345981

Summary: x11-base/xorg-server tries to initialize x11-drivers/xf86-input-synaptics and touchscreen devices twice and logs errors about it
Product: Gentoo Linux Reporter: Nirbheek Chauhan (RETIRED) <nirbheek>
Component: Current packagesAssignee: Gentoo X packagers <x11>
Status: CONFIRMED ---    
Severity: normal CC: amitavmohanty01, chainsaw, chaujc, eva, jeremy.william.murphy, orivej, poncho, stefan.andreas.bauer, stefano.priore
Priority: High    
Version: unspecified   
Hardware: All   
OS: Linux   
Whiteboard:
Package list:
Runtime testing required: ---
Attachments: synaptics-1.4.0-evdev-configuration.patch
xf86-input-synaptics-1.4.0-r1.ebuild

Description Nirbheek Chauhan (RETIRED) gentoo-dev 2010-11-18 14:16:22 UTC
It seems that a configuration incompatibility with the upstream-shipped 50-synaptics.conf (etc) causes Xorg to add some input devices twice. The first device added is from the event device node, but it fails on the non-event device node and logs (non-fatal) errors as follows:

----
[    62.520] (EE) Query no Synaptics: 6003C8
[    62.520] (--) SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad: no supported touchpad found
[    62.520] (EE) SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad Unable to query/initialize Synaptics hardware.
[    62.524] (EE) PreInit failed for input device "SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad"
[    62.524] (II) UnloadModule: "synaptics"
----

Apparently the same thing happens with touchscreens too, but I don't have any such devices.

Essentially, the InputClass section needs the following line added to it:

        MatchDevicePath "/dev/input/event*"


Further details are on Peter Hutterer's blog: http://who-t.blogspot.com/2010/11/how-to-ignore-configuration-errors.html

From the comments, it seems that this also decreases the X startup time considerably.
Comment 1 Jeremy Murphy 2011-01-06 11:48:13 UTC
Yup, this fixes it for me.
Comment 2 Jimmy C. Chau 2011-01-07 08:41:16 UTC
It'd be nice if this line were included in /usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/50-synaptics.conf in x11-drivers/xf86-input-synaptics by default:

MatchDevicePath "/dev/input/event*"
Comment 3 Juanlu Pérez 2011-02-02 18:40:35 UTC
I'm getting this same problema but this workaround is not working for me. I can't understand why there is no upgrade guide for xorg-server 1.9 nor any advice in eselect news.
Comment 4 Roman Zimmermann 2011-02-21 18:53:33 UTC
I have the same issue. But since xf86-input-synaptics-1.2* already vanished from the repository I'm not even able to downgrade to the last working version. Thanks for the inconvenience …
Comment 5 Jeremy Murphy 2011-02-23 01:31:43 UTC
Roman, try to keep your comments positive and helpful.  If the only "inconvenience" is a few error messages in the log file but no practical difference to the operation of the device, then your complaint is trivial.

I suspect that the 'bug' is not the in the synaptics package anyway.  It could be argued that the problem is with the kernel, because it insists on creating the /dev/input/mouse* nodes, thereby duplicating the /dev/input/event* interface for pointers.  Or the bug is in X, because it doesn't recognize that the pointer devices were already configured through one interface and therefore don't need to be configured again.  Or the bug is in your configuration files, because you are in total control of your system, and it is only your ignorance that prevents you from configuring it correctly.

Until the folk that create all this free software for you decide on a strategy that works for all the thousands of users with various different hardware and software configurations, I recommend that you do not modify the xorg-server files, but add this to your own xorg.conf, which assumes that you are using evdev, etc:


Section "InputClass"
	Identifier "Ignore duplicate mouse interfaces"
	MatchDevicePath "/dev/input/mouse*"
	Option	"Ignore" "true"
EndSection


I have only tested this on one system, so it may require tweaking for yours.  Cheers.
Comment 6 Nirbheek Chauhan (RETIRED) gentoo-dev 2011-02-23 14:45:20 UTC
(In reply to comment #5)
> Roman, try to keep your comments positive and helpful.  If the only
> "inconvenience" is a few error messages in the log file but no practical
> difference to the operation of the device, then your complaint is trivial.
> 
> I suspect that the 'bug' is not the in the synaptics package anyway.

Every other distro ships this line, and kernel+Xorg+synaptics upstream recommends using this line, as noted in the blog post.
Comment 7 Roman Zimmermann 2011-02-23 18:18:45 UTC
There is another issue with xf86-input-synaptics-1.3 that makes my touchpad unusable ( see https://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-t-858254-start-0.html ) . The missing line in the configuration seemed like a probable cause for the problem. But it persisted after adding the line. The error-messages vanished the problem still persists.

Only downgrading to xf86-input-synaptics-1.2 helped (as mentioned in the thread).
Comment 8 Jeremy Murphy 2011-02-23 23:11:01 UTC
(In reply to comment #6)
> 
> Every other distro ships this line, and kernel+Xorg+synaptics upstream
> recommends using this line, as noted in the blog post.

Nirbheek, did you read the same blog post as I?

Roman, this bug is about misconfiguration in xorg-server.  Please don't pollute it with noise about other bugs: open a new bug report for them.
Comment 9 Roman Zimmermann 2011-02-23 23:15:03 UTC
@Jeremy: That was just an explanation for my previous comments and may well be helpful for other people who find _this_ bug while searching for a solution to the other problem (as I did).
Comment 10 Christoph Brill (egore) (RESIGNED) 2011-03-09 22:50:38 UTC
I added an ebuild to my personal overlay that patches 50-synaptics.conf if synaptics is build on (or targeted for) Linux systems. I'd like to get some input on it if this is the correct way on gentoo.

http://cgit.freedesktop.org/~cbrill/egore911-overlay/commit/?id=769e965b32e9bb0c0e97e216df6e56b59090a4c1
Comment 11 Christoph Brill (egore) (RESIGNED) 2011-03-09 22:51:37 UTC
Created attachment 265373 [details]
synaptics-1.4.0-evdev-configuration.patch

Trivial patch to add the line
Comment 12 Christoph Brill (egore) (RESIGNED) 2011-03-09 22:52:50 UTC
Created attachment 265381 [details]
xf86-input-synaptics-1.4.0-r1.ebuild

Modified ebuild to apply the patch on linux system only.
Comment 13 Amitav 2011-03-18 14:47:23 UTC
Please put your xorg.conf and 50-synaptics.conf as attachments too.
Comment 14 Gilles Dartiguelongue (RETIRED) gentoo-dev 2011-11-26 14:53:59 UTC
The default configuration in 1.5 provides the lines with a comment about why it's not enabled by default.
I guess we should do a kernel configuration check and enable it when possible.
Comment 15 Gilles Dartiguelongue (RETIRED) gentoo-dev 2011-11-26 14:54:10 UTC
*** Bug 353187 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***