Patches at http://people.debian.org/~warp/evdev/ add support to XFree86 for the new event device interface, which can be used to receive events from USB mice and keyboards without using PS/2 mouse emulation. The patches also allow one to specify keyboards and mice by their USB ids, allowing for multiple USB mice and keyboards, each attached to a different X server (potentially useful for multi-headed systems). http://yhbt.net/normalperson/files/xfree86/4.3.0_logitech_ps2.patch is a patch adding support for the PS/2++ protocol used by some of the newer logitech mice, allowing the X server to capture events for all buttons on these mice, and to control settings for these mice, such as enabling/disabling their SmartScroll feature. XFree86 4.3.0 and 4.3.99.13 both patch cleanly and build, and the evdev keyboard and mouse support are working on my system. Reproducible: Always Steps to Reproduce:
I'll confirm the logitech patch applies to 4.3.99.16 aswell. There is a some fuzz in application but it does work... people.debian.org wont resolve for me atm so I cant check out the rest of the patches, but this does look cool cause i have a logitect mx700 and wouldnt mind the extra features.
Created attachment 21549 [details, diff] evdev support patch
Created attachment 21550 [details, diff] evdev mouse support patch
Created attachment 21551 [details, diff] evdev keyboard support patch
Created attachment 21552 [details, diff] evdev mouse support patch for 4.3.99.16
I can't get to people.debian.org either, so I'm attaching my local copies of the patches. I had to modify the evdev mouse support patch for it to apply to 4.3.99.16, as the context around some of the code it inserted has changed. The others apply as-is. 4.3.99.16 compiles and functions correctly, I haven't tested with .14-.15, I believe .14 is where the original patch stopped applying.
OK Ive played around a bit with the patches. The three patches (ie discluding the 4.3.99.16 patch) are ready to go straight into the patches tarball for the 4.3.0 series.... The two patches and the 4.3.99.16 mouse patch are ready to go into the tarball for patches on the 4.3.99 series tree. They apply successfully against 4.3.99.901 (last development snapshot) which also compiles with the patches applied (for me anyway). spyderous: is right to be included in the 4.3.0-r4 and 4.4 ebuilds?
Note that these patches don't make use of the main advantage of the event interface: timestamps. Suppose the user hits alt and clicks the mouse while the server is busy. With separate drivers for the mouse and keyboard, the server has no way of inserting them in the event queue in the right order. With timestamps and a single mouse + keyboard driver, this becomes possible. Whenever the main server loops wakes the driver, it should poll all the devices it controls, and enqueue the first event from every file descriptor. Alternatively, it could use the merged event interface, which does the ordering in the kernel.
Patches added in 4.3.0-r6. If anyone wants to enhance them as Juliusz suggests, you're more than welcome.
